GB1593048A

GB1593048A - Yarn products

Info

Publication number: GB1593048A
Application number: GB3467976A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1977-09-01
Filing date: 1977-09-01
Publication date: 1981-07-15
Also published as: IT1084174B

Description

(54) IMPROVED YARN PRODUCTS (71) We, EMILIAN BOBKOWICZ, a Canadian citizen, of 400, Kensington, Westmount, Quebec, Canada, and ANDREW JOHN BOBKO WlCz, a Canadian citizen, of5160 Hampton, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The present invention relates to fabrics and yarns and more particularly, relates to certain specific yarn constructions imparting desired properties to the final yarn and/or fabric.

Generally, the present invention provides a yarn having a certain desired physical property, the yarn being a multi-component yarn, wherein at least one of the components possess the desired physical property.

According to the invention, there are provided fire retardant yarns and fabrics. The desirability of providing yarns and fabrics which have increased fire-retardancy or flameresistance is well known in the art as government standards are set for many products requiring such flame retardancy. The fabric, in its final form, even when it has not been the source of the initial combustion, is often times active in propagating the flame and provides a further feed material for the flames.

As a result, in many countries, flammability tests and standards have been set for fabrics such as household furnishings, wall coverings, automobile and other vehicle interior material.

To date, in the art, various approaches have been taken in order to arrive at yarns and fabrics having the desired flame resistance.

Thus, for instance, it is common in the art to incorporate compounds in synthetic materials to impart a flame retardancy property thereto.

For example, halogen-containing polymers and/or polymers with antimony trioxide, and salts of phosphoric acid, ahve been employed in the manufacture of various articles. Reference may be had to Canadian Patent 884, 253 setting forth various compounds which may be usefully employed in rendering fabrics flame retardent. As will be seen therefrom, the flame-retardent agents are applied to at least one surface of the textile materials to be treated.

A further approach is illustrated in Canadian Patent 951, 227 wherein a fire-retardent agent is added to sizing fluid during the preparation of a fabric.

A still further approach is that shown in Canadian Patent 652, 201 wherein a thermoplastic material is applied to at least one side of the fabric to be treated.

Other references illustrating prior art methods of manufacturing fire-retardent fabrics are as shown in Candian Patent 565,797 and 956,094.

It will be noted that all of the above proposals relate to treating the fabric with a fireretardant agent in order to achieve the desired fire retardancy. Naturally, one solution is to employ a fabric of a normally fire-retardant material. However, such materials which are naturally fire retardant, i.e. glass, do not have the desired properties required in the finished fabric. Thus, for example, the "hand" of a woven glass fabric is not suitable for many applications.

According to the present invention, there is provided a multi-component yarn having fireretardancy properties comprising a first component of an inner carrier, a second component of a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and a third component of an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibers, a substantial portion of said fibers adhering to said polymeric material, at least one of said second and third components possessing fireretardancy properties.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-component yarn having fire-retardancy properties comprising an inner carrier, a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibers adhering to said polymeric material, at least one of said sheath of polymeric material and said outer layer of fibers possessing fire-retardancy properties.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multicomponent yarn having fire-retardancy proporties comprising an inner carrier, a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibres adhering to said polymeric material, at least said sheath of polymeric material and said outer layer of fibres being fire-retardant.

The invention also provides a fabric having fire-retardancy properties, said fabric incorporating yarn according to the invention.

The three-component yarn may comprise an inner carrier, an intermediate layer consisting of a sheath of polymeric material surrounding said inner carrier, and an outer layer consisting of staple fibers adhered to said intermediate layer of a thermoplastic polymer.

Advantageously, in the three-component yarn, the outer fibrous layer is formed of a fire-retardant material, while the inner continuous filament is of either a fire-retardant or a non-fire-retardant material and is chosen for adding other desired properties to the yarn an and fabric formed of said yarn. The intermediate layer of the thermoplastic polymer may be either of a fire-retardant material or non-fireretard ant material depending on the yarn and fabric requirements.

