Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for producing high quality fibrous webs at high rates of speed. Fibers are fed to a rotating lickerin for opening, then to a rotating card cylinder for individualizing, and are then doffed into an air stream from which the fibers are condensed, as on a moving foraminous belt.

Abstract: A novel web that can be produced by the process of the present invention is comprised of two different types of fibers, with the web characterized by having a predominance of one fiber type at one of its major faces, and a predominance of the other fiber type at the other of its major faces. The web includes a transition between the faces in which the predominance of the fibers decreases uniformly away from the face at which they predominate.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for forming a wide variety of air-laid nonwoven webs, with the apparatus including plural pairs of spaced parallel oppositely rotating lickerins, each pair having a movable divider plate therebetween. The lickerins individualize fibers from separate fibrous sources, which may be similar or dissimilar, and high speed air streams are caused to flow past each individual lickerin, through a mixing zone between each pair of lickerins to form combined streams, and into a common mixing zone above a fiber collecting means to form a composite stream. The individualized fibers are doffed from the lickerins by the high speed air streams and are entrained therein, and divider plates between each pair of lickerins are adjustable through a range of positions for controlling the degree of intermixing of the entrained fibers in the combined streams.