Patent ID: 7314497

Claim:
A filtration medium comprising a thermally bonded sheet, the sheet comprising: (a) about 20 to 80 wt % of a bicomponent binder fiber having a fiber diameter of about 5 to 50 micrometers and a fiber length of about 0.1 to 15 cm; and (b) an effective amount of a glass fiber having a fiber diameter of about 0.1 to 30 micrometers, an aspect ratio of about 10 to 10,000 to obtain a pore size of about 0.5 to 100 micrometers and a permeability of about 5 to 500 ft-min −1 ; wherein the media has a thickness of about 0.2 to 50 mm, a solidity of about 2 to 25%, a basis weight of about 10 to 1000 g-m −2 .