EP0350627A1 - Apparatus for making voluminous fibre layers - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus for making voluminous, heat and sound insulating sheet materials for the textile, clothing and furniture industry, comprising means (6, 9) for feeding in a fibre layer to be processed, periodically moving elements (2, 5) for forming and compressing this layer, and discharge means (3). <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a device for producing voluminous fiber layers with a fiber portion predominantly oriented perpendicularly to the layer plane.

Various branches of industry require voluminous fiber materials for products such as, for example, heat-insulating linings for clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, upholstered furniture, heat and sound-insulating components or the like, which spring back when compressed and return to their original shape. For this purpose, various types of textile composites are used, which are produced either by mechanically stacking individual fiber webs or nonwovens or pneumatically produced random nonwovens.

The layers are mostly held together by sprayed-on dispersion binders or by thermoplastic binding fibers and in some cases also by processing in needling machines. When needling, a fiber portion is aligned in the vertical direction and at the same time the fiber fleece layer is compressed, so that the thickness and thus the heat insulation capacity of the fabric obtained decreases considerably. The volume of the flat structure is maintained if the fiber layer consists of a crimp-shaped fiber web in which the fiber portion oriented in the direction perpendicular to the layer plane predominates.

Various devices are also known with which a fiber layer is folded in a crimp-like manner. According to US Pat. No. 2,638,960, folds are formed in the nonwoven fabric with the help of jaws and a heated knife and pressed into a base provided with a thermoplastic binder.

In the device according to US Pat. No. 2,626,883, the nonwoven fabric is pressed into a toothing of a large drum in order to form crimps or folds and is connected to a support web by application of a binder.

From CS-PS 87 556 a device is known in which a nonwoven fabric is alternately folded with the aid of a pivotable pair of knives and pressed into a backing fabric after application of an adhesive binder.

All known upset folding methods and devices are applicable only in cases where the fabric is directly connected to a support. However, these products are not suitable for the production of voluminous, heat and sound insulating fiber materials, ie without a top or underlayer.

A device for forming compressed folds of nonwoven from carding according to CS-OS 235 494 contains a needle drum, a plate and a body which form a gap into which a removal bar (chipper) protrudes. This then folds the nonwoven, respectively. the fibrous web wavy. The resulting structure must be solidified either by impregnation with a binder or by sticking to a base layer. The fiber layer can also be consolidated in a subsequent sewing process with or without binding threads. The fiber layers produced in such a device thus have a considerable proportion of fibers oriented perpendicularly to the plane of the fabric, but must be consolidated mechanically or with the aid of binders because of a lack of cohesion. As a result, flattening of the entire structure and a return of the fiber orientation to the originally flat orientation occur in both cases, which leads to a considerable reduction in the thickness and volume weight of the structure and an impairment of the desired properties, such as e.g. B. the heat insulation, has the consequence.

The invention has for its object to eliminate the disadvantages of the prior art and a device for producing voluminous fiber layer with a fiber portion predominantly oriented perpendicular to the layer plane to accomplish.

According to the invention, the device consists of a section for feeding a fiber layer such as fiber web, non-woven fabric, fiber ribbon or knitted fabric, a compression section for compressing and forming the fiber layer and a section for discharging the fiber layer. The feed section contains two walls inclined at an angle of 25 ° to 60 °, formed by a metal plate or a system of longitudinally arranged rods or tubes.

The one wall of the feed section advantageously consists of a system of wires arranged in parallel and simultaneously forming a wall of the discharge section. The upsetting section expediently contains a forming element in the form of a strip which is provided with tips on its working surface and can be assigned to a compression strip which works synchronously with it. According to a further variant, the forming element can be formed by a system of mandrels or wires held on a rotatable cylinder.

The main advantage of the device according to the invention lies in the fact that it enables the production of a voluminous fiber layer made of fiber pile, nonwoven fabric, roving and flat textiles without a textile support base.

• Fig. 1 eine Seitenansicht der Vorrichtung;
• Fig. 2 eine Variante der Vorrichtung;
• Fig. 3 die Vorrichtung mit einem Hacker;
• Fig. 4 die Vorrichtung mit einer Leiste;
• Fig. 5 die Leiste mit Vorsprüngen;
• Fig. 6 die Stauchleiste mit Einstichnadeln;
• Fig. 7 ein System von Einstichnadeln;
• Fig. 8 eine Ablieferungssektion aus Siebförderern;
• Fig. 9 eine Variante der Ablieferungssektion;
• Fig. 10 die Austragssektion aus einem System von parallel angeordneten Drähten;
• Fig. 11 die Austragssektion mit einer Metallplatte; und
• Fig. 12 eine weitere Variante der Austragssektion.

