JPH031037B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to padded cotton.

[Conventional technology]

Filled cotton is made from natural or synthetic fibers, either alone or in a mixture, which are opened to form a web, which are then aligned or crossed in the same direction and layered to an appropriate thickness. Therefore, the fibers themselves tend to extend in the plane direction, are difficult to orient in the vertical direction, and have poor compressibility. Therefore,
Attempts have been made to bend long fiber tow into a wavy shape and cover it with another web, or to construct padded cotton only from the wavy bent web, but it cannot be denied that so-called sagging occurs. .

It is also known that wool fibers are made into cotton padding by the above-mentioned method, but when used for a long period of time, they are subject to compression and friction during use, in addition to the heat and moisture emitted by the user. As a result, a phenomenon of felting was observed, and as a result of felting, the wool fibers became entangled and hardened, resulting in a loss of elasticity as a filling cotton and poor durability.

Therefore, it is known that fibers are made into ball-shaped lumps (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 116851/1983), but these balls are circular or have a width to length ratio of 1:1 to 1:5.
The ball has a fiber packing density of about 0.01 g/cm ³ to 0.1 g/cm ³ , and the fibers that make up the ball are entangled or entwined with each other.

Since the entire ball of this kind of ball is made up of uniform fiber density, if the air content is increased for the purpose of heat retention, the ball will easily collapse, and conversely, if the compression resistance is increased, the fiber density will be increased. This results in a decrease in air content and an increase in weight.

In addition, in conventional ball-shaped padded cotton, the ends of the fibers constituting the ball protrude in a fluffy manner on the surface of the ball, so when it is used as a filling, the fluffy protruding fibers intertwine with each other and create a smooth surface. When using a method such as feathers in a duvet to avoid the lack of
The balls gathered in the futon and formed a clump, making it difficult to distribute the balls evenly within the futon's sides.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] The present invention was made in view of these points, and it is an object of the present invention to obtain padded cotton with improved repellency, bulk, heat retention, and smoothness, and with less set. with the purpose of
It is characterized by having a shell structure in which the tow-like fiber pieces obtained by opening wool are kept in the shape of a ball, and the outer layer is made of felt.

[Means for solving problems]

The outer layer of the ball-shaped wool fiber has a shell structure in which the wool fibers are felt, and the core has a core-shell structure in which the wool is wrapped in the shell structure.

〔Example〕

The cotton insert 1 of the present invention uses wool fibers 2 as a material, and its basic structure is that the wool fibers 2 are formed into a ball shape, and the core portion 3 inside the ball is a core filled with wool fibers 2 in a compressed state. Comprising part 3,
The wool fibers 2 of the core portion 3 maintain voids 4 that serve as an air-containing structure, improving heat retention. The ball outer layer 5 has a felt shell structure and surrounds the core portion 3. The outer layer 5 has a slightly smooth surface as the fluff of the wool fibers is suppressed by felting, and a large number of ball-shaped padded cotton 1 are enclosed in the side fabric of a futon or the like to form a ball-shaped padded cotton 1. When similar surfaces come into contact, the wool fibers on each surface do not get caught and can easily move. Because the surface layer of the shell is made into felt, its elasticity increases, and the core fibers exhibit compression resistance and repulsion against external pressure on the ball-shaped padded cotton. It exhibits properties that are extremely resistant to crushing and flattening.

The filling cotton 1 of the present invention is made as follows.

Wool fibers are opened with a card to form slivers 10, which are cut into fixed lengths of about 10 to 30 mm by a cutter 11 to obtain fiber pieces 12. The fiber pieces 12 are continuously fed onto the surface of a conveyor 13 having a large friction coefficient such as a fine wire mesh or coarse cloth, and the fiber pieces 12 on the surface of the conveyor 13 are
2 is slightly pressed down with the plate-shaped body 14, and the surface of the fiber piece is rubbed repeatedly. The plate-like body 14 has a disk whose center is supported by a rotating shaft 15, and presses the fiber piece 12 while rotating the disk. The center of the rotating shaft 15 may or may not be moved. As another example, although not shown, the plate-like body may be supported so as to perform circular motion including a reciprocating straight line or an ellipse, intersecting the moving direction of the conveyor.

