Patent ID: 8518841

Claim:
A nonwoven fabric comprising a conjugated fiber comprising a plurality of resins which are different in thermal shrinkage and which form a phase separation structure, which plurality of resins comprises polyalkylene arylate resin and a modified polyalkylene arylate resin of said polyalkylene arylate resin, which nonwoven fabric is a tape having a ratio of the strength at break in a length direction relative to the strength at break in a width direction of 1.5 to 50, wherein the conjugated fibers are arranged in a direction approximately parallel to a surface direction of the nonwoven fabric and crimped and the conjugated fibers have an average curvature radius of fiber crimp of 20 to 200 μm, and the crimps are distributed approximately uniformly in a thickness direction of the nonwoven fabric, wherein an average fiber length of the conjugated fiber is 10 to 100 mm, wherein the nonwoven fabric has a curved ratio of fiber of not less than 1.3 and a proportion of the minimum curved ratio of fiber relative to the maximum curved ratio of fiber of not less than 75% in each of three areas, providing that the nonwoven fabric is cut across the thickness direction and the cross section is divided in a direction perpendicular to the thickness direction equally into three, and wherein the nonwoven fabric is obtained by a process comprising forming a web with a fiber including said conjugated fiber, and heating the resulting fiber web with a high-temperature water vapor to allow the conjugated fiber to develop a crimp having an average curvature radius of 20 to 200 μm, wherein the temperature of the high-temperature water vapor is about 70 to 150° C.