Some preferred exemplary embodiments of the device according to the invention are explained in more detail below with reference to the schematic drawing. Show it:

• Figure 1 is a side view of the device.
• 2 shows a variant of the device;
• 3 shows the device with a hacker;
• Figure 4 shows the device with a bar.
• Figure 5 shows the bar with projections.
• 6 shows the upsetting ledge with puncture needles;
• 7 shows a system of puncture needles;
• 8 shows a delivery section from screen conveyors;
• 9 shows a variant of the delivery section;
• 10 shows the discharge section from a system of wires arranged in parallel;
• 11 shows the discharge section with a metal plate; and
• 12 shows a further variant of the discharge section.

As can be seen from FIG. 1, the device consists of a feed section, an upsetting section and a discharge section. The feed section has two walls 6, 9 inclined relative to one another at an angle of approximately 60 ° and a chipper 2 with a needled working edge arranged in the gap opening and pivotable in the direction of the arrow. The upsetting section consists of a conveyor belt 3, one on the circumference longitudinally corrugated roller 7, the central portion of the wall 6 and a compression bar 5. The discharge section is formed by the conveyor belt 3 and a parallel upper boundary wall 6, which in this embodiment is designed as a bent portion of the inclined wall 6.

The fiber web fed to the device is processed in such a way that the chopper 2 and the compression bar 5 vibrate synchronously with one another. If the vibrating chipper 2 is in the lower dead position, the then also curved arcuate compression bar 5 is pulled off the roller 7 and vice versa. The fiber web supplied directly by the card is inserted from above between the walls 6 and 9 and removed by the chipper 2 onto the conveyor belt 3, where it is formed into a folded fiber layer 4 between the conveyor belt 3 and the wall 6. The meltable fiber layer 4 containing fibers is then conveyed into a hot air system 8 and solidified there.

The embodiment of FIG. 2 differs from the device of FIG. 1 only in that the lower portion of the wall 9 follows the circular path of circumferential arcuate compression mandrels 18 and the wall 6 as a grate from z. B. steel wires is formed, through which the held on the roller 7 compression mandrels 18 can pass.

The fiber layer supplied (z. B. a transversely layered nonwoven) is detected when slipping on the wall 9 by the compression mandrels 18 and into which the conveyor belt 3, the hot air system 8 and the exit portion of the wall 6, respectively. of Rostes comprehensive discharge section of the device promoted. The connection of the structure in the longitudinal direction is increased by the currently vibrating compression bar 5 with puncture needles, which is aligned parallel to the conveyor belt 3 and carries out reciprocating movements in the direction of the arrow, the timing of which is coordinated with the number of compression mandrels 18 and the speed of the roller 7 is.

According to an example of application of the device according to the invention, the fiber pile supplied by the card, containing 75% polyester cut fibers and 25% polypropylene binder fibers and having a basis weight of 10 g / m², is conveyed between the walls 6 and 9 of the feed section of the device. The vibrating chopper 2 folds the fibrous web on the conveyor belt 3 into the form of a fiber layer with an adjustable fold height, the folds being pressed together by the compression strip 5. The fiber layer is transported on the conveyor belt 3 into the hot air system 8 and solidified there.

The textile fabric produced in this way has excellent compressive strength, recovery capacity even after prolonged exposure and good thermal insulation properties. It is suitable as a heat-insulating material or lining material for the upholstery industry.

FIG. 3 shows a variant of the device shown in FIG. 1, which in its feed and compression section only has the chipper 2 - ie no compression strip. The movement of the fiber layer 4 is carried out here by the conveyor belt 3.

The upsetting section of the variant according to FIG. 4 contains only the curved bar 5 without the chipper.

As can be seen from FIG. 5, in the device according to FIG. 1 the working surface of the compression bar 5 is provided with tooth-like projections 10. These serve to convert the relevant fiber sections into the position parallel to the plane of the fabric in order to solidify them in this direction.

FIG. 8 shows a compression strip 5 (see also FIGS. 1 and 2) with adjustable puncture needles 11. By penetrating these needles into the fiber layer formed, the structure is better consolidated in the horizontal direction.

According to another variant, a thread system with a proportion of thermoplastic binding fibers is fed into the gaps of the chopper 2 at intervals of 10 mm under a mechanical tension of 0.1 N per thread. After the fibrous web has been compressed into the form of vertically layered fleece folds and after it has passed through the hot air system - to produce adhesion - the longitudinal strength of the voluminous textile fabric increases considerably.

