Apertured fusible fabrics

An apertured non-woven fabric comprising a web of thermoplastic fibers, said fabric having a multiplicity of fused patterned regions and adjacent substantially non-fused regions, there being apertures formed within a plurality of said fused patterned regions but not within said adjacent regions, said web having been calender emboss-bonded, each aperture being surrounded by a perimeter of fused thermoplastic material in which the original fibrous formation is no longer present.

A method of producing an apertured, non-woven fabric comprising a web of thermoplastic fibers, said fabric having a multiplicity of fused patterned regions and adjacent substantially non-fused regions, there being apertures formed within a plurality of said fused patterned regions but not within said adjacent regions, each aperture being surrounded by a perimeter of fused thermoplastic material in which the original fibrous formation is not longer present;

• said method comprising heat embossing a non-woven web of thermoplastic fibers with emossing means having projecting bosses, at a temperatur above the softening point of said fibers, whereby the regions of the web compressed by the projections of the embossing means become fused and immediately thereafter drafting said embossed web so as to create apertures in said fused regions.

A method of producing an apertured, non-woven fabric comprising a web of thermoplastic fibers said fabric having a multiplicity of fused patterned regions and adjacent substantially non-fused regions, there being apertures formed within a plurality of said fused patterned regions but not within said adjacent regions;

• each aperture being surrounded by a perimeter of fused thermoplastic material in which the original fibrous formation is no longer present;
• said method comprising heat embossing a non-woven web of thermoplastic fibers with embossing means having projecting bosses, at a temperature above the softening point of said fibers, whereby the regions of the web compressed by the projections of the embossing means become fused and immediately thereafter drafting said embossed web so as to create apertures in said fused regions;
• said embossing means comprising a patterned calender, there being batcher means for taking-up the fabric, said drafting being carried out in the machine direction by increasing said batcher speed relative to said calender speed.

A method of producing an apertured, non-woven fabric comprising a web of thermoplastic fibers said fabric having a multiplicity of fused patterned regions and adjacent substantially non-fused regions, there being apertures formed within a plurality of said fused patterned regions but not within said non-fused regions, each aperture being surrounded by a perimeter of fused thermoplastic material in which the original fibrous formation is no longer present, said method comprising heat embossing a non-woven web of thermoplastic fibers with embossing means having projecting bosses, at a temperature above the softening point of said fibers, whereby the regions of the web compressed by the projections of the embossing means become fused and immediately thereafter drafting said embossed web so as to create apertures in said fused regions, said embossing means comprising a patterned calender, said drafting being caried out in the cross direction by passing the fabric over one or more bow rolls.