US3333315A

US3333315A - Method of forming a nonwoven web product

Info

Publication number: US3333315A
Authority: US
Inventors: Richard F Dyer; Gallagher Paul
Original assignee: Eastman Kodak Co
Current assignee: Eastman Kodak Co
Priority date: 1964-01-10
Filing date: 1966-02-23
Publication date: 1967-08-01
Anticipated expiration: 1984-08-01
Also published as: US3391048A

Description

Aug. 1, 1967 R, DYER ET AL 3,333,315

METHOD OF FORMING A NONWOVEN WEB PRODUCT Original Filed Sept. 12, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet l Fig.2

Richard F. Dyer Paul Gallagher INVENTORS BY MM MM M 68mm .AFUTORNEYS Aug. 1, 1967 R DYER ETAL 3,333,315

METHOD OF FORMING A NONWOVEN WEB PRODUCT Original Filed Sept. 12 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Richard E Dyer Paul Gallagher INVENTORS BY EMM W NGQWM.

United States Patent 3,333,315 METHOD OF FORMING A NONWOVEN WEB PRODUCT Richard F. Dyer and Paul Gallagher, Kingsport, Tenn., assignors to Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Continuation of application Ser. No. 223,587, Sept. 12, 1962. This application Feb. 23, 1966, Ser. No. 536,519 8 Claims. (Cl. 2872.2)

This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 223,587, filed Sept. 12, 1962 now abandoned. This invention relates to the production of continuous filament type nonwoven fabrics. More particularly, it concerns the preparation of a new kind of nonwovens by a novel jet treatment of continuous filament tow of polymeric composition.

A compact intermediate yarn product characterized by a high degree of coherence and intermingling of continuous synthetic filaments is described along with apparatus and a method for the production thereof. Such a yarn product is formed by passing tow, preferably banded, through a slot-type jet of special construction as detailed in U.S. Patents Nos. 3,079,663 and 3,081,951. Although such process is highly elficient in the production of an intermingled filament intermediate tow product especially useful in making tobacco smoke filters, there has still been some room for variations as to coherence of the product, for example, for finding a way to produce a product which would be usable per se as a non-woven useful, for example, as bat-tings and webs, without further special treatment. It has, therefore, been desired to alter the preparation such that a non-woven product usable as such without further processing may be formed.

Various means have previously been used to form a wide sheet or batt-like body of desirable bulk, strength, resistance to deformation and fiber shifting from compact crimped tow but thus far without success except by lengthy processing steps and the use of staple fibers. In the production of nonwoven textile webs and battings, it has been known to utilize staple fibers varying in length from /2" to 6". To produce such battings, particularly in the case of man-made fibers, it has been necessary to go through the operations of crimping and cutting the continuous extruded fiber into short lengths, packing these short lengths in bales, and subsequently carrying out the steps of fiber opening and web formation on carding, garnetting, or the like equipment. The processing of staple fiber into a batting has been relatively expensive due tothe low production rates of the textile web-forming equipment. Successful processing of man-made fibers on a carding machine, for example, often requires the use of special yarn lubricants and severely restricts the usable range of fiber crimp in order to avoid difiiculties with static electricity, card loading, and weak webs. Thus, it is not always possible to produce as good quality nonwoven material as desirable. For instance, the process of U8. Patent 2,055,411 could not be used to produce battings from man-made fibers lubricated solely with white mineral oil since the static charges generated on the fiber would make processing difficult. Likewise, such a process could not be used to produce a batting which required a high degree of crimp, for example, in the order of 15 c.p.i., since such a highly crimped fiber would load the card. Similar difiiculties exist when a garnett machine is used to form a web and when a laying technique such as that of US. Patent 2,676,363 is employed. Therefore conversion of a continuous filament material directly into a batting without the necessity of the foregoing rather complex and costly staple fiber processing steps represents a highly desirable result.

The present invention provides a process and apparatus for converting densely packaged compact, continuousfilament crimped tow into bulky, wide batting characterized by a highly randomized filament arrangement, which filaments retain a high degree of crimp and are distributed in a substantially uniform manner throughout the batting without the generally longitudinal alignment of the filaments being impaired by the process. It also provides a fiuify, voluminous nonwoven product suitable for use as garment insulating material, furniture cushion mat, sleeping bags and comforter filling mats and air filter material. Furthermore, it provides a spread-out, fluify, voluminous nonwoven material having a high degree of uniformity in the random distribution of the crimped filaments therein, which material may be readily impregnated or surface treated with chemical binders or compacted by a mechanical manipulation such as needle punching and compressed and cured into a resilient material suitable for use in such applications as garment interfacing. Further, it provides a simple, effective apparatus combination for converting a dense, highly crimped tow into a wide web or batting comprising uniformly distributed intermingled continuous filamentary material.

