Breathable, cloth-like film/nonwoven composite
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorAnn Louise McCormack
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a breathable film and a breathable, cloth-like film/nonwoven composite made from the breathable film which is stretch-thinned and bonded to a fibrous polyolefin nonwoven web. Certain thermoplastic films such as, for example, linear low density polyethylene films are difficult to thermally bond to, for example, polypropylene nonwoven webs due to the incompatibility of the two polymers. The present invention incorporates a bonding agent into one or both of the two layers thereby making it easier to thermally bond the two layers together. Processes for forming the various composite are also disclosed.
Claims6
A personal care absorbent article comprising:
- a body side liner and an outercover with an absorbent core disposed therebetween, said outercover comprising a film formed from a blend including, on a dry weight basis, based upon the total weight of the film, from about 10 to about 68 percent of a predominately linear polyolefin polymer, from about 30 to about 80 percent of a filler and from about 2 to about 20 percent of a bonding agent, said film having a water vapor transmission rate of at least 100 g/m.sup.2 /24 hours, and a fibrous polyolefin nonwoven web bonded directly to said film to form a laminate, said laminate having a peel strength of at least 24 grams.
An article of clothing including a breathable film/nonwoven laminate which comprises:
- a film formed from a blend including, on a dry weight basis, based upon the total weight of the film, from about 10 to about 68 percent of a predominately linear polyolefin polymer, from about 30 to about 80 percent of a filler and from about 2 to about 20 percent of a bonding agent, said film having a water vapor transmission rate of at least 100 g/m.sup.2 /24 hours, and
- a fibrous polyolefin nonwoven web bonded directly to said film to form a laminate, said laminate having a peel strength of at least 24 grams.
A process for forming a breathable film/nonwoven laminate comprising:
- forming a pre-extrusion blend including, on a dry weight basis, based upon the total weight of the film from about 10 to about 68 percent of a predominately linear polyolefin polymer, from about 30 to about 80 percent of a filler and from about 2 to about 20 percent of a bonding agent, forming a film from said preextrusion blend, stretching said film at a temperature less than the melting point of said predominately linear thermoplastic polymer, and
- bonding said film directly to a fibrous polyolefin nonwoven web at a temperature less than the melting point of said predominately linear thermoplastic polymer in said film to form a laminate having a peel strength of at least 24 grams.
A process for forming a film/nonwoven laminate comprising:
- forming a film layer including, on a dry weight basis based upon the total weight of the film, from about 30 to about 80 percent filler and from about 20 to about 70 percent polyolefin polymer, stretching said film layer, bonding a fibrous nonwoven web directly to said film layer by a plurality of fibers within said fibrous nonwoven web which contain a polyolefin polymer and a bonding agent, said polyolefin polymer and said bonding agent being present on at least a portion of an exterior surface of said fibers to create a peel strength of at least 24 grams.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.