GB2141148A - Continuous treatment of cloth - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for continuous resin setting treatment of a cloth 6 comprising soaking a cloth to be treated in a tank 13 with a treating agent solution containing a resin and drying the cloth intermediately by a heater 14 prior to entry into a steamer body 1. The drying helps to prevent the squeezing out of the treating agent solution from the cloth in the subsequent treatment steps. The resultant cloth is supplied continuously into the steamer body 1, and is subjected to wet-heat treatment therein while applying high temperature hot water from nozzles 12 to the cloth repeatedly so as to swell the cloth rapidly and to permeate the treating agent into the fibres constituting the cloth up to the core parts thereof. Other treatments such as scouring, dyeing, weight reduction as well as resin finishing of a cloth in a continuous process can be carried out. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements relating to continuous treatment of cloth The present invention relates to a method for continuous treatment of a long cloth in which wet-heat treatment of the cloth can be performed uniformly or locally and effectively in subjecting the cloth to such treatments as scouring, dyeing, weight reduction and, particularly, a resin setting finish.

In subjecting a large quantity of a long cloth produced commercially to such treatments as scouring, bleaching, dyeing, weight reduction and resin finish continuously, the cloth has usually been wet-heat treated continuously by using, for instance, a PERBLE RANGE (trademark) wet-heat treatment apparatus or a high pressure steamer.

In the conventional continuous wet-heat treatment of a long cloth using a high pressure steamer, a cloth to be treated is first passed through a treating solution tank provided outside the steamer body which soaks the cloth with the treating agent solution. The resultant cloth is squeezed by a pair of squeeze rollers to remove excess treating agent solution from the cloth. If necessary the cloth is dried as an intermediate step with the use of a drier to prevent the adhesion of the treating agent solution to the seal rollers and guide rollers provided in the steamer body.

The cloth so treated is then passed into the steamer body (wet-heat treating chamber) for wet-heat treating the cloth.

In such a conventional steamer body, however, it is difficult to maintain the interior of the steamer body under conditions of sufficient wet-heat, and the interior of the steamer body frequently enters into a state of dry-heat.

Then the reaction between the treating agent and the cloth becomes insufficient. Particularly, in the case of dyeing, a long period of time is required (for instance, about 2 to 3 minutes) until the fixing of the dye is completed, so that insufficient treatment is achieved in a short time.

To supplement the shortage of wet-heat in the course of wet-heat treatment in a steamer body, it is considered that the cloth to be supplied in the steamer body may be soaked with a large amount of water together with the treating agent. However, in this instance, when passing the cloth containing a large amount of the treating agent solution through a pair of seal rollers provided at the inlet of the steamer body, part of the treating agent solution is transferred to the surface of the seal rollers due to the nip pressure of the seal rollers, causing both staining of the rollers and insufficient treatment.

In the case of a resin finish, particularly, since a resin solution is hardly compatible with the cloth, the resin solution can hardly penetrate into the core parts of the cloth due to air bubbles remaining therein, because the soaking of the cloth with a resin solution is performed under normal pressure at the outside of the steamer body, so that an excellent resin finish cannot be expected. In this instance, furthermore, in squeezing the cloth soaked with the resin solution, air contained in the core parts of the cloth is pushed out of the cloth, thus driving off a part of the resin solution from the cloth.

An object of the present invention is to provide an acceptable method of subjecting a long cloth to such treatments as scouring, dyeing, weight reduction and, particualrly, resin finish uniformly or locally in a continuous process using a high pressure steamer.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for continuous treatment of a cloth comprising soaking a cloth to be treated with a treating agent solution, drying the cloth outside a high pressure steamer body so as to prevent the squeezing out of the treating agent solution from the cloth in the subsequent treatment steps, supplying the resultant cloth continuously in the steamer body, and wet-heat treating the cloth therein while applying high temperature hot water to the cloth repeatedly so as to swell the cloth rapidly and to permeate the treating agent into the fibres constituting the cloth up to the core part thereof.

The present inventive method is particularly suitable for a resin setting finish of a cloth. As described above, a resin solution is hardly compatible with a cloth and does not penetrate well into the core parts of the cloth due to air bubbles remaining therein, because soaking of the cloth with a resin solution is done at the outside of the steamer body. In the present invention, the cloth is wet-heat treated in the steamer body while applying high temperature hot water to the cloth repeatedly, so that the cloth is swollen rapidly and the resin solution is permeated up to the core parts of the cloth, and therefore the resin finish of the cloth can be carried out effectively.

The invention may be performed in various ways and a preferred embodiment thereof will now be described, with reference to the accompanying explanatory drawing showing an example of the apparatus to be used in the present inventive method.

