Patent ID: 8481437

Claim:
A thermally bonded nonwoven fabric comprising: low-shrinkage dual-component core-sheath fibers, said low-shrinkage dual-component core-sheath fibers comprising: a crystalline polyester core consisting of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and a crystalline polyester sheath consisting of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT), or polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the sheath having a melting point at least 10° C. lower than the core, the heat-shrinkage of the fiber being less than 10% at 170° C., wherein said sheath polyesters have a heat of fusion of >40 J/g and a width at the base of the sheath melting peak via Differential Scanning Calorimetry occurring within <40° C. at 10° C/minute, wherein the sheath of the low-shrinkage dual-component core-sheath fiber comprises >95% of a homogeneous polyester polymer which is not a copolymer; and monofilament polyester fibers; wherein: the low-shrinkage dual-component core-sheath fibers have a titer between 0.1 and 15 dtex; the non-woven fabric has a weight per unit area between 20 and 500 g/m 2 ; the low-shrinkage dual-component core-sheath fiber has a core-to-sheath ratio between 10:90 and 90:10; and after 1 h at 150° C. said nonwoven fabric exhibits a thermal dimensional change of <2%.