JP2010222738A - Method for producing fibrous sheet-like material - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for producing a fibrous sheet like material obtained by integrating a nonwoven fabric with a woven/knitted fabric, having a high strength, excellent in form stability and also rich in flexibility. <P>SOLUTION: This method for producing the fibrous sheet-like material obtained by integrating the nonwoven fabric with woven/knitted fabric by needle punch is provided by interlacing the nonwoven fabric with woven/knitted fabric for making one unit by the needle punch under a condition satisfying the following formulae (1) and (2): X≤D/3 (1), J≤D/2 (2), where X is a depth in needle length direction, J is a throat depth of the needle and D is a longer diameter of fiber yarn thread constituting the woven/knitted fabric. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for producing a fiber sheet-like material having high strength, excellent shape stability, and high flexibility.

  Conventionally, in order to obtain flexibility and mechanical performance similar to natural leather, artificial leather is generally made by applying a polymer elastic body to a nonwoven fabric made of ultrafine fibers. Various methods for producing such artificial leather have been proposed so far.

  For example, when artificial leather is used for skin materials such as car seats and chairs, the skin material may be distorted by repeated use over a long period of time. As a result, there has been proposed a method for producing artificial leather having high strength, low elongation and flexibility (see Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 describes that an artificial leather having good mechanical properties can be obtained by using this proposed method. However, when a woven or knitted fabric and a nonwoven fabric are entangled and integrated by a needle punch. In addition, since the woven or knitted fabric is damaged by the needle, the mechanical properties inherent to the woven or knitted fabric may not be fully utilized. In addition, if the woven or knitted fabric is densified and the strength is compensated in anticipation of such damage, the stiffness of the woven or knitted fabric will increase, which may be disadvantageous for the purpose of obtaining a lightweight and flexible artificial leather. There's a problem.

  Therefore, as a method for improving the mechanical properties of woven and knitted fabrics, woven and knitted fabrics are composed of high-strength fibers such as high-strength polyvinyl alcohol-based synthetic fibers (high-strength vinylon fibers) and wholly aromatic polyamide fibers (aramid fibers). In addition, an artificial leather base that is intertwined with a nonwoven fabric has been proposed (see Patent Document 2). However, even in this proposal, if the needle barb is in a relationship that hooks the knitted fabric during needle punching, not only will the fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric be damaged, but also the wear of the needle will be abruptly reduced. It will be advanced, and it does not stop even processing a long fiber sheet-like thing stably.

  In addition, as a method of minimizing damage to the woven or knitted fabric from the needle during needle punching, the relationship between the diameter of the yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric and the throat depth (throat depth) of the needle used for the needle punch is used. A manufacturing method that clearly shows and suppresses strength reduction has been proposed (see Patent Document 3). In this Patent Document 3, it is described that, by using this manufacturing method, strength reduction can be prevented without the needle being caught by the fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric, but the barb depth X in the needle length direction is described. Therefore, even when the relational expression of the manufacturing method is satisfied, the barb depth X dimension is increased, and the fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric are still damaged.

JP-A-62-78281 JP-A-2005-240197 Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-13344

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a fiber sheet-like product in which a nonwoven fabric and a woven or knitted fabric having high strength, excellent shape stability and high flexibility are integrated.

  In order to achieve the above object, the method for producing a fiber sheet according to the present invention is a condition that satisfies the following formulas (1) and (2) in the sheet production process in which a nonwoven fabric and a woven or knitted fabric are integrated by a needle punch. A method for producing a fiber sheet-like product, characterized by performing needle punching.

X ≦ D / 3 (1)
J ≦ D / 2 (2)
However, X = barb depth in the needle length direction shown in FIG. 1 J = throat throat depth of needle shown in FIG. 1 D = major diameter of fiber yarn constituting woven or knitted fabric Preferred method for producing fiber sheet material of the present invention According to the aspect, needle punching is performed using a punching needle in which a portion from the needle tip portion to at least the farthest barb is covered with a wear-resistant coating.

  According to a preferred aspect of the method for producing a fiber sheet of the present invention, the film is a film having a hardness of 500 Hv or more and a film thickness of 1 μm to 7 μm.