Moreover, the present invention provides a method whereby fibers having a higher crimp than those which can ordinarily be processed on cards, garnetts, and the air laying web formers may be converted into nonwovens. Also, it provides a method of producing nonwoven materials utilizing continuous textile filaments which have been treated with fiber finishes of high electric resistivity or with potentially adhesive materials which would ordinarily preclude the processing into webs of such fibers in staple form.

In its broadest aspects our invention involves impinging needle-like streams of a high-velocity gaseous medium such as air, from above and below on a plurality of strands of continuous-filament tow, each strand or end of which may contain 10,000 filaments or more, to produce a nonwoven web product the filaments of which are randomly distributed in a highly coherent form, being interlaced and in a substantially uniform distribution. The tow used may be from one or more synthetic organic fiber-forming materials, for example, cellulose acetate, cellulose triacetate, regenerated cellulose, polyamides, copolyamides, polyesters, copolyesters, acrylics, modacrylics, polycarbonates, polyurethanes, polyethylenes, polypropylenes and the like. The tow is preferably subjected to a certain amount of filament separation by banding or opening out prior to subjection to the impinging streams of gas. Banding promotes uniformity of distribution and exposure. One way in which this may be accomplished is by the process described in U.S. Patent 2,737,688. A series of curved guide bars may be used to further spread the tow prior to our mul-ti-jet treatment. Either crimped or uncrimped tow may be used. Crimped tow is used when batting for such end uses as comforters, insulated underwear, garment interliners, and the like is contemplated. Uncrimped tow may be used when it is planned to produce, for example, mens tie interliners, shirt and suit lapel interliners, drapery liners, drapery fabrics, and the like. The density of the nonwoven product may be varied from 0.002 oz./ cu. in. to 0.06 oz./cu. in. Higher densities may be obtained by heat treatment, calendering and the like.

According to our invention the streams of gas used in treating the tow are provided by an impingement or needling jet in which are used one or more substantially straight rows of orifices in opposing or mating body members arranged substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of a plurality of yarn ends or strands. These orifices or holes may be directly opposite each other or cut out of alignment. The angle of the hole axes may be perpendicular to the moving tow or at an angle of less than 90.

For a more complete understanding of our invention reference will be made to the attached drawings forming a part of the present application.

In the drawing FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the im pingement jet of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a transverse cross-section of the impingement jet of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic representation showing the treatment of a plurality of strands of crimped tow taken from bales or boxes to produce a nonwoven product in accordance with our invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing showing the production of a nonwoven product according to our invention by impingement jet treatment of a plurality of yarns from separate beams brought together as a single warp sheet of uncrimped tow.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, our impingement jet consists of two mating body members and 12. Body member 12 is adapted to be fastened to a support member 14 as by bolt 16. Each body member is provided with one or more

gaseous supply inlets

18 and 20. Each body member is hollowed out at 22 and 24 to provide a large gas chamber or plenum adjacent the

inlets

18 and 20, respectively. These gas chambers are open on the

abutting surfaces

26 and 28 of the

body members

10 and 12. These openings are covered by flat

thin plates

30 and 32 held in place by

flat head screws

34 and 36, respectively. Each of the

plates

30 and 32 has a plurality of tiny holes ,closely spaced in a staggered relationship as shown at 38 in FIG. 1. The hole arrangement in

plates

30 and 32 may be such that the holes are directly opposite as indicated by the hole axis lines 40 or they may be displaced so that the axis of any given hole in plate 32 is centered between the axis of the two approximately opposed equivalent holes in any given row of holes in plate 30. The particular hole pattern which gives optimum results for a given treating process may vary. In some cases three closely adjacent rows 'of holes may be best, as shown in FIG. 1. In other cases two closely spaced rows of holes may be used with a third row displaced say /z from the first two rows. The frequency of the holes may be varied according to the type material being used and the end product desired. Closely spaced holes may be required for tows in which the filaments are more highly resistant to separation or where a heavy inter-filament reaction or movement is desired. Fewer holes may sometimes be used for easy-to-separate filaments or where the degree of interfilament movement desired is small. One spacing found to give good results is where the holes are of .011" diameter and spaced .094 apart in each row and the rows are spaced .062" apart.

