Method of making a mechanical fastener and apparatus including a roller with protrusions

A method of making a mechanical fastener, the method comprising:

• providing a slit web having mechanical fastening elements and a length in a machine direction, wherein the slit web includes a plurality of laterally separated interrupted slits that are interrupted by intact bridging regions of the web, wherein the intact bridging regions divide the interrupted slits into a series of spaced slit portions aligned in the machine direction, and wherein for at least some adjacent interrupted slits, the spaced slit portions are staggered in a cross-machine direction;
• and
• spreading the slit web in the cross-machine direction by directing the slit web over at least a first roller having first multiple protrusions around its peripheral surface, wherein the first multiple protrusions are positioned such that adjacent protrusions push through consecutive slit portions of a first one, two, or three of the interrupted slits to form a spread mechanical fastening web, wherein the spread mechanical fastening web comprises multiple strands of the slit web attached to each other at least at some of the intact bridging regions and separated from each other between at least some of the intact bridging regions.