EP0391260B1 - Method for manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics - Google Patents

Method for manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0391260B1
EP0391260B1 EP90106062A EP90106062A EP0391260B1 EP 0391260 B1 EP0391260 B1 EP 0391260B1 EP 90106062 A EP90106062 A EP 90106062A EP 90106062 A EP90106062 A EP 90106062A EP 0391260 B1 EP0391260 B1 EP 0391260B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
web
net conveyor
air stream
nonwoven fabric
heat
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP90106062A
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German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
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EP0391260A1 (en
Inventor
Taiju Terakawa
Shingo Horiuchi
Sadaaki Nakajima
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
JNC Corp
Original Assignee
Chisso Corp
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Publication of EP0391260A1 publication Critical patent/EP0391260A1/en
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Publication of EP0391260B1 publication Critical patent/EP0391260B1/en
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    • 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
    • D04H3/00—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of yarns or like filamentary material of substantial length
    • D04H3/08—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of yarns or like filamentary material of substantial length characterised by the method of strengthening or consolidating
    • D04H3/16—Non-woven fabrics formed wholly or mainly of yarns or like filamentary material of substantial length characterised by the method of strengthening or consolidating with bonds between thermoplastic filaments produced in association with filament formation, e.g. immediately following extrusion

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics. More specifically, this invention is concerned with a method for manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics suitable for surfacings for disposable diapers, interlinings or waddings for clothing and so on.
  • spun bonding techniques for making nonwoven fabrics by drawing and stretching a fiber bundle comprising a plurality of single fibers spun out of a spinneret with a high-speed stream of air and depositing it on a net conveyor to form a web, followed by heat treatments, some of which have been carried out on an industrial scale.
  • spun bonding techniques known for obtaining bulky nonwoven fabrics Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1471/1973
  • latently crimpable composite fibers are deposited on a net conveyor to form a web, which is then heat-treated into a crimped nonwoven fabric.
  • Japanese crimping composite fibers are formed into a fiber bundle, which is then deposited on a net conveyor to form a web to be processed into an nonwoven fabric.
  • an exhaust device is provided back side of a region of the net conveyor against which the web is to be blown, thereby passing and sucking a substantially whole portion of the air stream through the net conveyor.
  • the web is pressed against the net conveyor by the force of a high-speed air stream blown against it and the suction force of the exhaust device, as mentioned above.
  • the web is delivered to the next heat treatment step while it remains firmly engaged with the net conveyor.
  • any free development of crimps is inhibited even though the fibers are heat-treated so as to develop crimps, since they are firmly engaged and entangled in the net.
  • This tends to offer such disadvantages as insufficient bulking, occurrence of unevenness of shrinkage and density on the web, and transfer of the network pattern of the net conveyor to the back side of the nonwoven fabric.
  • Such disadvantages are liable to occur particularly in manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics of low unit-weight, which are used as the surfacings for disposable diapers, etc., and moreover have an influence upon commercial value. It is thus strongly desired to eliminate such disadvantages.
  • the present inventors have found that the desired object is achievable by the provision of a method for manufacturing nonwoven fabrics in which a fiber bundle comprising a plurality of composite fibers spun out of a spinneret is drawn by a drawing force of a high-speed air stream and blown against a working net conveyor while said air stream is sucked and removed from below the net conveyor to deposit said fiber bundle on the net conveyor to form a web, and the web is then heat-treated to develop crimps, and the fibers thermally adhere together at their points of contact, said method being characterized in that an air stream is blown against said web from below said net conveyor for a time before the heat-treatment, with an intensity sufficient to float said web of which bottom face (as explained later) rises above said net conveyor by 0.2 to 30 mm.
  • thermoplastic resins are supplied to a composite spinneret 1, out of which a fiber bundle 2 comprising a plurality of heat-bondable composite fibers is spun.
  • the fiber bundle 2 is then drawn by a high-speed air stream sucker 3 and blown against and deposited on a working net conveyor 4 to form a web 5.
  • a substantial portion of the high-speed air stream is sucked and removed by an exhaust unit 8 located back side thereof, whereby the web 5 is brought into close contact with the net conveyor 4 to stabilize its shape.
  • the thus shape-stabilized web 5 moves with the net conveyor 4.
  • the web 5 is made to float above the net conveyor 4 according to the characteristic feature of the present invention. More specifically, with an air stream blower 9 located before the position at which the web 5 reaches a heating furnace 6, an air stream is blown against the web 5 from below the net conveyor 4 to make the web 5 to float in such a manner that the bottom face of the web 5 rises above the net conveyor 4 by 0.2 to 30 mm. (It is here to be noted that in a strict sense, there is no continuous bottom face, but, in the present diclsoure, the assumed plane contacting the bottom of the web 5 is referred to as the bottom face of the web).
  • the web 5 After passing above the air stream blower 9, the web 5 is relocated on the net conveyor 4, while the fibers are not entangled in the net. In this state, the web 5 is delivered with the net conveyor 4 into a heating furnace 6, wherein it is heat-treated to permit free development of crimps without being adversely affected, while the fibers are fixed together by the heat-adhesion of a low-melting component at their points of contact, thus giving a nonwoven fabric (7) of sufficient bulkiness.
  • the air stream blower 9 used may be of any type that the desired amount of an air stream is blown against the web uniformly across its widthwise direction.
  • a blower having a nozzle including a number of holes as shown in Figure II-a
  • a blower having a slitted nozzle as shown in Figure II-b
  • a blower having a multiplicity of nozzles located in the lengthwise direction of the web as shown in Figure II-c.
  • FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the heating furnace 6 having two stages of far-infrared type heaters.
