Appeal No. 1997-1135
Application 08/375,196
3, lines 54-60).
Carey, Jr. discloses thermally bondable, thermally
crimpable, bicomponent fibers which may have a highly
eccentric sheath/core configuration and may be formed into a
nonwoven fabric (col. 2, lines 16-19 and 52-59; col. 4, lines
7-9). For purposes of thermal bondability, the sheath of the
sheath/core configuration must be comprised of a component
having a lower melting point than the core (col. 3, lines 16-
20). To facilitate processing during thermal crimping and
bonding, this melting point temperature difference should be
at least 10EC and most preferably at least 30EC (col. 3, lines
25-33).
Keuchel discloses two-component crimped filaments which
may have a sheath/core configuration (col. 2, lines 17-20;
col. 4, lines 15-20). The filaments are made by a melt
spinning process wherein a single polymer is separated into a
plurality of streams, each of the streams is subjected to a
different thermal and shear environment to change its melt
flow or shrinkage characteristics, and the streams then are
recombined and passed through a single jet to form an integral
7
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