Classifications

• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D04—BRAIDING; LACE-MAKING; KNITTING; TRIMMINGS; NON-WOVEN FABRICS
  • D04H—MAKING TEXTILE FABRICS, e.g. FROM FIBRES OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; FABRICS MADE BY SUCH PROCESSES OR APPARATUS, e.g. FELTS, NON-WOVEN FABRICS; COTTON-WOOL; WADDING ; NON-WOVEN FABRICS FROM STAPLE FIBRES, FILAMENTS OR YARNS, BONDED WITH AT LEAST ONE WEB-LIKE MATERIAL DURING THEIR CONSOLIDATION
  • D04H1/00—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of staple fibres or like relatively short fibres
  • D04H1/40—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of staple fibres or like relatively short fibres from fleeces or layers composed of fibres without existing or potential cohesive properties
  • D04H1/58—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of staple fibres or like relatively short fibres from fleeces or layers composed of fibres without existing or potential cohesive properties by applying, incorporating or activating chemical or thermoplastic bonding agents, e.g. adhesives
  • D04H1/60—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of staple fibres or like relatively short fibres from fleeces or layers composed of fibres without existing or potential cohesive properties by applying, incorporating or activating chemical or thermoplastic bonding agents, e.g. adhesives the bonding agent being applied in dry state, e.g. thermo-activatable agents in solid or molten state, and heat being applied subsequently

