Lenzing on Tampon fibres and their effects on tampon properties

Josef Schmidtbauer, Director of Innovation for Nonwovens at Lenzing AG (Austria) reviewed the absorbency of rayon fibres using tests appropriate to the evaluation of hygienic disposables, with special emphasis on demonstrating the superiority of cellulosics over synthetics. Several fibers now under development were mentioned in passing.

High surface area viscose rayon fibres give the highest absorbency...
...and these pure cellulose fibres make the better tampons than cotton

Adding superabsorbents can increase absobency further but this in not acceptable for tampon use.

Syngina testing of tampons does not correlate well with Water Holding Capacity

although if Water Retention % (centrifuge test) is used, the correlation with Syngina seems better.