  According to a preferred embodiment of the method for producing a fiber sheet of the present invention, the coating is made of hard chromium or DLC (diamond-like carbon).

  According to a preferred aspect of the method for producing a fiber sheet-like product of the present invention, when the angle parallel to the weft of the woven or knitted fabric is 0 ° and the angle parallel to the warp perpendicular to it is 90 °, the needle Punching needles whose direction is regulated to | 0 ° to 35 ° |.

  According to the present invention, in a fiber sheet-like product in which a woven or knitted fabric (scrim) is entangled and integrated with a needle punch inside or on one side of a non-woven fabric made of ultrafine fibers, damage to the woven or knitted fabric can be suppressed. It is not necessary to increase the density of woven or knitted fabrics in anticipation, and it is possible to obtain a lightweight and flexible fibrous sheet-like material, that is, a high-strength, excellent form stability, lightweight and flexible leather-like material. A fiber sheet is obtained.

  The suede-like artificial leather and the silver-like artificial leather using the fiber sheet-like material obtained by the present invention as a base for artificial leather are most suitable for interior use, especially for car seats and chairs and sofas.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view for explaining the relationship between the needle of the present invention and the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view for explaining the relationship between the direction of a barb planted on the needle board of the present invention and the traveling direction of the sheet-like material.

  The inventors of the present invention are keen to provide high flexibility and shape stability in a fiber sheet-like product obtained by entanglement and integration of a woven or knitted fabric on the inside, one side, or both sides of a nonwoven fabric composed of ultrafine fibers. Considered and got a solution. The details will be described below.

  As an example of specific means for achieving the object of the present invention, after forming a nonwoven fabric, the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric are overlapped and needle-punched, and the nonwoven fabric itself is entangled with the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric. The separation is sufficiently increased to form a solid integrated structure.

In this needle punch, the throat depth J of the barb of the needle to be used satisfies the following relational expressions (1) and (2) simultaneously with respect to the long diameter D of the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric. This makes it possible to reduce damage to the scrim yarn caused by barbs.
X ≦ D / 3 (1)
J ≦ D / 2 (2)
However, X = barb depth in the needle length direction shown in FIG. 1 J = throat throat depth of the needle shown in FIG. 1 D = long diameter of the fiber yarn constituting the woven / knitted fabric FIG. 1 shows the needle and the woven / knitted fabric of the present invention. It is a schematic side view for demonstrating the relationship with the fiber yarn to comprise. In FIG. 1, a needle 1 has a herb formed by a barb depth X in the needle length direction and a throat depth J. FIG. 1 shows the positional relationship between the major axis D of the fiber yarn 2 constituting the woven or knitted fabric and the herbs.

  The long diameter D of the fiber yarn in the relational expression (1) and (2) above is an average value of actually measured values in the woven or knitted fabric of the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric. It does not mean a calculated value calculated from the individual single fibers constituting the yarn, the fineness of the raw yarn, the processing conditions, and the like. This measured value is measured by sampling a woven or knitted fabric and taking a photograph with a scanning electron microscope. In calculating the average value, the thickest part, the thinnest part of the image, and the rest The average value obtained by measuring the diameters of 10 points of any 8 points is compared with the length of the 500 μm scale on the image.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, when the needle is continuously used, a change in shape may occur due to wear and the relational expressions (1) and (2) may not be satisfied. In order to avoid this, it is preferable to apply a film having wear resistance to the needle. Specifically, it is possible to use a punching needle in which a portion from the needle tip to at least the farthest barb is covered with a wear-resistant coating.

  Specifically, the coating covering the tip of the needle is preferably a coating made of a material having excellent wear resistance and low friction characteristics such as hard chrome or DLC (diamond-like carbon), and is particularly common and relatively low. A costly hard chrome coating is preferably used. The thickness of the film is preferably about 1 to 7 μm, most preferably 2 to 5 μm in consideration of the size of the barb, and the hardness of the film is preferably 500 Hv to 4500 Hv, most preferably 600 Hv to 2000 Hv. It is.

