HYDRAULICALLY NEEDLING FABRIC OF CONTINUOUS FILAMENT TEXTILE AND STAPLE FIBERS

摘要

A lightweight composite fabric characterized by high retention of fiber content during initial laundering and exceptionally high strength as measured close to the edge of the fabric with cover and fabric aesthetics equivalent to conventional fabrics having 50% higher basis weight are produced by hydraulically needling short staple fibers and a substrate of continuous filaments formed into an ordered cross-directional array. The individual continuous filaments of the array are well spread and separated so that they have a spaced-apart relationship allowing interentangling of the short staple fibers with the continuous filaments to form more than about two reversals in the staple fibers per cm of staple fiber length between the faces of the fabric. The staple fibers have a linear density of less than about .3 tex per filament, are from about .5 cm to about 1 cm in length and comprise about 20% to about 50% of the weight of the composite fabric.