In the device according to FIGS. 1 and 2, the individual puncture needles 12 are mounted so that they can move back and forth in holes in the compression bar 5, which is shown in FIG. 7. The needles 12 are coupled to a device, not shown, which gives them a movement synchronized with the movement of the compression bar 5. The synchronization These movements are carried out so that the needles are pushed out in the working position of the bar 5, while they are pushed into the holes when the bar 5 is removed from the fiber material.

Fig. 8 shows a discharge section of the device, which consists of a pair of sieve conveyors 13, 3.

The discharge section shown in Fig. 9 consists of the sieve conveyor 3 and the lower portion of the wall 6, respectively. a metal plate.

10 shows the wall 6, the lower section of which fulfills the function of the discharge section and is formed from a system of wires arranged in parallel.

11, the discharge section has a separate upper wall 14, which is formed by a system of cooling tubes running in parallel with cooling liquid flowing therein. The wall opens into a heated zone with a grid with holes or slots.

According to FIG. 12, the wall 6 consists of a system of wires, which at its leading edge is provided with a system of smooth needles 15 which are arranged in a row and which enclose the angle of 60 ° with the horizontal plane. These needles 15 are intended for removing the fiber layer from the puncture needles 11 when the compression strip 5 moves back. In addition, in this variant, the wall 6 interacts with a series of smooth needles 16 held in a bar 17. The bar 17 is a way from a device, not shown and movement is issued so that the needles 16 in the lower end position of the bar pass through the wall 6 into the discharge or compression space. The back and forth movement of the bar 17 is synchronized with the similar movement of the compression bar 5 so that the needles 16 penetrate into the delivery space during the striking phase of the bar 5. The needles 16 thus perform the function of a counterhold.

Claims (9)

1.Device for producing voluminous fiber layers with a fiber portion predominantly oriented perpendicularly to the layer plane, consisting of a section for feeding a fiber layer, such as fibrous web, nonwoven fabric, fiber ribbon, knitted fabric, elements for forming and compacting the fiber layer and a section for discharging the formed fiber layer,
characterized,
that the feed section has two walls (6, 9) inclined at an angle of 25 ° to 60 °, formed by metal plates or a system of longitudinally arranged rods or tubes, the forming elements (2, 5, 7) under the end gap of the Walls (6, 9) are arranged and possibly contain mandrels or wires interacting with a synchronously working upsetting bar (5) and the discharge section (14) has a belt or screen conveyor (3) with a pressing device. 2. Device according to claim 1,
characterized,
that the one wall (6) of the feed section by a system is formed by parallel wires, which also represent the wall of the discharge section opening into a binding system. 3. Device according to claims 1 and 2,
characterized,
that the discharge section is provided on the fixed side with a system of needles (15). 4. The device according to claim 1,
characterized,
that the working surface of the upsetting ledge (5) is provided with projections (10) or puncture needles (11; 12). 5. The device according to claim 1,
characterized,
that a system of puncture needles (12) is mounted in the upsetting bar (5) so as to be able to move back and forth and is coupled to a device for giving a synchronized back and forth movement relative to the bar (2). 6. Device according to claims 1, 2 and 3,
characterized,
that above the fixed side of the discharge section a vertically or diagonally reciprocating bar (17) is provided, which is provided with a series of needles (16) passing through the wires of the wall (6) in their lower end position, this movement is synchronized with the movement of the compression bar (5). 7. The device according to claim 1,
characterized,
that the discharge section has a screen conveyor (3) for delivering the fiber layer to a hot air system (8), the upper pressing device of the folded fiber layer being formed by a further screen conveyor (13) or a roller (7). 8. Device according to one of claims 1 to 7, which in a continuously working road between a nonwoven such as. B. a roller card, and a hot air system with horizontal conveyor or sieve drums is installed,
characterized,
that on the input side an additional conveyor for fiber pile resp. another fiber layer is arranged, which opens into the hot air system at least 150 mm above the level of the conveyor belt (3). 9. Device according to one of claims 1 to 8,
characterized,
that in the area of the discharge gap of the two funnel-shaped inclined walls (6, 9) a rotary drive roller (7) with a profiled jacket is arranged that a back and forth vibrating chipper (2) with its profiled working surface in the space below the Discharge gap of the walls (6, 9) protrudes in the area of action of the roller shell, that the transversely oriented compression strip (5) with the chopper (2) carries out synchronized back and forth movements above and parallel to the longitudinal plane of the conveyor belt (3) and that that above the conveyor belt (3) provided Limiting element forms a compression zone for the folded fiber structure (4).

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