  Specifically, needle punching is performed using a punching needle in which at least a portion from the needle tip to the farthest barb is coated with a coating having a hardness of 500 Hv or more.

When the fiber sheet obtained by the present invention is used for artificial leather, it is desirable that the basis weight of the woven or knitted fabric is 20 to 200 g / m ² , most preferably the basis weight is in the range of 30 to 150 g / m ² . Use woven or knitted fabric. When the basis weight of the woven or knitted fabric is less than 20 g / m ² , the shape of the woven or knitted fabric becomes very loose. When the woven or knitted fabric is sandwiched between the nonwoven fabric and the middle layer of the nonwoven fabric, or when the woven or knitted fabric is stacked on the nonwoven fabric surface, Occurs and it becomes difficult to spread it uniformly. Further, when the basis weight of the woven / knitted fabric exceeds 200 g / m ² , the woven / knitted fabric has a dense structure, and the nonwoven fabric and the woven / knitted fabric are not sufficiently entangled with each other, so that the nonwoven fabric and the woven / knitted fabric are not entangled. Building a structure generally tends to be difficult.

  In the fabric used in the present invention, a plain structure is preferably used as a basic structure. Twill and satin may be used as the fabric structure. However, because of the anisotropy of the structure, the behavior is different with respect to the external force in the oblique direction. Tissue is preferred. Examples of the knitted fabric include weft knitting represented by warp knitting and tricot knitting, lace knitting, and various knitted fabrics based on their knitting methods.

  As the fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric used in the present invention, synthetic fibers such as polyester fibers, polyamide fibers and aramid fibers are preferably used. For these fiber types, it is preferable to use the same material as the fibers constituting the nonwoven fabric in terms of dyeing fastness. Of course, any fiber can be used as long as it can be knitted, such as natural fibers such as cotton, wool and silk, regenerated fibers such as rayon, and semisynthetic fibers such as acetate. Moreover, even if it comprises high-strength fibers typified by high-strength polyvinyl alcohol-based synthetic fibers (high-strength vinylon fibers) and wholly aromatic polyamide fibers (aramid fibers), no problem occurs.

  Examples of the types of fiber yarn used in the woven and knitted fabric include filament yarn, spun yarn, innovative spun yarn, and mixed composite yarn of filament yarn and spun yarn. Since the spun yarn has a number of fluffs on the surface due to its structure and when the nonwoven fabric and the woven fabric are entangled with each other, it becomes a defect that the fluff falls off and is exposed on the surface. Therefore, it is preferable to use a filament yarn. The filament yarn is roughly classified into a monofilament composed of a single fiber and a multifilament composed of a plurality of filament yarns. In the woven or knitted fabric used in the present invention, it is preferable to use a multifilament. Monofilaments may impair the texture of artificial leather because the fiber becomes too rigid.

  The multifilament yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric used in the present invention has a single fiber fineness of preferably 0.0001 dtex or more and 3 dtex or less, more preferably 1.5 dtex or less, and further preferably 1 dtex or less.

  The single fiber fineness of the filament yarn is also applied to spun yarns other than filament yarns and innovative spun yarns.

  The total fineness of the multifilament yarn is preferably 30 dtex to 170 dtex. When a multifilament yarn having a total fineness of less than 30 dtex is used, the relational expression (1) between the major axis of the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric defined in the present invention and the needle size may not be satisfied. The fiber yarn to be formed is easily applied to the throat depth of the needle. Therefore, the total fineness is preferably 30 dtex or more.

  In addition, when the total fineness of the multifilament yarn exceeds 170 dtex, the basis weight of the woven or knitted fabric increases, and thus the basis weight of the artificial leather increases. Not only that, but the rigidity of the woven or knitted fabric becomes high, and as a result, there is a case where sufficient flexibility to satisfy the artificial leather cannot be obtained.

  The total fineness of the woven or knitted fabric is more preferably 50 dtex to 150 dtex for reasons such as rigidity and basis weight.

