Nonwoven fibrous hydraulically entangled elastic coform material and method of formation thereof

Abstract

Nonwoven fibrous elastomeric web material, including absorbent webs and fabric web material, and methods of forming the same, are disclosed. The elastomeric web material is a hydraulically entangled coform or admixture of (1) meltblown fibers, such as elastic meltblown fibers and (2) pulp fibers and/or staple fibers and/or meltblown fibers and/or continuous filaments, with or without particulate material; such coform can be hydraulically entangled by itself or with other materials, including, e.g., super absorbent particulate material. The use of meltblown fibers facilitates the hydraulic entangling, resulting in a high degree of entanglement and enabling the use of shorter staple or pulp fibers. The hydraulic entangling technique provides a nonwoven fibrous elastic material having increased web strength and integrity, and allows for better control of other product attributes, such as absorbency, wet strength and abrasion resistance. A smooth surfaced and/or highly absorbent elastic web material, with isotropic strength and recovery in both machine- and cross-directions, can be provided according to the present invention.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.