Nonwoven Composite and Method for Making the Same

Abstract

A nonwoven composite and a method of making a nonwoven composite including lightly bonding and hydroentangling a continuous filament nonwoven web to improve its integrity and fiber mobility for subsequent processing steps, such as adding a first layer to the continuous filament nonwoven web and hydroentangling the first layer and the continuous filament nonwoven web together.

1 . A method of making a nonwoven composite, comprising the steps of:
 providing a continuous filament nonwoven web,   lightly bonding the continuous filament nonwoven web with hot air from a hot air knife to temporarily bond filaments in the continuous filament nonwoven web to each other, wherein the hot air knife is heated to a temperature between about 200° F. and 550° F.,   hydroentangling the lightly bonded continuous filament nonwoven web to controllably break temporary bonds formed in the continuous filament nonwoven web,   providing a first layer on the lightly bonded, hydroentangled continuous filament nonwoven web, and   hydroentangling the first layer with the lightly bonded, hydroentangled continuous filament nonwoven web to form the nonwoven composite.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 winding the lightly bonded continuous filament nonwoven web onto a roll,   transporting the roll of the lightly bonded continuous filament nonwoven web, and unwinding the roll of lightly bonded continuous filament nonwoven web prior to the step of hydroentangling.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 winding the lightly bonded, hydroentangled continuous filament nonwoven web onto a roll, 
 transporting the roll of the lightly bonded, hydroentangled continuous filament nonwoven web, and 
 unwinding the roll of hydroentangled, lightly bonded continuous filament nonwoven web prior to the step of providing a layer. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of providing a first layer includes providing pulp fibers. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of providing a first layer includes providing staple fibers. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the step of providing a first layer further includes providing pulp fibers. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of providing a first layer includes providing a mixture of pulp fibers and staple fibers. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of providing a first layer includes providing a continuous filament nonwoven web. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of providing a first layer includes providing a continuous filament nonwoven web and fibers selected from the group consisting of pulp fibers, staple fibers, and a mixture of pulp fibers and staple fibers. 
     
     
         10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of providing a second layer, and then hydroentangling the second layer and the first layer with the lightly bonded, hydroentangled continuous filament nonwoven web. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the second layer is a continuous filament nonwoven web. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the second layer is lightly bonded with hot air. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , the second layer is hydroentangled. 
     
     
         15 - 25 . (canceled) 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 extracting discontinuous fibers out of the nonwoven composite.