Fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet having a variable local basis weight
An absorbent cellulosic sheet includes (i) a plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions having fibers that are oriented in a direction transverse to a machine direction (MD) of the sheet, and (ii) a plurality of linking regions that link the fiber-enriched regions together. The linking regions have fibers that have an orientation that is offset from the orientation of the fibers in the plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions.
1. A fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet comprising:
(a) a plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions having fibers that are generally oriented in a cross-machine direction (CD) of the sheet; and
(b) a plurality of linking regions that link the fiber-enriched regions together, the linking regions having fibers that (i) have an orientation that is offset from the orientation of the fibers in the plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions, and (ii) are generally oriented in the machine direction (MD) of the sheet.
2. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions have a high local basis weight, and the plurality of linking regions have a local basis weight that is lower than the local basis weight of the plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions.
3. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions and the plurality of linking regions are part of a reticulum having a plurality of interconnected regions of different fiber orientation biases.
4. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 3 , further comprising:
(c) a plurality of integument regions, wherein the surface of the reticulum is substantially continuous.
5. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of fiber-enriched regions are present in a repeating pattern, a first plurality of the linking regions have a fiber orientation bias toward the MD, and a second plurality of the linking regions have a fiber orientation bias toward the MD, but offset from the fiber orientation bias of the first plurality of linking regions.
6. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber orientation bias of the plurality of linking regions is transverse to the fiber orientation bias of the plurality of fiber-enriched pileated regions.
7. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein a portion of the fibers of the fiber-enriched regions has U-shaped folds.
8. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has an absorbency of 6 g/g to 9 g/g.
9. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has an absorbency of at least about 7 g/g.
10. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has an absorbency of at least about 9 g/g.
11. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has an absorbency of at least about 11 g/g.
12. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has an absorbency of at least about 13 g/g.
13. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a consistency of at least about 90 percent.
14. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 13 , wherein the sheet has a consistency of about 92 to about 98 percent.
15. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a cross-machine direction (CD) stretch of from about five percent to about twenty percent.
16. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of less than about 1.1.
17. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of from about 0.5 to 0.9.
18. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of from about 0.6 to 0.8.
19. The fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a cross-machine direction (CD) stretch of at least about 5 percent and a machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of less than about 1.75.
20. The fabric-creed absorbent cellulosic sheet according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet has a cross-machine direction (CD) stretch of at least about 5 percent and a machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of less than about 1.5.