GB2107579A - Cushion pads for furniture - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cushion pad for covering an internally sprung article of furniture or bedding, especially for covering the springs of an internally sprung mattress. The pad comprises a resin impregnated non-woven insulator 9, a lofty, non-woven fabric 8 comprising at least 50% polyester fibers in which the fibers have been interentangled by needle punching and stitching joining said lofty fabric to said non-woven insulator. An apparatus for making the pad is also described. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Cushion pad BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cushion pad for covering an internally sprung article of furniture or bedding, and more particularly to the covering utilised over the springs in an inner spring mattress. When cut to an appropriate size, the covering may be used over other inner spring structures such as chair cushions.

A commonly used construction for the covering of an inner spring mattress includes an insulator over the spring to distribute evenly the upward forces of the springs, with a lofty cushioning pad over the insulator.

Typically the insulator may be densely needlepunched non-woven fabric which has been saturated with an elastomer or other polymer.

The cushioning pad usually is either comprised of cotton (linters and waste) or polyurethane foam. Polyurethane foams have been criticized because of hazardous combustion products and potential cost increases because of increases in the cost of petroleum from which they are derived. Cotton waste is subject to other ecological and health problems, as well as difficulty in obtaining proper densities.

Hunter, U. S. patent 3,873,388 discloses a monolithic mattress pad comprised of three layers. The innermost layer comprises a coating of cured synthetic material applied to the inner surface of the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer is a fibrous web which has been needle punched, and the same is true of the outer layer, but the outer layer is less dense than the intermediate layer. Needle punching is used to join the two fibrous web layers.

The sewing together of layers is disclosed in Fowler patent 1,835,212.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved, monolithic mattress covering which combines, in a single product, an insulator and a cushioning pad. The covering comprises an insulator pad and a densified cushioning pad comprised of at least 50% polyester fibers, preferably polyester waste, the two layers being joined by sewing.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a cushion pad for covering an internally sprung article of furniture or bedding, the pad comprising a resin impregnated non-woven insulator, a lofty, non-woven fabric comprising at least 50% polyester fibres in which the fibres have been interentangled by needle puching and stitching joining said lofty fabric to said non-woven insulator.

The insulator utilized in the monolithic mattress covering comprises a needle punched non-woven fabric composed of natural, synthetic or man-made fibres which have been saturated with an elastomer. The insulator typically has a weight of 9 to 27 ounces per square yard and a thickness of 14 to 3/8 inch, for example 1/4 inch. The needle punch density of the fabric may be, e.g., 250 to 1000 punches per square inch. The non-woven fabric is typically saturated with a latex comprised of a cross-linkable elastomer, which is then cured by heating to e.g., 100 to 180"C.

The cushion pad utilized in the present invention is comprised of polyester fibres. In this context, "polyester" refers to polymers comprised of dicarboxylic acid and diol, joined by recurring ester linkages in a polymer chain, and primarily to fibres composed of polyethylene terephthalate. The fibres utilized in constructing such fabrics are typically 1 1/2 to 1 5 denier and 3/8 to 6 inches long. The fibres may be 100% polyester, or they may be blended, but the blend will contain at least 50% polyester fibres.

The polyester fibres may be converted into a web suitable for the present invention by carding, although other web-forming techniques may be used. The fibrous mass emerging from carding equipment may be increased in thickness by cross-laying, in conventional manner onto a travelling conveyor, to form a web suitable for the next stage of the manufacturing process. At this stage, the web will be 3 to 6 inches thick, and have a density of 24 to 60 ounces per square yard.

The web is conveyed next to a needle loom where it is subjected to a needle punching operation, which delivers about 250 to 600 punches per square inch, whereupon the thickness of the web is reduced to 1/2 to 21/2 inches, for example 1 1/2 inches, and the fibre length is reduced to 34 to 6 inches.

The next step in the manufacturing operation is to lay the needle punched polyester pad onto the insulator, and deliver them to a multi-needle sewing machine which stitches them together as they move past the needles.

The sewing machine forms a plurality of parallel stitch lines along the assembly. The stitch lines may 1 to 6 inches apart, and the stitches in each line may be 1/2 to 1 inch apart.

Finally, the assembly is cut to length to provide prefabricated mattress pad covers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated in the drawing in which Figure 1 is a cross-section of the mattresscovering of the present invention; and Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the apparatus utilized to produce the mattress pad.

In Fig. 2, the numeral 1 refers to a carding and cross-laying device which converts polyester fibres into a web, 2 indicates a needle loom, 3 indicates a multi-head sewing machine which sews the polyester cushion to the insulator supplied from roll 4. The sewed pad is delivered to edge trimmer 5 which cuts it to a prescribed width and then to a cross-shear 6 which cuts individual pads. The pads are stacked at 7.

Fig. 1 illustrates the finished pad comprised of a lofty polyester padding 8 superimposed on the resin-impregnated insulator 9, and sewed along stitch lines 10 and 101.

A typical example is a combination pad made as described above using a chemically bonded insulator weighing 9 ounces per square yard and combining with it an unbonded needle punched cushion weighing 31 ounces per square yard. Components sewn together with polyester thread with seams on 4" centres and using a stitch length of 54.

Resultant pad is approximately 1" thick.

Claims (4)

1. A cushion pad for covering an internally sprung article of furniture or bedding, the pad comprising a resin impregnated nonwoven insulator, a lofty, non-woven fabric comprising at least 50% polyester fibres in which the fibres have been interentangled by needle punching and stitching joining said lofty fabric to said non-woven insulator.

2. An internally sprung mattress in which the springs are covered with the cushion pad set forth in claim 1.

3. An internally sprung seat cushion in which the springs are covered with a cushion pad set forth in claim 1.

4. A cushion pad constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.