Granted Patent B2

US 8,196,613 · App. 12/700,133 · Granted Jun 12, 2012

Abstract

Claims (48)

1. A papermaker's fabric comprising a series of repeat units, each of the repeat units comprising:

a set of top machine direction (MD) yarns;

a set of top cross-machine direction (CMD) yarns interwoven with the top MD yarns to form a top fabric layer, wherein the top MD yarns interweave only with the top CMD yarns;

a set of bottom MD yarns; and

a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the bottom MD yarns to form a bottom fabric layer;

wherein each bottom MD yarn passes over a top CMD yarn that its immediate neighboring top MD yarn passes under; and

wherein the top MD yarns, the top CMD yarns, and the bottom MD yarns interweave to form a twill papermaking surface on the top fabric layer.

2. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 1 , wherein the twill papermaking surface is a 1×3 twill.

3. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 1 , wherein each bottom CMD yarn forms at least two bottom surface CMD floats, and wherein the bottom surface CMD floats are of uniform length.

4. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 3 , wherein the bottom surface CMD floats pass below three consecutive MD yarns.

5. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 1 , wherein each bottom MD yarn includes a segment in which the bottom MD yarn passes over two consecutive bottom CMD yarns, and wherein the bottom MD yarn passes over a top CMD yarn in the segment.

6. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 1 , wherein the ratio of top CMD yarns to bottom CMD yarns is 5:2.

7. A papermaker's fabric comprising a series of repeat units, each of the repeat units comprising:

a set of top machine direction (MD) yarns;

a set of top cross-machine direction (CMD) yarns interwoven with the top MD yarns to form a top fabric layer, wherein the top MD yarns interweave only with the top CMD yarns;

a set of bottom MD yarns;

a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the bottom MD yarns to form a bottom fabric layer; and

a set of MD stitching yarns that interweaves with the top CMD yarns and the bottom CMD yarns;

wherein the top MD yarns, the top CMD yarns, and the stitching yarns interweave to form a twill papermaking surface on the top fabric layer; and

wherein each of the bottom MD yarns forms a plurality of knuckles under respective bottom CMD yarns, each of the stitching yarns forms at least one knuckle under a respective bottom CMD yarn, and none of the stitching yarn knuckles are formed under a bottom CMD yarn under which an adjacent bottom MD yarn forms a knuckle.

8. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 7 , wherein the twill papermaking surface is a 1×3 twill.

9. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 7 , wherein each bottom CMD yarn forms at least two bottom surface CMD floats, and wherein the bottom surface CMD floats are of uniform length.

10. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 9 , wherein the bottom surface CMD floats pass below three consecutive MD yarns.

11. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 7 , wherein the twill papermaking surface is a 1×4 twill five harness satin.

12. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 7 , wherein the ratio of top CMD yarns to bottom CMD yarns is 5:2.

13. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 7 , wherein each of the stitching yarns forms multiple knuckles over top CMD yarns.

14. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 13 , wherein each stitching yarn of a pair forms a different number of knuckles over top CMD yarns than the other stitching yarn of that pair.

15. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 13 , wherein each stitching yarn of a pair forms the same number of knuckles over top CMD yarns as the other stitching yarn of that pair.

16. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 7 , wherein the stitching yarns of each pair are interwoven in the top layer to form a composite yarn that follows the same weaving sequence relative to the top CMD yarns as the top MD yarns, and wherein the stitching yarns of each pair are interwoven in the bottom layer to form a composite yarn that follows the same weaving sequence relative to the bottom CMD yarns as the bottom MD yarns.

17. A papermaker's fabric comprising a series of repeat units, each of the repeat units comprising:

a set of top machine direction (MD) yarns;

a set of top cross-machine direction (CMD) yarns interwoven with the top MD yarns to form a top fabric layer, wherein the top MD yarns interweave only with the top CMD yarns;

a set of bottom MD yarns;

a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the bottom MD yarns to form a bottom fabric layer; and

a set of MD stitching yarns that interweaves with the top CMD yarns and the bottom CMD yarns;

wherein the top MD yarns, the top CMD yarns, and the stitching yarns interweave to form a twill papermaking surface on the top fabric layer;

wherein each of the bottom MD yarns forms a plurality of knuckles under respective bottom CMD yarns, wherein each of the stitching yarns forms at least one knuckle under a respective bottom CMD yarn, and wherein at least some of the bottom CMD yarns are passed under only by stitching yarns.

18. A papermaker's fabric comprising a series of repeat units, each of the repeat units comprising:

a set of machine direction (MD) stitching yarns, the stitching yarns being arranged in pairs;

a set of top cross-machine direction (CMD) yarns interwoven with the stitching yarns to form a top fabric wherein the top MD yarns interweave only with the top CMD yarns; and

a set of bottom CMD yarns interwoven with the stitching yarns to form a bottom fabric layer;

wherein the stitching yarns and the top CMD yarns interweave to form a twill papermaking surface on the top fabric layer;

wherein the ratio of top CMD yarns to bottom CMD yarns is 5:2.

19. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 18 , wherein each of the stitching yarns forms at least one knuckle under a respective bottom CMD yarn.

20. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 19 , wherein each of the stitching yarns forms two knuckles under respective bottom CMD yarns.

21. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 18 , wherein each of the stitching yarns forms a plurality of knuckles over top CMD yarns, and wherein each of the stitching yarns forms the same number of knuckles.

22. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 18 , wherein the twill pattern is a 1×3 twill pattern.

23. The papermaker's fabric defined in claim 18 , wherein the twill papermaking surface is a 1×4 twill five harness satin.

Assignments (13)