Process for preparing non-woven webs

Claim 1

A process for producing a non-woven web of thermoplastic polymer fibers comprising: (a) extruding thermoplastic polymer through a row of die openings in a triangular cross-sectional die head of a die body; (b) discharging gas along the entire length of the die onto each side of the molten resin as it is extruded to attenuate the molten resin as fibers in a plane away from said die openings, said gas having a substantially uniform velocity along the length of the die wherein said gas for each side is passed sequentially through a pipe discharging through a slit or plurality of holes into an air chamber designed to provide uniform velocity gas along the length of the air chamber, from the air chamber through a plurality of flow distribution holes in the die body, the gas discharging from the flow distribution holes into a longitunal groove in the die body as a plurality of streams said groove having gas deflector assembly to intermix the streams of gas discharging from the flow distribution holes and form said gas of substantially uniform velocity along the length of the die; and (c) collecting the attenuated fibers on a receiver in the path of said plain to form said nonwoven web.