Composite fabrics comprising continuous filaments locked in place by intermingled melt blown fibers and methods and apparatus for making
AssigneeTuff Spun Fabrics, Inc.
InventorReinhardt N. Sabee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A low cost, high web integrity fabric that can be economically produced and tailored to provide a variety of different combinations of characteristics and properties for different end uses. It is a fabric wherein the strength in any direction can be predetermined and also wherein the elasticity in any direction can be varied in a predetermined fashion. It is also a fabric that combines continuous filaments, ranging from elastomeric to non-elastic but elongatable to at least a minimum extent, for strength and elasticity with the predetermined indepth intermingling of fibrous melt blown webs for interlocking of the said continuous filaments in the formation of the integrated, fibrous and continuous filament matrix.
Claims41
A process for producing a composite non-woven fabric, said process comprising:
- a) providing at least one extruder with melt spinning die heads having a multiple number of melt spinning nozzles;
- b) extruding thermoplastic polymeric continuous elastomeric filaments from said nozzles;
- c) drawing said polymeric continuous elastomeric filaments from said nozzles with a pair of temperature controlled feed rolls;
- d) providing at least two extruders having a multiple number of melt blown nozzles;
- e) feeding said continuous elastomeric filaments into a nip of a pair of counter-rotating temperature controlled deposition rolls under no tension;
- f) depositing at least two opposing melt blown fiber streams, at least one of which is elongatable but not elastic, onto said continuous elastomeric filaments prior to feeding said continuous elastomeric filaments into said temperature controlled deposition rolls where they intermingle with each other and with said untensioned continuous elastomeric filaments;
- g) feeding said assembly into the nip of said pair of counter-rotating temperature controlled deposition rolls under no tension thereby forming said composite fabric;
- h) feeding the said solidified composite non-woven fabric between said deposition rolls and a pair of draw rolls, having a higher surface velocity, thereby stretching the said continuous elastomeric filaments and elongating the elongatable but non-elastic melt blown fibrous web;
- i) relaxing the elongated composite fabric thereby forming buckles and gathers in the fibrous non-woven gatherable web.
A process for producing a composite non-woven fabric, said process comprising the steps of:
- a) providing at least two elastomeric filamentary curtains, each comprising a multitude of elastomeric continuous filaments laid down in a predetermined non-random orientation;
- b) depositing at least one deposition of melt blown non-elastic but elongatable fibers between said elastomeric filamentary curtains;
- c) feeding said melt blown fibrous deposition, faced on both surfaces with stabilized elastomeric filamentary curtains, into a nip between two temperature controlled deposition rolls thereby forming said composite non-woven fabric;
- d) stretching the solidified composite non-woven fabric between said deposition rolls and a pair of draw rolls having a higher surface velocity, thereby stretching the said elastomeric continuous filaments and elongating the said melt blown non-elastic but elongatable fibrous web;
- e) relaxing the elongated non-woven composite fabric thereby forming buckles and gathers in the fibrous non-woven gatherable web.
A process for producing a composite fabric, said process comprising:
- providing an unstretched elastomeric web;
- depositing at least two opposing depositions of melt blown fibers onto said unstretched elastomeric web while simultaneously feeding the same into a nip comprising two deposition rolls and at least one suitable prefabricated web, thereby forming an untensioned elasticized fabric;
- stretching and elongating the untensioned elasticized fabric;
- and
- relaxing the elongated tensioned elasticized fabric to form buckles and gathers in the fibrous non-woven gatherable web.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.