Patent ID: 7131171

Claim:
A method for restoring bulkiness of nonwoven fabric which contains crimped thermoplastic fiber and is in a roll form, which comprises: unwinding the nonwoven fabric in a roll form and blowing hot air to the unwound nonwoven fabric for from about 0.05 to 3 seconds, by a through-air technique, thereby increasing the bulkiness of the nonwoven fabric, wherein the hot air has a temperature lower than the melting point of the thermoplastic fiber and not lower than a temperature lower than the melting point by about 50° C., the nonwoven fabric has a multilayer structure composed of at least two layers and contains the crimped thermoplastic fiber in an outermost layer thereof, and the nonwoven fabric contains heat shrinkable fiber in a layer other than the outermost layer containing the crimped thermoplastic fiber.