Abrasion resistant, soft nonwoven

Abstract

A soft, fibrous material having excellent abrasion resistance and superior softness is made by relatively highly consolidating and then incrementally stretching a nonwoven material. The finished material is a nonwoven web having a plurality of discrete, spaced apart relatively high basis weight regions which are at least partially surrounded by at least one relatively low basis weight region. In one embodiment the soft, fibrous material is made from a nonwoven web having a consolidation area of at least about 30%, and the material has a bending rigidity (which correlates to softness) in a machine direction axis of bending of less than about 0.018 gcm 2 /cm. In another embodiment, the soft, fibrous material is made from a nonwoven web having a consolidation area of at least about 30%, and the material has a fuzz removal value (which correlates to abrasion resistance) of less than about 0.30 mg/cm 2 .

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A soft, fibrous material made from a nonwoven web having a consolidation area of at least about 30%, said fibrous material having a fuzz removal value of less than about 0.30mg/cm 2 .  
     
     
         2 . The soft, fibrous material of  claim 1 , wherein said consolidation is achieved by thermal bonding.  
     
     
         3 . The soft, fibrous material of  claim 1 , wherein said consolidation area is at least about 40%.  
     
     
         4 . The soft, fibrous material of  claim 1 , wherein said fibrous material has a bending rigidity in a machine direction axis of bending of less than about 0.018 gcm 2 /cm.  
     
     
         6 . The soft, fibrous material of  claim 4 , wherein said bending rigidity is less than about 0.013 gcm 2 /cm.  
     
     
         7 . The soft, fibrous material of  claim 6 , wherein said bending rigidity is less than about 0.9 gcm 2 /cm.  
     
     
         8 . The soft fibrous material of  claim 1  , wherein said material is comprised of a polymer selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene-polypropylene copolymers, and mixtures thereof.  
     
     
         9 . The soft fibrous material of  claim 1  wherein said material is comprised of polyethylene/polypropylene bicomponent fibers.  
     
     
         10 . The soft fibrous material of  claim 4  wherein said material is comprised of polyethylene/polypropylene bicomponent fibers.  
     
     
         11 . A laminate comprising the soft, fibrous material of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         12 . A laminate comprising the soft, fibrous material of  claim 4 .  
     
     
         13 . A method for making a soft, fibrous material, said method comprising the steps of: 
 (a) providing a nonwoven fibrous web;    (b) consolidating said nonwoven fibrous web to achieve a consolidation area of at least X%;    (c) repeating step (b) at least one time to achieve a consolidation area of at least Y%, wherein Y>X;    stretching said consolidated fibrous material.    
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein said method reduces the bending rigidity of the fibrous material in a machine direction axis of bending by at least about 20% and does not increase the fuzz removal value of said fibrous material.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein said bending rigidity is reduced by at least 40%.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein said bending rigidity is reduced by at least 60%.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein at least one of said consolidation steps comprises thermal bonding.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein said thermal bonding is by thermal point bonding via heated calendaring rollers.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein all of said consolidation steps comprises thermal bonding.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein Y is at least 30%.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein Y is at least about 40%.  
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said stretching is by incremental stretching.  
     
     
         23 . A method for making a soft, fibrous material having a plurality of discrete, spaced apart relatively high basis weight regions, said relatively high basis weight regions being at least partially surrounded by at least one relatively low basis weight region, said method comprising the steps of: 
 (a) providing a nonwoven fibrous web having thermoplastic portions;    (b) consolidating said nonwoven fibrous web at a plurality of discrete, spaced apart bond sites to achieve a consolidation area of at least X%;    (c) repeating step (b) at least one time to achieve a consolidation area of at least Y%, wherein Y>X;    (d) stretching said consolidated fibrous material.    
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein said consolidation is achieved by thermal point bonding via calendaring.  
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein Y is at least 30%.  
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein Y is at least about 40%.  
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein said stretching is by incremental stretching.