JP3106681B2 - Nonwoven fabric manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a nonwoven fabric, which has less spots, satisfies the required sheet properties, and has high productivity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A method for producing a long-fiber nonwoven fabric includes a method in which a continuous filament is pulled at a high speed by air soccer or the like, and is further impacted by collision with an impingement plate or charged by passing through a corona discharge electric field. After a large number of filaments are opened, a nonwoven fabric is generally obtained by collecting with a collecting net conveyor which is jetted and moved together with an air flow.

[0003] In recent years, the demand for nonwoven fabrics obtained by such a method has been increasing more and more, and the applications thereof are in a wide range of fields such as civil engineering materials, agricultural materials, living materials, building materials and automobile materials. And according to each use,
The required characteristics such as the fineness of filaments constituting the nonwoven fabric, the basis weight, the texture of the nonwoven fabric, and the vertical and horizontal strength ratios are different.

[0004] For example, in the primary base fabric for tile carpet, the fineness of the filament is preferably 8d to 12d in view of the tufting property and the dimensional stability during post-processing, and the warp / width strength ratio is as close to 1.0 as possible. Is more preferable.

[0005] On the other hand, in applications such as slitting a non-woven fabric into a tape shape and winding it with a high tension, such as an electric wire holding roll for industrial materials, there are also uneven spots so as to withstand the winding tension. It is necessary to increase the strength in the vertical direction by increasing the amount by which the filament is oriented in the vertical direction.

[0006] As described above, it is extremely difficult to efficiently produce a nonwoven fabric according to each required characteristic with the same apparatus.

In connection with such a point, as means for expanding the filament or changing the directionality of the filament, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-24106 discloses a method for adjusting the width of the filament group. A method of installing a reflector charged to the same sign in the path of the charged filament group conveyed with the air flow and adjusting the width of the filament group by the repulsive force of static electricity is described,
JP-A-59-187659 discloses that, in order to obtain a more uniform and sufficiently wide web, a group of long fibers blown out together with an air stream is forcibly charged through a corona discharge channel, and then is perpendicular to a net conveyor. A method is described in which a secondary airflow is blown against the yarn running near the final collision plate. However, all of these methods are effective as means for opening single fibers, but do not change the directionality of the filament arrangement constituting the nonwoven fabric, and can change the warp / width strength ratio of the nonwoven fabric. Is inadequate.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-231856 discloses that while a charged filament group is spread in a channel having an elongated slit-like opening, the channel is swung in a direction orthogonal to the long side of the slit-like exit. A method of producing a uniform and controlled fiber arrangement web on a moving conveyor is also described, but the swing is limited by a group of filaments such as adjacent air soccer.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-184171, the entanglement of the fiber group that interferes with the adjacent spindle is eliminated.
In order to widen the jet air flow from the fiber supply device in the width direction as much as possible and to reduce the vertical / horizontal strength ratio of the nonwoven fabric, the first collision member is swung and the second collision member is collided to eject the filament group. Is changed in the direction of the net conveyor, the spinning spindles adjacent to the second collision member are appropriately changed, and the detachment position of the fiber bundle from the collision member is shifted in the length direction of the nonwoven fabric web and jetted at a position different from the position of the adjacent spinning spindle. There is also a method of collecting on a net conveyor, however, since the jet direction of the air flow is different for each weight, turbulence of the air flow is liable to occur, and, similarly to JP-A-60-231856, the nonwoven fabric is It is impossible to freely adjust the sheet characteristics.

[0010]

The present invention relates to such a conventional
In light of the technical background, various basis weights according to each application,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a nonwoven fabric manufacturing method and a nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus capable of efficiently manufacturing a nonwoven fabric having various characteristics such as a single-filament fineness and a vertical / lateral strength ratio of the nonwoven fabric using the same apparatus.

[0011]

In other words, the method for producing a nonwoven fabric according to the present invention comprises a plurality of air suckers arranged in a row, each of which has a continuous thermoplastic thermoplastic filament discharged from a plurality of spinnerets arranged in a row. In the production of non-woven fabric by pulling at high speed by spraying on the net and collecting it, the orientation of the filament is changed by changing the arrangement pitch of the air soccer to be used, and at least the vertical / horizontal strength of the non-woven fabric
This is a method for producing a nonwoven fabric, which comprises adjusting characteristics of a force ratio .

