Appeal 2007-0098
Application 10/169,909
A spunbonded web is formed in known manner and combined
with an unbonded or lightly bonded air laid…pulp and textile
fibes [sic, fibers] by hydraulic entanglement. [Emphasis
added.]
Roussin-Moynier, like Haid, Schilkowski and the Appellant, teaches
hydraulically bonding short absorbing fibers from wood pulp and longer
synthetic fibers to produce a nonwoven absorbing web useful for household
wipes. See column 1, ll. 5-19 and column 3, ll. 10-22. Roussin-Moynier
further teaches (col. 2, l. 65 to col. 3, l. 3) that:
tear-resistance is further improved by selecting synthetic
thermoplastic fibers and in subjecting the web leaving the
hydrauling-bonding station to thermal bonding wherein the
thermoplastic fibers are molten at least in part so that following
cooling there shall be bonding zones between these fibers.
[Emphasis added.]
Radwanski teaches (col. 1, ll. 30-51) that:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,324 to Anderson et al, the contents of
which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a
nonwoven fabric-like composite material which consists
essentially of an air-formed [air-laid] matrix of thermoplastic
polymer microfibers having an average fiber diameter of less
than about 10 microns, and a multiplicity of individualized
wood pulp fibers disposed throughout the matrix of microfibers
and engaging at least some of the microfibers to space the
microfibers apart from each other… the wood pulp fibers can
be interconnected by and held captive within the matrix of
microfibers by mechanical entanglement of the microfibers with
the wood pulp fibers, the mechanical entanglement and
interconnection of the microfibers and wood pulp fibers alone,
without additional bonding,… thus forming a coherent
integrated fibrous structure. However, the strength of the web
can be improved by embossing the web… at an elevated
temperature so that the thermoplastic microfibers are flattened
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