The drawing illustrates a high pressure steamer body 1 for continuous wet-heat treatment of a long cloth. The body 1 has a cloth inlet 2 and a cloth outlet 3 respectively having an inlet side seal mechanism 4 and an outlet side seal mechanism 5 for maintaining the interior of the steamer body 1 at high pressure wet-heat, for instance, of about 1 60 C whilst passing a cloth 6 to be treated continuously therethrough.The inlet side seal mechanism 4 comprises an approximately J shaped cloth passage 4,, a pair of sealing rubber rollers 43 for sealing the upper opening of the cloth passage 4, and a gas supply pipe 43 for supplying pressurized gas to the cloth massage 4:. The outlet side seal mechansim 5 comprises a slow cooling tank Si and a cooling water supply pipe 52 for passing cooling water at the ordinary temperature or passing cooled water through the slow cooling tank 5, by controlling the temperature and amount of she cooling water to about 50"C at the position near the outlet of the slow cooling tank 5,.

The interior of the steamer body 1 is provided with a plurality of cloth guide roller 7 for transporting the cloth 6 to be treated continuously therethrough so as to form snakelike undulations. A filter 8 filters the waste liquid exhausted from the slow cooling tank 5,, and it is so designed that the filtrate (cleansed liquid) from the filter 8 is supplied by means of a pump 9 into a heat exchanger 10 provided in the steamer body 1 to heat the filtrate up to nearly the temperature of the interior of the steamer body 1, for instance about 1 50 C. The cleansed and heated liquid is supplied through a conduit 11 to nozzles 1 2 provided at suitable positions in the steamer body 1 and is blown onto the cloth passing in a zigzag fashion through the steamer body 1.The filter 8 will be one which is suitable for separating such impurities as waste threads contained in the waste liquid exhausted from the slow cooling tank 5, from the liquid.

A treating solution tank 1 3 soaks the cloth 6 with a treating agent solution such as a caustic alkali solution and a dye solution before the cloth is transported in the steamer body 1. The treating solution tank 1 3 is designed so that the treating agent solution is concentrated and can be supplied successively as the solution is absorbed into the cloth. A drier 14 dries the cloth soaked with the treating agent solution intermediately before the cloth is introduced into the steamer body 1.

Continuous treatment of a long cloth using the above-mentioned high pressure steamer of the present invention will now be described in connection with an example in which dyeing is performed.

At first, pressurized steam is blown into the steamer body 1, pressurized gas is supplied from the gas supply pipe 43 into the cloth passage 4, provided in the inlet side seal mechanism 4, and cooling water is supplied from the cooling water supply pipe 52 into the slow cooling tank 5, so as to maintain the interior of the steamer body 1 at high temperature saturated vapor, for instance, about 1 60 C. On the other hand, the treating solution tank 1 3 is filled with a dye solution and a cloth 6 to be dyed is passed therethrough so that the cloth is soaked with the treating agent solution. The dye solution content of the cloth is usually within about 30%, so that it is preferable to use a concentrated dye solution for applying a sufficient amount of the dye to the cloth.

The cloth 6 thus soaked with a !arge quantity of concentrated dye solution is dried intermediately by passing the cloth through the drier 1 4 so as to prevent the dye from falling off from the cloth and is supplied into the steamer body 1. In the steamer body 1, the cloth is wet-heat treated continuously while receiving high temperature hot water jetted from the nozzles 1 2 repeatedly so as to swell the cloth rapidly and to permeate the dye up to the core parts thereof, and thus the cloth can be dyed uniformly and effectively.

In a case when the cloth is composed of different kinds of fibres, the dye solution is transfferred selectively towards the fibres compatible with the dye solution applied up to the core parts thereof and only these parts are dyed effectively, so that a cloth having a predyed tone can effectively be produced by picce-dyeing. Other treatments of a cloth such as scouring, bleaching and weight reduction can similarly be carried out with excellent results.

In resin finish, where a resin solution is hardly compatible with a cloth and air bubbles are caught in the cloth when the cloth is immersed in the treating agent solution in the treating solution tank 1 3 as mentioned above, the air bubbles are removed and the resin solution can readily penetrate up to the core parts of the cloth in applying high temperature hot air thereto in the steamer body, and a uniform and excellent resin finish can be performed effectively by the present invention. It is preferable in this instance that a larger amount of high temperature hot water is applied to the cloth for fixing the resin rapidly and effectively than might be utilised for other treatments.

Claims (4)

CLAIMS.

1. A method for continuous treatment of a cloth comprising soaking a cloth to be treated with a treating agent solution, drying the cloth outside a high pressure steamer body, into which the cloth is subsequently introduced, so as to prevent the squeezing out of the treating agent solution from the cloth in the subsequent treating steps, supplying the resultant cloth continuously in the steamer body, and wet-heat treating the cloth therein while applying high temperature hot water to the cloth repeatedly so as to swell the cloth rapidly and to permeate the treating agent into the fibres constituting the cloth up to the core parts thereof.

2. A method according to claim 2, for resin setting treatment of the cloth wherein the treating agent solution contains a resin.

3. A method according to claim 2 in which the high temperature hot water is applied to the cloth in the steamer prior to fixation of the resin on the surface of the cloth.

4. A method for continuous treatment of a cloth substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.