Patent ID: 8460514

Claim:
An industrial fabric for a papermaking machine, said industrial fabric comprising: a porous composite structure including: a batt fiber structure including a coarse batt layer and a less coarse batt layer and having an upper surface and a lower surface extending parallel to said upper surface, said lower surface being spaced apart from said upper surface along a thickness direction extending perpendicular to said upper surface and said lower surface; and a particulate polymer material partly fused together and bonded with fibers of said batt fiber structure, said fibers including fibers inside said batt structure and fibers of at least one of said upper surface and said lower surface of said batt fiber structure, said particulate polymer material at least partly impregnating said fibers of said batt structure and at least partly filling interstices between said fibers of said batt structure to form said porous composite structure, wherein an amount of said particulate polymer material in said batt fiber structure varies along at least a section of said thickness direction of said batt fiber structure, said coarse batt layer including more of said polymeric material than said less coarse batt layer.