In the past, many attempts have been made to enhance and increase certain physical properties of such products. Unfortunately, however, when steps are taken to increase one property of these products, other characteristics of the products may be adversely affected.
For instance, the strength of nonwoven products, such as various sanitary tissue products, can be increased by several different methods, such as by selecting a particular fiber type, or by increasing cellulosic fiber bonding within the product. Increasing strength, according to one of the above methods, however, may adversely affect the flexibility of the product. Conversely, steps normally taken to increase the strength of a fibrous structure typically have an adverse impact upon the softness, the flexibility or the absorbency of the web.
Fibrous structures comprising linear elements, which increased the flexibility of the fibrous structure and methods for making same are known in the art. However, such fibrous structures are taught as having alternating continuous knuckles and continuous pillows that run in substantially the machine direction of the fibrous structures as shown in FIG. 1. Such prior art structures are typically made on a molding member that comprises a support member, which it typically foraminous, for example a through-air-drying fabric, and then a polymeric resin associated with the support member such that alternating linear elements and polymeric resin void areas in the form of knuckles and channels, as shown in FIG. 2. Such known fibrous structures have exhibited increased flexibility, but as a result have exhibited decreased tensile strength.
Accordingly, there is a need for fibrous structures that decouple their flexibility and strength properties such that increasing flexibility does not impact the strength of the fibrous structures to levels that are unacceptable to consumers and/or does not negatively impact the strength of the fibrous structures.