Patent ID: 7022200

Claim:
A method of making an adhesive-free and plasticizer-free bonded hollow porous thermoplastic article, said article having a porous fibrous structure and capable of transporting fluid through its body by capillary action, said method consisting of the steps of: forming a coherent fibrous structure, said structure comprising feedstock strands comprising thermoplastic fibers being initially capable of moving relative to one another, said structure having an initial structural packing factor, said thermoplastic fibers being 100% polyethylene terephthalate bicomponent fibers and having sheath portions of their surface material being of a melting point T 1 not exceeding the melting point of the remaining portions of said thermoplastic fibers, said coherent fibrous structure having an initial bending rigidity, feeding said coherent fibrous structure through the inlet opening of a spider-type mandrel forming die, said forming die having a compaction zone, a bonding zone and a shaping zone, heating said fibrous structure uniformly by surrounding said fibrous structure with a fluid at a temperature at or near said melting point T 1 , thereby rapidly and uniformly heating at least the surface of said thermoplastic fibers to a temperature sufficient to cause melting at least fractions of said portions of said surface material, passing said structure through said compaction zone and said bonding zone of said forming die, wherein said thermoplastic fibers are laterally compacted together to a structural packing factor higher than said initial structural packing factor thereby causing said fractions to adhere to one another at their respective interfaces, passing said structure through said shaping zone of said forming die wherein the cross-section of said structure is shaped into a predetermined desired shape bonded hollow fibrous article, allowing said bonded hollow fibrous article to cool down upon exiting from said die, cooling said structure thereby causing said thermoplastic fibers to become substantially incapable of moving relative to one another at said respective interfaces, thereby increasing the bending rigidity of said coherent fibrous structure to a magnitude higher than said initial bending rigidity, thereby forming the adhesive-free, bonded hollow porous polymeric thermoplastic article, and withdrawing said fibrous structure through the exit opening of said forming die.