Nonwoven fabric and the production thereof
AssigneeSuominen Corporation
InventorsGian Luca Polosa, Laura LaPlante, Avinav G. Nandgaonkar
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a nonwoven fabric and the production thereof. More specifically, the invention relates to a dispersible and biodegradable nonwoven fabric comprising a web prepared using a wet lay forming process. The process involves forming a web from the aqueous suspension on a wire support, hydroentangling and drying the web. The web can be provided with a high quality hydroembossed pattern, which remains even in wet wipes prepared from the material.
Claims15
A nonwoven fabric comprising hydroentangled fibers, the fibers comprising about 5%-45% by weight of regenerated short cut fibers and about 55%-95% by weight of natural fibers, wherein 10%-20% by weight of the regenerated short cut fibers have a length in a range of 6-12 mm and 80%-90% by weight have a length in a range of from 3 mm to less than 6 mm,
- wherein the nonwoven fabric comprises a three-dimensional pattern formed into the nonwoven fabric,
- wherein the three-dimensional pattern defines a difference in the thickness in the nonwoven fabric,
- wherein the difference in thickness comprises a difference between a maximum thickness and a minimum thickness in the nonwoven fabric, and
- wherein the three-dimensional pattern defines a machine readable code.
A method for producing a nonwoven fabric material, comprising:
- providing an aqueous suspension of fibers comprising about 5%-45% by weight of regenerated short cut fibers and about 55%-95% of natural fibers, wherein 10%-20% by weight of the regenerated short cut fibers have a length in a range of 6-12 mm and 80%-90% by weight of the regenerated short cut fibers have a length in a range of 3 to less than 6 mm:
- forming a web from the aqueous suspension on a wire support;
- hydroentangling the web;
- removing the web from the wire support and transferring the web to a hydroembossing roll;
- and
- drying the web to the produce nonwoven fabric material
- wherein the hydroentangling comprises hydroembossing the web,
- wherein the hydroembossing roll forms a three-dimensional pattern on the nonwoven fabric,
- wherein the three-dimensional pattern defines a difference in thickness in the nonwoven fabric,
- wherein the difference in thickness comprises a difference between a maximum thickness and a minimum thickness in the nonwoven fabric, and
- wherein the three-dimensional pattern defines a machine readable code.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.