  • the heat-bondable composite fibers used to obtain bulky nonwoven fabrics in the present invention are obtained by composite-spinning two or more sorts of thermoplastic resins having a difference of 10°C or more, preferably 15°C or more, between their melting points, the types of the composite fibers being in the form of a parallel, sheath-core or islands-in-sea form in which a low-melting resin occupies greater part than a half of the fibers' surfaces.
  • Such composite fibers can successfully develop crimps through the heat-treatment of conditions suitably selected in the above heating furnace, and can be bonded and fixed together at their points of contact by the melt of the low-melting resin alone, thus giving a bulky and strong nonwoven fabric.
  • thermoplastic resins examples include crystalline polypropylene/high density polyethylene, crystalline polypropylene/ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers, polyethyleneterephthalate/high density polyethylene, nylon 66/nylon 6, and others.
  • the fineness of a single filament of the composite fibers and the number of crimps developed by heat treatments are suitably selected from a range 0.1 to 15 deniers and a range of 4 to 60 crimps/25 mm, respectively, depending upon the purposes of nonwoven fabrics.
  • the density of nonwoven fabrics may suitably be selected from a wide range depending upon the purposes, e.g., a range of 0.005 to 0.02 g/cm3 for the purpose of clothing waddings, a range of 0.01 to 0.05 g/cm3 for the purpose of sanitary material surfacings and a range of 0.04 g/cm3 or more for the purpose of clothing interlinings.
  • test pieces each of 5 cm ⁇ 20 cm, were obtained from a sample in its warp and weft directions according to the measuring method JIS L 1085 (tesing procedures for nonwoven fabric interlinings) - "Tensile Strength and Elongation" -, and were then tested at a grip gap of 10 cm and a tensile speed of 30 cm/min. to determine their breaking strength in kg/5 cm and elongation in %, which were then averaged.
  • a bulky nonwoven fabric was manufactured with a system similar to that shown in Figure 1.
  • Crystalline polypropylene with a melt flow rate (MFR for short) of 22 as measured under the conditions specified in JIS K 7210, Condition 14 in Table 1) and high density polyethylene (with an MFR of 20 as measured under the conditions specified in JIS K 7210, Condition 4 in Table 1) were respectively supplied from extruders (A) and (B), both not shown, to a side-by-side type of composite spinneret 1 having 198 holes in a constant amount of 40 g/min. to spin composite fibers comprising the above two components and having a fineness of 1.8 d/f (deniers per filament) into a fiber bundle 2.
  • MFR melt flow rate
  • the web 5 was again settled on the net conveyor. Then, the web 5 was passed through a heating furnace 6 provided with a far-infrared type heater and adjusted to 140°C at the first stage and 150°C at the second stage for a period of 70 seconds for heat treatments. Finally, the web 5 was cooled off to obtain an nonwoven fabric 7.
  • a heating furnace 6 provided with a far-infrared type heater and adjusted to 140°C at the first stage and 150°C at the second stage for a period of 70 seconds for heat treatments.
  • the web 5 was cooled off to obtain an nonwoven fabric 7.
  • sprial crimps of 24 crimps/25 mm were developed by such heat treatments.
  • the composite fibers were fixed together at their points of contact by the heat-adhesion of high density polyethylene.
  • the thus obtained nonwoven fabric had a unit-weight of 23 g/m2, a thickness of 1.53 mm, a density of 0.015 g/cm3, a strength of 2,450 g/5 cm in the warp direction and 1,510 g/5 cm in the weft direction, and an elongation of 70 % in the warp direction and 46 % in the weft direction, and the nonwoven fabric was uniform and free from any wrinkle and network pattern on its both front and back sides.
  • This nonwoven fabric was found to be best-suited for disposable diapers surfacings.
  • polyethylene terephthalate with an intrinsic viscosity of 0.65
  • linear low-density polyethylene with an MFR of 20 as measured under the conditions specified in JIS K 7210, Condition 4 in Table 1
  • the obtained web 5 was processed at a drawing air stream speed of 1,450 m/min., a net conveyor speed of 6.8 m/min. and a floating height of web of about 8 mm, and was then thermally treated through a heating furnace 6 adjusted to 142°C at both the first and second stages for a period of 2 minutes to obtain a nonwoven fabric 7.
  • spiral crimps of 20 crimps/25 mm were developed by such heat treatments.
  • the nonwoven fabric 7 had a unit-weight of 40 g/m2, a thickness of 2.35 mm, a density of 0.017 g/cm3, a strength of 5,860 g/5 cm in the warp direction and 3,260 g/5 cm in the weft direction, and an elongation of 47 % in the warp direction and 44 % in the weft direction, and was so free from any wrinkle and network pattern on its both front and back sides that it was uniform.
  • This nonwoven fabric was found to be best-suited for middle layer material in disposable diapers or clothing interlinings.
  • Example 2 With a similar system as used in Example 1, crystalline polypropylene (with an MFR of 21) and propylene copolymer (with an MFR of 11 and consisting of 92 wt. % of propylene, 3.5 wt. % of ethylene and 4.5 wt. % of butene-1)were supplied from extruders (A) and (B), respectively.
  • the obtained web 5 was processed under the same conditions as applied in Example 1, provided that it was floated about 5-mm above a net conveyor 4, thereby obtaining a nonwoven fabric 7. Under such conditions, spiral crimps of 36 crimps/25 mm were developed in the composite fiber.
  • the thus obtained nonwoven fabric 7 had a unit-weight of 26 g/m2, a thickness of 2.0 mm, a density of 0.013 g/cm3, a strength of 2,410 g/5 cm in the warp direction and 1,430 g/5 cm in the weft direction, and an elongation of 36 % in the warp direction and 32 % in the weft direction, and was so free from any wrinkle and network patteren on its both front and back sides that it was uniform.
  • This nonwoven fabric was found to be best-suited for surfacings or middle layer material in disposable diapers.
  • a nonwoven fabric was obtained under the same conditions as applied in Example 1, provided however that no air was blown against a web 5 deposited on a net conveyor 4 to float the former above the latter.
  • the obtained nonwoven fabric had a unit-weight of 21 g/m2, a thickness of 0.81 mm, a density of 0.026 g/cm3, a strength of 3,020 g/5 cm in the warp direction and 1,930 g/5 cm in the weft direction, and an elongation of 63 % in the warp direction and 32 % in the weft direction, and was slightly wrinkled on its front side and scattered with network spots on its back side.
  • This nonwoven fabric could not be used as disposable diapers' surfacings because of having large strength but being inferior in bukiness and uniformity.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Textile Engineering (AREA)
  • Nonwoven Fabrics (AREA)
EP90106062A 1989-04-06 1990-03-29 Method for manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics Expired - Lifetime EP0391260B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP1087559A JP2849919B2 (ja) 1989-04-06 1989-04-06 嵩高不織布の製造方法
JP87559/89 1989-04-06

