US 7,699,954 B2Granted

Nonwoven fabric and method and apparatus for manufacturing same

AssigneeHunter Douglas Inc.

InventorsWendell B. Colson, Paul G. Swiszcz, David Hartman

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Abstract

An apparatus for fabricating a unique nonwoven fabric which has the appearance of a woven fabric includes a supply station for parallel warp yarns, a support structure for orienting the parallel warp yarns into a cylindrical orientation, a weft yarn applicator for wrapping weft yarns around the cylindrically oriented warp yarns after an adhesive scrim has been overlaid onto the warp yarns, a heating station for activating the adhesive and a cooling station for setting the adhesive, and a cutter for severing the cylindrically formed fabric laminate so that it can be flattened and wrapped onto a take-up roller. The weft yarn applicator including a rotating drum wherein a plurality of spools of weft yarn material are mounted in circumferentially spaced relationship and a tensioner is provided for applying the weft yarn material around the warp yarns in a predetermined tension which may be the same as, greater than, or less than the tension in the warp yarns.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method of forming a non-woven fabric, comprising the steps of:

providing a supply of elongated side-by-side warp yarns;
applying an adhesive scrim to only one side of the elongated side-by-side warp yarns to form an elongated warp sheet, wherein the adhesive scrim defines a web of adhesive strands that extend between adjacent warp yarns on said one side of the warp sheet to hold the warp yarns in a substantially parallel and non-twisting relationship;
forming the warp sheet into a substantially cylindrical configuration, wherein the adhesive scrim on said one side of the warp sheet is exposed;
moving the cylindrically-formed warp sheet along a linear path while transversely wrapping weft yarns around the cylindrically-formed warp sheet;
adhering the weft yarns to the adhesive scrim on said one side of the cylindrically-formed warp sheet to form a substantially cylindrical non-woven fabric of said warp and weft yarns;
and
cutting the substantially cylindrical non-woven fabric along the linear path to free the non-woven fabric from its cylindrical form.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/180,338Filed 25 Jul 2008 · division
Priority: 12 Jan 1999
Published: US 2008/0286520 A120 Nov 2008
Granted: 20 Apr 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification38 codes

B32B 5/26
One layer being a fibrous or filamentary layer: another layer next to it also being fibrous or filamentary
B29C 53/8016
Specially adapted for winding and joining: storing, feeding or applying winding materials, e.g. reels, thread guides, tensioners
B29C 70/228
Oriented in at least two directions forming a two-dimensional [2D] structure: the structure being stacked in parallel layers with fibres of…
B32B 5/022
Characterised by structural features of a fibrous or filamentary layer: non-woven fabric

Family

Application60/115,600Us provisional application · filed 12 Jan 1999
Application60/154,717Us provisional application · filed 20 Sep 1999
Application60/155,364Us provisional application · filed 20 Sep 1999
Application60/155,365Us provisional application · filed 20 Sep 1999
PCT/US00/00571Parent of this division · filed 10 Jan 2000
Application11/851,863Parent of this division · filed 7 Sep 2007
US 2008/0286520 A1Pre-grant publication · published 20 Nov 2008
Application09/869,941Parent of this division
US 2009/0014115 A1Published application
US 8,057,616 B2Related patent
US 7,699,954 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.