Process for forming non-woven filamentary structures from fiber-forming synthetic organic polymers

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PREPARING A UNIFORM NONWOVEN WEB OF RANDOMLY DISPOSED, CONTINUOUS FILAMENTS, COMPRISING FORWARDING A MULTIFILAMENT STRAND OF CONTINUOUS SYNTHETIC ORGANIC FILAMENTS WHILE APPLYING TENSION TO THE FILAMENTS, SAID FILAMENTS BEING CAPABLE OF HOLDING AN ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE, DEVELOPING AN ELECTROSTATIC CHARGE ON THE FILAMENTS OF THE STRAND WHILE THE APPLIED TENSION PREVENTS THE FILAMENTS FROM SEPARATING DUE TO THE IMPARTED CHARGE, DIRECTING THE STRAND TOWARD A LAYDOWN ZONE, RELEASING THE TENSION FROM THE FILAMENTS TO PERMIT THEM TO SEPARATE FROM EACH OTHER, COLLECTING THE SEPARATED FILAMENTS IN THE FORM OF A RANDOM NONWOVEN WEB ON A RECEIVER IN THE LAYDOWN ZONE AND MOVING THE FRESHLY DEPOSITED WEB AWAY FROM THE LAYDOWN ZONE AT A RATE SUCH THAT THE RATIO OF FILAMENT FORWARDING SPEED TO THE SPEED OF THE RECEIVER IS AT LEAST.