Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

Daniel Wideman

Peiguang Zhou

Thomas Gerard Vercauteren

David Martin Jackson

Cristian M Neculescu

Oomman Painummoottil Thomas

Xiaomin Zhang

James Marcus Carr

Gregory K Hall

Bruce Wilfuhr Achter

Elastic composite laminates are disclosed. The laminates include an elastic member bonded to at least one facing material. In accordance with the present disclosure, an adhesive composition is coextruded with an elastomeric material to form the elastic member. In this manner, the elastic member can be bonded to the facing material in a stretched state without having to apply a separate adhesive layer between the two materials. In one embodiment, the elastic member can be bonded to the facing material according to a pattern that includes bonded areas and non-bonded areas.

Stretch bonded laminate including an elastic member containing an adhesive composition

An elastic laminate that contains a nonwoven web bonded to an elastic layer is provided. The elastic layer contains one or more elastomeric polymers that are generally polar in nature, such as polyurethanes. To the contrary, the nonwoven web is formed from a material that is non-polar in nature. Nevertheless, one or more surfaces of the nonwoven web are fluorinated so that the resulting surface tension is increased. In this manner, the present inventors have discovered that, despite the difference in polarity between the layers, good attachment may be achieved without necessarily requiring an adhesive. Not only will such layers remained attached, but the functionality of the resulting laminate is also not adversely affected.

Laminate containing a fluorinated nonwoven web

A method of making mutually-reinforced elastic strand/film composites and laminates in which film breakage, strand breakage, and strand alignment problems are minimized or avoided. The method includes casting an elastomeric adhesive film onto a chill roll, extruding elastic strands onto the film while the film is on a chill roll, and stretching the film and strand composite. The stretched composite may be laminated between two facing sheets. Additionally, tension in the composite may be controlled through film composition, strand composition, add-on rate, stretching the composite, and combinations of any of these approaches.

Method of making strand-reinforced elastomeric composites

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Menasha, WI, United States of America

Daniel Wideman