Patent ID: 6964721

Claim:
A process for manufacturing a composite sheet capable of elastic stretch and contract in one direction, said process comprising: (a) continuously feeding, in the one direction, a first web capable of elastic stretch and contraction and having a top surface and a bottom surface; (b) extending said first web in the one direction within a range that permits elastic stretch and contraction of the first web; (c) continuously feeding a second web capable of inelastic extension and composed of thermoplastic fibers along the one direction; (d) superimposing said second web on at least one surface of the extended first web and joining said second web to the first web in an intermittent manner along the one direction to provide a composite web; (e) extending the composite web in the one direction within a range that permits elastic stretch and contraction of the first web; and (f) allowing the extended composite web to retract by an elastic contraction force of the first web to thereby obtain a composite sheet in which individual thermoplastic fibers of the second web are neither fused nor mechanically entangled tightly with each other between discrete areas where the first and second webs are joined together in step (d).