Thermoplastic non-woven textile elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10138582-B2
Application number	US-201514956783-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2015
Priority date	Feb 6, 2009
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

A non-woven textile may be formed from a plurality of thermoplastic polymer filaments. The non-woven textile may have a first region and a second region, with the filaments of the first region being fused to a greater degree than the filaments of the second region. A variety of products, including apparel (e.g., shirts, pants, footwear), may incorporate the non-woven textile. In some of these products, the non-woven textile may be joined with another textile element to form a seam. More particularly, an edge area of the non-woven textile may be heatbonded with an edge area of the other textile element at the seam. In other products, the non-woven textile may be joined with another component, whether a textile or a non-textile.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A non-woven textile, comprising:
a plurality of filaments at least partially formed of thermoplastic polymer material including a thermoplastic polyurethane, the plurality of filaments at least partially forming a layer of the non-woven textile having a first surface and an opposite second surface, the first and second surfaces each being at least partially exposed,
wherein the plurality of filaments form a first region and a second region,
wherein each of the first region and the second region having a continuous area of at least one square centimeter,
wherein the plurality of filaments of the second region are fused to a greater degree than the plurality of filaments of the first region;
wherein the plurality of filaments forms a third region of the non-woven textile,
wherein the plurality of filaments of the third region is fused to a greater degree than the plurality of filaments of the second region.

2. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein a property of the plurality of filaments of the first region is that the plurality of filaments are able to stretch at least one-hundred percent prior to tensile failure.

3. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of filaments of the second region has a non-filamentous configuration.

4. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein a permeability of the second region is less than a permeability of the first region.

5. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein a stretch-resistance of the second region is greater than a stretch-resistance of the first region.

6. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the second region is joined to a second textile element.

7. The non-woven textile recited in claim 6 , wherein at least a portion of the plurality of filaments of the non-woven textile is heatbonded to filaments of the second textile element.

8. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of filaments of the second region that are fused extends from the first surface to the second surface.

9. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of filaments is randomly distributed throughout the non-woven textile.

10. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of filaments of the second region remains in a partially filamentous state.

11. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of filaments of the second region remains in a filamentous state.

12. The non-woven textile recited in claim 1 , wherein the second region forms a parallel striped configuration.

Assignees

• Nike Inc

Inventors

• Dua Bhupesh
• Hawkinson Karen

Classifications

• B32B2266/02

  Organic · CPC title

• B29C66/1282

  comprising at least one overlap joint-segment · CPC title

• Y10T428/19

  Sheets or webs edge spliced or joined · CPC title

• B32B2437/00

  Clothing · CPC title

• B29C66/4722

  Fixing strips to surfaces other than edge faces (fixing strips to edge faces B29C63/0026) · CPC title