Patent ID: 7799255

Claim:
A melt spinning process to produce an elastic tape having a thickness of from about 0.001 inch to about 0.10 inch and a width of from about 0.1 inch to about 2.0 inches comprising: (a) feeding a preformed TPU polymer consisting of a thermoplastic polyurethane polymer in pellet form having a Shore A hardness of from about 65A to about 95A to a melt mixing machine; (b) melting said TPU polymer pellets to form a TPU polymer melt; (c) adding a cross-linking agent to said TPU polymer melt wherein the amount of said crosslinking agent added is from about 2.0% to about 20.0% by weight of the final weight of said tape and wherein said crosslinking a rent has a number average molecular weight (M n ) of from about 1,000 to about 10,000 Daltons; (d) mixing said crosslinking agent with said TPU polymer melt; (e) feeding said TPU polymer melt to a manifold; (f) dividing said TPU polymer melt into multiple melt streams by using said manifold; (g) feeding each of said multiple melt streams to multiple spinnerets by using a melt pump for each melt stream, wherein each spinneret has a single opening where the melt exits to form the desired shape of said tape; (h) cooling the tape by passing said tape through a substantially horizontal water cooling bath, wherein said water cooling bath is located from 1.0 inch to 2.0 feet from the exit of said each spinneret; and (i) winding said tape into a roll.