Abstract: An apertured nonwoven laminate is produced by a thermal aperturing process by calendaring a carded web of fibers with a polymeric sheet having a lower melting temperature and a property of shrinking under application of heat and pressure so as to bond to the carded fibers and simultaneously pull back the carded fibers away from the calendering points to generate apertures through the nonwoven laminate. In a preferred apertured nonwoven product for baby wipes, a tri-laminate is formed with top and bottom layers containing polypropylene fibers or fiber blend with rayon fibers, and a middle (polymeric) layer of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) film material. The baby wipe product provides a significant cost advantage and an improved aesthetic appearance over conventional products.

Abstract: An elastomeric laminated fabric which is elastic in the cross direction. The laminate includes an elastomeric film having one or two nonwoven webs of carded thermoplastic staple fibers thermally point bonded thereto using heated calendar rolls. The resulting laminated fabric is stretchable by at least 100% in the cross direction without breaking for at least two cycles and recovers elastically. The fiber content of the nonwoven webs is at least 50% high-elongation polyolefin staple fibers having a breaking strain of at least 400%.