Luggage article formed of a compacted non-woven sheet

1. A luggage shell comprising:

a non-woven mat including randomly oriented discontinuous reinforcing plastic fiber and randomly oriented discontinuous melting plastic fiber, the reinforcing plastic fiber having a higher melting temperature than the melting plastic fiber;

the melting plastic fiber defining a polymer matrix; and

the reinforcing plastic fiber bonded by or embedded in the polymer matrix, wherein the polymer matrix is a compacted non-woven sheet formed by compaction of the non-woven mat; and

the luggage shell is formed by the non-woven sheet.

2. The luggage shell of claim 1 , wherein:

the non-woven mat includes at least two deposited layers, wherein a first layer includes a higher weight percentage of reinforcing plastic fiber than melting plastic fiber and a second layer includes a higher weight percentage of melting plastic fiber than reinforcing plastic fiber.

3. The luggage shell of claim 2 , wherein:

the first layer is substantially entirely reinforcing plastic fiber and the second layer is substantially entirely melting plastic fiber.

4. The luggage shell of claim 2 , wherein:

the first layer defines in part a portion of an inner surface of a luggage case; and

the second layer defines in part a portion of an outer surface of the shell, the first layer and the second layer having different physical characteristics.

5. The luggage shell of claim 4 , further comprising:

at least one intermediate layer positioned between the first layer and the second layer, the intermediate layer having a percent by weight of the melting plastic fiber different than the first or second layers.

6. The luggage shell of claim 1 , wherein the polymer matrix comprises the same type of plastic as the discontinuous reinforcing plastic fiber.

7. The luggage shell of claim 1 , wherein the non-woven mat is formed at least in part by bicomponent fibers, each bicomponent fiber including a portion defined by the reinforcing plastic fiber and a portion defined by the melting plastic fiber.

8. The luggage shell of claim 7 , wherein the non-woven mat is formed entirely of bicomponent fibers.

9. The luggage shell of claim 7 , wherein:

the non-woven mat is formed into a shell configuration by a compaction operation and a molding operation, or by a single step compaction and molding operation.

10. The luggage shell of claim 7 , wherein the polymer matrix comprises the same type of plastic as the discontinuous reinforcing plastic fiber.

11. The luggage shell of claim 7 , further comprising:

at least a second non-woven mat; and

wherein the second non-woven mat includes randomly oriented discontinuous reinforcing plastic fiber and randomly oriented discontinuous melting plastic fiber, the reinforcing plastic fiber having a higher melting temperature than the melted plastic fiber.

12. The luggage shell of claim 7 , further comprising a film on an outer surface of the luggage shell and/or a lining on an inner surface of the luggage shell.

13. The luggage shell of claim 7 , wherein: the non-woven mat includes at least two deposited layers.

14. The luggage shell of claim 13 , wherein:

the first deposited layer includes a higher weight percentage of reinforcing plastic fiber than melting plastic fiber and a second layer includes a higher weight percentage of melting plastic fiber than reinforcing plastic fiber.

15. A luggage shell according to claim 1 , wherein the shell is frameless.

16. A luggage shell according to claim 1 , wherein a portion of the shell defines undulating convex and concave areas.

17. A luggage shell according to claim 16 , wherein the undulating convex and concave areas extend in a curved orientation relative to at least one peripheral edge of a wall of the shell.

18. A luggage shell according to claim 1 , wherein a wheel assembly is directly attached to the shell.

19. A method of forming a luggage shell, the method comprising:

providing a non-woven mat, the non-woven mat comprising at least one deposited layer of randomly oriented discontinuous reinforcing plastic fiber having a first weight percentage and a first melting temperature, and randomly oriented discontinuous melting plastic fiber having a second weight percentage and a second melting temperature lower than the first melting temperature, the non-woven mat held together by thermal, mechanical or chemical bonding;

compacting and heating the at least one non-woven mat to form a compacted non-woven sheet and molding the compacted non-woven sheet into the luggage shell.

20. A method of fabricating a luggage shell comprising:

forming a non-woven mat comprising a mixture of randomly oriented first discontinuous plastic fibers having a first melting temperature and randomly oriented second discontinuous reinforcing plastic fibers having a second melting temperature higher than the first melting temperature;

compacting and heating the non-woven mat at a temperature between the first melting temperature and the second melting temperature to melt the first discontinuous plastic fibers to bind with the second discontinuous reinforcing plastic fibers;

forming a compacted non-woven sheet comprising the second randomly oriented discontinuous plastic fibers embedded in a polymer matrix formed from the melted first plastic fibers; and

forming a luggage shell from the compacted non-woven sheet.