Wet crepe throughdry process for making absorbent sheet and novel fibrous products

A wet crepe, throughdry process for making sheet comprising the steps of:

• (a) depositing an aqueous fibrous furnish on a foraminous support;
• (b) compactively dewatering said furnish to form a web;
• (c) applying said dewatered web to a heated rotating cylinder and drying said web to a consistency of from about 15 percent to about 60 percent;
• (d) creping said web from said heated cylinder at said consistency of from about 15 percent to about 60 percent in a creping nip utilizing a creping fabric traveling at a speed slower than the speed of said heated rotating cylinder so as to apply a percent crepe to said web of from about 5 percent to about 50 percent;
• (e) throughdrying said web subsequent to creping said web from said heated cylinder to form said sheet,
• wherein said sheet has a void volume fraction of from about 0.55 to about 0.85 and is characterized in that said sheet exhibits a wet springback ratio of at least about 0.6 and a hydraulic diameter of from about 3×10−6 ft to about 8×10−5 ft with the provisos:
• (a) that when the void volume fraction of said sheet exceeds about 0.72, said hydraulic diameter of said sheet is less than about 8 ×10−6 ft;
• and (b) that when the void volume fraction of the sheet exceeds about 0.8, said hydraulic diameter of said sheet is less than about 7×10−6 ft,
• further comprising the step of creping said web from said creping fabric utilizing a second fabric traveling at a speed slower than said creping fabric so as to apply an additional percent crepe of from about 5 percent to about 50 percent.