Soft absorbent fibrous web and disposable diaper including same

A disposable sanitary product including a liquid-pervious facing layer adapted to be positioned in contact with a wearer, a low density batt of cellulosic fibers disposed beneath the facing layer for absorbing body fluids, and a fibrous wicking layer disposed beneath, and in engagement with said fibrous batt for aiding in distributing the flow of fluid within said product, the improvement wherein said wicking layer is an embossed and creped fibrous web formed from an aqueous slurry, and comprises:

• (a) randomly arranged and contacting sulfate wood pulp fibers constituting the predominate fiber component, by weight, of the web, said fibers being bonded together through a portion of the thickness of the web almost exclusively by papermaking bonds, said portion being substantially free of debonders and wet strength additives;
• (b) a plurality of fractured areas provided by embossing, said fractured areas being in the form of apertures extending through the web thickness, said apertures being disposed in spaced-apart areas which are substantially uniformly distributed throughout the web;
• (c) an adhesive bonding material extending only partially through the web thickness to form bonded regions having a greater strength than the portion of the web in which the fibers are bonded together almost exclusively by the papermaking bonds, said web being creped in regions containing bonding material to enhance web softness and to foreshorten the web to enhance its stretch;
• (d) said web having a basis weight of from about 25 to about 100 lbs./2,880 feet.sup.2, a greater density than that of the fluff batt, said density being in the range of from about 0.08 grams/cc to less than about 0.16 grams/cc, a liquid holding capacity greater than 500%, an absorbency rate of less than 2.5 seconds, a wicking rate of greater than 14 cm/10 minutes, a minimum cross-machine-direction stretch of 10% and a wet cross-machine-direction tensile strength of greater than 2 oz./inch.