Apparatus for making soft tissue products

A throughdrying fabric for use at the dry end of a paper making machine for carrying a moist web for conveyance through a throughdryer to form a basesheet, said fabric having a width corresponding to the width of the paper-making machine and a length in the form of a continuous loop corresponding to the length of the path of travel of the fabric through the throughdryer, and having a top pulp face and a bottom dryer face, said top pulp face producing a pattern on the confronting surface of the basesheet being formed from the moist web in the paper making machine by affording passage of the throughdrying air blown through said fabric and web comprising:

• a load-bearing layer adjacent the dryer face having a weave comprising warp yarns interwoven with shute yarns in a weave pattern selected to produce a desired load-bearing support for the web deposited on said top pulp face, while affording passage of the throughdrying air through the fabric and the web;
• and
• impression strand segments interwoven with said load bearing layer to produce raised warp knuckles extending along the pulp face in the machine direction,
• said warp knuckles being spaced apart in the cross direction to produce a sculpture layer which adjoins said load-bearing layer along a sublevel plane, said sculpture layer being characterized by said warp knuckles producing valleys therebetween above said sublevel plane,
• said impression strand segments producing stitch-like marks, and said valleys producing puff areas in the moist web carried by the fabric.