Composite fabric combining entangled fabric of microfibers and knitted or woven fabric and process for producing same

A process for producing a composite fabric usable as a substratum sheet for artificial leather, comprising:

• forming a fibrous web constituent by randomly massing numerous extremely fine individual fibers having an average diameter of from 0.1 to 6.0 microns;
• forming a multilayer precursory sheet by superimposing a woven or knitted fabric constituent and at least one said fibrous web constituent on each other,
• jetting numerous fluid streams ejected under a pressure of from 15 to 100 kg/cm.sup.2 toward the surface of said fibrous web constituent of said precursory sheet, at a ratio of a total impact area of said fluid jets on said precursory sheet surface to an area of said precursory sheet surface to be impacted of at least 1.5, to convert said fibrous web into a non-woven fabric constituent in which said extremely fine individual fibers are randomly entangled with each other and to convert said precursory sheet into a composite fabric in which said non-woven fabric constituent is bonded to said woven or knitted fabric constituent in such a manner that a portion of said extremely fine individual fibers penetrate from said non-woven fabric constituent into the inside of said woven or knitted fabric constituent and are entangled with a portion of the fibers within said woven or knitted fabric constituent, and;
• at the same time as said fluid stream jetting operation, applying a reduced pressure of 10 to 200 mmHg onto a surface of said precursory sheet opposite to said fibrous web surface.