In greater detail, the outer fibrous material may be formed of naturally fire-retardant fibers including, for example, asbestos fibers, Verel* fibers, and Kynol* fibers.

Such naturally fire-resistant fibers are well known to those skilled in the art and may be chosen from such well known material. Alternatively, the fibers may not be naturally fireretardant fibers, but may be ordinarily nonfire-retardant fibers treated with a free-retardant agent to have fire-retardant properties. To this end, the teachings of the prior art may be employed to manufacture such fibers; pertinent to the above are the teachings of references such as Canadian Patent 884 253 and 956 094.

Many well known fire-retardant agents may thus be employed to give normally non-fireretardant fibers such as cotton the desired fire-retardancy properties.

Still further, the outer fibrous layer of the three-component yarn may be manufactured whereby only a portion of the fibers therein have the desired fire-retardancy properties.

Thus, it is well known to those skilled in the art that a blend of non-fire-retardant materials and fire-retardant materials will impart to the final blend certain fire-retardant properties.

Such a blend may be useful for many applications depending on the final fire-retardancy required.

Still further, the intermediate layer of a thermoplatic polymeric material forming the sheath about the inner continuous filament may have fore-retardancy properties. To achieve this end, various fire-retardant agents, which are well known to those skilled in the art, may be added to the thermoplastic ] olymer to render the same fire-retardant. Among such agents are various halogen-containing compounds.

The inner continuous carrier of the threecomponent yarn may be either fire-retardant or non-fire-retardant depending on the required properties. For example, the inner filament may be formed of a glass material which, when combined with the fire-retardant thermoplastic polymeric material and the fire-retardatit fibers forms a completely self-extinguishing yarn. Such a yarn differs from conventional fire-retardant yarns in that a combination of thb fire-retardant materials may be chosen to impart to the yarn, and hence the fabric, the other desired physical properties. For example, a fabric formed of a yarn comprised of an inner glass filament, a fire-retardant polymer, and outer fibers of a material such as Kynol*, has been found to be a completely self-extinguishing yarn with many desirable attributes.

Kynol* fibers have heretofore been very difficult to possess into a yarn due to their "slippery" properties.

Employing the three-component yarn having the fire-retardancy aspect of the present invention, leads to a most desirable yarn. However, for most applications, it has been found advantageous to employ an inner carrier of a nonfire-retardant material thus giving a wider scope for the engineering of the final properties of the yam and fabric. In other words, many known yarns and fabrics have fire-retardancy properties, but are detrimentally affected with regard to other desired properties in achieving the fire redundancy. In the practice of the present invention, the inner carrier may be chosen so as to at least partially offset the loss of any of the other desired properties such as hand and strength.

In certain applications, it may be practical to have the inner carrier and/or the thermoplastic polymeric material of fire-retardant materials with the outer fibers being of a nonfire-retardant material. However, as will be readily understood by those skilled in this art, the same degree of fire retardancy is not achieved as in the above-described embodiments. However, in some instances wherein a high degree of fire-retardancy is not required, such a yarn construction may have certain uses.

As will be readily appreciated, the teachings of the present invention may be expanded to include those yarns other than those comprising three components. For example, mention was made above of the outer fibrous layer being formed of a blend or mixture of fire-retardant fibers and non-fire-retardant fibers. In such a mixture or blend, many differnt combinations are capable of being employed. Thus, for example, the outer fibers may consist of a blend of naturally fire-retardant fibers such as Kynol* along with treated fibers to render the same fire retardant. Alternatively, either naturally fire-retardant fibers or treated fireretardant fibers may be admixed with non-fireretardant fibers. Any number of combinations of said fibers may be employed.

The aforementioned yarns may be employed in the manufacture of any desired fabric. The fabric may be woven by any conventional means such as are well knwon to those skilled in the art. Depending on the desired properties of the fabric, the fire-resistant yarns may comprise 100 percent of the fabric or alternatively, may comprise only a portion thereof. As is well known, a web or fabric may be required to have fire-retardant properties in only a certain direction - i.e. horizontal, vertical 45 . Thus, the fire-retardant yarns may be employed only in the warp direction or alternatively, only in the weft direction. Alternatively, they may be employed in both directions of the fabric and only a portion of the yarn forming the fabric being fire-retardant.