In the method for producing a nonwoven fabric according to the present invention, preferably, the pitch between adjacent air soccers for injecting continuous filaments is from 80 mm to 350 mm.
Wherein the relationship between the air sucker pitch Ep used for the jetting, the spinneret discharge outermost peripheral array diameter P, and the spinneret discharge outermost peripheral array diameter and the die pitch D satisfies the following relationship. It is a manufacturing method.

Ep = N × D (N = 1 or）) 1.5P ≦ D ≦ 2.5P Ep: Air soccer pitch to be used for injection (mm) P: Outermost peripheral array diameter of discharge hole of spinneret ( mm) D: Cap pitch (mm) The nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus for manufacturing a nonwoven fabric by drawing a continuous thermoplastic filament at a high speed by air soccer and spraying and collecting the filament on a collecting net. In the above, a large number of air soccer mounting bases arranged in the upper part of the collecting net are slidable left and right, and the width of the air soccer use pitch can be adjusted by sliding the mounting base. This is a nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus.

[0014]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a nonwoven fabric composed of thermoplastic continuous filaments and an apparatus for producing the same, wherein the continuous filament is a filament composed of a single component such as polyester, polyamide or polyolefin, or a polyethylene composed of polyester as a core component. Any of composite filaments and the like having a sheath component can be used.

In particular, a large number of air suckers are arranged using high compressed air, and the filament yarn spun from the die is for example 4000 m / min.
The filament is jetted with the air flow at a high speed of 000 m / min. The filament is further collided with a primary collision member swinging right and left, and subsequently collided with a secondary collision member to further collect. In the method of manufacturing the non-woven fabric by spraying it on a net, a number of varieties with the required characteristics according to each application, such as the fineness of the filaments constituting the non-woven fabric, the basis weight, and the strength / width ratio of the non-woven fabric, are the same. The present invention exerts its effects when efficiently manufacturing with an apparatus, particularly when changing the length / width strength ratio of a nonwoven fabric.

The pitch of air soccer referred to in the present invention means the distance between adjacent air soccers in a row of air soccers arranged in a large number in the width direction of the nonwoven fabric.

That is, when the air soccer pitch is reduced, the interference of the filament injected with the air flow with the adjacent weight is strong, and the filament is easily arranged in the nonwoven fabric vertical direction (collecting net running direction), and the vertical / horizontal strength ratio increases. Conversely, if the air soccer pitch is widened, the interference between adjacent weights is reduced, and the filaments are likely to be arranged in the width direction of the nonwoven fabric, and the length / width strength ratio tends to decrease.

However, if the pitch of the air football is wide, for example, 40 cm or more, and the opening width of the filament is not sufficiently large compared to the pitch of the air football, 1
Even if the next collision plate is swung, not only ridges (ridges) with a low basis weight between the opened filaments jetted from the adjacent air soccer are formed, but also along the trajectory of the swinging primary collision plate. In addition, there is a problem that spots are observed in the longitudinal direction, and the number of filaments per unit air soccer is limited due to the balance with the spreadability, so that the number of filaments per unit width is reduced and productivity is reduced. Problems arise.

On the other hand, if the pitch of air soccer is reduced, the number of air soccer per unit width increases, and if the number of filaments per air soccer is the same, productivity tends to increase. When the pitch becomes too narrow, for example, less than 8 cm, the interference with the adjacent injection filaments becomes strong, and the filaments of the same portion become entangled. Are generated, and it becomes difficult to obtain satisfactory results in terms of quality.

Therefore, according to the findings of the present inventors,
The pitch of the adjacent air soccer is from 80 mm to 35
It is better to be within the range of 0 mm.

Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 are schematic views showing an embodiment of the nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing the relationship between the base and the air soccer arrangement in the embodiment of FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing the relationship between the base and the air soccer arrangement in the embodiment of FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a large number of filaments 2 discharged from a spinneret 1 are drawn at high speed by an air sucker 3 to which high-compression air is connected, and a conduit 4
After sliding along the inside, the air is jetted with the air flow, and is collided with the primary collision member 5 which swings right and left, and then collided with the collision plate 6 containing lead as a main component to collide and charge the filament group 7 to open the filament group 7. I do. In this manner, a large number of nonwoven fabrics are sprayed in the width direction or the longitudinal direction of the nonwoven fabric, collected on the traveling collecting net 8, and partially heat-bonded with an embossing roll (not shown). .

FIG. 1 shows a case in which air soccer is used at a position corresponding to the lower part of the center of the base shown in FIG. 3 where air soccer is used every other weight, and the unused air soccer 3 'is a compressed air supply valve. Is closed, the pitch of the air soccer used for injecting the filament is wide, and the filament on the net has a small interference with the adjacent weight and can produce a nonwoven fabric having a small vertical / horizontal strength ratio.

The mounting base 9 for the air soccer 3 and the collision plate 6 includes an air cylinder (or motor) 10
Thereby, it can slide in the left-right (arrow) direction along the slide rail 11. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the air soccer mounting base in FIG. 1 is slid by a half pitch of the air soccer, the base and the air soccer are arranged as shown in FIG. 4, and the filament bundle discharged from the base is divided into two. In the case of this embodiment, the air soccer pitch for injecting the filament is reduced,
Interference with the adjacent weight increases, and the fibers collected on the net are easily oriented in the vertical direction (sheet winding direction), so that a nonwoven fabric sheet having a large vertical / lateral strength ratio can be manufactured. In this embodiment, the air soccer is described as being arranged in one line. However, the air soccer pitch in the first and second rows is narrower and the second row is wider. Needless to say, any of a stacking method such as a staggered arrangement or a staggered arrangement of the first and second rows of air soccer may be employed. The relationship between the diameter of the outermost array of the air soccer pitch and the discharge hole of the spinneret, and the diameter of the outermost array of the spinneret and the pitch of the spinneret that uses the filament group is as follows. It is possible to feed yarns evenly without diagonally taking the group into each air soccer.
It is preferable in terms of operation.

Ep = N × D (N = 1 or）) 1.5P <D <2.5P Ep: pitch of the air sucker to be used for injection P: diameter of the outermost peripheral arrangement of the base D: base pitch The fact that the yarn is fed obliquely means that the frictional resistance at the air soccer yarn feeder differs depending on the degree, and the drawing speed of the filament differs, which not only causes variations in quality such as yarn quality, but also reduces the impact force against the impact plate. Because there is also a difference, it is easy to cause problems such as the direction in which the non-uniformity of the nonwoven fabric becomes worse, such as causing variations in the spreadability, and it is an operation and quality point to take an aspect satisfying the above relationship. In the present invention, the air soccer pitch can be freely changed, and the diameter between the air soccer and the outermost array of the base has a fixed relationship, so that the characteristics according to each application are provided. Can be efficiently manufactured by the same apparatus.

[0028]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. In the examples, the tensile strength of the base fabric was determined by using a constant-speed elongation-type tensile tester to measure a sample having a width of 5 cm and a length of 20 cm, grasping distance of 10 cm, and pulling speed of 2 cm.
It was measured at 0 cm / min. The vertical / horizontal strength ratio was obtained by measuring five samples in the vertical and horizontal directions per 1 m of the nonwoven fabric sheet width by the above-mentioned measurement method, and calculating the ratio of the vertical / horizontal strength by an average value. Also, regarding the quality of the nonwoven fabric, those having good quality visually were evaluated as ○, and those having relatively good quality as Δ,
Defective ones were ranked as x and judged.

