Stitch Bonded Nonwoven Fabric: Structure, Uses and the Maliwatt Line

October 28, 2026

A stitch bonding nonwoven is a fibre web that has been locked together by rows of warp knitted stitches instead of by adhesive, heat or needling. The stitching yarn runs through the web on a multi-needle machine of the Maliwatt type, so the finished fabric has the bulk of a nonwoven and the lengthwise strength of a knit.

Searching the term returns patents and supplier listings. The patents explain the principle and the listings quote rolls, but nothing in between tells a buyer what the fabric is made of, where it is sold and which machine settings decide the roll they will get. This page fills that gap and points to the machine-side decisions on our other stitch bonding pages.

What a stitch bonded nonwoven is

One patent defines the product as a hybrid in which knitting stitches reinforce and define a nonwoven substrate. The university teaching chapter on the subject says the most common form is warp knitting yarns through a fibrous mat, and groups the machines that do it, the Arachne, Liba and Mali families, under multi-needle stitching machines.

The stitch rows are chain or tricot lappings laid by two guide bars. A split-film patent describes a Mali type machine penetrating the layers and knitting parallel rows of two-bar chain and tricot stitches, which is the construction most Maliwatt fabric uses. Each needle produces one wale, so the wale spacing on the finished fabric is the machine gauge, and the stitch length is the course spacing set by the take-up.

This is the fibre-web branch of stitch bonding. The other two branches, Malimo with laid yarn layers and Malivlies with no stitching yarn at all, are covered on our page on how stitch bonding works and its three variants and our Malimo fabric page. If your customer asks for stitchbond, stitchbonded or Maliwatt fabric, they almost always mean the fibre-web type described here.

Raw material: polyester web and polyester stitching yarn

Polyester dominates on both sides of the structure. The split-film patent names spunbonded polyester sheet as a common nonwoven layer and textured polyester multifilament as the preferred stitching yarn. Supplier listings for mattress and roofing grades describe recycled PET as the main fibre, and one Indian listing describes the web as cross laid before stitching.

One older patent shows why the yarn choice matters: a stitch bonded nonwoven made with bulkable stitching yarn comes out with high bulk and high tensile strength, because the yarn gathers the web after stitching. That is the mechanism behind the fabric’s familiar feel, soft in the hand but hard to tear along the stitch direction.

Weight per square metre is not standardised. Supplier pages quote ranges that do not agree with each other, and the one patent example we found for upholstery substrate works in the region of about 50 to 200 grams per square metre. Treat any gsm figure from a catalogue as that supplier’s range, and specify your own target by end use rather than by copying a listing.

Where stitch bonded nonwoven is sold

The use list that both patents and suppliers agree on is long, and it is almost entirely in places where the fabric is covered or hidden:

• Mattress top and middle layers, spring pocket cloth and bedding filler.
• Upholstery inner cloth under furniture covers.
• Carpet backing.
• Roofing membrane and waterproof coating substrate.
• Shopping bags and other bag bodies.
• Shoe linings and shoe components.
• Automotive headliner and interior trim cloth.
• Adhesive tape carrier, where a patent covers a tape with a stitch bonded nonwoven backing.
• Insulation and dust cloths, the uses named in the bulkable-yarn patent.

The common thread is that the buyer pays for strength per gram and for a stable, flat substrate that takes coating or lamination, not for appearance. That shapes what you ask of the machine: consistent web weight across the width, even stitch rows, and a speed that keeps the price competitive with needlepunched and thermally bonded alternatives.

Which machine settings decide the roll

Three settings on a Maliwatt line fix what the customer receives. Working width sets your roll width options and is the first thing to match to the end use, since a mattress cloth and a roofing substrate rarely share a width. Gauge sets the wale spacing, which the buyer reads as stitch density and which decides how much web the stitches can hold together without the fabric splitting between rows. Stitch length, set at the take-up, decides courses per centimetre and therefore how much yarn goes into every metre.

Our guide on how to choose stitch bonding machine width and gauge walks through those two decisions, and the Maliwatt stitch bonding machine page covers the selection for this fabric type specifically. The product range itself is on our non-woven stitch bonding machine page and on grandstarcn.com; the parameters live there rather than being repeated here.

When this fabric is the right answer, and when it is not

If your market is mattress, furniture, bag or roofing substrate and the buyer specifies weight and tensile strength but not appearance, then a Maliwatt type stitch bonded nonwoven on recycled polyester is the usual answer and the machine decision comes down to width and gauge.

If the buyer wants a fabric with visible yarn layers, directional reinforcement or a face that reads as a textile, then the Malimo type with laid warp and weft yarns is the better fit and this page does not apply. See the Malimo fabric page for that construction.

If the specification forbids any stitching yarn, for example for a product that must be a single polymer for recycling, then the Malivlies type, which forms stitches from the web’s own fibres, is the relevant variant; our Malivlies stitch bonding machine page covers it.

To match a target gsm and roll width to a line, send the end use and the web you plan to run through our contact page and we will reply with the width and gauge options that fit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is stitch bonding nonwoven fabric?

It is a fibre web locked together by rows of warp knitted stitches laid by a multi-needle machine of the Maliwatt type. A patent describes it as a hybrid in which knitting stitches reinforce and define a nonwoven substrate.

What is stitchbond fabric made of?

Mostly polyester on both sides: spunbonded or cross laid polyester web, often recycled PET according to supplier listings, held by textured polyester multifilament stitching yarn.

What is stitch bonded nonwoven used for?

Mattress layers, upholstery inner cloth, carpet backing, roofing membrane substrate, shopping bags, shoe linings, automotive headliners, adhesive tape carriers, insulation and dust cloths.

Is Maliwatt the same as stitch bonding?

Maliwatt is the fibre-web variant of stitch bonding and the one most buyers mean by stitchbond. Malimo uses laid yarn layers and Malivlies forms stitches from the web’s own fibres without a stitching yarn.

Which machine settings decide the fabric I get?

Working width sets your roll widths, gauge sets the wale spacing the buyer reads as stitch density, and stitch length at the take-up sets courses per centimetre and yarn consumption per metre.