Method and apparatus for producing laminated articles

US6969441B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Howard M. Welch · Woodstock, US
• Charles John Morell · Roswell, US
• Michael Cook · Marietta, US
• James R. Fitts, Jr. · Gainesville, US
• Donald V. Willitts · Douglasville, US
• Marion C. Morris · Appleton, US
• Ronald H. Wideman · Menasha, US
• John Brewer
• Mark M. Mleziva · Appleton, US
• Kenneth M. Salter · Marietta, US
• Raymond Jeffrey May · Norcross, US
• Lavada Campbell Boggs · Marietta, US
• Leslie Dobbins · Marietta, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 14, 2001
• Grant date: Nov 29, 2005
• Expiry date: May 14, 2021

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B32B2305/20
• WIPO field: Other special machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

In the invention, a method is provided for producing a composite nonwoven fabric. A polymer is extruded into heated continuous filaments, possibly elastic, from the die head to a first chilled roller, wherein the extruder is configured to provide the continuous filaments to the chilled roller in a canted direction that is at a tangent or angle to the surface of the first chilled roller. The filaments are conveyed in a downward direction by way of chilled rollers to a nip. In a next step, the nonwoven web is sprayed with an adhesive and is laminated on the continuous filaments in the nip to form a composite nonwoven fabric. The continuous filaments move vertically downward approximately in line with the lamination process, facilitating automatic re-threading of filaments when they are broken or interrupted in their travel downward onto the chilled rolls.