To provide clearance for the tow to pass between the

plates

30 and 32, highly compressible gasket strips 42 and 44 are placed parallel to the direction of tow movement at either side of the jet assembly. These gaskets serve also to guide and maintain the tow band in the active area of the jet and prevent treatment gas or tow filaments from escaping from the sides of the jet.

The two body members are fastened together by means of screws 46. The spacing of the two body members may be varied by

set screws

48, 50, 52 and 54. Thus, the jet opening may be narrow on the upstream side, i.e., at the tow entrance, and caused to diverge on the downstream side by extending set

screws

48 and 50 and retracting set screws 52 and 54. Also by extending set screws 48 and 52 and retracting set

screws

50 and 54 the jet tow opening can be made wider on one side of the tow than on the other. Thus the angles formed by the planes in the surfaces of

plates

30 and 32 may be varied as desired and due to the

flexible gaskets

42 and 44 the sides of the jet remain sealed. Other types of adjusting means may be used. For example, the jet may be hinged at one end to facilitate threading the tow through the jet.

The impingement jet just described has a wide range of utility in the treatment of tow or warp sheets. In processing tow for use in cigarette filters, for example, it has been found to produce an unusually high degree of filament separation, blooming and deorientation of the crimps in the individual filaments.

If an aerosol of tow treating liquid is injected into the

air lines

18 and 20, it has been found that an unusually high degree of uniformity of liquid application to a tow may be obtained. The aerosol is readily conveyed by the slow velocity air stream in

pipes

18 and 20 and accelerated and impinged with violence onto the filaments of the tow due to the high velocity of the air stream and the inertia of the aerosol droplets emerging from the tiny holes 38. This effect may be achieved by maintaining the area of the inlet pipe 18 at a value of at least 10 times the total area of the holes 38 in the plate 30.

Another advantage is that by using somewhat higher air pressure the jet has been found to be particularly effective in stripping water or other liquids from a wet tow so that the amount of surface moisture is reduced to a level of only a few percent even though the tow enters the jet with fifty to several hundred percent moisture content on the surface of the fibers. The foregoing, however, serves mainly to illustrate the wide utility of the jet.

When the jet of FIGS. 1 and 2 is used to treat a highly crimped tow, it has been found that a high degree of filament separation or debundlization can be obtained while at the same time retaining or achieving a moderate to high degree of interfilament migration so that a batting may be formed which has good uniformity and as much, generally even greater, resistance to transverse forces than a card or Garnett web and in many instances more coherence. In addition, such a batt has a much higher degree of crimp retained in the filaments than is possible with carded fibers since the mere act of carding a fiber strains the fibers and tends to remove the crimp. Moreover, the generally longitudinal alignment of the filaments from which the tow or web is formed is not impaired. In addition, two or more parallel-fed tow bands can be readily interlocked at their edges to form a uniform wide web without thin or heavy joints where the tows are joined together.

Referring next to FIG. 3, crimped continuous filament tow from 10,000 to 200,000 total denier is supplied in bales or

boxes

56, 58, 60 and 62 or in the form of ball warps if desired. The tow may be comprised of filaments of from 1 D/F to 50 D/F in size. The filaments may be of round, Y, C, X or other like cross-sections.

Tows

64 and 66 are withdrawn from the

bales

56 and 58 by rolls 68 and 70 and pulled over the curved tow spreading bars 72 and 74, respectively. If desired, banding or tow spreading jets such as those of US. Patent 2,737,688 may be used also. This spreads the tow, removes any false twist in the tow and places the tows under a moderate tension to even out any irregularities or distortions of the tow bands. These tow bands then pass between the nip of withdrawal rolls 68 and 70 to the impingement jet 76. The impingement jet is supplied with a gaseous fluid such as air or steam by

fluid conduits

78 and 80. While not shown it will be understood that the flow of gas may be controlled by suitable valves or pressure regulators and may be pretreated to heat the gas, dry it or inject an aerosol of liquid particles into it if desired. The

tows

64 and 66, after treatment and combining into a wide web by the jet 76, then pass through the nip of the output rolls 82 and 84. These rolls may be driven slightly faster, say up to percent, or up to 100 percent slower than the rolls 68 and 70 so that the tow may be slightly stressed to straighten out the crimp or conversely allowed to relax so that all the filaments migrate in the tow to a high degree and the tow is increased in thickness. Following the

rolls

82 and 84 the bloomed and entangled tow product may be wound up on roll 86.