The manufacture of the three-component yarns having fire-retardant properties may be achieved by taking a continuous filament of material, forming a sheath of thermoplastic polymeric material about the inner filament such as by passing the same through an extruder or spraying the thermoplastic polymeric material on the inner continuous filament and while the thermoplastic material is molten, applying staple fibers thereto. Preferably, the thermoplasitc polymeric material forms a sheath about the inner carrier in the sense that it substantially covers the inner material (preferably covering from 60% to 100% of the filament) and likewise, the outer fibrous layer preferably substantially covers the polymeric sheath.In the practice of the present invention, the inner carrier material preferably comprises between 10% and 60% by weight of the total yarn composition; the thermoplastic polymeric material preferably comprises between 10 and 50 weight percent of the composition; and the outer fibrous layer preferably comprises between 5 anf 65% of the total yarn. Naturally, the percent of the various components will vary depending on the specific yarn construction desired.

The following Examples are illustrative of yarns manufactured according to the present invention.

EXAMPLE 1 A three-component yarn was manufactured comprised of 33% by weight of an inner carrier of fiberglass, 35% by weight of a polymeric sheath of Valox*, and 32% by weight of Verel* fibers. The yarn was 100 tex., had a strength of 20.5 gr. per tes., and an elongation of 4.1%.

The yarn was completely self-extingusihing after a flame applied thereto was removed.

EXAMPLE 2 A three-component yarn comprised of an inner carrier of fiberglass, a polymeric sheath of nylon, and Kynol* fibers was manufactured.

The 86 tex. yarn had a strength of 10 gr. per tex. and a 3.3% elongation. The yarn was found to be self-extinguishing.

EXAMPLE 3 A three-component yarn comprising an inner carrier of Registered Trade Mark Saran material, a polymeric sheath of Registered Trade Mark Saran resin and a staple fiber covering of wool fiber and PVC fiber blend was produced. The resulting yarn of 103 tex. total count and a composition of 55% Saran filament carrier content, 27% Saran resin polymer content and 18% wool/PVC fiber blend fiber surface content. The resulting yarn was found to be fire retardant with considerable application in industrial protective clothing. An evaluation was conducted in AMINCO (American Instrument Co.) NBS smoke density chamber with a smoke density of 21.6 (dimensionalist) and a smoke density per gram of sample of 9.0.

The yams thus produced are those which have a unique simultaneous bonding of the outer fiber polymer composite sheath to the central filament carrier material to form a multi-component structure. It possesses the desired attributes of both a fiber yarn and a filament yarn.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A multi-component yarn having fireretardancy properties comprising a first component of an inner carrier, a second component of a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and a third component of an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibers, a substantial portion of said fibers adhering to said polymeric material, at least one of said second and third components possessing fireretardancy properties.

2. A multi-component yarn having fire-retardancy properties comprising an inner carrier, a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibers adhering to said polymeric material, at least one of said sheath of polymeric material and said outer layer of fibers possessing fire-retardancy properties.

3. A multi-component yarn having ffre- retardancy properties comprising an inner carrier, a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibers adhering to said polymeric material, at least said sheath of polymeric material and said outer layer of fibres being fire-retardant.

4. A yarn according to Claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein both said sheath of polymeric material and said outer layer of fibers are fire-retardant and said inner carrier is non-fire-retardant.

5. A yarn according to any of Claims 1 to 4, wherein a first portion of said outer layer of fibers do not have fire-retardancy properties, the mixture of said first and second portions possessing fire-retadancy properties.

6. A yarn according to Claim 1 wherein only said outer layer of fibers possesses fire-retardancy properties.

7. A yarn according to any of Claims 1 to 6, wherein at least a portion of said fibers forming said outer layer are naturally fire-retardant fibers.

