Patent ID: 7192499

Claim:
A method of forming a spunbond nonwoven fabric, the method comprising: (a) extruding a plurality of plural component fibers, the extruded fibers including a first polymer component and a second polymer component, wherein the first polymer component has a degree of shrinkage when subjected to heat; (b) laying the extruded fibers onto a web forming surface to form a nonwoven web of fibers; (c) calender bonding the nonwoven web of fibers so as to form bond points between the fibers; (d) heating the bonded web to a selected temperature to shrink the first polymer component in the bonded web to decrease bond point size and a spatial dimension between bond points; and (e) separating at least a portion of the second polymer component from the first polymer component in the bonded web of fibers, wherein the separating includes dissolving at least a portion of the second polymer component from the bonded web.