Definitions

• Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved batt having properties not possessed by prior batts.
• Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of Figure 2.
• a process for bonding fibers comprising the steps of contacting the fibers with a particulate plastic alloy comprising a compound and a thermoplastic resin to form a mixture of the plastic alloy and the fibers. This mixture is then heated to melt the plastic alloy and to bind the fibers.
• the compound should have certain additional properties.
• the compound should have a vapor pressure less than 40 mm of mercury at 200°C. This property is necessary in order to avoid excessive sublimation.
• the compound should be relatively non-toxic and non-irritating to factory workers. It should have no objectionable odor. It should not decompose significantly when heated to 400°F for 2-4 minutes. It should contain at least one benzene ring in its structure, and preferably should be insoluble or only slightly soluble in water.
• compound means a single chemical compound or mixture of two or more chemical compounds. In many cases mixtures of two or more compounds yield a eutectic solution which gives a lower melting point resin alloy than can be obtained from any one of the compounds by itself.
• resin as used herein, also includes mixtures of more than one resin, as well as single resins.
• the compounds listed above do not include all those which can be used in this invention. They are also not equally satisfactory when used by themselves. Their usefulness is increased, in many cases, by admixture with other compounds listed above. The mixing of two or more compounds often decreases odor from one component. In many cases, two or more compounds give a eutectic melting point which is lower than that of the individual compounds.
• n is an integer of 0 to 5, inclusive
• p is an integer of 0 to 5, inclusive
• R is a member selected from the group consisting of S, SO, SO 2 , O, CH 2 , CHOHOCHOH, CHOHO , CO, NH, COCO, NR', .CHR' , CHR'O and CR'R" wherein R' and R" each independently represent a lower alkyl group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms or a phenyl group, and X and Y are each independently selected from the group consisting of Cl, Br, NH 2 , NO 2 , COOH, OH, carbonyl having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, alkoxy having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, alkyl having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, phenyl, phenoxy and naphthyl, said X's being the same or different when n is greater than 1 and said Y's being the same or different when p is greater than 1 .
• the diphenyl and ditolyl sulfones are particularly attractive anti-plasticizers because they are relatively easy to prepare from inexpensive raw materials, have melting points in the desirable range of 20°-200°C, are essentially free from odor, have high boiling points, and are chemically very stable.
• Z is a member selected from the group consisting of Cl, Br, NH 2 , NO 2 , COOH, OH, carbonyl having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, alkyl having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, alkoxy having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, phenyl, phenoxy and naphthyl, said Z's being the same or different when q is greater than 1.
• halogenated aromatics may be employed, or aryl phosphates or phosphines.
• aryl phosphates or phosphines For example, the chlorine containing compound a, a, 2,3,4,5,6 heptachlorotoluene, when used with a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin maintains a high chlorinated organic level which, in conjunction with about 10-20 phr of antimony of antimony oxide, gives excellent fire resistance properties to many fiber batts and pads.
• PVC polyvinyl chloride
• tetra bromo diphenylene oxide may be used as an anti-plasticizer and fire retardant.
• Suitable addition polymers include those of ethylene, propylene, acrylonitrile, acrylic acid, ethyl aerylate, methyl methacrylate, styrene, vinyl chloride, vinylidene chloride, dibutyl maleate and other vinyl monomers.
• Other resins suitable in the present invention include polyesters such as polyethyleneterephthalate. The polyesters can be produced by condensation polymerization or by the autopolymerization of cyclic esters or by any other known means.
• the weight ratio of the compound (s) to the resin can vary widely but is generally in the ratio of 1:2 to 10:1 and preferably 1:1 to 4:1.
• the plastic alloy may be prepared by mixing and melting together the resin and the anti-plasticizer compound, after which the solution of resin in anti-plasticizer is cooled to solid form, crushed to approximately sand-like consistency, and thereafter, air milled to approximately 10-15 micron size particles.
• the final alloy particles may be prepared by polymerizing the resin from monomer which is dissolved in the anti-plasticizer. In this case the temperature, stirring, catalyst, emulsifying and suspending agents are adjusted by techniques well-known .to those skilled in the art so that the resulting particles of resin alloy, after being centrifuged and dried, are in the desirable size range of 10 to 15 microns and need no further grinding or milling
• the plastic alloy is applied to the web in an amount sufficient to function as an adhesive and generally in a weight ratio of the plastic alloy to the fibers of 1:99 to 40:60 and preferably 3:97 to 35:65.
• the plastic alloy particles generally have a size range of from 1 to 100 and preferably from 6 to 25 microns and ideally 8 to 12 microns. Smaller sizes than about 5 microns tend to agglomerate into larger clumps and to flow poorly. These smaller particles are also undesirably respirable. Larger sizes than 12 microns and particularly sizes larger than 25 microns are increasingly inefficient fiber binders and yield soft, weak batts because of the smaller numbers of bonding sites which they provide in the fiber assembly.
• Natural fibers include those of cotton, wool, linen, hair, jute, and hemp.
• Synthetic fibers include those of glass, mineral wool, polyester, nylon, acrylic, polypropylene and rayon.
• any fiber or mixture of fibers in which the fiber may be new, unused fibers (virgin fibers) or may be waste fibers reclaimed from garment cuttings, fiber manufacturing, or textile processing, and which do not melt or decompose at temperatures below the melting point of the plastic alloy can be employed.
• the preferred fibers are those having a denier of 1 to 22, although finer or coarser fibers can be used.
• the individual fibers of the batt, formed as described above, are then bonded at their intersection by melting and refreezing the plastic alloy particles.
• the apparatus 10 comprises an opener or a garnett 11, a particle dispenser 12, a cross-laying mechanism 13 and, as shown in Figure 2, an oven 14.
• the garnett 11 comprises an inlet chute 18 adapted to feed bulk fibers to the rotating drum 19 of the garnett 11.
• the garnett 11 is also provided with a plurality of toothed rolls 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 which together with the teeth (not shown) on the drum 19 take bulk fibers 20 and convert them to a web which adheres to the drum 19.
• the web adhering to the drum 19 is transferred to the drum 28 where it is removed by a comb 29.
• the web 31 that is now only between 1 and 100 fibers thick and is barely self-supporting enters the particle dispenser 12. While in the particle dispenser 12 the web 31 is contacted with particles 33,34 of plastic alloy.
• the web 39 then goes to the conveyor 41 and thence to the conveyor 42.
• the lower end of the conveyor 42 is attached to a traveller 43 which moves back and forth on the track 44.
• the conveyor 42 is positioned above and at right angles to other conveyor 45.
• the apparatus is adjusted such that the speed of the conveyor 42 is several times faster than the speed of the conveyor 45.
• the web 39 is cross-laid back and forth on the conveyor 45 thus forming an unheat-treated batt 47.
• the unheat-treated batt 47 passes into a curing oven 14 supported by a foraminous belt, or in some cases between foraminous belts 49 and 50. (See Figure 3).
• the oven 14 the particles of plastic alloy melt and thereby bind the fibers together.
• the oven 14 is provided with heating means 52 in which temperature can be controlled by a thermostat 53.
• the oven 14 is also provided with air circulating means not shown that causes the air to circulate in the direction shown by the arrows 55 and 56.
• the resultant product is the final heat-treated batt 58.
• This batt is subsequently fed again between feed rolls and a nose bar 117 and once again plucked by a saw-toothed lickerin roll 118.
• the fibers are then formed a second time into a batt by the same process of condensing them on two perforated rolls 119 so that as these rolls turn the batt 110 forms in the gap between them.
• Items A and B are dry blended in powder form in a high intensity mixer for 5-10 minutes at 160°C whereupon item A melts and item B dissolves in it to form a single phase.
• the mixture of items A and B is then cooled, removed from the mixer and, ground to an average particle size of 12 microns.
• the resultant material is a particulate plastic alloy which has a melting point of approximately 140°C and is useful in the present invention.
• the PVC homopolymer by itself does not melt but begins to decompose at 215°C and has no use as a fiber binder.
• Example 1 the melting point of the resulting plastic alloy is 126°C, 14°C lower than in Example 1 because the use of the two crystalline compounds together may result in a lower melting point than with either used alone.
• a pilot production line was set up to produce a batt or pad from a mix of recycled polyester and cotton fibers. The line speeds and settings were adjusted to make this pad 1" thick and with a density of 4 oz. per square foot.
• the resin feeder was set to apply 15% resin, based on the weight of the fiber used. This basic set-up was used with four different resins in runs 10, 11, 12 and 13 as charted below, and with four different resin alloys 14, 15, 16 and 17 also as described below.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Textile Engineering (AREA)
• Reinforced Plastic Materials (AREA)

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• 1986
  • 1986-10-08 HU HU864208A patent/HUT46752A/hu unknown
• 1987
  • 1987-03-06 WO PCT/US1987/000440 patent/WO1987005639A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1987-03-06 EP EP19870901970 patent/EP0261175A4/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 1987-03-11 CN CN198787102669A patent/CN87102669A/zh active Pending

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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