8. A yarn according to any of Claims 1 to 6, wherein at least a portion of said fibers forming

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. means such as are well knwon to those skilled in the art. Depending on the desired properties of the fabric, the fire-resistant yarns may comprise 100 percent of the fabric or alternatively, may comprise only a portion thereof. As is well known, a web or fabric may be required to have fire-retardant properties in only a certain direction - i.e. horizontal, vertical 45 . Thus, the fire-retardant yarns may be employed only in the warp direction or alternatively, only in the weft direction. Alternatively, they may be employed in both directions of the fabric and only a portion of the yarn forming the fabric being fire-retardant. The manufacture of the three-component yarns having fire-retardant properties may be achieved by taking a continuous filament of material, forming a sheath of thermoplastic polymeric material about the inner filament such as by passing the same through an extruder or spraying the thermoplastic polymeric material on the inner continuous filament and while the thermoplastic material is molten, applying staple fibers thereto. Preferably, the thermoplasitc polymeric material forms a sheath about the inner carrier in the sense that it substantially covers the inner material (preferably covering from 60% to 100% of the filament) and likewise, the outer fibrous layer preferably substantially covers the polymeric sheath.In the practice of the present invention, the inner carrier material preferably comprises between 10% and 60% by weight of the total yarn composition; the thermoplastic polymeric material preferably comprises between 10 and 50 weight percent of the composition; and the outer fibrous layer preferably comprises between 5 anf 65% of the total yarn. Naturally, the percent of the various components will vary depending on the specific yarn construction desired. The following Examples are illustrative of yarns manufactured according to the present invention. EXAMPLE 1 A three-component yarn was manufactured comprised of 33% by weight of an inner carrier of fiberglass, 35% by weight of a polymeric sheath of Valox*, and 32% by weight of Verel* fibers. The yarn was 100 tex., had a strength of 20.5 gr. per tes., and an elongation of 4.1%. The yarn was completely self-extingusihing after a flame applied thereto was removed. EXAMPLE 2 A three-component yarn comprised of an inner carrier of fiberglass, a polymeric sheath of nylon, and Kynol* fibers was manufactured. The 86 tex. yarn had a strength of 10 gr. per tex. and a 3.3% elongation. The yarn was found to be self-extinguishing. EXAMPLE 3 A three-component yarn comprising an inner carrier of Registered Trade Mark Saran material, a polymeric sheath of Registered Trade Mark Saran resin and a staple fiber covering of wool fiber and PVC fiber blend was produced. The resulting yarn of 103 tex. total count and a composition of 55% Saran filament carrier content, 27% Saran resin polymer content and 18% wool/PVC fiber blend fiber surface content. The resulting yarn was found to be fire retardant with considerable application in industrial protective clothing. An evaluation was conducted in AMINCO (American Instrument Co.) NBS smoke density chamber with a smoke density of 21.6 (dimensionalist) and a smoke density per gram of sample of 9.0. The yams thus produced are those which have a unique simultaneous bonding of the outer fiber polymer composite sheath to the central filament carrier material to form a multi-component structure. It possesses the desired attributes of both a fiber yarn and a filament yarn. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A multi-component yarn having fireretardancy properties comprising a first component of an inner carrier, a second component of a sheath of polymeric material about said inner carrier, and a third component of an outer layer consisting of a plurality of fibers, a substantial portion of said fibers adhering to said polymeric material, at least one of said second and third components possessing fireretardancy properties.

said outer layer are non-naturally fire-retardant fibers treated to have fire-retardancy properties.

9. A yarn according to any of Claims 1 to 5, wherein said inner carrier is fire-retardant.

10. A yarn according to any of Claims 1 to 9 wherein said outer layer of fibers comprises between 5 to 65% by weight of the total yarn composition.

11. A yarn according to any of Claims 1 to 10, wherein said polymeric material covers between 60 and 100% of said inner carrier.

12. A fabric having fire-retardancy properties, said fabric incorporating therein a yarn as claimed in any preceding claim.