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
  • D04H1/42—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 characterised by the use of certain kinds of fibres insofar as this use has no preponderant influence on the consolidation of the fleece
  • D04H1/4326—Condensation or reaction polymers
  • D04H1/4334—Polyamides
• • 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
  • D04H1/42—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 characterised by the use of certain kinds of fibres insofar as this use has no preponderant influence on the consolidation of the fleece
  • D04H1/4266—Natural fibres not provided for in group D04H1/425
• • 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
  • D04H1/44—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 the fleeces or layers being consolidated by mechanical means, e.g. by rolling
  • D04H1/46—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 the fleeces or layers being consolidated by mechanical means, e.g. by rolling by needling or like operations to cause entanglement of fibres
• • 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
  • D04H11/00—Non-woven pile fabrics
  • D04H11/08—Non-woven pile fabrics formed by creation of a pile on at least one surface of a non-woven fabric without addition of pile-forming material, e.g. by needling, by differential shrinking
• • 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
  • D04H17/00—Felting apparatus
• • 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
  • D04H18/00—Needling machines
• • 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
  • D04H5/00—Non woven fabrics formed of mixtures of relatively short fibres and yarns or like filamentary material of substantial length
  • D04H5/02—Non woven fabrics formed of mixtures of relatively short fibres and yarns or like filamentary material of substantial length strengthened or consolidated by mechanical methods, e.g. needling
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
  • A63D—BOWLING GAMES, e.g. SKITTLES, BOCCE OR BOWLS; INSTALLATIONS THEREFOR; BAGATELLE OR SIMILAR GAMES; BILLIARDS
  • A63D15/00—Billiards, e.g. carom billiards or pocket billiards; Billiard tables

