3M Innovative Properties Company

Brandy S Nolan

Jayshree Seth

Michael R Berrigan

Timothy J Lindquist

Bradley W Eaton

Troy K Ista

Anne N De Rovere

Katherine A Graham

A coherent nonwoven fibrous web comprises directly formed elastic fibers that have a molecular orientation sufficient to provide a birefringence number of at least 1&#xd7;10and preferably at least 1&#xd7;10. The web can be made by a method that comprises a) extruding filaments of elastic-fiber-forming material; b) directing the filaments through a processing chamber in which gaseous currents apply a longitudinal stress to the filaments that attenuates and draws the filaments; c) maintaining the filaments at their orienting temperature while the filaments are under attenuating and drawing stress for a sufficient time for molecules within the filaments to become oriented along the length of the filaments; d) cooling the filaments to their orientation-locking temperature while the filaments are under attenuating and drawing stress and further cooling the filaments to a solidified fiber form; and e) collecting the solidified fibers as a fibrous nonwoven web. In a preferred aspect, the method includes the further step of annealing the collected fibers by exposing them to a temperature that is above their shrinking temperature but less than their relaxation temperature, and preferably bonding the fibers after (or before) the annealing step. Dimensionally stable webs comprising elastic oriented fibers are obtained.

Nonwoven elastic fibrous webs and methods for making them

There is provided an elastic laminate of a base layer with one or more attached elastic elements forming an elastic region. The elastic region width varies from a terminal end of the elastic tab to a proximal end of the elastic tab such that a width adjacent the terminal end is 20 to 80 percent narrower than a width adjacent the proximal end. The elastic region is defined by a plurality of segments, having differing average widths in the length direction of the elastic tab elastic region. The one or more elastic elements vary in one or more properties such that a plurality of the segments having different widths have substantially the same degree of elongation at a given elongation of the shaped elastic tab laminate.

Shaped elastic tab laminates

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Woodbury, MN, United States of America

Brandy S Nolan