RIBBED CLOTHLIKE NONWOVEN FABRIC AND PROCESS FOR MAKING SAME

There is provided herein a method of producing a ribbed clothlike nonwoven fabric comprising the steps of providing a nonwoven web of thermoplastic polymer of staple length or longer fibers or filaments having a pattern of fused bond areas wherein the pattern has at least one space and at least one unit width, as defined herein, in a ratio of at least 0.30, and then extending the web up to less than the breaking point of the fibers or filaments in at least one direction. The product which is thereby produced is a ribbed clothlike nonwoven fabric comprising a web of thermoplastic polymer of staple length or longer fibers or filaments having a pattern of fused bond areas wherein the pattern has space and unit width in a ratio of at least 0.30, and wherein the fabric has been extended up to less than the breaking point of the fibers or filaments in at least one direction so as to produce ribs. The stretching may be accompanied by heating by methods known in the art to a temperature ranging from greater than the polymer's alpha-transition temperature to about 10 percent below the onset of melting at a liquid fraction of 5 percent.