(1) The earliest needle punching machine was manufactured by William Bywater in England in 1878.
(2) In 1885, James Broadhead in England used needle punching to manufacture thin felt.
(3) In 1890, James Hunter in the United States began manufacturing needle punching machines.
(4) By 1930, automobiles had begun using needle-punched nonwoven materials.
(5) In 1940, needle punching machines were still very crude and primitive.
(6) In 1945, Bywater made significant improvements to needle punching machines.
(7) In 1957, Hunter designed a needle punching machine with balanced transmission, achieving a speed of 800 rpm.
(8) In 1968, Fehrer in Austria manufactured a combined frame, fully enclosed segmented transmission needle punching machine, achieving a speed of 1000 rpm.
(9) In 1972, Fehrer invented the U-shaped needle and the patterned needle punching machine. To date, the width is 16m, the frequency exceeds 3300rpm, the needle density of the multi-needle plate reaches 30,000 needles/m, and the production speed reaches 30m/min.
(10) Around 1987, China introduced its first needle punching machine.
(11) By 1996, the global output of nonwoven rolls had exceeded 2 million tons, accounting for about 10% of the total textile output. Its growth rate far exceeded the average growth rate of the textile industry. The textile industry is generally not doing well worldwide, but nonwoven fabric production has maintained a very high annual growth rate, continuing to develop at a growth rate of 8-10%.
(12) The development of various new technologies and the application of various new fibers (flame-retardant fibers, antistatic fibers, ultra-fine glass fibers, etc.) have become new development directions for modern nonwoven enterprises.