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0391260A1 EP0391260A1 (en) 1990-10-10
EP0391260B1 true EP0391260B1 (en) 1994-06-22

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EP90106062A Expired - Lifetime EP0391260B1 (en) 1989-04-06 1990-03-29 Method for manufacturing bulky nonwoven fabrics

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EP (1) EP0391260B1 (ja)
JP (1) JP2849919B2 (ja)
DE (1) DE69010048T2 (ja)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5382400A (en) 1992-08-21 1995-01-17 Kimberly-Clark Corporation Nonwoven multicomponent polymeric fabric and method for making same
US5643662A (en) 1992-11-12 1997-07-01 Kimberly-Clark Corporation Hydrophilic, multicomponent polymeric strands and nonwoven fabrics made therewith
US6500538B1 (en) 1992-12-28 2002-12-31 Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. Polymeric strands including a propylene polymer composition and nonwoven fabric and articles made therewith
US6984276B2 (en) 2001-12-21 2006-01-10 Invista North America S.Arl. Method for preparing high bulk composite sheets
US7036197B2 (en) 2001-12-21 2006-05-02 Invista North America S.A.R.L. Stretchable multiple-component nonwoven fabrics and methods for preparing
CN1869307B (zh) * 2005-05-25 2011-06-22 赖芬豪泽机械工厂有限及两合有限公司 制造纺粘织物的方法及其装置

