JP2012503106A - Non-woven fabric for automobile interior skin material and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

  The present invention relates to a nonwoven fabric for automobile interior materials and a method for producing the same. A manufacturing method is characterized by the process of printing the surface or back surface of a nonwoven fabric, and the process of carrying out the alkali etching of the back surface of a nonwoven fabric after that. Furthermore, the manufacturing method may coat the surface or the back surface of the nonwoven fabric before the printing step. Therefore, this invention provides the nonwoven fabric for motor vehicle interior which has various shapes and is equipped with the outstanding moldability and sound absorption property.

Description

  The present invention provides a nonwoven fabric for automobile interior materials by carrying out an alkali etching treatment in a regular pattern on the nonwoven fabric together with a nonwoven fabric for automobile interior materials, and various coatings and prints on the surface of the nonwoven fabric. It relates to a method of manufacturing.

  Interior skin materials for automobiles are mainly manufactured from plastic sheets, woven fabrics, and nonwoven fabrics. The plastic sheet is excellent in formability but inferior in touch. Furthermore, the woven fabric has a gorgeous appearance and excellent moldability due to a low modulus. However, since the thickness is small, the woven fabric is expensive because it needs to be used by laminating a PU foam material on the back surface. In order to solve these problems, nonwoven fabrics have been developed and used for automobile interior materials.

  Non-woven fabrics, instead of using warps and wefts, such as fabrics, fibers with regular thickness and length are spread thinly and widely by carding, and then the fibers are laminated in multiple layers. These laminated layers are a kind of fibers produced by bonding them by physical bonding such as needle punching or water entanglement, or by chemical means such as coating. Therefore, non-woven fabrics are cheaper and more productive than woven fabrics, and have excellent extensibility in various directions. Therefore, non-woven fabrics can be used as automotive interior materials that are molded into regular shapes by molding. Widely used. Nonwoven fabrics for automobile interior materials are usually manufactured by needle punching or water entanglement. Furthermore, the nonwoven fabric is currently coated with a binder on the surface or back surface of the nonwoven fabric to give various functions, or a desired pattern or color is printed on the surface of the nonwoven fabric in order to have a variety of appearances. Have been used after.

  However, although the non-woven fabric has a good feel, its appearance is inferior to that of the woven fabric. Conversely, if the surface is treated to improve the appearance of the nonwoven fabric, the modulus will be greatly increased and the moldability will be degraded. Therefore, non-woven fabrics are not suitable for automobile interior materials that require various appearances and excellent moldability. Furthermore, as the driving speed of automobiles increases due to improvements in automobile engines, it is necessary to improve the sound absorption of interior materials in order to provide a comfortable driving environment during high speed driving. If it is smooth like the interior skin material, its sound absorption is reduced.

  By the way, a method of forming various patterns on a woven fabric by an etching method has been proposed, but this was possible only by an etching method using a laser etching apparatus (see Korean Patent No. 10-0771071). However, the wet etching method using an alkaline solution such as NaOH is simple, quick and easy to control. In addition, the equipment and chemicals used in it are inexpensive and desirable for use in large volumes of work. Therefore, there is a need for a method for obtaining various appearances while using a wet etching method.

Korean Patent No. 10-0771071

  In order to meet such a demand, the inventors of the present invention perform various appearances by performing pretreatment such as coating or printing of a nonwoven fabric independently of the etching process in order to form various appearances. An automotive interior skin material having good wear resistance and good moldability was produced. Furthermore, after such pretreatment, the sound absorption of the automotive interior material was clearly improved by performing alkali etching on the nonwoven fabric.

  The present invention solves the above-described problems, and for automotive interior materials by performing alkaline etching treatment in a regular pattern on the nonwoven fabric together with various pretreatments such as coating and printing on the surface of the nonwoven fabric. A method for producing a non-woven fabric is provided. Thereby, this invention can provide the nonwoven fabric which has improved abrasion resistance, external appearance, and also improved moldability and sound absorption.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a method for producing a nonwoven fabric, the method comprising a step of printing on the front or back surface of the nonwoven fabric and a step of performing an alkali etching treatment on the front or back surface of the nonwoven fabric. I will provide a.