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method of manufacturing a non-woven felt suitable for covering cue sports (such as billiards, pool and snooker) and gaming tables.
• the invention further relates to non-woven felt thus obtained and its use in covering of cue sports and gaming tables.
• Standard quality baize is made of a 100% wool woven felted fabric.
• the play characteristics of such a table covering material are mainly generated during the finishing processes of the woven felt, and in particular during the milling process where the fibres in the threads of the woollen yarn are felted together to form a matt surface.
• Both the 100% wool nature and the woven structure of the woollen material used for covering cue sports and gaming tables have been considered to be the prerequisites for generating a felt having good play characteristics.
• a non-woven felt comprised predominately of wool can demonstrate performance and tactile characteristics comparable to those of a high quality woven woollen felt whilst being made by an easier, quicker and less expensive manufacturing process.
• One object of the invention is the production of a wool rich non-woven felt having performance and tactile characteristics comparable to those of a high quality woven woollen felt so that it can be used as a competitive replacement for woven woollen felt as a covering material for cue sports and gaming tables.
• This invention utilises the application of current needling technology followed by finishing techniques that, to date, are usually only applied to woven felts.
• One object of the invention is a method of manufacturing a non-woven felt for use as a covering cloth for cue sports or gaming tables which comprises the following steps:
• the feltable fibres are wool fibres and preferably also the feltable fibres form more than 50 % by weight of the web and preferably more than 60%.
• the blend of fibres may include a proportion of synthetic fibres such as polyamide fibres. Preferably such proportion does not exceed 40% in weight of the total fibres weight.
• the blend of fibres comprises at least 90% of wool fibres and up to 10% of polyamide fibres.
• polyamide fibres are staple fibres having an average thickness ranging between 3.3 decitex and an average fibre length of about 50mm.
• the wool fibres have an average thickness ranging from 20 to 24 microns and an average length ranging between 35 to 40mm.
• the web of fibres is carded and crosslapped to form a multi-layered batt of fibres.
• the number of layers of said multi-layered batt is advantageously superior to 10, and desirably 14 or above.
• the needlefelting step b) of the invention may further comprise the steps of :
• finishing step iii) is advantageously performed by a single needling machine and each board used in step iii) may typically contain an average of around 5000 needles per square metre.
• the method of the invention comprises the additional step(s) of dyeing and/or brushing the felt and in some cases submitting it to a heat-fixing process.
• the felt can be submitted to further dry finishing processes.
• the invention also relates to a non-woven felt obtained by such a method and to the use of such non-woven felt as a covering cloth for tables for the cue sports such as billiards, snooker, pool, and for gambling tables.
• the fibres used in the method of the invention can be solely wool fibres. However a blend of fibres can be used but to achieve an acceptable product it has been found necessary to keep a high proportion of fine wool fibres in the fibre blend. Preferably the percentage of wool fibre should exceed 60% in weight of the total fibres.
• the wool is of Merino type with a thickness of 20-24 microns and a length of 35-40mm. It is advantageous to treat the wool fibres (preferably by carbonising) to remove spurious vegetable matter.
• the non-wool fibres of the blend are entirely or at least predominantly synthetic, for example polyamide fibres.
• these are staple fibres of 3.3 decitex thickness and cut to 50mm fibre length.
• non-woven felts have been produced following the method of the invention described hereinbelow. Good results have been obtained using 100% wool fibres and also blends composed of 90% wool and 10% nylon (polyamide) fibres. As the proportion of nylon fibres in the blend is increased there is an increased risk of the finished product exhibiting "pills" (small surface balls of fibre) during use. For example, felt produced from a blend of 75% wool fibres and 25% nylon fibres exhibited a slight degree of pilling during field testing.
• Non-woven felts of the invention have been made according to the following method which is a preferred embodiment of the invention:
• the selected fibres above described were blended together using an appropriate opening and blending system.
• the Tatham Fearnaught opener and the blending system sold under the trade name Mix Master by the company TEMAFA has been used.
• the fibre blend was then transported to a feed hopper of an appropriate carding system of a type known in the art and capable of producing a commercially acceptable web of fibres from the selected blend.
• an anti-static additive sold by Steve and Thompson Textile under the trade name Dispertat-IP
• Dispertat-IP was applied during blending to facilitate carding and web forming.
• the fibre web formed by the carding machine was then fed to a cross-folding machine to produce a multi-layered batt of fibres for needlepunching. It has been preferred to use a cross folding machine having a "profiling" capability to minimise any cross width weight variation in the fibre batt.
• a cross folding machine having a "profiling" capability to minimise any cross width weight variation in the fibre batt.
• Such a machine is the Profile 400 sold by the company ASSELIN.
• the number of layers of web that are needed to is dependent on the weight consistency of the web produced by the carding machine and determines the required weight of the end product.
• the number of layers used for the preferred embodiment was 14 and preferably the number of layers of web should not be less than 10 and preferably 14 or more.
• the width of the multi-layered batt depends on the required product width taking into account the drafting and shrinkage which occurs during subsequent processing.
• Needlefelting techniques are known techniques for producing a non-woven fabric.
• An appropriate blend of fibres, either dyed or undyed, was carded and cross-lapped to form a substantially horizontal fibre web.
• the fibres of the web were provided in a generally planar configuration and were superimposed according to successive horizontal patterns.
• This fibre web was then passed through a needlefelting machine having at least one panel of barbed needles (or needleboard).
• the machine has needleboards arranged on opposite sides of the fabric which may be arranged successively.
• barbed needles of each needleboard were punched through the fabric web and then removed.
• the passage of the barbed needles through the fibre web provoked an entanglement of the fibres as the barbs of the needles carried some portion of the fibres along their pathway.
