Claims
- 1. A nonwoven web comprising a collected mass of fibers that includes fibers randomly interrupted by isolated fiber segments that comprise oriented polymer chains but differ in morphology from the main portion of the fiber.
- 2. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the difference in morphology is represented by a difference in at least melting point, cold-crystallization temperature, or glass transition temperature, as measured by differential scanning calorimetry, or crystallinity index or a difference in crystallinity type as measured by X-ray scattering.
- 3. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the interrupting segment is fiber-like as opposed to globular and is less than 300 micrometers in diameter, but larger in diameter than the main portions of the fiber.
- 4. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the interrupting fiber segment comprises a broken end of the interrupted fiber.
- 5. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the interrupting fiber segment comprises an entanglement of the interrupted fiber with itself or another fiber.
- 6. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the interrupted fibers have an average diameter of about 10 micrometers or less.
- 7. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the main portion of the interrupted fiber exhibits multiple melting peaks during differential scanning calorimetry, with the different melting peaks representing molecular fractions within the fiber that differ in degree of crystalline order.
- 8. A nonwoven web of claim 1 in which the main portion of the interrupted fiber exhibits a dual melting peak during differential scanning calorimetry, with one melting peak representing a chain-extended crystalline portion.
- 9. A collected mass of fibers that includes fibers randomly interrupted by isolated fiber segments formed while the fibers passed through an attenuation chamber, the isolated fiber segments constituting a minor amount of the fiber and forming the terminus of an unaffected main portion of the fiber, being of a fiber form, and having a larger diameter than the main portion of the fiber.
- 10. A collected mass of fibers of claim 9 in which the interrupting fiber segments include fiber segments that have a curly or spiral shape.
- 11. A collected mass of fibers of claim 9 in which the interrupting fiber segments comprise oriented polymer chains.
- 12. A collected mass of fibers of claim 9 in which the isolated fiber segments and the main portion of the fiber differ by at least 0.5 degree C. in one or more of the parameters glass transition temperature, cold crystallization temperature, and melting point.
- 13. A collected mass of fibers of claim 9 in which the isolated fiber segments and the main portion of the fiber differ by at least 1 degree C. in one or more of the parameters glass transition temperature, cold crystallization temperature, and melting point.
- 14. A collected mass of fibers of claim 9 in which fibers are bonded at intersections with isolated fiber segments.
- 15. A collected mass of fibers of claim 9 in coherent web form.
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/835,904, filed Apr. 16, 2001, which itself was a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/716,786, filed Nov. 20, 2000.
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09835904 |
Apr 2001 |
US |
Child |
10369012 |
Feb 2003 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09716786 |
Nov 2000 |
US |
Child |
09835904 |
Apr 2001 |
US |