Patent ID: 7981357

Claim:
A method of making a spunbond web, the method comprising the steps of: extruding a multiplicity of hot thermoplastic filaments; passing the filaments along an upstream stretch of a path; cooling and stretching the filaments as they move along the upstream stretch of the path; depositing the cooled and stretched filaments at a downstream end of the upstream stretch on a foraminous belt such that the filaments form a mat thereon; continuously displacing the belt so as to move the mat downstream along a downstream leg of the path; precompacting the mat on the belt substantially without making bonding points at intersections where filaments cross one another; spraying the precompacted mat on the belt with a mist and thereby prewetting the mat on the belt without consolidating the mat on the belt; consolidating the prewetted mat with a high-pressure water-jet treatment; and further processing the consolidated mat.