  In the said method, it is preferable to coat on the surface or back surface of the said nonwoven fabric before the said process to print.

  In the method, it is further preferable to perform the alkali etching treatment of the nonwoven fabric after repeatedly performing the printing step, the coating step, or a combination thereof.

  In the method, the nonwoven fabric preferably has 2 or more and 5 or less fiber layers.

  In the method, the coating step is performed using a binder containing at least one selected from the group consisting of acrylic, styrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl alcohol, polyester, ethylene vinyl chloride, ethylene vinyl acetate, and polyurethane. Is called.

  In the method, the alkali etching treatment is preferably performed on 50% or more and 90% or less of the surface of the nonwoven fabric.

  In the method, the alkali etching treatment is preferably performed using one selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH, RbOH, and CsOH, more preferably NaOH.

  In the said method, the said fiber layer of the said nonwoven fabric makes polyester 50-100 wt. % Is preferable.

  Furthermore, this invention provides the nonwoven fabric for motor vehicle interior materials manufactured by the said method.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.
The present invention relates to a method for producing a nonwoven fabric for automobile interior materials, a step of performing an alkali etching treatment in a desired pattern on the surface of the nonwoven fabric so that the color of the etched nonwoven fabric itself can appear, and the etching treatment And printing the front or back surface of the nonwoven fabric before.

  The etching process is used to melt the fiber surface in a regular pattern so that a unique three-dimensional pattern appears. Since the fiber surface is melted with a strong alkaline substance in a regular shape and depth, the etching process is suitable for non-woven fabrics having a thick fiber layer compared to a thin textile fabric. Furthermore, since the textile fabric is woven with warps and wefts, these warps or wefts are cut during the etching process, thereby significantly reducing the strength of the textile fabric. However, in the case of a non-woven fabric, even if any part thereof is damaged by the treatment, since many fiber strands are entangled with each other, neither the tensile strength nor the wear strength is greatly deteriorated. Therefore, the etching process is a method suitable for manufacturing a nonwoven fabric.

  The present invention performs the etching process using an alkaline agent, thereby forming a three-dimensional pattern with a regular shape and depth on the nonwoven fabric surface so that a three-dimensional structure is formed on the nonwoven fabric surface. Forming and thereby greatly improving the sound absorption compared to the same weight of non-woven fabric. In addition, by melting the surface of the nonwoven fabric with a regular shape and depth, the high tensile extensibility and modulus of the nonwoven fabric are greatly reduced, thereby improving the formability of the nonwoven fabric.

  However, if only the etching process is performed, the regular pattern shape formed by melting the fiber surface has the same color as the non-woven fabric, so it is difficult to obtain various shapes. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, various appearances can be obtained by performing a printing process before the etching process, and more diversity can be obtained by performing an additional coating before the printing process. It was. In addition, such a pretreatment added a coating or print layer to increase the wear strength and dimensional stability. And the surface area was increased to improve sound absorption. FIG. 6 illustrates an example obtained by executing various combinations of preprocessing.

  The present invention forms a nonwoven with at least two layers of different colors so that these different colors appear on each fiber layer, thereby obtaining nonwovens for interior materials with various patterns and colors.

  A nonwoven fabric is not woven by warps and wefts as in a fabric, etc., and regular thickness and length fibers are spread thinly and widely by carding, and then the fibers are formed into a desired weight by a web forming machine. It is of a type manufactured by laminating a plurality of layers with each other in width. Accordingly, in order to obtain five or more fiber layers having different colors, it is necessary to install five or more carding machines, which requires excessive investment costs and is not economically feasible. Therefore, the fiber layer is preferably 2 layers or more and 5 layers or less.

  The printing process or the coating process can be performed as a pretreatment before the etching process. This printing process or coating process may be performed alone or in combination on the front or back surface of the nonwoven fabric. The said printing process means printing a desired pattern or color on the surface of a nonwoven fabric. This printing process can be performed by a rotating screen method, a flat screen method, or an offset method. Furthermore, if the coating process is additionally performed before the printing process, various colors different from the color of the nonwoven fabric itself appear so that it is more diverse than the case where only the printing process is performed. It is possible to obtain a good appearance.

