Abstract: A suede-like fabric is produced by impinging a sheet-like structure of discrete fibrillatable fibers with needle-like columnar streams of liquid whereby the fibers are fibrillated to form a close spacing of subdenier fibril ends that extend from the sheet structure at randomly spaced intervals to form one surface of the suede-like fabric with a majority of the fibril ends being tapered.

Abstract: A lightweight composite fabric characterized by high retention of fiber content during initial laundering and exceptionally high strength as measured close to the edge of the fabric with cover and fabric aesthetics equivalent to conventional fabrics having 50% higher basis weight are produced by hydraulically needling short staple fibers and a substrate of continuous filaments formed into an ordered cross-directional array. The individual continuous filaments of the array are well spread and separated so that they have a spaced-apart relationship allowing interentangling of the short staple fibers with the continuous filaments to form more than about two reversals in the staple fibers per cm of staple fiber length between the faces of the fabric. The staple fibers have a linear density of less than about 0.3 tex per filament, are from about 0.5 cm to about 1 cm in length and comprise about 20% to about 50% of the weight of the composite fabric.

Abstract: A method of traversing a strand between two spaced rows of strand-restraining elements moving together in the same direction in the same plane to form a web is implemented by a pair of strand-engaging members associated with each row of strand-restraining elements for slideably engaging the strand and moving it in alternate traverses toward one and then the other row while forming a loop in the strand during each tranverse. The second member of the pair of strand-engaging members travels faster than the first and catches up with it as it crosses the row of strand-restraining elements. The loop is brought into a plane parallel to the plane of the rows of strand-restraining elements. Means are provided for disengaging the loop from the strand-engaging members and depositing the loop around the strand-restraining elements as soon as the loop is moved beyond the row of elements.