Papermakers fabric with orthogonal machine direction yarn seaming loops

Abstract

A flat woven pin-seamed papermakers fabric wherein machine direction yarns define a series of orthogonal seaming loops on the opposing fabric ends. The fabric comprises a system of flat monofilament machine direction warp yarns (hereinafter MD yarns) which are woven in a selected weave construction. In a preferred embodiment, the system of MD yarns comprises upper and lower yarns which are vertically stacked. End segments of the lower MD yarns are removed and the upper MD yarn ends are looped back upon themselves and rewoven into the fabric end in the space vacated by the trimmed lower MD yarn end segments. Non-loop forming upper MD yarns are also preferably backwoven into the space vacated by trimming the respective lower MD yarns. Preferably, at least the upper MD yarns are woven contiguous with each other to lock in the machine direction alignment of the stacking pairs of MD yarns and the orthogonal orientation of the end loops. The seaming loops of the opposing ends are intermeshed and joined via a pintle yarn. The permeability of the seam area is controlled via the inserting of rectangular stuffer yarns parallel to the pintle yarn.