Advantageous effects are as follows.
The present invention forms various patterns on the surface of the nonwoven fabric at a low cost by performing a printing process and a coating process at least twice in a short time, thereby giving a three-dimensional effect and improving the design. To do. By such a pretreatment, the present invention improves the frictional resistance by the etching treatment, obtains various appearances, improves the stretch extensibility, and greatly improves the moldability by reducing the modulus. . Therefore, the present invention solves the problem of the prior art that the formability is reduced by forming various appearances in the conventional coating or printing process. Furthermore, the present invention increases the surface area of the nonwoven fabric by the etching process, thereby greatly improving sound absorption. In other words, such various appearances can be obtained by the printing process or the coating process, and physical properties such as sound absorption and moldability can be improved by the etching process. Therefore, this invention can provide the nonwoven fabric for motor vehicle interior materials provided with the various functions currently required for the vehicle interior skin material.

FIG. 1 illustrates the principle of the alkali etching process. FIG. 2 illustrates the step of alkali etching treatment after coating on the surface of the nonwoven fabric. (1) illustrates the cross section of the surface coating, (2) illustrates the alkali printing process, (3) illustrates the cross section after separation, (4) illustrates the surface coating process, (5) The alkali printing process is illustrated, and (6) illustrates the surface after separation. FIG. 3 illustrates an alkali etching process after printing on the surface of the nonwoven fabric. (1) illustrates a cross section of a surface print, (2) illustrates an alkali print process, (3) illustrates a cross section after separation, (4) illustrates a surface print, and (5) illustrates an alkali print process. The printing process is illustrated, and (6) illustrates the surface after separation. FIG. 4 illustrates a step of an alkali etching process after the printing process on the surface of the two-layer structure of the nonwoven fabric. (1) illustrates a cross section of a two-layer structure of a nonwoven fabric, (2) illustrates an alkali printing process, (3) illustrates a cross-section after separation, and (4) illustrates a surface of the two-layer structure of the nonwoven fabric. Illustrated, (5) illustrates the surface after separation. FIG. 5 illustrates the alkali etching process after the coating process on the back surface of the nonwoven fabric. (1) illustrates the cross-section of the back surface coating of the nonwoven fabric, (2) illustrates the alkali printing process, (3) illustrates the cross-section after separation, and (4) illustrates the surface of the nonwoven fabric after the back surface coating process. (5) illustrates the alkali printing process, and (6) illustrates the surface after separation. FIG. 6 illustrates the shape of the surface of the nonwoven fabric after various pretreatments of the nonwoven fabric. (A) illustrates the results when different colors of coating and printing are simultaneously performed on the surface of the nonwoven fabric, and (b) is a coating on the surface of the nonwoven fabric composed of a plurality of fiber layers each having a different color. The result in the case where the treatment is simultaneously performed is illustrated, (c) illustrates the result in the case where the coating process of different colors is simultaneously performed on the front surface and the back surface of the nonwoven fabric, and (d) illustrates that each has a different color. The result in the case where the printing process is simultaneously performed on the surface of the nonwoven fabric composed of a plurality of fiber layers is illustrated. (E) shows the case where the printing process and the coating process of different colors are simultaneously performed on the front surface and the back surface of the nonwoven fabric The results are shown, (f) shows the results when the back surface of the nonwoven fabric composed of a plurality of fiber layers of different colors is simultaneously applied, and (g) shows the results. This shows the results when the printing process and the coating process are simultaneously performed on the back surface of the nonwoven fabric composed of a plurality of fiber layers of different colors, and (h) shows the coating process and the printing process of different colors on the surface of the nonwoven fabric. While performing simultaneously, the result at the time of performing a coating process on the back surface is illustrated, (i) is a diagram showing the result when the coating process is performed on the front surface and the back surface of a nonwoven fabric composed of a plurality of fiber layers each having a different color. (J) shows the results when printing is performed on the surface of a non-woven fabric composed of a plurality of fiber layers each having a different color and coating is performed simultaneously on the back surface thereof. FIG. 7 illustrates the shape of each treatment of the nonwoven fabric for interior materials produced according to the present invention. (A) illustrates the surface of the nonwoven fabric, (b) illustrates the surface of the nonwoven fabric that has been subjected to a printing process, and (c) illustrates the surface of the nonwoven fabric that has been subjected to alkali etching after the printing process. FIG. 8 illustrates an example in which a non-woven fabric for interior that has been subjected to alkali etching is used as an interior material of an automobile. FIG. 9 illustrates various steps of the coating process. (1) illustrates the binder, (2) illustrates the first roller, (3) illustrates the second roller, and (4) illustrates the gauge. FIG. 10 illustrates each step of the printing process. FIG. 11 is a graph illustrating a comparison regarding the frequency bandwidth before and after the alkali etching treatment of the absorption coefficient (α) of the nonwoven fabric for interior material. Here, red represents the nonwoven fabric before the alkali etching treatment, and blue represents the nonwoven fabric after the alkali etching treatment.

