GB2216913A

GB2216913A - Stitch-bonded fabric

Info

Publication number: GB2216913A
Application number: GB8904494A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Siegrid Ploch; Heinz Zschunke; Jochen Schreiber; Karl-Heinz Dietrich; Manfred John; Jurgen Rodel
Original assignee: TEXTILTECH FORSCH; Forschungsinstitut fuer Textil Technologie
Current assignee: TEXTILTECH FORSCH; Forschungsinstitut fuer Textil Technologie
Priority date: 1988-03-29
Filing date: 1989-02-28
Publication date: 1989-10-18
Anticipated expiration: 2009-02-28
Also published as: GB8904494D0; GB2216913B; DE3903213A1; DD282585A7; FR2629482A1; FR2629482B1

Description

2216913 - 1 METHOD_OF_MANUFACTURING_A_NON-WOVEN_KNITTED FABRIC AND FABRIC

PRODUCED THEREBY This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a flat fabric from 100% fibrous material.

Various methods of making such fabrics are known. In one such method, fibres of a non-woven fibrous fabric are sewn into a prefabricated base web, the fibres forming pile loops or tufts on one side and stitches on the other side of the finished fabric. These products, however, must have the prefabricated base web.

Another method widely used is to pierce a transversely orientated nonwoven fibrous material with needles which are provided with hooks which randomly grip the fibres and form them into meshes or stitches (Mali nonwoven fabric). The disadvantage of this method is the lack of control over the characteristics of the finished product due to the random gripping of the fibres. It has hitherto not been possible to adapt these characteristics to requirements in every respect.

2 In another known method, the fibres of a non-woven fabric to be processed are drawn transversely across the row of needles so that, in a manner similar to that of a non-woven cross fibre fabric, the fibres can be gripped simultaneously by a plurality of needles. Since the lateral offset in this method is at least twice as great and preferably less than fifty times as grea ass the needle spacing, the fibrous material suffers perceptible damage.

is In yet another method, a prefabricated non-woven fibrous fabric is over- sewn by means of threads and is thus stabilised. Since Mali cotton threads have to be used, the finished fabric is relatively costly.

One other method is also known in which non-woven materials made from fibres and/or threads are mechanicaly strengthened by changing the movements of the clamping means holding the non-woven fabric.

Materials have also been proposed in which flat fabrics with a pile thereon are manufactured by processing a non-woven pile fabric, wherein short fibres are 61 11 1 - 3 processed and meshes/stitches and pile tufts are formed therefrom.

is In another fabric, open ends of the fibre strands are formed and new fibres are placed thereon, hence resulting in an open end knitting process. However, the open end of the fibre strands and their offset means that there is no certainty in the form of the finished product.

The aim of the invention is to overcome or substantially reduce the abovementioned problems and to provide a method of accurately producing a nonwoven knitted fabric having a good strength factor and a relatively low weight.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturing a non-woven knitted fabric from fibres and in which the characteristics can be specifically constructed without the need to use strength-determining base threads or carrier webs. At the same time, the destruction of the fibrous materials during binding-in is to be largely avoided.

c is - 4 According to the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a non-woven knitted fabric from non-spun fibrous material using needles having closable hooks comprising the steps of upsetting without breaking uniform portions of a longitudinally orientated nonwoven fibrous fabric by means of tamping devices, pressing said upset portions into the hooks of the needles where they are held by a feed device and combined and shaped by the needles to form fibre strands, drawing said portions out of the feed device in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the needles and at the same time aligning them in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the needles, so that the long fibres contained in the fibre strands are engaged by the needles in a stitch-wise manner and are worked up, the fibre threads being alternately bound into wales, located left or right adjacent to the fibre strand which has just been bound in in successive course, the shaped material being shed in the form of stitches to form a knit-like flat structure.

The longitudinally orientated non-woven fibrous material is supplied continuously from a non-woven fabric former, preferably from a carder. Then, uniform IP is portions of this non-woven fibrous material are upset by means of feed or tamping devices operable in synchronism with the working cycle of the needles and are pressed into the hooks of the needles, held by the feed device and the fibres are withdrawn from the feed device by the needles and at the same time aligned in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the needles. The needles at the same time form the fibres into strands and, in a known manner, draw them through the half-stitches which are hanging on the shank of the needle and which are then shed as stitches and form the wales.

The supplying of the non-woven fibrous fabric by the feed device is adjusted in such a way that the non-woven fibrous fabric is not broken away or distorted. Preferably the feed device performs an upward and downward movement. The magnitude of the upward and downward movement is adjustable and must be chosen such that the longitudinally orientated fibrous material is deflected by the upsetting operation in such a way that the fibres are in each case engaged by an adjacent needle and are bound in. Looping therefore 0 k h 6 takes place so the fibres are not broken during binding-in.

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to Figure 1 of the drawings which shows a fabric made in accordance with the invention and in particular the arrangement of the fibres in that fabric.

1 It can be seen from the drawing how the longitudinally orientated fibres in the non-woven fibrous fabric are disposed in the non-woven knitted fabric. A right-left knitted fabric pattern is produced, the fabric b eing made in accordance with the invention from fibres. The drawing clearly shows that these fibres are put together in a stitch-wise manner. The marked fibre is engaged for the first time by a needle 2 in the row of stitches 2 and bound into the stitch. During the next working cycle, the fibre is upset again and deflected to one side, so that it is engaged in stitch row 3 by the needle 3 and, after the next upsetting process, again by needle 2 in row 4. It ends between row 4 and row 5. However, since it is located in the body of the 1 0 4 7 fibre strand, it is firmly integrated into the structure thereof.

However, it is also possible to choose the upsetting, and hence the deflection, in such a way that the fibre misses one or two wales or rows and is only then bound in again.

All fibres from which a transportable non-woven fabric of longitudinal fibres can be formed, may be processed as fibrous material. Preferably PAN fibres are processed. The length of the fibres should be chosen to be as long as possible, in order to allow only a few fibre ends to appear on the surface knitted fabric structure which is as produce a as possible.

and to clear Preferred lengths of fibre are from 80 to 10Omm, although Fibres of 40 or 120mm can also be processed.

The thickness of the fibre used must be chosen in dependence upon the product to be manufactured. The preferred range is from 0.3 to 1.7 tex but this can be extended at both enes for mixture proportions. Preferably, fibres having a thickness of 0.56 to 0.88 tex are processed.

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Claims

- 8 CLAIMS

1. A method of manufacturing a non-woven knitted fabric from non-spun fibrous material by intermeshing therewith fibres of a non-woven fabric by means of needles provided with closable hooks, the method comprising the steps of upsetting without breaking adjustable portions of uniform length of a longitudinally orientated non-woven fibrous fabric by means of tamping devices, pressing said upset portions into the hooks of the needles where they are held by a feed device and combined and shaped by the needles to form fibre skeins or strands, drawing said portions out of the feed device in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the needles and at the same time aligning them in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the needles, so that the fibres contained therein are engaged by the needles in a stitch-wise manner and worked up, the fibre strands being alternately bound into wales, located left or right adjacent to the fibre strand which has just been bound in, in successive courses, the shaped material being shed in the form of stitches to form a knit-like flat structure.

t - 9

2. A fabric produced by the method of described and illustrated herein.

claim 1 and as

3. A method of manufacturing a non-woven knitted fabric substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

Published 1989 at The Patent Office. State House, 66 71 High Holborn, LondonWCIR4TP. Further copies maybe obtained from The PatentOfflee, Wes Branch, St Mary Cray, Orpirgton, Kent BR5 3RD. Printed by Multiplex techmques ltd, St Mary Cray, Kent, Cori. 1/87