Patent ID: 7275566

Claim:
A papermaking fabric, comprising a series of repeat units, each of the repeat units including: a set of top machine direction (MD) yarns; a set of top cross machine direction (CMD) yarns interwoven with the top MD yarns; a set of bottom MD yarns; a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the bottom MD yarns; and a set of stitching yarns, the stitching yarns being disposed in pairs, at least one of the yarns of each of the stitching yarn pairs being interwoven with the top CMD yarns and the bottom CMD yarns, wherein when a first stitching yarn of a pair is interweaving with the top CMD yarns, a second stitching yarn of the pair is passing below the top CMD yarns, and when the second stitching yarn of the pair is interweaving with the top CMD yarns, the first stitching yarn of the pair is passing below the top CMD yarns, such that each stitching yarn pair forms a composite top MD yarn; wherein the set of top MD yarns includes a first number of top MD yarns, and wherein the set of stitching yarns comprises a second number of composite top MD yarns, and wherein the set of bottom MD yarns includes a third number of bottom MD yarns; and wherein the ratio of the sum of the first and second numbers to the third number is 2:3.