Due to the friction of the fiber pieces 12 between the two surfaces of the conveyor 13 and the plate-shaped body 14, the ends of the fiber pieces 12 are rolled up and gradually formed into a ball shape.
The wool fibers 2 located in the central part of the ball, that is, the core part 3, do not change significantly even by the rolling pressure between the two surfaces of the conveyor 13 and the plate-shaped body 14, but as the balling progresses, the wool fibers 2 bend. As the degree of separation progresses, some entanglement occurs and the density increases.

When forming the above-mentioned balls, water is sprayed on the surface of the fiber pieces 12 to give appropriate moisture to the fiber pieces 12, and the fibers are formed into balls while the fiber pieces 12 are being rubbed against the surface of the conveyor 13 and the plate-shaped body 14. The outer layer of one layer becomes felt, and the surface of the cotton pad 1 becomes a shell and becomes dense. Further, in the above-mentioned felting process, a weakly alkaline activator may be used in combination with water spraying to actively promote shrinkage.

When using the filling cotton of the present invention, if necessary, create appropriate sections in the side fabric such as in a duvet to prevent unnecessary movement of the filling cotton, and
The individual ball-shaped padded cotton is enclosed within the lining in a movable state within the lining.

Wool tow with a thickness of 30m/m is cut into lengths of 30m/m, resulting in fiber pieces weighing approximately 0.25g, with a weight ratio of approximately 30%.
water, and at the same time added about 1% silicone by weight.The fiber pieces placed on the conveyor were lightly compressed with a disk and the disk was rotated to form a fiber piece with a diameter of about 27 mm and an outer layer thickness of about 3 mm. A ball-shaped padded cotton was obtained.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the cotton filling of the present invention has a ball shape,
It always shows a constant resiliency even when it is displaced within the side fabric and receives force from any direction, and has a smooth surface with little fuzz-like protrusions due to the felt shell structure of the outer layer of padded cotton. As a result, there is little interaction between the surface fibers and it has smoothness, so you can change the position of the padded cotton inside the side fabric to suit your preference, just like with a down comforter.

Furthermore, since the wool fibers at the center of the cotton padding are surrounded by the shell structure of the outer layer, air is retained in the inner core well, increasing heat retention and minimizing deformation. .

Since the felt outer layer of the shell structure has a high fiber density, it is highly resilient to external pressure, improves cushioning properties, and exhibits deformation resistance. For this reason, the filled cotton always maintains a ball-like overall shape, and the amount of space created between adjacent balls does not change or decrease, so when used as a filling, it does not reduce the amount of air retained and impairs heat retention. There is no. This also means that no so-called sagging occurs.

Furthermore, even if the futon is compressed by use, when the pressure is released, the balls tend to return to their original shape due to the elasticity of the balls themselves, and the balls themselves can move relative to each other, so there is no difference between adjacent balls. Because they push each other and change their positions in the most stable state, the rate of recovery to the original thickness is high.

Next, a comparison will be shown of changes in the bulk of futons between wool carded cotton and the padded cotton of the present invention.

The trial futon was a rectangular futon measuring 28 cm long and 38 cm wide, with 49 g each of wool carded cotton and cotton of the present invention sealed inside the sides, and the changes in thickness when the weight was repeatedly applied and the changes in thickness when the weight was stopped were observed for each of the futons. FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the elapsed time and the recovery of thickness.

This clearly shows that the futon cotton of the present invention has a superior bulk reduction rate compared to wool carded futon cotton after 200 repeated compressions, and is also superior in bulk recovery rate.

In the above, the specific volume (cm ³ /g) of the cotton of the present invention
was 91.0, and the specific volume of wool carded cotton was 74.7, but the specific volume after recovery after repeated loading was 65.4 and 59.4, respectively.

Therefore, compared to wool carded cotton, the initial volume of the cotton of the present invention was 122%, but the specific volume after recovery was 110%. It is clear that it is also good.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the cotton wadding of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic side view of an apparatus for manufacturing the wadding cotton of the invention, and Fig. 3 is the thickness of the cotton of the invention and wool carded cotton when repeated loads are applied. It is a graph showing the relationship between the change in taste, the elapsed time after stopping the weighting, and the recovery of the rich taste. 1... Inner cotton, 2... Wool fiber, 5... Outer layer, 10... Sliver, 12... Fiber piece, 13
... Conveyor, 14 ... Disc.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Filled cotton is made of ball-shaped wool fibers, and the outer layer has a shell structure in which the wool fibers are felt and wraps around the core.