Method of making a belt-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet

A method of making a fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet with improved dispensing characteristics, the method comprising:

• (a) compactively dewatering a papermaking furnish to form a nascent web;
• (b) applying the nascent web to a translating transfer surface that is moving at a transfer surface speed;
• (c) fabric-creping the web from the transfer surface at a consistency of from about 30% to about 60% utilizing a patterned creping fabric, the fabric-creping step occurring under pressure in a fabric creping nip defined between the transfer surface and the creping fabric, wherein the fabric is traveling at a belt speed that is slower than the transfer surface speed, the web being creped from the transfer surface and transferred to the creping fabric to form a web with a reticulum having a plurality of interconnected regions of different local basis weights including at least (i) a plurality of cross machine direction (CD) extending, fiber-enriched pileated regions of a local basis weight that is higher than an average basis weight of the web, the fiber-enriched pileated regions interconnected by way of (ii) a plurality of elongated densified regions of compressed papermaking fibers, the elongated densified regions having a local basis weight that is lower than the local basis weight of the pileated regions, and being generally oriented along the machine direction (MD) of the web;
• (d) adhering the web to a drying cylinder with a resinous adhesive coating composition;
• (e) drying the web on the drying cylinder to form a dried web;
• and
• (f) peeling the dried web from the drying cylinder to produce a belt-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet.

A method of making fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet, the method comprising:

• (a) compactively dewatering a papermaking furnish to form a nascent web having an apparently random distribution of papermaking fiber orientation;
• (b) applying the nascent web having the apparently random distribution of fiber orientation to a translating transfer surface that is moving at a transfer surface speed;
• (c) fabric-creping the web from the transfer surface at a consistency of from about 30% to about 60% utilizing a patterned creping fabric, the fabric-creping step occurring under pressure in a fabric creping nip defined between the transfer surface and the creping fabric, wherein the fabric is traveling at a belt speed that is slower than the transfer surface speed, the web being creped from the transfer surface and redistributed on the creping fabric to form a web with a drawable reticulum having a plurality of interconnected regions of different local basis weights including at least (i) a plurality of fiber-enriched regions of a local basis weight that is higher than an average basis weight of the web, the fiber-enriched regions generally extending in the cross machine direction (CD) of the web, and interconnected by way of (ii) a plurality of elongated densified regions of compressed papermaking fibers, the elongated densified regions having a local basis weight that is lower than the local basis weight of the fiber-enriched regions, and being generally oriented along the machine direction (MD) of the web;
• (d) drying the web to form a dried web;
• and
• (e) thereafter, drawing the dried web along its MD, to produce a belt-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet.

A method of making fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet, the method comprising:

• (a) compactively dewatering a papermaking furnish to form a nascent web having an apparently random distribution of papermaking fiber orientation;
• (b) applying the nascent web having the apparently random distribution of fiber orientation to a translating transfer surface that is moving at a first transfer surface speed;
• (c) fabric-creping the web from the transfer surface at a consistency of from about 30% to about 60% utilizing a patterned creping fabric, the fabric-creping step occurring under pressure in a fabric creping nip defined between the transfer surface and the creping fabric, wherein the creping fabric is traveling at a belt speed that is slower than the transfer surface speed;
• (d) applying the web to a Yankee dryer;
• (e) creping the web from the Yankee dryer;
• (f) winding the web on a reel to produce a belt-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet;
• and
• (g) selecting the pattern of the fabric, nip parameters, velocity delta, web consistency, and web composition such that the web is creped from the transfer surface and redistributed on the creping fabric to form a web having a local basis weight variation that includes at least (i) a plurality of fiber-enriched regions of a local basis weight that is higher than an average basis weight of the sheet, the fiber-enriched regions generally extending in the cross machine direction (CD) of the sheet and (ii) a plurality of elongated regions having a local basis weight that is lower than the local basis weight of the fiber-enriched regions, and being generally oriented along the machine direction (MD) of the sheet.