Patent ID: 8251103

Claim:
A papermaking forming fabric, comprising: a set of top MD yarns; a set of top CMD yarns interwoven with the top MD yarns to form a top fabric layer; a set of bottom MD yarns; a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the bottom MD yarns to form a bottom fabric layer; and a set of binding yarns that interweaves with and binds together the top and bottom fabric layers; wherein the fabric has a Channel Factor (CF) of greater than 2.0, the CF being defined in Equation (1) as: CF =( PSMW/PSML )×( SOA % PS/SOA % RS) (1) wherein: PSMW=the CMD width of an interstice between adjacent top MD yarns; PSML=the MD width of an interstice between adjacent top CMD yarns; SOA % PS=surface open area in the top fabric layer; SOA % RS=surface open area in the bottom fabric layer; and PSMW/PSML>1.