In some cases it may be desirable to apply a chemical binder to the tow. This may be done with a roll applicator shown at 88, before the jet 76 treatment. As previously noted, the binder treatment in some cases may be advantageously applied by means of an aerosol in the jet air. In some other cases it may be desired to immerse the bloomed tow produce emerging from

rolls

82 and 84 in a latex emulsion. Alternatively, a powdered binder such as phenolic resin may be dusted on the tow batt before 90 or after 92 passage through the

rolls

82 and 84. In any case the binder is cured by heating or other activating means such as the infrared heater shown schematically at 94. In other cases hot calender rolls may be used if a compacted sheet-like product is desired. For example, if a plasticizer for a cellulose acetate tow is applied at 88 then rolls 82 and 84 may be heated to hot calender and cure the tow band into a sheet-like product.

If desired, the tow banded batt product emerging from the

rolls

82 and 84 may be needle punched to increase the coherence thereof. Further methods of treating the tow product as known to those skilled in the art may be used. It is also possible by using our impingement jet to laminate a second or even third or more tow banded batt product to form almost any desired thickness. For example, in FIG. 3

tows

64 and 66 may be laid side by side and tows 96 and 98 superimposed thereupon to make a thicker product. Between

bales

56 and 58 and rolls 68 and 70, tows 64 and 66 pass over guides 72 and 74, and between bales 60 and62 and rolls 68 and 70, tows 96 and 98 pass over guides 104, 106, and 108. The surprising degree of intermingling of the superimposed webs prevents delamination such as often encountered in prior art laminates. It is likewise possible to make only 'a single narrow width ribbon-like product such as a felt-like strip from a single tow supply.

The foregoing discussions have related only to crimped filaments. Our impingement jet has also been found to be useful for converting a parallel laid warp sheet of continuous filament yarns having notransverse strength or coherence into sheet, fabric or batting-like products having a remarkable degree of transverse strength. For example, it has been found possible to convert a warp sheet of a plurality of uncrimped, multifilament, zero or low twist yarns directly into a fabric without the need to go through the expensive operations of weaving or knitting the yarn ends on conventional looms or knitters. The product produced by the entanglement jet from a warp sheet has in itself sufficient transverse strength to be adequate for many end uses now requiring a woven fabric. Typical of these are mens tie interliners, shirt and sult lapel interliners, and possibly drapery liners and even drapery fabrics. If higher transverse strengths are required, cross-laid fabric sheets or chemical binders may be used.

To produce these products an apparatus setup such as shown in FIG. 4 is used. One or more warp beams, 110 and 112, wound with a plurality of

ends

114 and 116 of continuous multi-filament, are provided. The width of the beams depends on the number of ends, which may vary from 5 ends per beam to 10,000 or more, and the width of the end product desired. The number and size of the rnulti-filament yarns may be varied over a wide range. For example, they may be composed of 55 to 5,000 total yarn denier with filament counts dependent on the filament size, which may be varied from about 1 D/F to about 50 D/F. The warp sheets composed of 5 to 10,000 or more yarns from each beam, in the case of a plural supply of beams, are combined into a single warp sheet 118. The ends are threaded through a suitable comb or reed 120 to maintain and control a uniform density of ends or yarn strands per inch of width. The warp sheet is then passed between the bite of a pair of feed rolls 122 then be passed directly into the impingement jet 126 or may be passed through a second comb or reed 128. This may be desirable when very good control over the spacing of the yarns is required or when they are excessively disarranged by passage through the feed rolls 122 and 124. In passage through the impingement jet 126 each yarn is broken down into its individual filaments. That is, the individual filaments of the yarns are separated from each other. They are then whipped about and intermingled, interwoven or interlaced by the eddy current actions of the plurality of gas jet streams issuing from the holes of the jet 126. Air or other suitable fluid either hot or cold is fed to the jet by

pipes

128 and 130 under the desired pressure and temperature conditions. In some cases differentially shrinking filaments that tend to curl and crimp when exposed to heat may be used as the yarn supply. In this case, in addition to the tangling and interweaving of the filaments, a crimp is developed in the fibers when they are exposed to hot air or steam. In some cases this effect is enhanced by supplying the heated gas to only one side of the jet through pipe 128. The bottom plate of the jet in this case is not drilled with the holes and acts as an impingement baffle or obstruction against which the hot gas and heated filaments impinge. The surface of this plate may be flat or tilted at a suitable angle to the yarn and gas. streams. This has been found in some cases to increase and enhance the crimp and interfilament entanglement induced in the filaments. The plate may be heated or chilled to further enhance the crimp effect obtained in the filaments. In

