Molded non-woven fabrics and methods of molding

Abstract

Methods of molding a non-woven fabric are provided. The methods include selecting a non-woven fabric having a web of randomly disbursed fibers, compressing the non-woven fabric between a top mold and a bottom mold, and maintaining the non-woven fabric between the top and bottom molds for a predetermined dwell time to define a molded depth and a molded diameter in the non-woven fabric. In some embodiments, the method includes exposing the non-woven fabric to mechanical agitation. In other embodiments, the method includes selecting the top and bottom molds to have a depth that is larger than the molded depth by about 30 to about 50 percent and a diameter that us larger than the molded diameter by less than about 10 percent.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.