Abstract: A nonwoven composite fabric including a first nonwoven layer composed substantially of meltblown fibers, the fibers within the first nonwoven layer having diameters that vary in accordance with a first distribution, a second nonwoven layer composed substantially of meltblown fibers, the fibers within the second nonwoven layer having diameters that vary in accordance with a second distribution, and a third nonwoven layer composed substantially of meltblown fibers, the third nonwoven layer disposed between the first and second nonwoven layers, the fibers within the third nonwoven layer having diameters that vary in accordance with a third distribution that is greater than the first and second distributions.

Abstract: A laminate is made by first making by melt-blowing or spunbonding of multicomponent, thermoplastic, and endless filaments a first nonwoven layer lying generally in a plane and having a predetermined shrinkage capacity or potential parallel to the plane and making of thermoplastic and endless filaments a second nonwoven layer also lying generally in a respective plane and having a shrinkage capacity or potential that is smaller than that of the first nonwoven layer. The two layers are directly juxtaposed flatly on each other, and the directly juxtaposed first and second layer are bonded together only at bonded regions while leaving an array of unbonded regions distributed over a surface of the two bonded-together nonwoven layers. Then only the first nonwoven layer is shrunk so that the second layer bunches in the unbonded regions and is there raised transverse to a plane of the bonded-together layers.