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AssigneeKimberly-Clark Corporation
InventorsRichard D. Pike, Kurtis L. Brown, Sharon W. Gwaltney, Thomas A. Hershberger, Scott D. Siegel
Estimating the term…
A process for making nonwoven fabric including the steps of meltspinning continuous multicomponent polymeric filaments, drawing the multicomponent filaments, at least partially quenching the multicomponent filaments so that the multicomponents have latent helical crimp, activating the latent helical crimp, and thereafter, forming the crimped continuous multicomponent filaments into a first nonwoven fabric web. By crimping the filaments before the web formation, shrinkage of the web after formation is substantially reduced and the resulting fabric is substantially stable and uniform. In addition, the resulting fabric can have a relatively high loft. The crimp activating step can include heating the multicomponent filaments and preferably includes drawing the multicomponent filaments with a flow of heated air to activate the latent helical crimp. The resulting fabric can form relatively high loft materials useful as a fluid management layer for personal care absorbent articles or can form cloth-like fabric useful as cover materials and garment material. In addition, a nonwoven fabric comprising continuous single and multicomponent filaments and proces for making same are provided. Still further, a multilayer nonwoven fabric with continuous multicomponent filaments and process for making same are provided. The degree of crimp in the filaments can be varied from layer to layer to produce composite webs with particular fluid handling properties.
A nonwoven fabric made according to a process comprising the steps of:
A nonwoven fabric made according to a process as in claim 17, wherein the second web is formed according to the process defined in claim 31 except that the temperature of the flow of air contacting the filaments of the second web is different from the temperature of the flow of air contacting the filaments of the first web, whereby the first degree of crimp is different from the second degree of crimp.
A nonwoven fabric comprising a plurality of nonwoven fabric webs laminated to one another, each nonwoven web comprising continuous multicomponent polymeric filaments comprising first and second polymeric components, the multicomponent filaments having a cross-section, a length, and a peripheral surface, the first and second components being arranged in substantially distinct zones across the cross-section of the multicomponent filaments and extending continuously along the length of the multicomponent filaments, the second component constituting at least a portion of the peripheral surface of the multicomponent filaments continuously along the length of the multicomponent filaments, the plurality of webs including first and second webs, the multicomponent filaments of the first web having a first degree of helical crimp and the multicomponent filaments of the second web having a second degree of helical crimp different than the first degree of helical crimp.
A nonwoven fabric comprising:
A personal care article comprising a layer of nonwoven fabric made according to a process comprising the steps of:
A personal care article comprising a layer of nonwoven fabric comprising a plurality of nonwoven fabric webs laminated to one another, each nonwoven web comprising continuous multicomponent polymeric filaments comprising first and second polymeric components, the multicomponent filaments having a cross-section, a length, and a peripheral surface, the first and second components being arranged in substantially distinct zones across the cross-section of the multicomponent filaments and extending continuously along the length of the multicomponent filaments, the second component constituting at least a portion of the peripheral surface of the multicomponent filaments continuously along the length of the multicomponent filaments, the plurality of webs including first and second webs, the multicomponent filaments of the first web having a first degree of helical crimp and the multicomponent filaments of the second web having a second degree of helical crimp different than the first degree of helical crimp.
A personal care article comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.