Importance

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Abstract

A resilient plastic web exhibiting a fiber-like appearance and tactile impression and method and apparatus for its manufacture. In a preferred embodiment, the web exhibits a three-dimensional microstructure comprising a regulated continuum of debossed areas of non-uniform cross-section along their length. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the debossed areas comprise capillary networks interconnecting the first and second surfaces of the web, said networks being of decreasing size in the direction of said second surface to promote fluid transport from the first surface of the web to the second surface and inhibit the flow of fluid in the reverse direction. Forming surfaces utilized to produce said webs are constructed by laminating a multiplicity of thin plates having patterns of apertures therein to form an integral structure exhibiting properties and characteristics unachievable by prior art machining and weaving techniques. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the individual lamina from which the laminate forming structure is comprised are produced utilizing photoetching techniques, thus making it feasible to produce nearly any desired level of intricacy in the resultant laminate structure. Preferred means for interconnecting said laminate structures with one another without disrupting the three-dimensional pattern in the area of joinder are also disclosed.

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First Claim