Non woven fabrics and spunbonded fabrics are subordinate. Non woven fabric is a kind of fabric formed without spinning and weaving.

Characteristics and applications of non-woven fabrics. Durability, disposable. Insulated, conductive. Softness, rigidity. Fineness and expansibility. Isotropic, anisotropic.

Needlepunched nonwovens are created by mechanically interlocking the fibers of a crosslapped carded Web or a spunbonded web. This mechanical interlocking is achieved with thousands of barbed felting needles repeatedly passing into and out of the web, creating fiber transfer.

Nonwovens are defined by INDA, Association of the Nonwovens Fabrics Industry, as "sheet or web structures made by bonding and/or interlocking fibers, yarns or filaments by mechanical, thermal, chemical or solvent means."