F its passage through the jet, the warp sheet of individual yarn ends is converted into a coherent fabric or sheet-like material. Removal of this sheet 132 from the jet 126 is accomplished by

rolls

134 and 136. This pair of rolls is driven at a constant speed ratio relative to

rolls

122 and 124. Usually the feed-in rolls are driven faster than the takeup rolls 143 and 136. This overfeed may, however, be varied from substantially zero to 100 percent or even more, say 1000 percent, depending on the end product desired, the degree of crimp developed in the filaments of hot gas is used, and the degree of filament take-up or shortening in product length due to the interweaving action of the individual filaments. The end product is then wound up on a takeup spool or roll 138. In some cases rolls 143 and 136 may be omitted and in this case the windup roll 138 acts as the means of withdrawing the product from the jet. The product wound up on roll 138 may then be treated in any manner common in the finishing of woven or knitted fabrics. It may be treated with a binder to improve its transverse strength. It may be dyed, printed, calendered, napped, embossed, laminated with other layers of a similar product or with plastic or conventional woven fabrics. Several obvious advantages are inherent in producing a fabric in the foregoing manner. Many fibers that are difficult to weave or knit into fabrics due to the various limitations of twist, filament size, shape, pilling, electrostatic and frictional properties may now be made into fabric.

The product may be compact or bulky as desired. The fabric produced in general has the surface characteristics of fabrics woven or knit from staple fiber yarns without and 124. The warp sheet of ends may the need of the costly cutting, crimping, and the cotton, worsted or woolen system yarn spinning processes and weaving or knitting required to produce this type fabric from man-made fibers. It opens up a wide range of possiround yarn of 1000 denier or more depending on the degree of bulk or overfeed imparted by the jet treatment. This yarn has a remark-ably improved internal entanglement or loopiness and as a result is characterized by a much higher bulkiness than the prior art heavy denier bilities which will be recognized by those skilled in the textile arts. For example, a latex or other suitable 'binder bulked or entangled yarns. may be applied to one side of the produce and the A further understandmg of our invention may be had other side napped and sheared to produce furlike fabrics 'by reference to the following examples which are inor carpet fabrics. The sheet-like product may, if desired, tended to be illustrative only. be rolled transversely on itself to produce yarns, ropes, E l l V cords, cable, stufiers and wicks. It may also, if desired, xamp es be rolled on itself to produce tobacco smoke filters or A 15,800 denier tow was passed through an impingeliquid and gas filters. ment jet such as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. in a manner Prior to the present invention difiiculty has sometimes similar to that depicted in FIG. 3. The properties of the been experienced in air treating a yarn of large denier tow, the feed and take-up speeds, the jet width and jet filaments. For instance, a 1,000-denier yarn composed air pressure, product appearance, and the like of 5 of 1,000 filaments of 1 D/F at times does not respond individual samples are given in the Table 1, which folsatisfactorily when treated with lofting jets known to the lows.

TABLE I Sample No.

Tow Denier- 15,800 15,800 15, 800 15, 800 15, 300 D/F 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 Crimps per inch. 10 16 16 16 16 Jet Width (in.) 1 1 1 1 Jet Air (p.s.i.g.) 50 50 30 Feed (IL/min. 10 10 10 10 Take-up (ft./rnin.) 10 10 10 10 Product Control Excellent Good Excellent Fair Appearance. Intermingled Intermingled Binder None None None None None 1 Control (110 jet). 2 Unmingled strands.

3 Few clusters of unopened fiber. 4 Some clusters of unopened fiber.

Examples VI-XVIII Filament yarn warp samples were converted by passage through an impingement jet such as that depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 according to the procedure of FIG. 4 into a sheet-like narrow ribbon nonwoven textile product under the conditions illustrated in Table II, which follows. The appearance and filament entanglement of the impingement jet-treated product is indicated. The yarn used in these samples was cellulose acetate yarn.

TABLE II D/ Ends/inch-" Amt. Width Hole Size (in diam Rows Hole Space (in.) ROW Spare Plate Space at- Entrance (in) Exit (in.)

Air Pressure (p.

Feed Speed (yd/min.) Over Feed Entanglement" V. good Appearance. do Do. Un formity... Poorsheet Fai1-sl1ect Good sheet- V. good sheet. Th1ckness(in.) A2 fiz 9&2 $6 56:.

