A hollow fiber that extending along at least a portion of the fiber along a longitudinal axis thereof and is defined by an interior wall is provided. Through selective control over the manner in which it is formed, the present inventors have discovered that the hollow fiber can exhibit a unique combination of a high void fraction and small fiber size that makes it particularly suitable for use in certain applications, such as in nonwoven webs for absorbent articles.

A composite material developed for manufacturing thermoformed products has applications in furniture making, automotive industry, etc. The composite material for thermoforming is made of a thermoplastic fibrous component consisting of 4-60 mm long and 7-16 DEN polypropylene fibers representing 40% to 50% of the total material weight, and a plant fiber component which can be hemp, jute, sisal, coconut, etc., or a mix of natural fibers which is 70-80 DEN and 5 to 100 mm in length and represents 60% to 50% of the total material weight. Manufacturing the composite material comprises proportioning the components, followed by mixing and coarse defibering, then fine mixing in a four-chamber module which also opens the natural fibers to 70-80 DEN, followed by the consolidation of the fibers and rolling of the resulting fabric in a roll. The machinery for manufacturing the composite material has a modular structure, comprising two modules (1 and 2) for feeding the components, two modules (3 and 4) for weighing and proportioning the components, a primary mixing and coarse defibering module (5), a module (7) for fine mixing and fiber opening, an interlacing module (8), and a module (9) for pulling and rolling the final fabric.

A composite material developed for manufacturing thermoformed products has applications in furniture making, automotive industry, etc. The composite material for thermoforming is made of a thermoplastic fibrous component consisting of 4-60 mm long and 7-16 DEN polypropylene fibers representing 40% to 50% of the total material weight, and a plant fiber component which can be hemp, jute, sisal, coconut, etc., or a mix of natural fibers which is 70-80 DEN and 5 to 100 mm in length and represents 60% to 50% of the total material weight. Manufacturing the composite material comprises proportioning the components, followed by mixing and coarse defibering, then fine mixing in a four-chamber module which also opens the natural fibers to 70-80 DEN, followed by the consolidation of the fibers and rolling of the resulting fabric in a roll. The machinery for manufacturing the composite material has a modular structure, comprising two modules (1 and 2) for feeding the components, two modules (3 and 4) for weighing and proportioning the components, a primary mixing and coarse defibering module (5), a module (7) for fine mixing and fiber opening, an interlacing module (8), and a module (9) for pulling and rolling the final fabric.

The invention relates to a nonwoven fabric sheet comprising at least two adjacent layers of spunbonded nonwoven webs, one of which is an elastic layer in the form of a spunbonded nonwoven web comprising elastic fibers formed from a thermoplastic elastomer polymer material. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing such nonwoven and the use of such nonwoven.

The invention relates to a nonwoven fabric sheet comprising at least two adjacent layers of spunbonded nonwoven webs, one of which is an elastic layer in the form of a spunbonded nonwoven web comprising elastic fibers formed from a thermoplastic elastomer polymer material. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing such nonwoven and the use of such nonwoven.

A hollow fiber that generally extends in a longitudinal direction is provided. The hollow fiber comprises a hollow cavity that extends along at least a portion of the fiber in the longitudinal direction. The cavity is defined by an interior wall that is formed front a thermoplastic composition containing a continuous phase that includes a polyolefin matrix polymer and a nanoinclusion additive dispersed within the continuous phase in the form of discrete domains. A porous network is defined in the composition that includes a plurality of nanopores.

A hollow fiber that generally extends in a longitudinal direction is provided. The hollow fiber comprises a hollow cavity that extends along at least a portion of the fiber in the longitudinal direction. The cavity is defined by an interior wall that is formed front a thermoplastic composition containing a continuous phase that includes a polyolefin matrix polymer and a nanoinclusion additive dispersed within the continuous phase in the form of discrete domains. A porous network is defined in the composition that includes a plurality of nanopores.

A nonwoven fabric comprises at least one fiber having a first component prepared from at least 75 wt. % of bimodalethylene/alpha-olefin interpolymer composition, wherein the ethylene/alpha-olefin interpolymer composition is characterized by: a density in the range of 0.930 to 0.965 g/cm.sup.3, a melt index (I2) in the range of from 10 to 60 g/10 minutes, wherein the I2 is measured according to ASTM D1238, 190 C, 2.16 kg, a molecular weight distribution, expressed as the ratio of the weight average molecular weight to number average molecular weight (M.sub.w(GPC)/M.sub.n(GPC)) as determined by GPC of from 1.5 to 2.6, a tan delta at 1 radian/second of at least 45, a low temperature peak and a high temperature peak on an elution profile via improved comonomer composition distribution (ICCD) procedure, and a full width at half maximum of the high temperature peak is less than 6.0° C.

The present invention relates to a method manufacturing a melt-spun nonwoven fabric and a microfiber nonwoven web manufactured therefrom The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a melt-spun nonwoven fabric, in which fibers obtained by melt-spinning a thermoplastic polymer through a spinning nozzle including at least one nozzle hole are collected by high-speed air stream, wherein the melt-spun fibers are subjected to momentary local heating at a high temperature higher than a spinning temperature while same are caused to pass through a nozzle local heating provided directly under the spinning nozzle during spinning, so that the method can lower the melt flow index and spinline elongation viscosity of a thermoplastic resin discharged from the nozzle hole without reducing a molecular weight, thereby providing a microfiber nonwoven web formed by finely thin fibers, compared to the conventional spun-bond nonwoven fabric.

The present invention relates to a method manufacturing a melt-spun nonwoven fabric and a microfiber nonwoven web manufactured therefrom The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a melt-spun nonwoven fabric, in which fibers obtained by melt-spinning a thermoplastic polymer through a spinning nozzle including at least one nozzle hole are collected by high-speed air stream, wherein the melt-spun fibers are subjected to momentary local heating at a high temperature higher than a spinning temperature while same are caused to pass through a nozzle local heating provided directly under the spinning nozzle during spinning, so that the method can lower the melt flow index and spinline elongation viscosity of a thermoplastic resin discharged from the nozzle hole without reducing a molecular weight, thereby providing a microfiber nonwoven web formed by finely thin fibers, compared to the conventional spun-bond nonwoven fabric.