Absorbent nonwoven fabric and its production
AssigneeCourtaulds Fibres (Holdings) Limited
InventorPaul J. Akers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wet-laid nonwoven fabric comprises a blend of 1 to 50% by weight of fibres of a water-swellable water-insoluble superabsorbent polymer and 99 to 50% by weight of less absorbent fibres, for example fibres having an absorbency of less than 10 g/g measured by retention to centrifuging of a 0.9% by weight saline solution.
Claims12
A wet-laid nonwoven fabric comprising a blend of 1 to 50% by weight of fibres of weight 2 to 30 decitex per filament and length 3 to 100 mm of a water-swellable water-insoluble superabsorbent polymer, which is a crosslinked copolymer of 50 to 95% by weight ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic monomer and 5 to 50% by weight copolymerisable ethylenically unsaturated monomer, and 99 to 50% by weight of less absorbent fibres having an absorbency of less than 10 g/g measured by retention to centrifuging of a 0.9% by weight saline solution.
A process for the production of a wet-laid nonwoven fabric, in which process fibres having an absorbency of less than 10 g/g, measured by retention to centrifuging of a 0.9% by weight saline solution, are slurried in water, fibers of weight 2 to 30 decitex per filament and length 3 to 100 mm of a water-swellable water-insoluble superabsorbent polymer, which is a crosslinked copolymer of 50 to 95% by weight ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic monomer and 5 to 50% by weight copolymerisable ethylenically unsaturated monomer, are added to this slurry to form a mixed slurry containing both the superabsorbent polymer fibres and the less absorbent fibres, the mixed slurry is deposited as a layer on a foraminous support so that part of the water drains from the layer of slurry on the support, and the resulting fibrous layer is dried to form the nonwoven fabric.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.