Nonwoven fabric comprising meltblown fibers having projections extending from the fabric base

Abstract

This invention provides a bulky nonwoven fabric made of thermoplastic resin filaments, which is soft and highly permeable to water and gas and effectively absorbs moisture as well as shocks. A nonwoven fabric according to the invention is made of fiber-like filaments of a thermoplastic resin material and comprises a base cloth layer made having densely distributed holes and a large number of cylindrical projections, each standing from the peripheral edge of one of the holes and made of fiber-like filaments similar to those of the base cloth layer and soft, its height being at least twice as large as the thickness of the base cloth layer. The method of manufacturing a nonwoven fabric of the invention is characterized in that molten filaments are blown out of a melt-blow die onto a porous plate provided with a large number of air passage holes under a condition where ambient air pressure on the side of the plate facing the die is kept higher than the air pressure on the other side of the plate so that some of the filaments project outside from the air passage holes to form so many cylindrical projections due to the difference of pressure, the aggregate of filaments being then taken away from the porous plate. The method can comprise a film laminating step.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.