Process for the production of a nonwoven fabric

Claim 1

In a process for the production of a nonwoven fabric comprising spinning continuously a molten thermoplastic resin from a plurality of spinning holes provided in a spinning apparatus thereby to spin fibers, while simultaneously jetting a gas at a high speed from gas discharging holes provided adjacent to the spinning holes to stretch the spun fibers out of the thermoplastic resin, thereby forming a fiber stream consisting of the fibers and the gas, then blowing the fiber stream into a collecting zone to form a mat wherein the improvement comprises: directing said fiber stream into a fiber-collecting zone formed by two porous moving members having a gap therebetween having a large number of pores of 5 to 200 mesh therein, said members being arranged to come into contact with each other via the fibers to provide a contact region, said members having an angle of divergence of 0° to 90°, said gap between the two members increasing as the distance increases from said contact region in the opposite direction to the movement of said members, and blowing said fiber stream in said fiber-collecting zone in such a manner that the central plane of said fiber stream is directed within said fiber-collecting zone on at least one said porous member a distance from said contact region equal to less than at a point within 5 times the width of the fiber stream on said porous member, the angle at which the fiber stream is blown being 0° to 90°, the fibers being collected on said porous member or members while said gas is withdrawn through the pores of said members, whereby little gas flow passes over the surface of the resulting nonwoven fabric, and compressing said resulting nonwoven fabric, between said porous members to provide a nonwoven fabric of uniform thickness.