Bba Nonwovens Simpsonville, Inc.

Fiberweb Inc.

Reemay, Inc.

Ahlstrom Mount Holly Springs LLC

Bba Nonwovens Simpsonvillle, Inc.

Ahlstrom Corporation

Clement J Haley

Larry L Kinn

Gregory Neil Henning

Peter J Angelini

Raymond A D'AMATO

Nonwoven fabric laminates suitable for use as semipermeable membrane supports are produced by forming a spunbond nonwoven fabric first layer of continuous thermoplastic polymer filaments; forming a wet-laid nonwoven fabric second layer of discrete length thermoplastic polymer fibers; and bonding the first and second layers in opposing face-to-face relationship to form a composite support, where the first and second layers define first and second outer surfaces of the composite support. The resulting semipermeable membrane supports provide an advantageous balance of properties, including smoothness, porosity, interlaminar adhesion, and flux properties.

Production of wetlaid-spunbond laminate membrane support

A nonwoven material having a laminated construction and including a first layer of nonwoven fibers defining a first surface of the material; a second layer of nonwoven fibers defining the opposite surface of the material; and a third layer of nonwoven fibers located between the first and second layers. The layers are bonded together to form a laminate. At least one of the nonwoven layers comprises a nonwoven web of meltblown fibers. Additionally, one or more of the layers has been rendered permanently hydrophilic by forming the nonwoven web from meltspun fibers of a normally hydrophobic polymer having a hydrophilic melt additive incorporated therein.

Laminated battery separator material

Nonwoven fabric laminates suitable for use as semipermeable membrane supports are provided. The fabric laminates generally include at least two layers: a spunbond layer of continuous filament fibers and a wet-laid layer of discontinuous filaments. The resulting semipermeable membrane supports provide an advantageous balance of properties, including smoothness, porosity, interlaminar adhesion, and flux properties.

Wetlaid-spunbond laminate membrane support

Nonwoven webs in accordance with the present invention include multicomponent fibers bonded by a multiplicity of bond sites to form a coherent web. The multicomponent fibers include a first component formed of a hydrophobic polypropylene and a second component formed of a blend of a hydrophobic polyolefin and a hydrophilic melt additive. This second component is disposed at the surface of the fibers. The hydrophilic melt additive-modified polyolefin component can be arranged in various configurations in the cross-section of the fiber and the fibers can have various cross sections. For example, the hydrophilic component can occupy a portion of the surface of the fiber, as would occur for example with a side-by-side or segmented pie multicomponent fiber configuration. Alternatively, the modified hydrophilic polyolefin can occupy substantially the entire surface of fiber, as for example by producing the fibers in a sheath core configuration with the hydrophilic modified component forming the sheath. A particularly preferred configuration is a sheath-core bicomponent fiber where the hydrophobic polypropylene forms the core and the modified hydrophilic polyolefin forms the sheath.

Durable hydrophilic nonwoven webs and articles formed therefrom

A filtration fabric which is composed of 15.0 to 100.0% binder fiber, 0.0 to 85.0% pulp portion, 0.0% to 15.0% latex binder or other stiffening agent. A filter media made of the fabric has an improved flow rate averaging no more than 21 seconds, while maintaining an average sediment retention of 70% and minimum wet burst strength of about 40 psi to about 50 psi, preferably about 50 psi.

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Mifflinburg, PA, United States of America

Clement J Haley