H1 technology needlepunching machinery is one of the recent developments in the needleloom technology. H1 technology needlepunching nonwoven machinery has been effectively utilized to develop a set of nonwoven substrates at different punching rates. The effect of needlepunching speeds on the frictional properties of H1 technology polyester nonwoven webs is reported in this article. The frictional properties of nonwoven webs have been characterized using a simple normalized friction factor. In addition, the surfaces of the nonwoven substrates were scanned using scanning electron microscopy. The results show that for the three different penetration rates studied there seems to be a marginal difference in the frictional properties. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.