Co-mingling of particular material and co-axial-meltblown fibers

A web forming apparatus configured to form a commingled web including

• particulate material, and
• synthetic fibers of a coaxial multi-row meltblown (CA-meltblown) type, said apparatus comprising:
• a particulate material supply system oriented to deliver a vertically downwardly moving stream of the particulate material;
• at least one polymer supply system configured to provide polymer material;
• first and a second multi-row coaxial (CA)-meltblowing systems to receive the polymer material, wherein each of said first and second multi-row CA-meltblowing systems is configured to form CA-meltblown fibers and comprises an array of polymer releasing orifices comprising at least two cross-directionally extending rows of polymer releasing orifices,
• a forming box configured to form commingled material comprising said particulate material and the CA-meltblown fibers, wherein the commingled material includes commingled short fibers and the CA-meltblown fibers, said forming box comprising
• a particulate material inlet connected to said particulate material supply system,
• two CA-meltblown fiber inlets each connected to one of said first and second multi-row CA-meltblowing systems, and
• a commingled material outlet,
• a collector for collecting the commingled short fibers and the CA-meltblown fibers from said commingled fiber outlet of said forming box, and configured to move along a machine direction of the apparatus, wherein each one of said CA-meltblowing inlets of said forming box is positioned machine-directionally before (“upstream”) and after (“downstream”) the particulate material inlet,
• wherein said arrays of polymer releasing orifices comprises at least a first and a second sub-array, each of the first and a second sub-arrays comprising at least one row of orifices,
• whereby wherein the orifices of at least one of said first and second sub-arrays are configured to release fibers of different properties than the orifices of a different sub-array of the first and second sub-arrays, by one or more selected from the group consisting of
• the orifices of said first and second sub-arrays exhibiting differing orifice diameters;
• the orifices of said first and second sub-arrays are connected to polymer supply systems for differing polymer types;
• the orifices of said first and second sub-arrays are connected to polymer supply systems for differing polymers throughput;
• the orifices of said first and second sub-arrays are connected to polymer supply systems for differing polymer supply pressure;
• and
• the orifices of said first and second sub-arrays are connected to independent temperature control systems.