FI93091C - Filling mat and method of making it - Google Patents

Description

93091 Filling mat and method of making the same

The invention relates to the filling material mat shown in the preamble of claim 1 and to the method for forming the filling material mat shown in the preamble of claim 3.

According to the current technology, the carpets used as padding in bedding, room-10 furniture and clothes consist of fibers that have been brought together on a substrate, e.g. by means of an air flow. In that carpet structure, the fibers are firmly joined together to form a rather dense structure. When the mat 15 formed by this structure is used as an inner part of various textiles, a sufficiently good "descendability" is then not achieved, i.e. flexibility, dimensional stability and insulating ability. In addition, this method is limited to the use of relatively thick (more than 6 dtex) fibers 20.

In addition, a method is known in which a mat of filling material is formed in a way inside the finished product by blowing down-like bundles of fibers or other particles which form a padding. The rug does not stay well together and, for example, in bedding, it easily accumulates somewhere. Furthermore, the blowing method is limited to padding only materials that are permeable to air.

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Finnish patent application 901184 further discloses a mat formed of separate fiber piles bonded together by means of bonding fibers. This can improve the flexibility, shape stability and thermal insulation of the above products without compromising other properties. The processability of the carpet in its manufacture into a final product also does not suffer from this.

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This technique always requires the use of a special "spherical fiber material". To date, no material has been found which would give the finished product some better properties than the technique presented in the above-mentioned Finnish patent application 901184, for example better resilience, but at the same time other properties of the product such as stiffness could be adjusted.

The object of the invention is to provide a new carpet filling material, in the production of which a readily available and easily handled raw material can be used. To achieve this object, the mat according to the invention is mainly characterized by what is set forth in the characterizing part of claim 1. According to the invention, the particles forming the mat are pieces of foam which are joined together by means of binder fibers in the heat treatment due to at least partially melted or softened binder fibers 20 and / or pieces of foam. The foam pieces are easy to handle and have excellent thermal insulation and resilience, which also gives the final product the desired resilience. In addition, this material is abundantly available, for example, as a waste and by-product of the 25 whole foam pieces or foam pieces industry. Foam pieces have previously been used loose, e.g. as a cushion filling and e.g. as blown fillings for sofa seat parts, where the pieces tend to accumulate at certain points during use and make the structure lumpy. As a mat-like permanent structure, foam has hitherto been used only in foam mattresses and other articles in which the foam forms a single unitary 35 continuous body.

The object of the invention is also to provide a method by which the above-mentioned filling material mat can be produced.

li 3 93091 To achieve this object, the method according to the invention is mainly characterized by what is stated in the characterizing part of claim 3. The mat is formed by bringing the separate foam particles 5 and the binder fibers together into a single layer, after which the layer is subjected to a heat treatment in which the binder fibers and / or the foam pieces at least partially melt or soften together.

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The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a mat according to the invention in cross-section, Figure 2 shows the use of a mat in a finished product, and Figure 3 schematically shows a line for manufacturing a mat.

Figure 1 shows a non-filling structure according to the invention. The mat comprises separate parts 1, 25 which are formed of foam. The term foam refers to all polymeric materials prepared either separately from the blend or from the raw material of the production reaction among the raw material in liquid form, and includes various polyurethane foams, latex foams: · foams obtained by foaming, etc. arises from cavities that lower the density of the material. The diameter and shape of the foam pieces 35 can vary over a wide range, they can be e.g. strips, cubes or the like irregular or regular pieces with a longest dimension of e.g. 2-20 mm.

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The pieces of foam 1 are bonded to each other by bonding fibers 2, which may be about 15-80% by weight of the total weight of the mat. By increasing the amount of foam, the resilience of the product can be increased because the pieces of foam are resilient.

5 Increasing the amount of fibers can again increase the breathability of the product and reduce the ability to absorb moisture. The binder fibers are preferably thermoplastic fibers, such as polyester fibers, polypropylene fibers, polyethylene fibers or fibers consisting of a copolymer of the above-mentioned polymeric materials, or also a fiber which is a physical mixture of the above-mentioned polymers. By performing thermal bonding on the carpet, many types of foam pieces 1 can be adhered to each other due to the gluing effect 15 of the softening and / or fusible bonding fibers 2.

Another alternative, which may be possible with suitable foam materials, is to carry out the thermal bonding by allowing the foam pieces 1 to melt or soften so that they adhere to the binder fibers, which in this case can also be non-meltable material. If the foam pieces soften to an adhesive, for example in the temperature range of 140 to 160 ° C, then polyester fibers which soften at a higher temperature can be used, and the bonding temperature can be maintained in the softening range of the above-mentioned foam. Similarly, both the foam pieces and the fibers can be softened in the heat treatment to the adhesive space using softening materials in the same temperature range, or only the fibers can be softened by using the foam pieces to soften the fibers at a lower temperature. The latter option is also advantageous in the event that heat treatment at a higher temperature would damage the structure of the foam. A variety of 35 synthetic fiber materials and foam materials offer a wide range of processing temperature options.

