Provided is a conjugate fiber for air-laid nonwoven fabric manufacture having a planar zig-zag crimp shape before a thermal treatment, such that a uniform web is obtained by air laying with high processability and productivity, and the conjugate fiber develops a spiral crimp when the web is subjected to a thermal treatment to thereby enable the web to shrink significantly, as a result of which a nonwoven fabric can be obtained in which fibers are amassed to a high density. The conjugate fiber for air-laid nonwoven fabric manufacture is a heat-fusible conjugate fiber in which a first component comprising an olefinic thermoplastic resin is conjugated with a second component comprising an olefinic thermoplastic resin having a melting point higher than that of the first component. The conjugate form is such that the centers of gravity of the conjugate components are mutually different in the fiber cross section, the fiber has a single-yarn fineness of 1 to 10 dtex, a fiber length of 3 to 20 mm, and a planar zig-zag crimp whose crimp shape index (actual length of short fiber/distance between both ends of short fiber) ranges from 1.05 to 1.60, and the web shrinkage upon thermal treatment at 145 C. of a web obtained by an air-laid method is not lower than 40%.

The invention relates to a nonwoven solid material, preferably a cosmetic or dermatological nonwoven solid material, comprising a plurality of fibers, wherein said fibers comprise a body comprising at least one polymeric material and a body coating comprising at least one hydrophilic polymer, said nonwoven solid material further comprising at least one releasable cosmetic ingredient or composition. The invention relates to a face mask, a manufacturing process and applications of said nonwoven solid material or face mask.

A fiber structure includes crimped staple fibers and heat-bonding conjugate staple fibers mixed in a specific weight ratio, the heat-bonding conjugate staple fibers having, as a heat-bonding component disposed on the surface thereof, a thermoplastic resin having a melting point lower by 40 C. or more than that of a thermoplastic resin constituting the crimped staple fibers, the fiber structure having scattered fixing points in which the heat-bonding conjugate staple fibers are heat-fused and intersect together and/or scattered fixing points in which the heat-bonding conjugate staple fibers and the crimped staple fibers are heat-fused and intersect together, the fiber structure having a specified thickness and density and having a laminated structure of three or more layers, wherein the hardness ratio between an intermediate layer portion and a surface layer portion defined when the fiber structure is equally divided into three portions is 0.60 or more.

Disclosed is a wearable article continuous in a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction comprising an elastic belt region, a crotch region, a waist opening and two leg openings; the elastic belt region is a laminate comprising an inner sheet made of nonwoven fiber, and an outer sheet made of nonwoven fiber, and a plurality of elastic bodies configured to stretch the elastic belt region in the transverse direction, the crotch region comprises an outer cover layer at the most garment facing side, the outer cover layer being the same material as the outer sheet; wherein the outer sheet has a Compression Work of more than about 550 gfmm, a Compression Average Rigidity of less than about 500 gf/mm.sup.3, a Surface Roughness Wavelength of more than about 1.7 mm, and a Glossiness of less than about 5.3, the Compression Work, the Compression Average Rigidity, the Surface Roughness Wavelength and the Glossiness according to the measurements herein.

A spunbond nonwoven laminate has a plurality of stacked spunbond nonwoven layers, namely at least two and at most four spunbond nonwoven layers that have crimped continuous filaments or consist of crimped continuous filaments. The degree of crimping of the filaments is different in each of these spunbond nonwoven layers, and each of the crimped filaments of the spunbond nonwoven layers has a crimp with at least two, preferably at least three, and more preferably with at least four loops per centimeter of length. The crimped filaments of the spunbond nonwoven layers are multicomponent filaments, particularly bicomponent filaments, with a first plastic component and a second plastic component present in the respective filament in a proportion of at least 10 wt %.

Disclosed is a wearable article continuous in a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction comprising an elastic belt region, a crotch region, a waist opening and two leg openings; the elastic belt region is a laminate comprising an inner sheet made of nonwoven fiber, and an outer sheet made of nonwoven fiber, and a plurality of elastic bodies configured to stretch the elastic belt region in the transverse direction, the crotch region comprises an outer cover layer at the most garment facing side, the outer cover layer being the same material as the outer sheet; wherein the outer sheet has a Compression Work of more than about 550 gfmm, a Compression Average Rigidity of less than about 500 gf/mm.sup.3, a Surface Roughness Wavelength of more than about 1.7 mm, and a Glossiness of less than about 5.3, the Compression Work, the Compression Average Rigidity, the Surface Roughness Wavelength and the Glossiness according to the measurements herein.

Disclosed is a wearable article continuous in a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction comprising a body-facing surface and a garment-facing surface; wherein at least a portion of the garment-facing surface is a nonwoven substrate material made of fibers having a Roughness (standard deviation of the grayscale image) of at least about 16, preferably at least about 18, more preferably at least about 20; and a fiber diameter of no more than about 22 ?m, preferably no more than about 17 ?m, more preferably no more than about 15 ?m, according to the measurements herein.

Multi-component fibers or filaments that are ribbon shaped are provided having polymer components positioned in a side-by-side fashion. For example, the multi-component fibers may be bicomponent fibers having ribbon shape. The polymer components of the fibers are selected to have differential shrinkage behavior. Nonwovens are also provided that are manufactured from such ribbon shaped multi-component fibers or filaments.

Insulation comprises a plurality of reactive flaps that react to one or more external stimuli, e.g., humidity. The flaps are made up of a fiber mixture that includes: 20-80 wt % reactive bicomponent fibers that are reactive to an external stimulus, and have a first configuration in an unactivated state and a second configuration in an activated state, and wherein the bicomponent fibers can reversibly transform between the unactivated and activated states; 5-40 wt % synthetic binder fibers having a denier of 1.5 to 4.0 denier; 0-75 wt % of a first population of synthetic fibers, being synthetic polymeric fibers having a denier of less than 2.0 denier; and 0-75 wt % of a second population of synthetic fibers, being synthetic polymeric fibers having a denier of 4.0 to 10.0 denier. Related articles and methods are also provided.

Provided is batting that includes a bonded nonwoven web made from a fiber mixture containing: (a) 20 to 55 wt % of siliconized fibers having a denier of 1.5 to 10.0 and a length of 51 mm to 84 mm; (b) 10 to 45 wt % of hollow conjugate fibers having a spiral crimp, and having a denier of 1.5 to 10.0 and a length of 51 to 84 mm; (c) 10 to 45 wt % of a first population of binder fibers which are elastomeric co-polyester binder fibers having a denier of 1.5 to 8.0, a length of 51 mm to 84 mm, and a bonding temperature of 110? C. to 180? C.; and (d) 1 to 20 wt % of a second population of binder fibers, which have a denier of 1.5 to 6.0, a length of 51 mm to 84 mm, and a bonding temperature of 80? C. to 135? C.