Patent ID: 7153794

Claim:
A heat and flame unitary planar shield material comprising: a plurality of heat and flame resistant fibers and a plurality of voluminous bulking fibers, said heat and flame resistant fibers and said voluminous bulking fibers being staple fibers, the unitary planar shield material including a first outer surface, a second outer surface, a heat and flame resistant zone extending from the first outer surface to a heat and flame resistant inner boundary, and a voluminous bulking zone extending from the second outer surface to a bulking zone inner boundary adjacent to the heat and flame resistant inner boundary, wherein the heat and flame resistant zone contains a portion of both the voluminous bulking fibers and the heat and flame resistant fibers with a higher portion of heat and flame resistant fibers than voluminous bulking fibers, wherein the concentration of heat and flame resistant fibers is greater near the first outer boundary than at the heat and flame resistant inner boundary, and wherein the concentration of the heat and flame resistant fibers decreases in a gradient along the direction from the first outer boundary to the heat and flame resistant inner boundary, and wherein the voluminous bulking zone contains a portion of both voluminous bulking fibers and the heat and flame resistant fibers with a higher portion of voluminous bulking fibers, wherein the concentration of voluminous bulking fibers is greater near the second outer boundary than at the voluminous bulking zone inner boundary, and wherein the concentration of the bulking fibers decreases in a gradient along the direction from the second outer boundary to the voluminous bulking zone inner boundary, and wherein the voluminous bulking fibers have a higher denier per filament than the heat and flame resistant fibers and further including binder fibers combined with the heat and flame resistance fibers and te voluminous bulking fibers.