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AssigneeKimberly-Clark Corporation
InventorsMichael A. Sciaraffa, David G. Thome, Clifford M. Vogt
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Lightweight, pattern bonded, generally continuous filament web having physical, aesthetic, and functional attributes particularly desirable for liner material for disposable absorbent products such as diapers, sanitary napkins, and the like. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a continuous filament polypropylene web is formed and pattern bonded by heat and pressure producing a high frequency of high density bond areas. This bonded web is then subjected to hot embossing in a gross pattern producing permanent web deformation and increasing the web effective thickness. In use the nonwoven web of the invention provides a very soft, flexible web having a pleasing appearance and yet retaining strength properties making it very effective at low basis weights for applications such as liners for disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, and the like. The method of the invention includes melt spinning and accumulating the spun fibers into a web that is pattern bonded in a fine pattern by heat and pressure and then subjected to a gross pattern of embossments under heated conditions.
Nonwoven web having a basis weight in the range of from 0.4 oz/yd.sup.2 to 2.0 oz/yd.sup.2 and density in the range of from 0.08 to 0.20 g/cc comprising randomly oriented thermoplastic filaments overlapping and bonded with a fine pattern of fused bond areas covering 5 to 50% of the web surface with a frequency of 50 to 3200 bond areas per square inch and individual bond area in the range of 0.0005 to 0.0015 in.sup.2, said web also containing a gross pattern of embossments covering 5 to 80% of the web surface with a frequency of 1 to 500 embossments per square inch and individual embossment area in the range of 0.003 to 0.03 in.sup.2 resulting in an effective Ames web thickness of at least 0.010 inch.
A nonwoven web having a basis weight in the range of from 0.5 to 1.0 oz/yd.sup.2 and density in the range of from 0.10 to 0.18 g/cc comprising randomly oriented, generally continuous polypropylene filaments overlapping and bonded with a fine pattern of fused bond areas covering 5 to 50% of the web surface with a frequency of 125 to 325 bond areas per square inch and individual bond area in the range of from 0.0005 to 0.0015 in.sup.2, said web also containing a gross pattern of embossments covering 5 to 30% of the web surface with a frequency in the range of 10 to 100 embossments per square inch and individual embossment area in the range of 0.003 to 0.03 in.sup.2, resulting in an effective Ames web thickness of at least 0.010 inch.
Method of forming a lightweight, bulky nonwoven web comprising the steps of,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.