Patent ID: 9546439
Date: 2017-01-17
CPC Classifications: B29B,B29C,B29K,B32B,D04H

Claim:
1. A method of forming a nonwoven article, the method comprising: a) receiving fibrous material comprising thermoplastic fibers, wherein at least a portion of the fibrous material is waste material; b) processing the fibrous material to produce short fibers, wherein the processing step comprises granulation utilizing at least one granulator with a screen; c) distributing the short fibers approximately evenly across an area to form a short fiber web, wherein the distributing step comprises using a recyclate spreader that reduces clumping of the short fibers by reducing the static charge of the short fibers; d) heating the short fiber web to fuse the short fibers to form a nonwoven material; e) forming a sheet of the nonwoven material; and f) molding the sheet of the nonwoven material into a molded article having a three-dimensional shape