How Are Wet Wipes Made?

Wet wipes (also referred to as baby wipes) are disposable cloths designed to clean the most sensitive areas of an infant’s body. Created from non-woven fabrics similar to those featured in dryer sheets, these wipes are saturated in a cleansing solution to give them their cleaning power.

But how exactly are baby wipes made, what materials are used, and what’s involved in the manufacturing process? Pinnacle Converting Equipment explains the entire wet wipe production process from start to finish in this helpful guide. Read on to learn everything you need to know about how wet wipes are made!

Step 1 – Design

The first step in any manufacturing project is the design. Wet wipes need to contain specific characteristics in order to satisfy consumer expectations. As such, the fabric selected should be durable enough to withstand heavy-duty cleaning tasks yet disposable. Since the wipes are saturated in cleansing solution, it’s important that the fabric be absorbent.

In addition to the design of the wipes themselves, manufacturers also need to consider the design of their packaging. Baby wipe packages should be able to easily dispense single sheets while preserving the moisture of the towelettes that have not yet been used. Thermo-formed plastic tubes are often the go-to solution for packaging wet wipes.

Step 2 – Materials

Once the design has been developed, the next step is to select the materials. Usually, wet wipes are created from non-woven fabric. While traditional fabrics are created by weaving fibers together to form an interlocking matrix of loops, non-woven fabrics are created by a process through which a mass of separate fibers is pressed into a single sheet of material. Cotton, rayon, polyester, polyethylene, and polypropylene are common fibers used in this process.

Step 3 – Manufacturing

When manufacturing baby wipes, a wet laid process is typically applied. During this process, the non-woven fibers are made into liquid slurries with water and other chemicals, resulting in a paste which is then pressed into flat sheets by rollers and dried to form long master rolls of material. The master rolls are then further processed using a slitter rewinder, cutting the sheets down into smaller sizes for additional processing. When the slitting process is complete, a pneumatic cross cutter traverses to cut the material in order to begin a new roll. Then, the master roll is discharged onto a platform preparing it for the next phase of manufacturing: consumer roll slitting and perforating.

This next process takes the master rolls of non-woven material and slits them into various widths typically used for canister or bucket wipe products. Some consumer roll slitting and perforating machines (like those offered at Pinnacle Converting Equipment) are capable of increasing roll production capacity by unwinding, perforating, slitting, and rewinding wipes rolls at a rate of up to 60 per minute.

Once the non-woven cloth is prepared, it is then fed onto coating machinery, where it is coated in the cleansing solution before being packaged. The finished products are folded, stacked, and transferred to their final package.

Pinnacle Converting Equipment for Your Wet Wipe Manufacturing & Packaging Needs

At Pinnacle Converting Equipment, we offer industry professionals the end-to-end wet wipe production line services and equipment they need to handle any stage in their manufacturing process. From our master roll slitting capabilities to our canister loading and fluid-filling equipment, our team is prepared to guide you through every step of the wet wipe production process from start to finish.

Explore our slitting and packaging machinery online or call our team at 704-350-2593 to learn more about our baby wipe production services today!