JPH0348836B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a filling material having excellent bulk and a unique texture, and more particularly to a blow-in filling material made of synthetic fibers that can be used in place of feathers for purposes similar to feathers. be. Products using filling materials generally include futons, quilted products, pillows, and other cushion products, but the characteristics particularly required of these products are their soft texture and excellent bulk. These characteristics are particularly strongly required for futons, which are a typical product. Among the conventional filling materials, the material with the most excellent properties in terms of the above properties is waterfowl feathers.The most high-quality material is the soft part of the chest hair called down, and the second is the back part called mixdown, and the lower-grade material is the soft part of the chest hair called down. The thing is the hair on the wings called feathers. The greatest characteristics of down are its soft texture and high heat retention.In addition to these, down's effects such as automatically contracting, expanding, absorbing moisture, and repelling water according to changes in the outside air prevent sweat during sleep. It absorbs and releases just the right amount of water, so you always feel refreshed. As described above, futons made of down exhibit excellent properties such as heat retention, bulk, compressibility, recovery properties, and moisture permeability, and have long been used as filling materials. However, since feathers are naturally produced and are limited in quantity, they are expensive and have not yet been used in large quantities. So far, we have used synthetic fibers with a range of fineness, crimp count, and crimp degree as a substitute for feathers (publication of Utility Model Publication No. 55-31021), and silicone-based finishing agents for polyester fibers with a horseshoe-shaped single yarn cross section. and antistatic agents have been proposed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 53-90421). However, since these filling materials have strong fiber entanglement, they tend to form lumps during blowing, and have the disadvantage of causing cotton clogging. Therefore, unless it is processed into a sheet by forcibly aligning the fibers through a carding process, it cannot be used as futon cotton, and has the disadvantage that it is significantly inferior to feathers in texture and bulk. In addition, padded cotton made of synthetic fibers and granular lumps has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 85453/1983), but it is still not satisfactory in terms of texture and flexibility. be. The inventors of the present invention have arrived at the present invention as a result of intensive study on a blow-in filling material that has a texture similar to down, bulkiness, and flexibility, and the gist thereof is as follows. It is made of a large number of synthetic short fibers that have crimped parts and non-crimped parts, manufactured using thermoplastic composite fibers with latent crimpability, and the crimped parts are gathered together to form granules, which are non-crimped. A filling material consisting of an aggregate having a shape in which a portion protrudes from a granular portion. Synthetic fibers used in the filling material of the present invention include polyester fibers, polyolefin fibers, and acrylic fibers, and polyester fibers are particularly preferred because they have excellent compression recovery properties. In addition, a material with a fineness of 0.5 to 15 deniers is used, but from the viewpoint of texture, a material with a fineness of 1 to 6 deniers is preferable. The filling material of the present invention is made of a large number of synthetic staple fibers having a crimped portion and a non-crimped portion, manufactured using thermoplastic composite fibers having latent crimpability,
It is characterized by being composed of an aggregate in which crimped portions gather to form a granular shape, and non-crimped portions protrude from the granular portion, but the ratio of the diameter a of the granular portion to the length b of the protruding portion is It is preferable that (a/b) is 0.045 to 10. When a/b is large, a texture similar to down is obtained, and flexibility and bulkiness are good, but when it exceeds 10, dispersibility is poor. As a/b becomes smaller, a feather-like texture is obtained from small feathers, and the dispersibility becomes better, but when it becomes smaller than 0.045, flexibility and bulkiness deteriorate. In this case, the diameter a of the granular portion is preferably 1.5 mm or more and less than 10 mm from the viewpoint of bulkiness and dispersibility. a is 1.5
If it is less than 10 mm, the bulkiness will be poor, and if it exceeds 10 mm, the dispersibility will decrease, which is not preferable. Further, the length b of the protrusion is preferably 1 mm or more and less than 33 mm from the viewpoint of adhesion. If b is less than 1 mm, the adhesion force will decrease, which is undesirable, and if it exceeds 33 mm, the number of floating fibers will increase, which is undesirable. In the present invention, the number of crimps in the crimped part is 3 to 15/
25 mm, preferably 6 to 12 threads/25 mm is appropriate.
In addition, the crimp rate of the crimp part is 8 to 30%, preferably
10-25% is appropriate. The aggregate constituting the filling material of the present invention has the structure shown in FIG. That is, using a synthetic short fiber having a crimped part and a non-crimped part produced using a thermoplastic composite fiber having latent crimpability, the crimped part is collected to form the granular part 1, and the non-crimped part is collected. This is an aggregate having a shape in which the portion 2 protrudes from the granular portion 1. Since the filling material of the present invention is composed of such aggregates, like down, there is little entanglement between each aggregate, and each aggregate is separate and independent, and because it is granular, each aggregate is The body itself is bulky, and the gaps between each aggregate are large, further increasing the bulk and creating a down-like state. Note that FIG. 2 is an example of an aggregate constituting a conventional filling material made of fibers having only crimped portions. The method for manufacturing the filling material of the present invention includes:
