a still unopened nonwoven web 10 to be manufactured by the apparatus and which move from the pair of feed rollers 4 5 in the direction of the opening roller 8 by means of a transport device not shown further details of the needle bed 6 especially relating to its transport device are described in ep b1 0 247 420 and moreover are known from the abovementioned appliances on the market for example of n schlumberger amp cie the opening roller 8 is followed by a cylinder 9 preferably in the form of a folding roller on which the opened fibres are folded thus finally resulting in the opened nonwoven web 10 since the circumferential speed of the opening roller 8 is much higher than the transport speed of the needle bed 6 the fibres seized by the opening roller 8 are immediately drawn out of the nonwoven and are transported as individual fibres onto the cylinder 9 with the result that a uniform opened nonwoven web 10 is obtained the fibre tufts of differing density are thus opened by means of this drawing out operation the unordered and unopened fibre material 3 located in the supply container 2 is continuously seized and discharged by the pair of feed rollers 4 5 in quantities which are small in comparison with this supply at the.