  The invention will be described in detail by way of illustrative examples, which are purely illustrative and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention.

  The nonwoven fabric for interior material according to the present invention is manufactured by pretreatment such as printing and coating, and etching.

Example 1 Coating Process The chemical coating (or binder coating) process of the present invention is illustrated in FIG.
The coating apparatus includes a pair of rollers, and one or both surfaces of the nonwoven fabric can be coated with at least one coating apparatus. By passing a nonwoven fabric between the pair of rollers rotating in opposite directions with respect to the central axis, a binder is added on the surface where one roller and the nonwoven fabric are adjacent to each other, whereby the surface of the nonwoven fabric is bound to the binder. Coated by. ACRYSOL 890, Acrylic Emulsion DK-6800DK Chem, or EW-100S SKI PET RESIN, available from DKC, is used as the binder.

  At this point, the surface of the nonwoven fabric contacting the two rollers may be the same (surface coating) or different from each other (back surface coating). Furthermore, double-sided coating is possible if surface coating and backside coating are performed simultaneously. That is, double-sided coating is possible by coating the back surface with a pair of rollers, drying the coated back surface, applying the surface coating to the dried nonwoven fabric with another pair of rollers, and drying the nonwoven fabric. In other words, the nonwoven fabric is passed through the first roller, the surface opposite to the surface adjacent to the first roller is passed through the second roller, and the binder is introduced between the second roller and the surface adjacent to the nonwoven fabric. Backside coating is performed as described above. The foam binder is 50 to 500 g / l, the coating amount is 5 to 50 gsm, and the gauge distance between two rollers of the coating apparatus is 0T to 5T.

Example 2: Printing Process A printing process using the rotating screen method uses a printing device in which the rotating screen contacts the guide roll (FIG. 10). When the nonwoven fabric passes between the rotating screen roll (a in FIG. 10) and the guide roll (b in FIG. 10) of the first color printing apparatus, the binder supply device (FIG. 10) provided in the rotating screen roll. The color binder discharged by c) in FIG. 10 (e in FIG. 10) is pushed by the squeeze bar (d in FIG. 10), part of which is released from the outer surface of the rotating screen, thereby A pattern is formed on the surface. Since the squeeze bar is located within the range of the magnetic field of the magnet (electromagnet) (f in FIG. 10), a predetermined amount of color binder is discharged to the outside of the rotating screen at a predetermined position by the squeeze bar, As a result, printing is possible. At this time, the resolution of the print pattern can be controlled by adjusting the magnetic field strength of the magnet to 3 to 8 kgf. When the magnetic field strength of the magnet is high, the pattern is dark and vivid, and when the magnetic field strength is low, the pattern is printed lightly.