Denier D F Hole Space (in. How Space Plate Space at- TABLE IICntinued Sample No.

Entrance (in.) Exit (in.) Air Pressure (p.s.i.g.). Feed Speed (yd./rnin.) Over Feed Appearanee. Uniformity Thickness (in.) 964 Bulky.

Good batting. 140.

V.g B V. good batting. Me ls rality of high-velocity fluid streams is arranged in substantially parallel rows substantially at right angles to the direction of movement of several tows, said streams being directed substantially vertically against the moving tows.

It will be apparent from the foregoing description that we have provided a continuous-filament nonwoven product which has a particularly high degree of association and intermingling of filaments between the edges of the plurality of multi-filament strands or ends which are joined together cohesively to make up said product. We have provided for the first time, by the use of our novel impingement jet process, a highly uniform batting of multistrand entangled-filament structure adapted for ready use in comforters, insulated underwear, garment innerliners and the like. Use of the unbonded continuous filament tow batt product of our invention containing a plurality of united yarn ends substantially eliminates leakage of fibers such as that encountered with staple batts and the like, thus reducing any degrading of the garments which might result from such leakage and preventing any disagreeability to the wearer which might result from protruding fibers, for example, itching and irritation of the skin. In addition, the tow product of this invention may be further treated by bonding or otherwise to produce fiber tapes, felts, paper-like sheets, tobacco smoke filters and the like. Our novel nonwoven product has both increased longitudinal and transverse strength caused by the interweaving and intermingling of the continuous filaments between the several strands thereof. Two or more layers of our fiber web product may be cross laminated with their axis at an angle of up to 90. filaments between the plurality of web product permits an even greater transverse strength than that of bonded staple batts, the strength of which is dependent on the necessarily weakened short-fiber properties.

The intermingling of ends of tow of the Although the invention has been described in considerable detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention as described herein, and as defined in the appended claims.

We claim: 1. A process for production of a nonwoven web 2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the plu- 3. A process for the production of a nonwoven web within each of said combined sheets and between the adjoining edges of each of said plurality of warp sheets.

4. In a process for forming an entangled-filament yarn product by jet treatment of continuous substantially longitudinally aligned multifilament crimped tow, the improvement which comprises in a single zone directing rows of needle-like streams of a high-velocity gaseous medium from above and below against a plurality of strands of continuous multifilament tow each tow of which contains several thousand filaments, thereby commingling said strands as a cohesive web of intermingled filaments randomly distributed and interlaced at the adjoining edges of said strands without impairing the substantially longitudinal alignment of said filaments.

5. A process for production of a nonwoven web product of filaments which comprises impinging a plurality of high-velocity fluid streams upon at least one moving tow made up of substantially longitudinally aligned filaments, said streams being directed toward said tow in a confined zone, said fluid streams intermingling the filaments sufficiently to form a self-coherent web having a high degree of interfilament entanglement without impairing the substantially longitudinal alignment of said filaments.

6. The process according to claim 5' wherein the plurality of fluid streams are substantially parallel rows and are arranged to impinge substantially perpendicular to a surface of said tow.

7. The process according to claim 6 wherein the plurality of fluid streams are directed toward said tow in substantially equal numbers against both surfaces of said tow.

8. The process according to claim 5 wherein said tow is moved relative to any supporting surface through said confined zone.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,981,999 5/1961 Russell 28--72.2 X

3,040,412 6/1962 Russell 2872.2 Y

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,339,421 4/1963 France.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner. L. K. RIMRODT, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. A PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF A NONWOVEN WEB PRODUCT OF ORGANIC FILAMENTS WHICH COMPRISES IMPINGING UPON AT LEAST ONE MOVING TOW MADE UP OF SUBSTANTIALLY LONGITUDINALLY ALIGNED FILAMENTS A PLURALITY OF HIGH-VELOCITY FLUID STREAMS, A SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL NUMBER OF SAID STREAMS BEING DIRECTED IN A SINGLE CONFINED ZONE FROM ABOVE AND BELOW SAID TOW, AND SAID FLUID STREAMS INTERMINGLING THE FILAMENTS SUFFICIENTLY TO FORM A SELF-COHERENT BATT HAVING A HIGH DEGREE OF INTERFILAMENT ENTANGLEMENT WITHOUT IMPAIRING THE GENERALLY LONGITUDINAL ALIGNMENT OF SAID FILAMENTS.