A fiber bundle obtained by hot drawing an undrawn fiber bundle of a composite fiber having latent crimp property is intermittently heated under weak tension to locally eliminate the latent crimp property, and then the tension of the fiber bundle is released. By doing this, a tow in which crimped portions and non-crimped portions exist alternately and continuously is obtained, and then a silicone finish is applied and heat treated to impart smoothness, and then the tow is cut into a predetermined length. The aggregate can then be easily produced by stirring under high-speed air flow for 30 seconds to 10 minutes. In the present invention, the characteristic values are determined as follows. 〇Crimp performance In order to easily measure the crimp portion, prepare a sample for crimp measurement that does not come into contact with the heating rod, remains cut, and has not been subjected to high-speed air flow treatment. Apply an initial load of 2 mg/d to the sample,
Measure the length l ₀ and the number n of crimps, then measure the length l ₁ under a load of 50 mg/d, and calculate the number Cn of crimps and the number Ci of crimps within 25 mm. Cn=n×25/l ₀ , Ci=(l−l ₀ )×100/l Furthermore, the number of crimps CN and the crimp rate CI are determined based on the ratio of crimped portions to non-crimped portions. CN=Cn × [(Fiber length - Length of non-crimped part)/Fiber length] CI=Ci × [(Fiber length - Length of non-crimped part)/Fiber length] Here, fiber length means short fiber. represents the cut length. Further, the diameter of the granular part of the aggregate was measured using a caliper. As a comparative example, the diameter of an aggregate obtained by cutting the aggregate without contacting it with a rod-shaped heater and stirring under a high-speed air stream was also measured using calipers. 〇Bulk and high performance Specific volume at initial load A ₀ (cc/g), Specific volume at load
It consists of A ₁ (cc/g), specific volume under load A ₂ (cc/g), and compression ratio (%), and the specific volume under initial load A ₀ is the sample
Put 100g into a 40cm x 40cm bag-shaped minibutton,
The height h ₀ (cm) after a load of 0.1 g/cm ² is determined by the following formula. Specific volume when initially loaded A ₀ = 40×40×h ₀ /100 (cc/g) Specific volume when loaded A ₁ is the specific volume when initially loaded A ₀ 0.4 g/cm as in the measurement ² Height after loading h ₁ (cm) using the following formula. Weighted specific volume A ₁ = 40×40×h ₁ /100 (cc/g) Weighted specific volume A ₂ is similarly determined from 3 g/cm ² Height after loading h ₂ (cm) using the following formula. It will be done. Specific volume when loaded A ₂ = 40 x 40 x h ₂ /100 (cc/g) The compression ratio is as follows: 100 g of sample is placed in a bag-shaped minibutton measuring 40 cm x 40 cm, and the height after a load of 0.1 g/cm ² is H ₁
After repeating loading and unloading of 3 g/cm ² several times, calculate the specific volume from the height H ₂ (cm) when applying a load of 0.4 g/cm ² .
Find VH ₁ and VH ₂ and use the formula below to find the compression ratio. Compressibility = (VH ₁ − VH ₂ )×100/VH ₁ (%) Example 1 Discharge ratio of polyethylene terephthalate with intrinsic viscosity of 0.65 and 0.60 measured in a mixed solvent of equal weight of phenol/tetrachloroethane at 20°C Composite spinning was performed side-by-side in a one-to-one manner using a 350-hole nozzle at a discharge rate of 400 g/min/spindle, spinning temperature of 280°C, and spinning speed of 900 m/min. It was bundled and stretched under the following conditions. That is, a 2 million denier undrawn fiber bundle was drawn at a drawing temperature of 80°C and a drawing ratio of 3.6. After the drawn fiber bundle was intermittently brought into contact with a rod-shaped heater heated to 215°C, a 1% aqueous emulsion consisting of dimethylpolysiloxane, an aminosilane compound, and a metal salt was applied to the fiber bundle, and the fiber bundle was heated at 150°C. in
Heat treated for 10 minutes, cut into 38mm pieces, and placed under high speed air flow.
Aggregates were obtained by stirring for 10 minutes. As a comparative example, a fiber bundle was treated under the same conditions as in Example 1 without any contact with the rod-shaped heater, and an aggregate was obtained. These results are shown in Table 1. As can be seen from Table 1, the product of the present invention has a higher specific volume A ₀ when initially loaded than the conventional product, and is equivalent to feathers. The compression rate is also higher than conventional products, approaching that of feathers. These results indicate that the product of the present invention has flexibility and bulk similar to feathers. The weighted specific volume A ₁ is lower than that of conventional products, approaching that of a feather. This also shows flexibility. The product of the present invention also has good dispersibility, which is important for workability when blowing into futons and the like. The brands of both the conventional product and the product of the present invention are 3d
It is ×38mm.

【table】

[Table] Dispersibility...○: Good, △: Fairly good, ×:
defective

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of an assembly constituting the filling material of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional product.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Consisting of a large number of synthetic short fibers having crimped parts and non-crimped parts, which are manufactured using thermoplastic composite fibers having latent crimpability, the crimped parts are gathered together. A filling material consisting of an aggregate having a granular shape with non-crimped portions protruding from the granular portions. 2. Claim 1 in which the ratio (a/b) of the diameter a of the granular part to the length b of the bundle part is 0.045 to 10.
Filling material listed on page.