Non-marking seam in screen used for manufacture of nonwoven fabric

Claim 1

A process for seaming into a closed loop a rigid screen composed of longitudinal wires and transverse wires interwoven with said longitudinal wires, the frequency of each said wires in said screen being no greater than 12 wires/cm, comprising (a) cutting said longitudinal wires to a length corresponding to the circumference desired for said loop, said cutting of said longitudinal wires at each end of said screen being such that (i) the ends of the longitudinal wires at each end of said length of screen can be butted together, (ii) there is one of said transverse wires at each end of said length of screen, which wires become an adjacent pair of transverse wires upon the butting together, and (iii) the butting together occurs at the crossovers of said ends of said longitudinal wires with said adjacent pair of transverse wires in one surface of said screen, whereby the butting together of said longitudinal wires is not visible from the opposide surface of said screen, (b) butting together the ends of the longitudinal wires of each end of said length of screen to thereby form said length of screen into a closed loop, and (c) forming a seam of the butted ends of said longitudinal wires in said one surface of said screen which is not visible in the opposite surface of said screen by fusing said butted ends together.