Product and process for producing a stretchable nonwoven material from a spot bonded continuous filament web

Claim 1

A fabric-like, nonwoven material having bi-axial elasticity in the basic plane comprised of substantially continuous and randomly deposited, molecularly oriented filaments of a polyolefin thermoplastic polymer autogenously bonded together at intermittend regularly patterned areas throughout the material with unbonded spans of filaments between the bond areas, said filaments being heat set in undulating configuration with respect to the basic plane of said material to form a series of repeating crests and valleys which flatten into the basic plane on strain induced elongation of the material in the undulating direction and reassume their undulated configuration on strain release to provide substantially complete elastic recovery in the undulating direction up to at least about 10% strain, said material also containing unbonded spans of filaments disposed in non-linear, buckled configuration with respect to a second axial direction in the basic plane at an angle to the undulating direction and heat set therein such that, on strain induced elongation up to at least about 10% in the second axial direction, filaments align in said second axial direction and, on strain release, substantially spontaneously reassume their non-linear, buckled configuration, said regularly patterned areas occupying less than about 50% of the surface area of the material and distributed in a density of about 50-3200/in. 2 .