Patent ID: 7431975

Claim:
A textured composite material comprising (a) an outer layer of fabric selected from the group consisting of knit, woven, stitch-bonded fabrics, felts, spunlaced fabrics, nonwoven webs of bonded fibers, nonwoven webs of entangled fibers and mixtures thereof, (b) an adjacent adhesive layer coextensive with the outer layer in which the composite material has a surface area comprising (i) depressed areas within which all the fibers are fully contacted by activated adhesive and have maintained structural identity of outer layer fibers, and (ii) elevated areas within which a major fraction of the lengths of the fibers of the outer layer are substantially free of inter-fiber bonding by the adhesive, and (c) a backing layer adjacent the adhesive layer opposite the outer layer, the backing layer having a thickness of about 2-20 mm.