Patent ID: 6969441

Claim:
A method for producing a composite nonwoven fabric in a vertical plane, comprising: a) providing an extruder having a plurality of die heads, a vertically-arranged series of first and second chilled rollers, and a set of nip rollers, the extruder being located above the vertically-arranged series of first and second chilled rollers, the first chilled roller being positioned vertically below the extruder so that extruded filaments from the extruder flow directly to the first chilled roller, the second chilled roller being positioned vertically below the first chilled roller and located before the set of nip rollers so that the extruded continuous filaments flow directly from the first chilled roller to the second chilled roller and then directly to a nip formed by the set of nip rollers, b) extruding heated continuous filaments from the die heads of the extruder directly to the first chilled roller, wherein the extruder is further configured to provide the continuous filaments to the first chilled roller in a canted direction that is tangent to the surface of the first chilled roller, c) conveying the continuous filaments directly from the first chilled roller to the second chilled roller, d) quenching and stretching simultaneously the continuous filaments to form stretched continuous filaments, e) conveying the stretched continuous filaments directly from the second chilled roller to the nip, f) providing at least one nonwoven web, g) applying an adhesive on the surface of the one nonwoven web and then providing said one nonwoven web to the nip, and h) laminating the stretched continuous filaments with the nonwoven web in the nip to form a composite nonwoven fabric.