Example 1 A polyethylene terephthalate having an intrinsic viscosity of 0.68 and a melting point of 262 ° C. was melted at 285 ° C.
300g per spinneret from a spinneret with × 210 holes
/ Min, and the continuous filament is pulled at a high speed with an air sucker pressure of 5 kg / cm ² , then collided with the oscillating primary collision member, and subsequently collided with a lead-based collision plate to open and collect the filament. Collected on a net conveyor, 2
A nonwoven fabric was obtained by partial heat bonding with an embossing roll heated to 40 ° C. At this time, the pitch of the air sucker for injecting the filament was adjusted to 50 mm, 80 mm, 130 mm, 160 mm,
Table 1 shows the results of checking the vertical / horizontal strength ratio and the quality of the nonwoven fabric by visual inspection while changing the dimensions to 240 mm, 260 mm, 320 mm, and 390 mm.

[0030]

[Table 1] As shown in Table 1, Examples 1- (1) to 1- (9) according to the present invention have good quality of the nonwoven fabric, and have a wide vertical / horizontal strength ratio of 1.1 to 6.2. Moreover, efficient production was possible.

Example 2 Polyethylene terephthalate having an intrinsic viscosity of 0.66 and a melting point of 262 ° C. was melted at 285 ° C., and the diameter of the outermost peripheral array of the die was set at 120 mm, 140 mm, 160 mm, and 2 mm.
If the pitch is changed to 00 mm and 250 mm and the base pitch is changed to 1.5 times, 2 times, 2.5 times and 3 times, respectively, and the pitch is the same as the air soccer pitch, the position of the air soccer below the base of the base If the air soccer pitch is 1/2 of the base pitch, slide the air soccer mounting base and place it at the lower position of the outermost peripheral array of each base, 80 filaments per air soccer, and the air soccer pitch is the base pitch In the same case as in Example 1, 160 filaments were inserted per air sucker, and high-speed drawing was performed at an air sucker pressure of 5 kg / cm ² · G.

Table 2 shows the results of the visual quality checks.

[0033]

[Table 2] As shown in Table 2, in particular, the pitch of the air soccer is 350 mm or less, and the relationship between the diameter (P) of the outermost array of the base discharge and the base pitch (D) is 1.5P <D <
Those with 2.5P are also very excellent in quality such as spreadability and spots.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing another embodiment according to the present invention using a slide of the air soccer mounting base of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the relationship between the base and the air soccer arrangement in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the relationship between the base and the air soccer arrangement in the embodiment of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Spinneret 2: Filament 3, 3 ': Air soccer 4: Conduit 5: Primary collision member 6: Collision plate 7: Filament group 8: Collection net 9: Air soccer mounting base 10: Air cylinder 11: Slide rail

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D04H 3/03

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method in which thermoplastic continuous filaments discharged from a plurality of spinnerets arranged in a row are drawn at high speed by a plurality of air soccers arranged in a row to spray and collect on a net to form a nonwoven fabric. In the production, the production of the nonwoven fabric is characterized in that the orientation of the filament is changed by changing the width of the arrangement pitch of the air soccer to be used, and at least the characteristics of the length / width strength ratio of the nonwoven fabric are adjusted. Method. 2. A continuous filament drawn at a high speed collides against a primary collision member swinging below the air soccer, and subsequently, the filament collides with a collision plate mainly composed of lead to open the continuous filament. The method for producing a nonwoven fabric according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The pitch of adjacent air soccer for injecting continuous filaments is 80 mm to 350 mm, and the air soccer pitch Ep to be used for injection, the outermost peripheral array diameter P of the spinneret discharge, and the outermost peripheral array diameter of the spinneret discharge. The method for producing a nonwoven fabric according to claim 1, wherein the relationship of the die pitch D satisfies the following relationship. Ep = N × D (N = 1 or）) 1.5P ≦ D ≦ 2.5P Ep: Air soccer pitch to be used for injection (mm) P: Outermost peripheral array diameter of discharge hole of spinneret (mm) D : Base pitch (mm) 4. A continuous thermoplastic filament is drawn at high speed by air soccer, and the filament is jetted onto a collecting net.
In a device for collecting and manufacturing a nonwoven fabric, a large number of air soccer mounting bases arranged above the collecting net can be slid to the left and right, and by sliding the mounting base, the width of the air soccer use pitch can be reduced. A nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus characterized in that it is adjustable.