Liquid barrier nonwoven fabrics with ribbon-shaped fibers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11274384-B2
Application number	US-201113205268-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 8, 2011
Priority date	Aug 8, 2011
Publication date	Mar 15, 2022
Grant date	Mar 15, 2022

Abstract

A nonwoven fabric useful as a component in a personal hygiene product and a nonwoven personal hygiene component, which is substantially free or free of non-ribbon shaped (e.g., round-shaped) spunbond fibers and includes a meltblown layer between and in direct contact with ribbon-shaped spunbond layers. The meltblown layer has a basis weight of at least about 0.008 gsm and not greater than about 5 gsm, and the nonwoven fabric or component has a basis weight of at least about 8 gsm and not greater than about 40 gsm, a pore size of less than or equal to about 27 microns when measured at 10% of cumulative filter flow. The nonwoven fabric also can have a low surface tension liquid strike through flow of less than 0.9 ml per second, a ratio of low surface tension liquid strike through flow to air permeability of greater than or equal to about 0.016, or both. Personal hygiene articles can incorporate the nonwoven fabric or component.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A nonwoven personal hygiene component comprising:
a first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer comprising first ribbon-shaped continuous filaments;
a second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer comprising second ribbon-shaped continuous filaments; and
a meltblown layer comprising meltblown fibers is disposed between said first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer and said second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer;
wherein at least one of the first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer, the second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer and the meltblown layer comprise polypropylene,
wherein said meltblown layer has a basis weight from 2 gsm to not greater than about 5 gsm,
wherein said meltblown layer consists of (i) from 1% to 10% by weight of non-ribbon shaped meltblown fibers, and (ii) ribbon-shaped meltblown fibers, and
wherein said nonwoven personal hygiene component has a basis weight of at least 8 gsm and not greater than about 40 gsm, a pore size of about 14.5 microns to less than or equal to about 21 microns when measured at 10% of cumulative filter flow, a low surface tension liquid strike through flow of less than 0.9 ml per second, an air permeability of at least 10 m 3 /m 2 /min. and a ratio of low surface tension liquid strike through flow to air permeability of greater than or equal to 0.016 and less than or equal to 0.021;
wherein the meltblown layer has been deposited directly onto the second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer from at least one die having a die-to-collector distance from about 110 mm to about 150 mm.

2. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein said nonwoven personal hygiene component has a basis weight of at least 8.5 gsm and not greater than about 30 gsm.

3. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein said meltblown layer has a basis weight of at least 3 gsm and no greater than about 4 gsm.

4. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 3 , wherein the nonwoven personal hygiene component has a basis weight of at least 11 gsm and not greater than about 25 gsm.

5. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein said first spunbond layer, said second spunbond layer and said meltblown layer are bonded together by a plurality of discrete bond areas.

6. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein the meltblown layer further comprises multiple directly adjoining meltblown layers present as a stack, wherein first and second outer sides of the stack are in direct contact with the first and second ribbon-shaped spunbond layers.

7. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein said nonwoven personal hygiene component has a surface area and said first spunbond layer, said second spunbond layer and said meltblown layer are thermally bonded together to form a plurality of bond points, wherein said plurality of bond points comprise up to about 25% of said surface area of said nonwoven personal hygiene component.

8. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer and said second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer comprises fibers having a cross-section with an aspect ratio of at least 2.5:1 and no great than about 7:1.

9. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 8 , wherein said nonwoven personal hygiene component has a pore size of less than or equal to about 23 microns when measured at 25% of cumulative filter flow.

10. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein the first ribbon-shaped continuous filaments are homogenous solid filaments, and the second ribbon-shaped continuous filaments are homogenous solid filaments.

11. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein said nonwoven personal hygiene component has a low surface tension liquid strike through flow of less than 0.4 ml per second and a ratio of low surface tension liquid strike through flow to air permeability of greater than or equal to 0.019 and less than or equal to 0.021.

12. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein the first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer has a basis weight of at least 3.9 gsm and not greater than about 11.5 gsm, and the second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer has a basis weight of at least 3.9 gsm and not greater than about 11.5 gsm.

13. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein each of said first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer and second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer comprise at least about 90% by weight ribbon-shaped filaments.

14. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein the meltblown layer comprises multiple directly adjoining meltblown sub-layers.

15. The nonwoven personal hygiene component of claim 1 , wherein said nonwoven personal hygiene component has a surface area, and said first ribbon-shaped spunbond layer, said second ribbon-shaped spunbond layer, and said meltblown layer are thermally bonded together to form a plurality of bond points, wherein said plurality of bond points comprise from about 10% to about 25% of said surface area of said nonwoven personal hygiene component.

Assignees

• Dwiggins Carlton F
• Grondin Pierre D
• Moody Iii Ralph A
• Steffen John F
• Avintiv Specialty Materials Inc

Inventors

• Dwiggins Carlton F
• Grondin Pierre D
• Moody Iii Ralph A
• Steffen John F

Classifications

• B32B5/022

  Non-woven fabric · CPC title

• B32B2262/0253

  Polyolefin fibres · CPC title

• D04H1/4291

  Olefin series · CPC title

• B32B5/26

  another layer {next to it} also being fibrous or filamentary {(relative arrangement of fibres or filaments of different layers B32B5/12)} · CPC title

• B32B2555/02

  Diapers or napkins · CPC title