Face towel glossary

Spunlace nonwoven

A nonwoven web bonded by high-pressure water jets instead of weaving or chemical bonding. Because the bonding step is separate from the fiber choice, two towels can use the same fiber and still differ in thickness and hand feel.

Explained in Materials and specification

Blend ratio

The share of each fiber in a blended towel, written as two numbers, for example 70/30 or 80/20. It is a specification value in its own right: at the same GSM, size, and texture, moving the ratio changes absorbency, surface fuzzing, and cost at the same time.

Explained in Materials and specification

GSM

Grams per square meter: mass per unit area. It is not thickness, not softness, and not absorbency. Two towels can share a GSM and differ in all three.

Explained in GSM and piece weight

Piece weight

The theoretical weight of one towel: length in centimeters multiplied by width in centimeters, multiplied by GSM, divided by 10,000. The result describes the towel body only, excludes packaging, and is not a measured weight — a real figure comes from weighing an approved sample.

Explained in GSM and piece weight

Series (20 cm and 30 cm)

A family of sizes named after the width, the edge that does not change. The 20 cm series runs from 10 × 20 cm to 22 × 20 cm; the 30 cm series from 25 × 30 cm to 30 × 30 cm. A series name alone is never a specification, because the second side is always quoted with it.

Explained in Confirmed size series

Plain, pearl, and F are the texture names used in the current product data. At equal GSM, the order of fabric thickness in this manufacturer's production is plain, then F, then pearl.

Plain

The flat texture name on this line, and the thinnest of the three at equal GSM. A plain surface takes up water more slowly than a textured one in this manufacturer's experience, which is a difference in speed, not in how much water the towel holds in total.

Explained in Texture names

Pearl

A textured surface name used in the current product data, and the thickest of the three textures in this manufacturer's production at equal GSM. A texture is approved on a sample rather than from its name, because surface pattern, GSM, and color interact.

Explained in Texture names

F texture

A textured surface name used in the current product data, sitting between plain and pearl in thickness at equal GSM. F and EF are not treated as the same structure unless a sample comparison shows it.

Explained in Texture names

A towel on this line is classified on three axes: pack format, fold, and fiber. Fold and pack format are linked — the pack decides the fold.

1/2 fold

One fold. It is the fold carried by the three bag formats: top-pull, top-and-bottom pull, and bottom-pull large pack.

Explained in The fold rule

1/4 fold

Folded twice. Used by the box and the portable pouch only, and a towel is taken out by hand, which makes those packs single-sheet packs rather than dispensers.

Explained in The fold rule

Interfold

A stack in which each towel is folded into the next, so drawing one out brings the following towel partway with it. It is what makes a dispenser pack work. A resealable pouch closes again, but its towels are folded flat rather than interfolded, so a pop-up workflow cannot be planned around it.

Explained in Packaging and dispensing

Dispenser pack

On this line, only the 1/2-fold bag formats. An opening does not make a pack a dispenser: a box and a portable pouch both have openings, and in both a towel is taken out by hand.

Explained in An opening is not the same as a dispenser

Single-sheet pack

A pack whose towels are taken one at a time by hand from a 1/4-folded stack. On this line that is the box and the portable pouch. The portable pouch is the one format made in every confirmed size across both series.

Explained in Packaging and dispensing

These two are recorded in separate columns, because a towel can show one without the other and the cause is not the same.

Fuzzing

Fiber standing up on the surface of the towel. The fabric looks fuzzy or rough but remains intact. It is mainly a fiber-composition and spunlace-bonding question.

Explained in Fuzzing and lint are not the same defect

Lint

Fiber or fragments leaving the towel and landing somewhere else. A towel can fuzz without shedding, and a towel can shed without obvious fuzzing. Lint has to be traced to the specific surface and use.

Explained in Fuzzing and lint are not the same defect

Private label (OEM)

Towels made to a buyer's approved specification and sold under the buyer's brand. This site publishes no wholesale stock list: a brief sent from here is emailed to the manufacturer, and the quotation comes back from the manufacturer.

Explained in About this knowledge base and the manufacturer

Approved sample

The physical sample that both sides sign off before production, together with approved artwork. Lead time on this line is counted from the approved sample and artwork, not from the first enquiry.

Explained in From requirement to shipment

GB/T 40276-2021

China's national standard for soft nonwoven towels, covering dry nonwoven wipes used on skin. Jaroll is one of its drafting organizations. That is a drafting role at company level, not a certificate carried by every product.

Explained in Who manufactures the towels