Creasing method, creasing apparatus, and long fiber non-woven fabric

A creasing apparatus comprising:

• a first gripping and rotating part which is configured to bunch and grip a certain part of a continuously supplied long fiber non-woven fabric and configured to rotate the gripped part of the long fiber non-woven fabric within a plane intersecting a drawing direction of the long fiber non-woven fabric so that the long fiber non-woven fabric is twisted and a first folding line in the longitudinal direction is formed on the long fiber non-woven fabric;
• a first heating part which is disposed on a downstream side of the first gripping and rotating part in the drawing direction and configured to heat the long fiber non-woven fabric twisted by the first gripping and rotating part so that the first folding line is fixed to the long fiber non-woven fabric;
• and
• a first widening part which is disposed on a downstream side of the first heating part in the drawing direction and configured to release the long fiber non-woven fabric having the first folding line fixed thereto by the first heating part so that the long fiber non-woven fabric is widened in a width direction.

A long fiber non-woven fabric comprising:

• a plurality of first long fiber filaments which are arranged in parallel in a longitudinal direction;
• and
• a plurality of second long fiber filaments which are arranged in parallel in a width direction of the first long fiber filament and are laminated and bonded to the first long fiber filaments,
• wherein a plurality of first vertical creases are formed substantially regularly to extend in a direction inclined with respect to the longitudinal direction and a plurality of second vertical creases are formed substantially regularly to extend in a direction inclined with respect to the longitudinal direction at an inclined angle different from that of the first vertical crease.