  When a printing device of the same type as the printing device described above (second color printing device) is disposed on the side and the nonwoven fabric continues to move to the second color printing device after passing through the first color printing device, an additional A pattern is formed. In this way, different appearances can be obtained by at least two continuous treatments, and the nonwoven fabric is obtained by adding a die and an organic pigment to the binder in an amount of 1 to 10 wt. The desired color is printed by mixing in the amount of%. Foron Black (Swiss Clariant) or Foron Dark Blue RD-2RE 300 (Swiss Clariant) is used as the die and RYUDYE-W BLACK RS CONE, RYUDYE-W NAVY BLUE FFTR, RYUDYE-W RED FFGR, RYUDYE-W YELLOW FF3R, or RYUDYE-W BROWN FFR (DIC, Japan) is used.

  The guide roll is formed of a soft material such as rubber or silicon in order to reduce the variation in the thickness of the nonwoven fabric, whereby the surface of the nonwoven fabric is printed with a regular thickness. In addition, an open area where the print screen is open in a regular pattern is provided at a rate of about 40-90% of the surface area of the nonwoven so that the binder is not printed.

  In order to prepare a dispersion die, a fine powdery die is substantially colloidally dispersed in water by the dispersant, and the die dissolves in the fiber and is dyed on the fiber.

  As described above, different patterns and colors are printed on the nonwoven fabric according to the mixing ratio of the die and the pigment by at least two successive printing processes, thereby obtaining various appearances.

Example 3: Alkaline etching treatment 100 wt. An alkali etching treatment is performed on a non-woven fabric made of% polyester. This alkali etching treatment is performed by adding a strong alkali agent, NaOH, to the surface of the fiber to melt the fiber in a regular shape and depth. After printing the nonwoven fabric surface with an alkaline agent, the printing solution and the dissolved portion of the nonwoven fabric are separated.
The moldability and sound absorption of the nonwoven fabric for interior materials produced as described above were measured.

Example 4: Comparison of moldability In order to confirm the effect of the alkali etching treatment on the moldability of the nonwoven fabric, the modulus was compared before and after the etching treatment.

  In Table 1 above, the term 25% modulus is an important physical property for assessing moldability, which means the force required to stretch a nonwoven fabric for a predetermined length of 25%. . Therefore, the lower the value, the better the moldability. As shown in Table 1 above, the modulus of the nonwoven fabric is greatly reduced after that compared to before the etching treatment. In particular, the longitudinal modulus is reduced by 30% before the etching process.

Example 5: Comparison of sound absorption In order to confirm the effect of the etching treatment on the sound absorption of the nonwoven fabric, the sound absorption was compared for each frequency bandwidth before and after the etching treatment. The sound-absorbing properties of the etched nonwoven fabric were much better in all frequency bandwidths than before the etching treatment. And it was confirmed that the sound absorption was remarkably improved in a frequency bandwidth of 1000 Hz or more (FIG. 11).

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for an automobile interior skin material and a shoe material, characterized by being manufactured by molding a skin material and a base material used for mass production at the same time as a certain quality. .

Claims (10)

  A method for producing a nonwoven fabric for automobile interior materials, the method comprising a step of printing on the front or back surface of the nonwoven fabric and a step of performing an alkali etching treatment on the front or back surface of the nonwoven fabric.   The method of Claim 1 which coats the surface or back surface of the said nonwoven fabric before the said process to print.   The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the non-woven fabric is subjected to an alkali etching treatment after the printing step, the coating step, or a combination thereof is repeatedly performed.   The method according to claim 1, wherein the nonwoven fabric has 2 or more and 5 or less fiber layers.   The coating step is performed by a binder including at least one selected from the group consisting of acrylic, styrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl alcohol, polyester, ethylene vinyl chloride, ethylene vinyl acetate, and polyurethane. The method according to any one.   The method according to claim 1, wherein the alkali etching treatment is performed on 50% or more and 90% or less of the entire surface of the nonwoven fabric.   The method according to claim 1, wherein the alkali etching treatment is performed using one selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH, RbOH, and CsOH.   The method according to claim 7, wherein the alkali etching treatment is performed using NaOH.   The fiber layer of the nonwoven fabric contains 50 to 100 wt. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, which comprises:   The nonwoven fabric for motor vehicle interior materials manufactured by the method in any one of Claims 1-9.

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