  The form of the multifilament yarn is roughly classified into false twisted yarn and raw yarn having no crimp, and either one may be used in the present invention. However, when false twisted yarn is used, the yarn is swollen due to crimping, and therefore tends to be easily damaged by the needle. Therefore, in the present invention, it is preferable to use raw silk.

In the woven or knitted fabric used in the present invention, the above-mentioned fiber yarn can be used with a real twist. The number of twists is important in determining the convergence state of the fiber yarns, and since the value varies depending on the total fineness of the fiber yarns, the number of twists satisfying the following formula is preferably employed.
3000 / (DT1 / 2) ≦ T ≦ 30000 / (DT1 / 2)
T: Actual number of twists (T / m) of fiber yarns constituting the woven or knitted fabric
DT: Total fineness (dtex) of fiber yarns constituting the woven or knitted fabric
When the actual twist number T is 1000 / (DT1 / 2) or less, the fibers are weakly converged, and each single yarn is scattered. Therefore, it is easy to be caught on the needle barb, and the single yarn is broken or damaged. There is a tendency for strength reduction to occur. On the contrary, if the number of twists exceeds 30000 / (DT1 / 2) or more, the dense filling structure is exceeded, which may result in a double swirl structure. A more preferable range of the actual twist number T is 5000 / (DT1 / 2) ≦ T ≦ 30000 / (DT1 / 2), and a more preferable range is 12000 / (DT1 / 2) ≦ T ≦ 30000 / (DT1 / 2). It is. At this time, the actual number of twists of the warp and the weft need not be the same, but the same number of actual twists is preferable.

  Next, in the method for producing a fiber sheet of the present invention, the knitting density of the woven or knitted fabric used, the blade thickness at the barb position of the needle used for the needle punch, and the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric It is particularly important to set the conditions in consideration of the diameter.

  When the diameter of the fiber yarn is small and the density is high, the fiber yarn constituting the woven fabric is easily applied to the barb of the needle, and the fiber may be cut or damaged.

  However, when the value of the throat depth J of the needle is increased, the long diameter (yarn diameter) D of the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric to be used must be increased, and as a result, the basis weight of the woven or knitted fabric is increased. When the knitting density is made constant, the woven / knitting density must be reduced, and when the knitting / knitting density is made constant, the basis weight must be increased. On the other hand, when the value of the throat depth J of the needle is too small, the efficiency with which the barb grips the fibers constituting the nonwoven fabric decreases, and it becomes difficult to sufficiently increase the entanglement between the nonwoven fabric and between the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric.

  For this reason, it is important that the throat depth J of the needle used in the present invention satisfies the above-described relational expression (2) of J ≧ D / 2. In general, the lower limit of the throat depth J of the needle is practically up to several tens of μm. However, in order to promote fiber entanglement and integration with the woven / knitted fabric, the range of the throat depth J of the needle is preferably 30 μm. ˜100 μm, more preferably in the range of 50 μm to 80 μm.

  However, even when the relational expression (2) of J ≧ D / 2 is satisfied, if the value of the barb depth X in the needle length direction is larger than D / 3, the angle of the barb tip becomes sharp, and the woven or knitted fabric is It may be pierced and damaged by the constituent fiber yarns. Therefore, it is important to satisfy the relational expressions of both X ≦ D / 3 and J ≦ D / 2. Since the practical lower limit of the value of the barb depth X in the needle length direction is practically 0 μm, specifically, the range of the barb depth X in the needle length direction is preferably 0 μm to 70 μm, More preferably, the range of 10 μm to 60 μm is used.

  Further, the weft of the woven or knitted fabric is slackened due to the sheet width contraction caused by the needle punch, and is brought into the inner layer of the nonwoven fabric by the needle barb, so that the fibers of the woven or knitted fabric are easily exposed on the product surface. On the other hand, since the warp is always in a tension state due to the process tension, it is difficult to bring it into the inner layer portion of the nonwoven fabric by the needle barb. For these reasons, it is preferable that the barb is directed in a direction in which the weft is not easily caught. Specifically, when the angle parallel to the weft of the woven or knitted fabric is 0 ° and the angle parallel to the warp that is perpendicular to the weft is 90 °, the needle barb may be directed to | 0 ° to 35 ° |. It is preferably | 0 ° to 20 ° |, more preferably | 0 ° to 10 ° |.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view for explaining the relationship between the direction of barbs planted on the needle board used in the present invention and the traveling direction of the sheet-like material. In FIG. 2, a needle board 4 in which needles are implanted is arranged with respect to the proceeding fiber sheet 3, the angle parallel to the traveling direction 5 of the fiber sheet 3 is 90 °, and the traveling direction When the angle of right angle to 5 is 0 °, the angle of the barb of the needle is directed to | 0 ° to 35 ° |.

