CPC D21H 27/002 (2013.01) [B31F 1/07 (2013.01); B31F 1/16 (2013.01); D21F 7/12 (2013.01); D21F 11/006 (2013.01); D21F 11/14 (2013.01); D21H 11/00 (2013.01)] | 28 Claims |
1. A method of making a fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet, the method comprising:
compactively dewatering a papermaking furnish to form a web having a consistency of about thirty percent to about sixty percent;
creping the web under pressure in a creping nip between a transfer surface and a structuring fabric, the transfer surface moving at a transfer surface speed and the structuring fabric moving at a structuring fabric speed, wherein the structuring fabric has (a) machine direction (MD) yarns that form (i) knuckles extending in substantially MD lines along the structuring fabric, and (ii) substantially continuous lines of pockets extending in substantially MD lines along the structuring fabric between the lines of knuckles and (b) cross machine direction (CD) yarns that are located completely below a plane defined by the knuckles of the MD yarns;
defining a fabric creping percentage by the speed of the transfer surface relative to the speed of the structuring fabric such that the fabric creping percentage is less than about 25%;
causing the web to plow onto the knuckles of the structuring fabric and into the pockets between the knuckles, thereby creating folds in the structure of the web and an indented bar between two of such folds in the web; and
drying the web to form the fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet, wherein the absorbent cellulosic sheet has SAT capacities of at least about 9.5 g/g and at least about 500 g/m2.
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