is formed of opposed rollers 40 and 41 each containing a tack needle group 42 the points 43 of the needles may be formed in a barbed configuration as illustrated in fig4 the needles are mounted upon a bar 44 which is carried by a mechanical mechanism that causes the needles to move outwardly of their respective rollers through perforations 45 in the roller walls the needle bars 44 are each moved in an elliptical path as illustrated by the dotted lines in fig2 thus the needles extend outwardly through the perforations in their respective roller walls and because of the elliptical movement of the needle bars travel momentarily with the moving blanket and rollers and then retract the bars successively move toward the blanket so that first one and then the other group of needles penetrate transversely of the blanket at the location of the compression or pinching while any suitable mechanical mechanism can be used to perform the compression or pinching step with the simultaneous needle penetration step one commercially available machine which may be used for this purpose is known as an asselin tacker type 169 df or alternatively a different model no 1500 df these machines are used for pinching or compressing a fiber bat in the nip between the two perforated rollers or drums while simultaneously needling the bat however applicants believe that the use of such a machine in the present process as a substitute for and to permit replacement of garnet layering is both novel and produces unexpected results the blanket is next advanced upon a conveyor 47 to the needle.