  Next, the nonwoven fabric used by this invention is demonstrated.

  Nonwoven fabrics include those obtained by laminating short fibers such as natural fibers, regenerated fibers and synthetic fibers through cards, cross wrappers, random webbers, etc., and those obtained by laminating long fibers such as spunbonds and meltblowns. . Further, these fiber layers may be preliminarily entangled with an air flow, a liquid flow, a needle punch, or the like.

  Further, when the fiber sheet obtained by the method for producing a fiber sheet of the present invention is used for the production of artificial leather, it is desirable that the fibers constituting the nonwoven fabric are ultrafine fibers or fibers that can be made ultrafine. .

  Examples of the ultrafine fibers or fibers that can be made ultrafine include polyethylene terephthalate, polytrimethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, polyester polymers such as polylactic acid and polyester elastomer, polyamide polymers such as nylon 6, nylon 66, and polyamide elastomer, A fiber made of a polymer having fiber forming ability such as a polyurethane polymer, a polyolefin polymer, and an acrylonitrile polymer is suitable. Among these, fibers made of polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, nylon 6 and nylon 66 are particularly preferably used from the viewpoint of the texture and practical performance of the processed product.

  In addition, those that are made into ultrafine fibers by removing or exfoliating part of the polymer that constitutes the composite fiber, such as sea-island type fibers, are more soluble than the polymer that constitutes the island component. From the point of having high chemical properties and degradability, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, copolymerized polystyrene, polyvinyl alcohol, copolymerized polyesters such as sodium sulfoisophthalic acid and polyethylene glycol, polylactic acid and copolymer 1 type or 2 types, such as polymeric polyamide, can be used.

  As the solvent for dissolving the sea component, when the sea component is polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and copolymer polystyrene, an organic solvent such as toluene or trichloroethylene is used, and when the sea component is a copolymer polyester or polylactic acid. In the case of hot water-soluble polyester or polyvinyl alcohol, hot water is used, and by immersing the sea-island type composite fiber in a solvent or solution, Can remove sea components. In particular, polystyrene, copolymerized polystyrene, polyester, copolymerized polyester, and polylactic acid are preferably used from the viewpoint of increasing the density of surface fibers by high entanglement of fibers when needle punched.

  The single fiber fineness of the ultrafine fibers constituting the nonwoven fabric used in the present invention is 0.0001 dtex or more and 0.8 dtex or less in order to enhance the performance as a leather-like product, that is, flexibility, touch feeling, appearance quality and strength characteristics. Preferably there is.

  Such an ultrafine fiber is obtained from the following ultrafine fiber generation type fiber. That is, for example, a polymer array fiber composed of two or more kinds of polymers (Japanese Patent Publication No. 44-18369), or an easily-divided composite fiber composed of two kinds of polymers having low compatibility with each other (specialty No. 53-37456). However, the present invention is not limited to these, and a developed form of fiber can be applied based on the technical idea.

  Next, the relationship between the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric in the present invention will be described.

  The weight ratio of the woven or knitted fabric to the nonwoven fabric is desirably 70% or less, and most preferably 10 to 50%. This is because if the weight ratio of the woven or knitted fabric to the nonwoven fabric exceeds 70%, the fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric are easily exposed on the nonwoven fabric surface.

  In the entanglement of the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric, the woven or knitted fabric can be laminated on one side or both sides of the nonwoven fabric, or the fibers can be entangled with each other by sandwiching the woven or knitted fabric between a plurality of nonwoven fabrics.

