Impervious absorbent barrier fabric embodying films and fibrous webs

Abstract

An absorbent impervious barrier fabric in the form of a laminate has a fibrous section including a mat of polymeric melt blown microfibers and an impervious polymeric film adjacent said mat, said fibrous section and film being united in compacted bond regions formed by the application of heat and pressure and comprising pillars of bonds extending completely through the fabric from the outer surface where the fibrous elements are fused to the interface between the mat and the film where microfibers are fused to the film without disrupting the imperviousness of the film, the bond intensity tapering from said fused regions toward the essentially unbonded central plane of said mat to provide a double gradient in bond intensity in said pillars of bonds. One embodiment of the fabric has a fibrous section with a surface layer web of continuous and randomly deposited filaments and a microfiber mat with the web having intermittently discrete prebonded regions in addition to the compacted bond regions. Another embodiment has a fibrous section solely of a microfiber mat.