Abstract: To study the influence of process parameters on the fiber web structure of meltblown nonwovens, thirteen melt blown polypropylene nonwovens were produced by combining metering pump frequency,mesh belt frequency and the distance from die to collector in different ways. The fiber web meso structure was characterized by using basal plane so as to simplify the study. The results show that with the increase of the metering pump frequency, both the fiber diameter and its variation coefficient rise, but the characteristic length of basal plane and the number of basal planes show a downward trend. When the mesh belt frequency increases, the characteristic length of basal plane and the number of basal planes decrease, whereas the degree of fiber orientation rises. As the distance from die to collector gets larger, the fiber diameter and its variation coefficient as well as the number of basal planes tend to increase, meanwhile the characteristic length of basal plane and the degree of fiber orientation decline.

Key words: meltblown nonwovens; fiber web structure; basal plane; process parameters