Papermaking fabric including textured contacting surface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10563353-B2
Application number	US-201716060391-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2017
Priority date	Dec 30, 2016
Publication date	Feb 18, 2020
Grant date	Feb 18, 2020

Abstract

Provided are woven papermaking fabrics useful in the manufacture of tissue products, particularly through-air dried tissue products. The fabrics generally have a plurality of protuberances disposed on the web contacting surfaces. The protuberances are formed from a plurality warp filaments interwoven with a plurality of shute filaments and have a hollow interior pocket, which is generally bounded by the warp and shute filaments. By providing protuberances with hollow interior pockets the air permeability of the resulting woven papermaking fabric may be improved, and in certain instances may be increased, relative to similar fabrics having protuberances that are non-hollow.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A woven papermaking fabric having a machine direction (MD) axis and cross-machine direction (CD) axis, a machine contacting side and a web contacting side, the fabric comprising a plurality of substantially MD oriented warp filaments having a first shrinkage property, and a plurality of substantially CD oriented shute filaments having a second shrinkage property different than the first shrinkage property, the shute filaments being interwoven with warp filaments to provide at least one protuberance formed by heat finishing of the warp and shute filaments on the web contacting side of the fabric, the at least one protuberance having a hollow internal pocket, a length, a height and an element angle, wherein the height is substantially constant along the length and the element angle is greater than about 0.5 degrees.

2. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the at least one protuberance has an element angle from 5.0 to 10.0 degrees.

3. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the at least one protuberance comprises from 2 to 6 warp filaments.

4. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the at least one protuberance is air permeable.

5. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the air permeability of the web contacting side of the fabric is substantially the same as the air permeability of the machine contacting side of the fabric.

6. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the difference between the first shrinkage property and the second shrinkage property is provided by the warp filaments comprising a first material and the shute filaments comprising a second material, the first material being different from the second material.

7. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the difference between the first shrinkage property and the second shrinkage property is provided by warp filaments comprising a first processing parameter and the shute filaments comprising a second processing parameter, the first processing parameter being different from the second processing parameter.

8. A method of manufacturing a papermaking fabric, the method comprising:
a. providing a plurality of warp filaments and a plurality of shute filaments for weaving, at least a portion of the plurality of warp filaments having a first shrinkage property and a portion of the plurality of shute filaments having a second shrinkage property, the first shrinkage property being different than the second shrinkage property;
b. weaving the shute filaments and the warp filaments in a weave pattern to provide a woven fabric including a first machine direction end opposite from a second machine direction end and a machine contacting side opposite from a web contacting side;
c. heating the shute filaments and the warp filaments after the plurality of shute filaments and the plurality of warp filaments are woven, wherein heating results in a plurality of protuberances having a hollow internal pocket, the plurality of protuberances spaced apart from one another to define landing areas therebetween, the landing areas being from two to ten warps wide; and
d. seaming together the first and second machine direction ends of the woven fabric.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the first shrinkage property is a free shrink of at least about 20 percent and the second shrinkage property is a free shrink less than about 5 percent.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the weave pattern comprises a plurality of floats and at least one high friction tying area, wherein each of the floats of the plurality of floats are spaced apart from one another, and the high friction tying area is located between spaced floats.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the plurality of protuberances and the landing areas are air permeable.

Assignees

• Kimberly Clark Co

Inventors

• Collins Lynda Ellen
• Burazin Mark Alan

Classifications

• D21F7/12

  Drying · CPC title

• D21F1/0027 Primary

  Screen-cloths · CPC title

• D21F2/00

  Transferring continuous webs from wet ends to press sections · CPC title

• D21F11/006

  Making patterned paper · CPC title

• D21F5/18

  Drying webs by hot air · CPC title