will in the following be described as spunlaid fibers but it is understood that also other types of continuous filaments e g meltblown fibers can be used preferably spunlaid filaments are used since they result in a stronger material in this case it is an advantage having the stronger spunlaid filaments as they withstand the mechanical agitation exerted by the water jets the spunlaid filaments are easily movable by the action of the water jets and will create patterns and apertures in the web material the weaker meltblown filaments may break during hydroentangling the natural fibers are usually cellulose fibers such as pulp fibers or fibers from grass or straw pulp fibers are the most commonly used natural fibers and are used in the material for their tendency to absorb water and for their tendency to create a coherent sheet both softwood fibers and hardwood fibers are suitable and also recycled fibers can be used as well as blends of these types of fibers the fiber lengths will vary from around 2 3 mm for softwood fibers and around 1 1 5 mm for hardwood fibers and even shorter for recycled fibers the staple fibers used can be produced from the same substances and by the same processes as the filaments discussed above they may either be synthetic fibers or regenerated cellulose fibers such as rayon viscose or lyocell the cutting of the fiber bundles is normally done to result in a single cut length which can be altered by varying the distances between the knives of the cutting wheel the fiber lengths of conventional wetlaid hydroentangled nonwovens are usually in the interval 12 18 mm however according to the present invention also shorter fiber lengths from about 2 3 mm can be used according to the.