At this time, it is a desirable mode that the nonwoven fabric is preliminarily entangled by some means as described above in order to further prevent the generation of wrinkles when the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric are separated and integrated with the needle punch. is there. In that case, when a method of preliminarily entangling with a needle punch is employed, it is effective to perform the punch density at 20 / cm ² or more, preferably 100 / cm ² or more. The pre-entanglement is preferably given at a punch density of more preferably 300 / cm ^{2 to} 1300 / cm ² .

When the pre-entanglement is less than the above-mentioned 20 / cm ² punch density, the width of the non-woven fabric leaves room for narrowing at the time of entanglement with the woven or knitted fabric and subsequent needle punches, so the change in the width This is because wrinkles are generated in the woven or knitted fabric, and it becomes impossible to obtain a smooth fiber sheet. Moreover, when the punch density of preliminary entanglement exceeds 1300 pieces / cm ² , the entanglement of the nonwoven fabric itself proceeds so much that there is less room for movement to sufficiently form the entanglement with the fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric. This is because it is disadvantageous to realize an inseparable integrated structure in which the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric are intertwined firmly.

When the woven and knitted fabric and the nonwoven fabric are intertwined and integrated, the punch density range is preferably 300 / cm ^{2 to} 6000 / cm ^2, and the punch density range is more preferably 1000 / cm ² to 3000 pieces / cm ² .

The degree of damage of the woven or knitted fiber by the needle can be evaluated by the tensile strength retention rate of the woven or knitted fabric after the nonwoven fabric and the woven or knitted fabric are intertwined and integrated with the needle punch. The value can be calculated by the following equation.
Tensile strength retention rate = (woven fabric tensile strength in a composite sheet obtained by intertwining a woven fabric and a nonwoven fabric) / (tensile strength of the woven fabric itself)
The higher the tensile strength retention rate of the above formula, the more flexible the woven or knitted fabric can be designed. Therefore, in order to obtain a flexible artificial leather substrate, the tensile strength retention rate of the above formula Is preferably 70% or more, more preferably 75% or more.

  Next, the ultrafine fiber-generating fiber in the obtained fiber sheet is treated with at least one component (preferably a sea component-constituting polymer) of the fiber-constituting polymer with a solubilizer or decomposition agent, or mechanically. Alternatively, it is modified by chemical treatment into ultrafine fibers or ultrafine fiber bundles to obtain an artificial leather substrate. At this time, the polymer elastic body fluid is applied before and after the modification treatment of the ultrafine fiber generating fiber, and both of these orders are possible. When the modification treatment is performed before the polymer elastic body fluid is applied, the polymer elastic body fluid is applied after a temporary filler that can be dissolved and removed such as polyvinyl alcohol is applied to the nonwoven fabric so that the ultrafine fibers and the polymer elastic body do not adhere to each other. Then, after that, the temporary filler is preferably removed in order to obtain the flexibility of the fiber sheet. Also, a method of impregnating a non-woven fabric with a polymer solution obtained by dissolving or dispersing a polymer elastic body in a dispersant and treating it with a non-solvent of the polymer elastic body to wet coagulate, or heat drying and gelling as it is To obtain a fiber sheet. In this way, a base for artificial leather can be produced.

The substrate for artificial leather obtained as described above can be finished into either a suede-like artificial leather or a silver-like artificial leather. When finishing the suede-like artificial leather, after adjusting the substrate for artificial leather to a desired thickness by slicing or buffing, buffing with sandpaper or the like raises the ultrafine fiber bundle on the surface of the substrate, It becomes suede-like artificial leather by dyeing. Also, when finishing to silver-like artificial leather, after adjusting the above-mentioned artificial leather substrate to desired thickness by slicing, buffing, etc., dry surface or wet method on the surface etc. A silver surface can be formed by the method described above to obtain a silver-tone artificial leather.

  The physical properties and the like were measured by the following method.

