Patent ID: 6986825

Claim:
A method of laminating a first material having an emboss pattern formed thereon to a second material using a point-lamination pattern, said method including, providing a first material comprising a nonwoven spunbonded polymer fabric having a minimum weight of approximately 50 g/m 2 and having a plurality of emboss points that are formed under heat and pressure and that form an emboss pattern having raised or depressed formations in the surface of the fabric, providing a second material comprising a non-embossed polymer material, the minimum weight of approximately 50 g/m 2 of said nonwoven spunbonded polymer fabric and the emboss pattern having said raised or depressed formations in the surface of the fabric normally causing the occurrence of unlaminated patches in the form of blisters in areas of the resultant laminate where the emboss points of the emboss pattern and lamination points of the lamination pattern were in register with each other during lamination, flattening and tensioning the first and second materials to reduce the tendency of the first and second materials to crease prior to feeding the first and second materials to a single lamination pattern calender roll of which the lamination pattern has a plurality of lamination points, operating the single lamination pattern roll at a substantially constant speed of rotation, feeding the flattened and tensioned first and second materials to the single lamination pattern calender roll rotating at a substantially constant speed bringing the first and second materials together at said single lamination pattern calender roll, and laminating the nonwoven spunbonded polymer fabric first material with the emboss pattern and the non-embossed polymer second material to one another using the single lamination pattern calender roll, feeding the resultant laminate to a finishing core onto which the resultant laminate is wound; operating the finishing core at a speed of rotation that matches the speed of rotation of said single lamination pattern calender roll; making use of or controlling interaction between the emboss pattern on the nonwoven spunbonded polymer fabric and the lamination pattern on the single lamination pattern calender roll by selecting and differentiating one or more characteristics of the two patterns whereby to control, during lamination, the amount of point mis-registration between the emboss pattern on the nonwoven spunbonded polymer fabric and the lamination pattern on the single lamination pattern calender roll, whereby the resultant laminate has a laminated area in which the first and second materials each have substantially the same surface area and a visible interference pattern formed of visible emboss points of the emboss pattern and visible lamination points of the lamination pattern, and the occurrence of visible unlaminated patches in the form of blisters in the resultant laminate is avoided.