Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

David William Richards

Ganesh Chandra Deka

Robert Alan Cool

A loop material suitable for use in a hook-and-loop fastening system, which loop material includes a bonded carded web having a first side and a second side. The bonded carded web has a basis weight of from about 15 to about 140 grams per square meter and a thickness of from about 1 mm to about 15 mm. The bonded carded web may be thermally pattern bonded. The bonded carded web is composed of fibers having a denier per filament greater than 2, with from 100 to 0 percent by weight of the fibers being thermoplastic polymer fibers and from 0 to 100 percent by weight of the fibers being bicomponent thermoplastic polymer fibers. The first component of the bicomponent fibers has a melting point which is at least about 50.degree. C. lower than the melting point of the second component. The bonded carded web has a plurality of interfiber bonds. The web also contains a binder at a level of from about 10 to about 50 percent by weight, based on the weight of the bonded carded web, in which the amount of binder at the second side is less than the amount of binder at the first side and the amount of binder at the first side is sufficient to permit multiple attachments of the first side of the bonded carded web to and releases from the hooks without significant distortion of the fibers at the first side. The present invention also provides a method of preparing a loop material suitable for use in a hook-and-loop fastening system.

Growing community of inventors

Woodstock, GA, United States of America

David William Richards