• the cross folded multi-layered batt of fibres was fed into a pre-needling machine of the kind sold by the Austrian Company Textiles Maschinenfabrik Dr E. Fehrer AG. It was advantageous to use a pre-needling machine which incorporates an angled needling system such as the system known as "Fehrer H1 Technology" which is described in US patent No 5,699,596. Such machine is provided with curved needleboards allowing the needles to penetrates the batt at various angles and not only at a 90° angle. The fibres in the batt are thus entangled more efficiently.
• Needle punch density depends on the machine used and needle board configuration. It is preferable to set a needle punch density that minimises any potential patterning effect from the needle board configuration.
• the machine used in the preferred embodiment of the invention was the Fehrer H1 needlepunching machine with an average of 5000 needles per square metre with a curved needleboard. The punch density was about 170 punches per square centimetre with a needle penetration of 10 mm. The use of Fehrer's H1 needling machine is advantageous but not essential.
• the needles used were 42 gauge 3 inch length with regular barbs.
• the pre-needled batt of fibres, together with an appropriate scrim material was processed through a finish needling machine or series of finish needling machines.
• the scrim material allowed adequate support and strength (see paragraph below).
• the finish needling operation using a single needling machine set with two needle boards, one punching down and one punching up, each board containing an average of 5000 needles per metre of width.
• the first board was of up punch configuration and the second board of down punch configuration. With this configuration, the scrim material was fed into the finish needling machine from above the fibre batt.
• the first (up punch) needle board of the finish needling machine needled the fibres from the fibre batt through the scrim material and the second (down punch) needle board needled fibres back through the scrim material into the fibre batt.
• the Fehrer's H1 needling machine previously mentioned was used with good result as a finish needling machine.
• the needles used for finish needling were 3 inches 42 gauge needles with regular barbs but their characteristic could vary depending on the specific results required. Draft, needle penetration depth and penetration density also varied according to product requirements and, by varying these parameters, it was possible to alter the surface appearance and wear characteristics of the product. In the preferred embodiment good results were achieved punching at densities of 180 punches per square centimetre on both needle boards with the first board at 13mm penetration depth and the second board at 6mm penetration depth.
• a variety of scrim designs could be used as support material for the felt. Scrim selection ensured that adequate support and strength was given to the material during the dyeing and finishing processes together with appropriate strength and extension during table fitting and in use. Although a variety of scrims were appropriate, in practice a warp knitted product was preferred.
• the scrim used for the preferred embodiment was made of a polyamide filament yarn such as the polyamide blend which was used when the blend of fibres was not 100% wool. This enabled the product to be dyed compatibly with the felt producing a more pleasing aesthetic appearance.
• the scrim weight was kept as low as possible once performance characteristics were met. In the preferred embodiment the scrim constituted less than 25% of the total product weight.
• the fulling or milling process could be carried out using either traditional woollen rotary milling machine or the flat roller hardening machine used in the woollen felt industry. Typically a common rotary milling machine was used.
• the felt in rope form was subjected to moisture heat and pressure facilitating, due to the wool fibre's scale structure, increasing fibre entanglement and felt consolidation.
• the felt integrity was advantageously supported and maintained by the scrim material.
• the rotary milling machine shrunk the felt in all three dimensions, the shrinkage in each dimension being varied and controlled by the machine settings and process time.
• shrinkage of the material lengthways was minimal.
• the exact degree of shrinkage and consolidation required from the milling process depended on the density and character needed for the finished product. Typically dimensional reductions ranging from 10 to 35% were achieved.
• the material was dyed.
• the dyeing process could be carried out using one of a number of conventional machines appropriate for woollen goods.
• a Winch Beck machine was used but jet dyeing, jig dyeing and beam dyeing were all practical.
• the fibres constituting the blend could be dyed as loose fibre stock before processing.
• this method reduced the potential for colour flexibility and was less commercially viable.
• the scrim helped to support the felt and maintain its dimensional stability.
• the use of a polyamide scrim enabled the scrim to be dyed to the same colour as the felt as wool and polyamide fibres can be dyed with the same class of dyestuffs.
• the material was then subjected to a heat setting process to "fix” the surface appearance.
• Traditional "potting”, “crabbing” or “decating equipment” could be used.
• Continuous crabbing or decating machines were used and were particularly effective. These techniques are well known in the art and do not need to be described. As with the face finishing process outlined above this process could be applied to the material before dyeing.
• Drying of the material was carried out using a single or multi-layer stenter or tenter.
• the stage at which drying took place varied depending on the required finish and selected process route.
• the dried material was cropped on the face side and optionally the back side. This process was carried out using a traditional textile shearing or cropping machine having one or more shearing heads. The length of fibre left after shearing was controlled by altering the machine settings and depended on the requirements for the end product.
• non-woven felts obtained according to this preferred method demonstrated all the desirable characteristics of standard woven felts while being less expensive.
• the addition of a small proportion of synthetic fibres is believed to have enhanced the durability of the material.
• the material could be subjected to further dry finishing processes. Depending on the end use these can include steaming, brushing, decating or blowing and pressing. These processes, individually or in combination, can enhance the appearance and handle of the material leading to a more pleasing aesthetic appearance and feel.

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Cited By (4)

Citations (7)

• 1998
  • 1998-12-09 GB GBGB9827042.4A patent/GB9827042D0/en not_active Ceased
• 1999
  • 1999-12-03 EP EP99309756A patent/EP1008684A1/fr not_active Withdrawn

Patent Citations (7)

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