Patent ID: 7478463

Claim:
A process for hydro-entangling a layer of fibers into a web, said process comprising: conveying a web to lie against a traveling hydro-entangling fabric; depositing a layer of fibers onto a traveling forming fabric, the forming fabric supporting the fiber layer from below; converging the forming fabric and the hydro-entangling fabric at a combining location where the forming fabric and hydro-entangling fabric orient and travel adjacent each other in a machine direction along a defined distance after the combining location such that the fiber layer and web are sandwiched between the forming fabric and the hydro-entangling fabric along the defined distance with the fiber layer supported from below by the hydro-entangling fabric and web; separating the forming fabric from the fiber layer after the defined distance and the web and overlying fiber layer are supported by the hydro-entangling fabric; and conveying the hydro-entangling fabric through a hydro-entangling station to hydro-entangle the fibers into the web.