Confil is a wet-laid

nonwoven fabric Nonwoven fabric is a fabric-like material made from staple fibre (short) and long fibres (continuous long), bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabr ...

made from a blend of polyester and

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall ...

. The

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31, ...

Company acquired the manufacturing process from in 1968, and marketed Confil as a disposable fabric for domestic and hospital use. Although the product was too late to market to take advantage of the 1960s

paper clothing Paper clothing describes garments and accessories made from paper or paper substitutes. The earliest known paper clothing was made by Japanese craftspeople in the 10th century BCE, usually from washi paper, and called ''kamiko''. ''Kamiko'' becam ...

fad, International Paper promoted it for general clothing use, positioning the product as superior to paper in feel and durability, but cheap enough to throw away. Despite limited adoption in the fashion industry, demand justified construction of a $16 million factory in

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Lewisburg is a borough in Union County, Pennsylvania, United States, south by southeast of Williamsport and north of Harrisburg. In the past, it was the commercial center for a fertile grain and general farming region. The population was 5,1 ...

to increase production volumes. As the price of cotton more than doubled during the 1970s, Confil found use in other specialty applications such as

wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste Adhesive flakes that are mixed with water to pro ...

, construction fabrics, and

geotextiles Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in two basic forms: woven (r ...

. In the early 21st century, Confil is largely used in

filtration Filtration is a physical separation process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture using a ''filter medium'' that has a complex structure through which only the fluid can pass. Solid particles that cannot pass through the filte ...

media.

References

External links

Confil television advertisement
broadcast on CBS News during the Apollo 11 launch, 16 July 1969 Nonwoven fabrics Cellulose Polyesters {{Textile-stub