Families Citing this family (11)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE4305271C2 (de) * 1993-02-20 2000-06-08 Corovin Gmbh Verbundvlies sowie Verfahren zur Herstellung eines Verbundvlieses
US5798305A (en) * 1994-07-04 1998-08-25 Chisso Corporation Hot-melt-adhesive conjugate fibers and a non-woven fabric using the fibers
JPH0874128A (ja) * 1994-07-04 1996-03-19 Chisso Corp 熱融着性複合繊維およびその繊維を用いた不織布
DE69631716T2 (de) * 1995-06-06 2004-07-22 Chisso Corp. Endlosfaservliesstoff und Verfahren zur Herstellung
JP3658884B2 (ja) * 1996-09-11 2005-06-08 チッソ株式会社 複合長繊維不織布の製造方法
DE19733493C2 (de) * 1997-08-01 1999-05-12 Corovin Gmbh Verfahren zur Herstellung eines Spinnvlieses aus thermobondierten gekräuselten Bikomponentenfasern
US20030118816A1 (en) * 2001-12-21 2003-06-26 Polanco Braulio A. High loft low density nonwoven webs of crimped filaments and methods of making same
PL1726700T3 (pl) * 2005-05-25 2013-08-30 Reifenhaeuser Masch Sposób i urządzenie do wytwarzania włókniny "spod filiery"
KR101319183B1 (ko) * 2011-08-02 2013-10-18 도레이첨단소재 주식회사 개선된 특성을 갖는 복합방사 장섬유 스펀본드 다층 부직포 및 그 제조방법
JP6714982B2 (ja) * 2014-08-15 2020-07-01 旭化成株式会社 嵩高性複合長繊維不織布
CZ2018647A3 (cs) * 2018-11-23 2020-06-03 Reifenhäuser GmbH & Co. KG Maschinenfabrik Objemná netkaná textilie se zvýšenou stlačitelností a zlepšenou schopností regenerace

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* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE853745C (de) * 1951-02-27 1952-10-27 Heinrich Abel Kaschierter Textilstoff sowie Verfahren und Vorrichtung zu seiner Herstellung
JPS481471A (ja) * 1971-06-01 1973-01-10
US3878014A (en) * 1973-04-30 1975-04-15 Beloit Corp Process for matting melt blow microfibers
DE2704034A1 (de) * 1977-02-01 1978-08-03 Schickedanz Ver Papierwerk Verfahren und vorrichtung zum herstellen von faserstoffbahnen
JPS6166262A (ja) * 1984-09-07 1986-04-05 Mitsubishi Electric Corp デイジタル信号記録・再生装置

Cited By (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5382400A (en) 1992-08-21 1995-01-17 Kimberly-Clark Corporation Nonwoven multicomponent polymeric fabric and method for making same
US5418045A (en) 1992-08-21 1995-05-23 Kimberly-Clark Corporation Nonwoven multicomponent polymeric fabric
US5643662A (en) 1992-11-12 1997-07-01 Kimberly-Clark Corporation Hydrophilic, multicomponent polymeric strands and nonwoven fabrics made therewith
US6500538B1 (en) 1992-12-28 2002-12-31 Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. Polymeric strands including a propylene polymer composition and nonwoven fabric and articles made therewith
US6984276B2 (en) 2001-12-21 2006-01-10 Invista North America S.Arl. Method for preparing high bulk composite sheets
US7036197B2 (en) 2001-12-21 2006-05-02 Invista North America S.A.R.L. Stretchable multiple-component nonwoven fabrics and methods for preparing
US8252706B2 (en) 2001-12-21 2012-08-28 Invista North America S.àr.l. Stretchable multiple component nonwoven fabrics and methods for preparing
CN1869307B (zh) * 2005-05-25 2011-06-22 赖芬豪泽机械工厂有限及两合有限公司 制造纺粘织物的方法及其装置

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPH02269854A (ja) 1990-11-05
DE69010048T2 (de) 1995-02-16
EP0391260A1 (en) 1990-10-10
JP2849919B2 (ja) 1999-01-27
DE69010048D1 (de) 1994-07-28

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