Abstract: A textile material for use in connection with a carrier includes a non-woven fibrous layer which has an irregular surface, and a plurality of separate, round, fiber aggregates, each composed of substantially spherically intermingled fibers. A multiplicity of connecting fibers connects the fiber aggregates to one another.

Abstract: A textile flat structure is manufactured by needle processing of a pile yarn tufted into a carrier layer so that some pile loops of the pile yarn forming an upper layer are engaged by needles and their height and shape are changed, whereas at least one pile yarn is pulled toward the carrier layer, whereby a texture and/or pattern is produced. The textile flat structure has a carrier layer, a pile yarn tufted into the carrier layer and having pile loops at an upper side of the carrier layer and connecting base loops at a lower side thereof, whereas the pile loops forming an upper layer have at least non-uniform different heights.

Abstract: Fine grain or fibrous solid active particles are immobilized in an areal or flat, flexible stratified body. The active particles serve for treating a liquid or gaseous medium circulating between the stratified body and the surroundings. The treatment, among other things, encompasses the sorption of substances, if desired, followed by desorption for regenerating the active particles, the emission of substances, the ion exchange and the catalysts of chemical reactions. The active substances or particles are enclosed between a base or substratum layer and a fiber-containing cover layer. Both layers are held together by means of holding fibers which are densely distributed over the entire surface and simultaneously anchored in both layers, whereby at the same time there are also immobilized the active particles. According to a preferred method the holding fibers are removed from the cover layer by fiber-orienting needles.

Abstract: A fiber aggregate is composed of a multiplicity of substantially spherically intermingled fibres at a needle-processing density. The fiber aggregate has a diameter of at least 3 mm, and the fibers have a length of at least 15 mm, and are free from being felted and intertwined with any other fiber.

Abstract: In a method and an apparatus for handling and growing a plant with the aid of a container adapted to be partially filled with water and having an inner wall surface disposed in use substantially parallel to an upright axis, and including a holding device which may be moved along the inner wall surface between a position near the water level to a position thereabove, and which engages the inner wall surface with its outer surface in any of the positions, and is adapted to receive at least the stem of the plant, the steps include holding the plant in the container, and displacing at least a lower porton of the plant in an upright direction in the container in dependence of the growth of the plant.

Abstract: The perforated web and a carrier web are passed through a heated zone while moving through a curved path in which the perforated web is tensioned. Upon heating of the perforated web, the thermoplastic material of the web shrinks so that a net structure with opened perforations is formed. Inward shrinking of the peripheral zones of the perforated web is prevented by the tensioning of the perforated web in the curved path.

Abstract: An outer thread layer, which forms a predetermined pattern from a plurality of endless threads, is connected to a carrier by attaching portions of at least some of the threads to the carrier.

Abstract: A net formed from partially crystalline synthetic material is made by first forming a plurality of parallel rows of overlapping slits in a solid, biaxially oriented shrinkable sheet of plastic film, such as polypropylene. The sheet is heated to produce a film lattice through shrinkage and thereafter stretched in the longitudinal direction while maintained at a temperature below the crystalline melting point, thereby causing the web portions to be stretched into thin filaments while the intersection portions remain undrawn. The resulting net comprises rhomboid-shaped meshes defined by the filaments and intersections and is expandable in a direction transverse to the net by a multiple of the width of the net.

Abstract: This invention relates to a binding material comprising a longitudinally stretched oriented thermoplastic polymer having the same cross-sectional dimensions all along the longitudinal extensions thereof wherein the stretch ratio is between 5:1 and 8:1. This binding material is useful in tying of rods, wires, plant stems, etc. and it is also useful as bag closures.

Abstract: A vegetation suppressing, ground covering agronomic mulch sheet adapted for the prevention and/or control of undesirable plant growth is disclosed. The sheet is comprised of a web having a maximum light transmittance of about 60% and a minimum air permeability of about 200 1/m.sup.2 s at a pressure differential of 10 mm water.

Abstract: A method and article for horticultural protection of plant growths during the maturation thereof whereby the volume exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and moisture is controlled in accordance with the demands thereof during maturation.

Abstract: A method of producing non-woven, composite fabrics where at least two distinct layers of fibers, one of highly retractable fibers and the other of non-retractable fibers, are superposed into a composite batt; the batt is pattern-needled from the side of the highly retractable fibers, thereby punching portions of these fibers through the other fiber layer so that they protrude as bristles or loops on the other side; whereupon the entire opposite surface of the batt is needled so that the protruding highly retractable fibers are needled back into the batt forming hooks around some of the non-retractable fibers in the line regions of pattern needling. When this felted batt is now heat-treated to induce retraction, the hooks of retracting fibers in the pattern lines contract and close, while the non-retracting fibers in the pattern interstices are laterally compressed and partially raised as a result of the overall area shrinkage on the fabric, thereby creating a three-dimensional boucle-type surface.