[Strong retention of woven and knitted fabric]:
First, the tensile strength of the fiber sheet-like material obtained by entangled and integrating the woven or knitted fabric and the nonwoven fabric was determined by the following method. A test piece having a length of 20 cm and a width of 5 cm is cut out from each of the woven and knitted fabric from which the nonwoven fabric portion has been removed and the knitted fabric before punching, and according to A method of JIS L1096 (1999), using a Tensilon tensile tester with a gripping interval of 10 cm. The test piece was held and stretched at a constant speed of 10 cm per minute to measure the strength in the vertical direction. Each measurement was performed three times, and the average value was calculated.

  Dividing the measured value of the woven or knitted fabric from which the nonwoven fabric portion has been removed by the measured value of the woven or knitted fabric before punching, the strength retention is obtained as a percentage. The determination was “failed”.

[Long diameter D of the weft constituting the knitted or knitted fabric]
The woven and knitted fabric structure was sampled on a flat table, and the sample was placed in such a direction as to be observed from above, and a photograph was taken at about 100 times with a scanning electron microscope. The thickest part, the thinnest part 2 points, and other arbitrary 8 points total 10 points were measured, and the average value was calculated from the length ratio with the scale on the image.

[Weaving and knitting fiber exposure]
An arbitrary range (10 cm × 10 cm) on the surface of the nonwoven fabric is observed with a microscope (Inf-500 manufactured by Moritex Co., Ltd., magnification: 50 times), and the number of exposed fibers constituting the woven or knitted fabric is exposed. The number of exposure points does not contribute to the performance of the product, but if it exceeds 6, the surface feel of the product may be impaired, so it is preferable to keep it to 5 points or less.

[Example 1]
Raw material of sea-island type composite fiber of polyethylene terephthalate as island component, component ratio 80/20 made of polystyrene as sea component, number of islands 16, single fiber fineness of composite fiber 3.8dtex, fiber length 51mm, crimp number 14 mountain / inch A non-woven fabric was prepared through the steps of a card and a cross wrapper, and then a needle punch with 300 pre-punches / cm ² was performed to prepare a non-woven fabric (felt) having a weight per unit area of 250 g / m ² .

A plain woven fabric (weaving density: warp 95 × 76 weft / cm) using 84 tex (major axis D = 125 μm) -72 filament, polyethylene terephthalate raw yarn having a twist number of 2500 T / m is uniformly spread on the obtained non-woven fabric. A needle board in which needles having a depth J = 60 μm and a barb depth X = 30 μm are planted in the direction of θ = 0 ° (see FIG. 2) is first 300 / cm ² from the nonwoven fabric side, and then 300 / cm ² from the fabric side. A total of 27000 needle / cm ² needle punches were alternately performed to obtain a fiber sheet-like material having a weight per unit area of 370 g / m ² and an apparent density of 0.215 g / cm ³ . At this time, the strength retention with respect to the fabric tensile strength before punching was 76%. The results are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

[Example 2]
A fiber sheet was obtained by processing under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that the needle was changed to a throat depth J = 60 μm and a barb depth X = 40 μm. At this time, the strength retention of the fabric was 74%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Example 3]
In Example 1 above, a needle having a throat depth J = 75 μm and a barb depth X = 50 μm was changed to a plain fabric (woven fabric) using 144 tex (major axis D = 151 μm) -288 filament and a polyethylene terephthalate raw yarn having a twist number of 2000 T / m. A sheet-like material was obtained by processing under the same conditions except that the density was changed to 72 (War × 63 W / cm). At this time, the strength retention of the fabric was 75%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Example 4]
In Example 1 above, the needle is changed to a throat depth J = 45 μm and a barb depth X = 30 μm, 56 dtex (long diameter D = 90 μm) -12 filament, a plain woven fabric using a polyethylene terephthalate raw yarn having a twist number of 2500 T / m (weave density) : Sheet 110 was processed under the same conditions except that the length was changed to 110: 88 warp / cm). At this time, the strength retention of the fabric was 71%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Example 5]
The entire surface of the needle of Example 1 was subjected to chrome plating with a film thickness of 3 μm to obtain a needle having a surface hardness of 600 Hv. Using the needle, the dimension after punching about 50 million times at an average punch speed of 120 m / min was almost unchanged with J = 60 μm and X = 29 μm, and the strength retention of the fabric was kept at 76%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Example 6]
In Example 1 described above, even when the needle was planted in the direction of θ = 30 °, the strength retention rate of the fabric was able to be maintained at 78% and width: 79%. However, slightly exposed fibers (wefts) of the woven fabric were observed at 3 points / 100 cm ² on the surface of the nonwoven fabric side. The results are shown in Table 2.

