The main objective of this paper is to study the effects of the processing parameters of the needle-punching machine and the interactions between them on some physico-mechanical properties of interest of nonwoven (NW) fabrics. For this purpose, a fractional factorial design has been planned with two levels for each factor: feeding speed, delivery speed, stroke frequency, penetration depth and gap between plates. Sixteen NW fabrics were obtained from polyester fibre and characterized by tensile strength and stiffness for mechanical behaviour and air permeability as physical properties of interest in some technical applications. The results have been subjected to statistical analysis in order to find the effects of the processing variables and the interactions between them on the fabric properties. It was possible to find the effects of the five processing parameters studied on the thickness, fabric mass, stiffness, tensile strength and air permeability of the obtained needle-punched fabrics