Process for mechanical crimping of fibers in sheet form

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PRODUCING AN IMPROVED NON-WOVEN STRUCTURE HAVING A HIGH DEGREE OF DRAPABLILITY AND SOFTNESS OF HAND SUITABLE FOR TEXTILE FABRIC USES, SAID PROCESS COMPRISING IN COMBINATION, THE STEPS OF ARRANGING A PLURALITY OF PARTIALLY DRAWN FIBROUS ELEMENTS, CAPABLE OF SUSTAINING FURTHER DRAWING IN A RANDOM, NON-PARALLEL ARRANGEMENT TO FORM A WEB, SUBJECTING THE WEB AT LEAST ONE TIME TO COMPRESSIVE AND SHEARING FORCES IN A MULTIPLICITY OF AREAS SUBSTANTIALLY EVENLY DISTRIBUTED OVER AT LEAST ONE OF THE SURFACES OF THE WEB BY CONTACT OF SAID WEB IN A DIRECTION SUBSTANTIALLY NORMAL TO THE PLANAR AXIS OF SAID WEB WITH SPACED, INDIVIDUAL PROTUBERATING ELEMENTS HAVING A FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE OF AT LEAST ABOUT 10 PER LINEAR INCH, THE SAID PROTUBERATING ELEMENTS BEING UNDER PRESSURE, THE FORCES CONTROLLED IN MAGNITUDE, DIRECTION AND POINTS OF APPLICATION SO AS TO CRIMP AND FURTHER LOCALLY DRAW THE INDIVIDUAL FIBROUS ELEMENTS TO A MACROCRIMP LEVEL OF AT LEAST ABOUT 10 CRIMPS PER INCH, AND SIMULTANEOUSLY HEATING THE WEB UNIFORMLY TO A SUFFICIENT DEGREE OF FACILITATE THE CRIMPING ACTION AND SET THE FIRBROUS ELEMENT IN THE CRIMPED CONFIGURATIONS.