Methods for bonding, cutting and printing polymeric materials using xerographic printing of IR absorbing material

A method for bonding together two sheets of polymeric material at predetermined locations, at least one of said sheets being a nonwoven web prepared predominantly from a thermoplastic polymeric material, which method comprises the steps of:

• (a) contacting the sheets with one another;
• (b) forming by a xerographic process a pattern of an infrared-absorbing xerographic toner on said nonwoven web, said pattern corresponding to the predetermined locations at which the sheets are to be bonded;
• (c) exposing the contacted sheets to infrared energy, said infrared energy causing the sheets to be heated to a higher temperature in the areas of the infrared-absorbing xerographic toner than in areas away from the infrared-absorbing xerographic toner;
• (d) applying pressure to the sheets;
• and
• (e) cooling the sheets or allowing the sheets to cool;
• the amount of infrared energy and the distribution of infrared-absorbing xerographic toner being chosen so that the sheets bond to one another in the areas of the infrared-absorbing xerographic toner.

A method for cutting a sheet of polymeric material at predetermined locations, which sheet comprises a nonwoven web prepared predominantly from a thermoplastic polymeric material, which method comprises the steps of:

• (a) forming by a xerographic process a pattern of an infrared-absorbing xerographic toner on said nonwoven web, said pattern corresponding to the predetermined locations at which the sheet is to be cut;
• and
• (b) exposing the sheet to infrared energy, said infrared energy causing the sheet to be heated to a higher temperature in the areas of the infrared-absorbing material than in areas away from the infrared-absorbing material;
• the amount of infrared energy and the distribution of infrared-absorbing material being chosen so that the sheet is substantially weakened in the areas of the infrared-absorbing material through local melting of the thermoplastic polymeric material of which the nonwoven web is composed.