Woven papermaking fabric having machine and cross-machine oriented topography

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11377797-B2
Application number	US-201816650068-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

Disclosed are woven papermaking fabrics having a textured sheet contacting surface with machine and cross-machine direction topography. The machine direction (MD) topography may be imparted by substantially MD oriented protuberances comprising a warp strand supported by a shute strand. The cross-machine direction (CD) topography may be imparted by substantially CD oriented protuberances comprising a shute strand supported by a warp strand. The CD protuberances may extend continuously in the CD and intersect the MD oriented protuberances to form discrete pockets there between. The pockets may have a variety of shapes and size depending on the MD and CD oriented protuberance. In certain instances the pockets may be rectilinear and have a pocket depth greater than 1.0 mm and a pocket angle greater than 28 degrees.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A woven papermaking fabric comprising: a plurality of substantially machine direction (MD) oriented warp filaments; and a plurality of substantially cross-machine direction (CD) oriented shute filaments, the shute filaments being interwoven with warp filaments to provide a woven fabric having a textured web contacting side and an opposite machine contacting side having a plurality of discrete pockets disposed thereon, wherein each discrete pocket has a pair of opposed end walls and a pair of opposed sidewalls, wherein the opposed end walls comprise a plurality of stacked shute filaments and the sidewalls comprise a plurality of stacked warp filaments
wherein each pocket has a pocket bottom lying in a pocket bottom plane, the shute filament forming the opposed end walls has an upper surface plane defining a second surface plane and the warp filament forming the opposed sidewalls has an upper surface plane defining a third surface plane, wherein the second and third surface planes lie above the pocket bottom plane; and
wherein the fabric has a pocket depth of at least about 1.0 mm.

2. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein third surface plane lies above the second surface plane.

3. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the second and third surface planes are substantially co-planar.

4. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the z-direction height difference between the pocket bottom plane and the second surface plane is from about 0.2 to about 1.5 mm.

5. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the z-direction height difference between the pocket bottom plane and the third surface plane is from about 0.5 to about 2.0 mm.

6. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the opposed sidewalls are spaced apart from one another in the MD and the pocket width is from about 3.0 to about 5.0 mm.

7. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 having a pocket angle of about 28 degrees or greater.

8. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein the opposed end walls are spaced apart from one another in the CD from about 5.0 to about 20.0 mm.

9. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein each of the opposed end walls comprises a single continuous shute filament.

10. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein each of the discrete pockets are substantially the same shape and the shape is selected from the group consisting of a square, a rectangle, an octagon, a parallelogram and a rhombus.

11. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein each of the discrete pockets have substantially similar pocket depths and pocket widths.

12. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein each of the discrete pockets have a pocket area from about 100 to about 300 mm 2 .

13. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 1 wherein each of the discrete pockets have a pocket volume from about 10 to about 200 mm 3 .

14. A woven papermaking fabric comprising a plurality of substantially machine direction (MD) oriented warp filaments; and a plurality of substantially cross-machine direction (CD) oriented shute filaments, the shute filaments being interwoven with warp filaments to provide a textured web contacting side of the woven papermaking fabric and machine contacting side of the woven papermaking fabric, wherein the web contacting side comprises: a substantially CD oriented protuberance comprising at least one shute filament woven above a corresponding warp filament, the shute filament having a first proximal end and a first distal end, the at least one shute filament; a first substantially MD oriented protuberance comprising a warp filament extending in a first longitudinal direction and woven above a corresponding shute filament, the first MD oriented protuberance having a first proximal end disposed adjacent to the first proximal end of the at least one shute element, and a second substantially MD oriented protuberance comprising a warp filament extending in a second longitudinal direction opposite that of the first substantially MD oriented protuberance and woven above a corresponding shute filament, the second MD oriented protuberance having a first distal end disposed adjacent to the first distal end of the at least one shute element;
wherein the fabric comprises a pocket a pair of opposed end walls and a pair of opposed sidewalls, wherein the opposed end walls comprise a plurality of stacked shute filaments and the sidewalls comprise a plurality of stacked warp filaments and wherein the pocket has a pocket depth of at least about 1.0 mm.

15. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 14 wherein the CD oriented protuberance forms a portion of a pocket end wall and the first MD oriented protuberance forms a portion of a pocket sidewall, the pocket having a pocket bottom lying in a first fabric plane.

16. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 15 wherein the CD oriented protuberance lies in a second fabric plane and the first MD oriented protuberance lies in a third fabric plane, wherein the second fabric plane lies above the first fabric plane and the third fabric plane lies above the second fabric plane.

17. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 15 wherein the CD oriented protuberance lies in a second fabric plane and the first MD oriented protuberance lies in a third fabric plane, wherein the second and third fabric planes are substantially co-planar and lie above the first fabric plane.

18. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 15 further comprising a third substantially MD oriented protuberance comprising a warp filament, the first and third substantially MD oriented protuberances forming opposed sidewalls of a pocket, the pocket having a pocket width from about 3.0 to about 5.0 mm.

19. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 15 further comprising a second substantially CD oriented protuberance, the first and second substantially CD oriented protuberances forming opposed endwalls of a pocket.

20. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 15 wherein the substantially MD oriented protuberance comprises two or more warp filaments woven above their corresponding shute filaments.

21. A woven papermaking fabric comprising: a plurality of substantially machine direction (MD) oriented warp filaments; and a plurality of substantially cross-machine direction (CD) oriented shute filaments, the shute filaments being interwoven with warp filaments to provide a woven fabric having a textured web contacting side and an opposite machine contacting side having a plurality of discrete rectilinear pockets having a pocket depth from about 1.0 to about 2.0 mm and a pocket angle from about 28 to about 40 degrees, thereon, the pocket having a first sidewall formed from a plurality of stacked shute filaments, and a second sidewall formed from a plurality of stacked warp filaments, wherein the first and second sidewalls have upper surfaces that are substantially co-planar.

22. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 21 wherein each of the plurality of discrete pockets are substantially the same shape and the shape is selected from the group consisting of a square, a rectangle, an octagon, a parallelogram and a rhombus.

23. The woven papermaking fabric of claim 21 wherein each of the plurality of discrete pockets have substantially similar pocket depths and pocket widths.

Assignees

• Kimberly Clark Co

Inventors

• Collins Lynda Ellen
• Burazin Mark Alan

Classifications

• D21H27/002

  Tissue paper; Absorbent paper (D21H21/22, D21H27/02, D21H27/20 take precedence; toilet paper A47K10/00; absorbent pads for physiological fluids A61L15/16; making on paper-making machines D21F11/00) · CPC title

• D21F11/14

  Making cellulose wadding, filter or blotting paper · CPC title

• D21F5/02

  Drying on cylinders · CPC title

• D21F1/0027 Primary

  Screen-cloths · CPC title

• D21F11/006 Primary

  Making patterned paper · CPC title