[Example 7]
In Example 1 above, even when the needle was planted in the direction of θ = 45 °, the strength retention rate of the fabric was able to be maintained at 73% vertical and 78% horizontal. However, woven fibers (wefts) were exposed at 12 points / 100 cm ² on the surface of the nonwoven fabric side. The results are shown in Table 2.

[Example 8]
In Example 1 described above, even when the needle was planted in the direction of θ = 90 °, the strength retention rate of the fabric was able to be strongly retained: vertical: 80%, horizontal: 72%. However, 27 fibers / 100 cm ² of woven fabric fibers (wefts) were exposed on the surface of the nonwoven fabric side. The results are shown in Table 2.

[Comparative Example 1] (When the value of throat depth J is off)
A fiber sheet was obtained by processing under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that the needle was changed to a throat depth J = 80 μm and a barb depth X = 30 μm. At this time, the strength retention of the fabric decreased to 46%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Comparative Example 2] (When the value of barb depth X deviates)
A fiber sheet was obtained by processing under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that the needle was changed to J = 60 μm and the barb depth X = 55 μm. At this time, the strength retention of the fabric decreased to 57%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Comparative Example 3] (When the major axis D is reduced in Example 1 and the value of the throat depth J is deviated)
The same as Example 1 except that it was changed to a plain fabric (weave density: warp 110 × 88 weft / cm) using 56 dtex (major axis D = 95 μm) -12 filament and a polyethylene terephthalate raw yarn having a twist number of 2500 T / m. The fiber sheet was obtained by processing under the conditions. At this time, the strength retention of the fabric decreased to 37%. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Comparative Example 4] (When the needle of Example 1 is worn and the values of X and J are both off)
In Example 1 above, after punching about 50 million times at an average punch speed of 120 m / min using a needle (material: piano wire) that does not have an abrasion-resistant film, the needle has a throat depth J = 80 μm, a barb depth The wear progressed to X = 50 μm. In the fiber sheet processed with this needle, the strength retention of the fabric was reduced to 34%. The results are shown in Table 1.

  In the table, in the relational expression column, the case where the relational expression is satisfied is indicated by ◯, and the case where the relational expression is not satisfied is indicated by ×.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Needle 2 Fiber yarn which comprises woven / knitted fabric 3 Fiber sheet-like material 4 Needle board 5 Travel direction 6 of sheet-like material Barb D Long diameter J of fiber yarn which comprises woven / knitted fabric J Needle throat depth X Needle length direction Barb depth

Claims (5)

In the manufacturing process of a sheet-like product in which a nonwoven fabric and a woven or knitted fabric are integrated by needle punching, needle punching is performed under conditions satisfying the following formulas (1) and (2).
X ≦ D / 3 (1)
J ≦ D / 2 (2)
X = barb depth in the needle length direction shown in FIG. 1 J = throat depth of the needle shown in FIG. 1 D = long diameter of the fiber yarn constituting the woven or knitted fabric   2. The method for producing a fiber sheet-like article according to claim 1, wherein needle punching is performed using a punching needle in which at least a portion from the needle tip to the farthest barb is coated with a coating having a hardness of 500 Hv or more.   The method for producing a fiber sheet-like material according to claim 2, wherein the film thickness is 1 µm or more and 7 µm or less.   The method for producing a fiber sheet-like product according to claim 3, wherein the coating is hard chrome or DLC (diamond-like carbon).   When the angle parallel to the weft of the knitted and knitted fabric is 0 ° and the angle parallel to the warp perpendicular to the weft is 90 °, a punching needle in which the direction of the barb of the needle is regulated to | 0 ° to 35 ° | is used. The manufacturing method of the fiber sheet-like material in any one of Claims 1-4.

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