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The stiffness of the product can also be adjusted by means of the above factors. If only one of the material groups of fibers / foam pieces is softened to an adhesive, a more flexible product is usually obtained.

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Figure 2 shows the use of the mat in the finished product. The mat according to the invention is placed between the two surface layers 3 to form e.g. clothes, seat cushions, blankets, sleeping bags and 10 cushions. In addition, the layers can be joined to each other on opposite sides by stitching in a manner known per se, and this point is illustrated by reference numeral 4 in Fig. 2. As can be seen from the figure, due to the carpet-sized structure, foam pieces 1 also remain between stitches. The carpet can also be attached only to another surface layer 3, e.g. of textile material, which forms an outer surface in the structure to be upholstered.

Fig. 3 shows a side view of a production line of a mat according to the invention, and with reference to this figure, a method of manufacturing a mat will be described below. As a raw material, either finished pieces of foam left over from the manufacture of cushion fillings or pieces obtained by chopping pieces left over from the production of larger pieces of foam, such as mattresses, can be used. In step 5a, pieces of foam are fed, e.g. in the form of bales, to the conveyor 5 below, and then in the next step 5b, the bonding fibers are fed onto the conveyor. Preliminary mixing of the mixture is performed by means of a milling and mixing roller 5c downstream of the conveyor. The substances are then conveyed along the duct 5d by means of an air flow to the opening machines 6, where 35 substances are further mixed by means of various milling and mixing rollers. After the opening machines 6, the substances are blown along a line 6a to a device 7 which, by means of rollers and conveyors, dispenses the mixture 6 95091 onto the surface of a rapidly rotating spike roll 8. the air flow 5 is led. The mat is then passed to a heat bonding flat dryer 10, where the final bonding to a cohesive mat is performed as described above. The planar dryer has a conveyor 10a that conveys the mat through a space at the desired bonding temperature.

After the planar dryer 10, press rolls 10b follow, which level the mat, after which the mat is possibly passed through a slitter 11 to a winding device, where it can be wound into a spool comprising a mat, e.g. 50 m long. Instead of winding, the mat can also be cut into suitably long pieces.

The resulting intermediate can then be used in all sites where a standard, previously known mat is used. Advantages of using the mat according to the invention 20 in the clothing industry include e.g. the fact that it can replace the blowing method by which the wadding has previously been blown between the outer layers. The mat according to the invention is easy to handle as an intermediate because it stays well together and is therefore easy to machine, e.g. cut into patterns. The mat also stays in place better than blown fiber. The "descendability" or flexibility of the resulting garment is also better than previous products because it consists of separate pieces of foam 30 and not a uniform, structure-stiffening material. Compared to blown products, better thermal insulation is also achieved, because due to the properties of the carpet (shape stability) the carpet is also under stitching, which is also illustrated in Figure 35 2. In addition, due to easy handling and good cohesiveness, the carpet can be laminated to the fabric. In addition, more surface materials can be used than in the blowing method because

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7 93091 The blowing method has always required air-permeable surface materials.

In the furniture industry, the use of the mat 5 according to the invention provides the same advantages as above, in addition to which it can be mentioned that the production of seat cushions is considerably faster when using the mat than with the blowing method. The manufacture of various blankets, sleeping bags and pillows also has the same advantages as above, in addition to which it can be mentioned that the mat according to the invention stays in place better and does not necessarily require gate stitches in the blankets.

By means of the invention, it is possible to provide filler materials of varying basis weight and thickness suitable for different objects. For example, 3kg / m2 carpets are suitable as mattresses and approx. 100 g / m2 carpets as various upholstery or padding materials.

Claims (4)

93091 A filling material mat, e.g. for padding or upholstery in the clothing industry, the furniture industry or the bedding industry 5, consisting of separate parts (1) mixed with binder fibers (2), which are bonded to each other by binder fibers (2), the joint being obtained by heat treatment (1) are pieces of foam 10 joined together by means of bonding fibers (2) in heat treatment due to at least partially melted or softened bonding fibers (2) and / or foam pieces. Filling mat according to Claim 1, characterized in that the bonding fibers (2) are made of a thermoplastic material, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or a copolymer thereof, or a mixture of the above-mentioned polymer grades. 20 3. A method for forming a filling mat suitable for padding or upholstery in, for example, the clothing industry, the furniture industry or the bedding industry by bonding together by separate fibers 25 separate particles (1) mixed with the bonding fibers (2) by means of bonding fibers, characterized in that the mat: l) and the binder fibers into a unitary layer, and the layer is subjected to a heat treatment in which the binder fibers and / or the foam pieces at least partially melt or soften together. Method according to Claim 3, characterized in that the particles (1) are bonded to one another by means of bonding fibers (2) made of a thermoplastic, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or one of their copolymers, or a mixture of the above-mentioned polymer grades. 93091