JPH04257358A - Needle nonwoven fabric - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a cut pile fabric excellent in appearance and flexibility from a needled nonwoven fabric. CONSTITUTION: Non-woven synthetic staple fibers 12 such as a nylon are laminated through a lapper 13 and formed into a continuous web 11, which is then introduced into a needle room 17 and subjected to needling with forked needles 19 to provide a continuous batt 14 having loops formed on the surface thereof. A latex backing is then carried out on the back surface of the batt 14 with an applicator 25 and the resultant batt 14 is subsequently passed through a guide roll 30 and brought into contact with a loop cutting rotor 32 to cut all the loops and form a cut pile fabric. Low melt fusible fibers comprising 10-35% of nylon 6/nylon 12 may be preblended in the batt 14 and treated at a temperature of the melting point of the fusible fibers or above in place of the latex backing to fix the batt 14.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a nonwoven fabric and a method for producing the same. In particular, it relates to nonwoven fabrics made from needle batts of nonwoven staple fibers from blends of fibers including low melt fusibility fibers.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Jute, burlap, etc. have long been available in the market with or without a nonwoven batt of staple fibers secured thereto using adhesives, needle bonding, melting, etc. There is a need for textiles having backing elements such as. Yarns are tufted through the backing and/or batt. The ends of the tufts are then fluffed and a tig
er) or cut to produce fleece-like material (
U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,381, October 13, 1964, Priester, et. al. and U.S. Pat. No. 2,913,803, Nov. 24, 1959, Dodds), or freeze effect materials (U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,386, Sept. 12, 1967, White, et. al. (see). All of these prior art techniques have in common the use of tufts that provide loop piles that are then raised or cut to produce a fabric with a deep soft surface.

US Pat. No. 3,674,618 (Spann, July 4, 1972) discloses an imitation sliver knit pile fabric with a thin thermoplastic film overlying a nonwoven layer of staple fibers. ing. The fibers are needled through the film and the film is thermally bonded to the fibers. This layer of fibers is then fluffed, sheared and polished to produce a soft, pliable apparel fabric.

US Pat. No. 3,347,735 (October 17, 1967, Sissons) teaches the application of reinforcing elements to the surface of a web of staple fibers. The web and reinforcing elements are needle punched from the side of the web opposite the reinforcing elements to force the fibers through the reinforcing elements to form fiber tufts. The resulting product is immersed in boiling water to crimp the fibers.

US Pat. No. 4,391,866 (July 5, 1983, Pickens, et.a.
l. ) involves the needling of nonwoven fibers by arranging a series of loops transversely through the machine and then tearing the nonwoven fibers to break many filaments of the formed loops.
led) describes a cut pile fabric made from batt. The fabric surface is then polished to even out the fabric surface and sheared to create a suitably smooth pile surface.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for providing pile fabrics from needled nonwoven fabrics, which does not have the problems inherent in fabric construction as described above.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the drawings, a preferred embodiment of the present invention for producing a cut pile fabric is schematically shown in FIGS. 1 and 7. Although FIGS. 1 and 7 depict a continuous process, the fabric or web to be treated may be removed at the end of any step of the process and the next step of the process as long as there is a next step of the process shown. It can be transported to the process in rolls, etc.

FIGS. 1 through 6 illustrate one preferred form of fabric 10 and its method of manufacture. The non-woven staple fibers 12 are formed by forming the web 11 into a continuous web 11 using, for example, a conventional wrapper 13, as shown in FIG.
piled up in the needle room
17 and needled into a continuous butt 14 using a conventional needle. Batt 14 can be needled from both sides or from one side as shown, depending on the fiber material and desired weight of the finished fabric. In a preferred form of the manufacturing process, assuming that the batt 14 is only needled from one side, and from the top of FIG. . bat 14
This can be done by rotating the bat on rollers (not shown) as it leaves the needle room 17. Thereafter, the rollers are reversed, the batt 14 is fed into the needle loom 17, and the batt 14 is punched from the side of the batt opposite to the single needle. When the bat 14 is punched from both sides, it is supplied to the arranged needle loom 17, and the needle is first passed through the first punched side, and the loop is made to protrude from the later punched side. The butt 14 advances through a needle loom 17 forming a loop 18 . The needle loom 17 uses a fork needle 19 passing through one side, such as the back side 20 of the butt 14, to
The fibers captured by the end of the needle are pushed through the other surface, such as 2, to form loops 18 extending from that surface.

As shown in FIG. 6, to provide a random effect for the loops 18, the fork needles are aligned transversely and staggered in the machine direction to move the openings of the loops in the machine direction from machine row to machine row. Move to. To carry out this arrangement, a brush conveyor 26 is used to pass moving needles randomly after needling and rest on the needles 19 so that the openings of the configuration run perpendicular to the machine direction of the needle room 17. do it like this.

After the loops 18 are formed in the batt 14, a backing 20, such as the latex coating of FIG. The fibers 12 and, in special cases, the fiber ends of the loops 18 still in the batt are transported downstream to lock, adding stiffness to the batt.

As shown in FIG. 1, the applicator 25 includes:
It is of the commercially available type that applies the backing 24 as the batt 14 moves through the applicator with the backing side facing upward. Instead of latex backing 24, the nature of the fibrous material of batt 14 may be thermoplastic or fusible (f
7, for the purpose of locking the ends of the fibers forming the loops 18 and adding stiffness to the batt.
The backing 24 may be formed by melting (not shown) using a suitable hot roll or oven 28 as shown in FIG. This backing 21 provides stiffness as well as strength and stability to the finished fabric.

From the applicator 25, a liner loop butt 14 (FIG. 6) with downwardly staggered loops 18 passes over a guide roll 30 as disclosed in US Pat. No. 3,977,055. is sent to the loop cutting rotor 32. Rotor 32
Adjustable rolls 34 and 36 are arranged on either side of the
They are mounted on support tracks 38 and 40, respectively. The support track allows the rolls 34 and 36 to move up and down to adjust the position of the loop butt relative to the blade 42 of the cutting rotor 32. U.S. Patent No. 3,97
As described in the '055 patent, blade 42 cuts approximately 100% of all of the loops 18 with minimal loss to provide cut pile fabric 46. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the rotor 32 can be driven by a motor 44 in the direction of movement of the loop bat 14 (FIG. 4) or in the opposite direction of the movement of the bat (FIG. 5). After the loops 18 of the batt 14 are cut, the cut pile fabric 46 is conveyed by drive rolls to a take-up 48 where removal takes place.

[0014]

EXAMPLE A typical fabric made with the apparatus and method disclosed herein is an 18 denier, 3
Contains 1/4" staple nylon. Weight varies from 6 to 30 oz/yd2 depending on cut pile fabric application.
can change to. When using the apparatus shown in FIG.
The web 12 is made of 3-6 denier low melt
) Can be blended with fibers such as polyethylene.

Multiple layers of nylon nonwoven staple fibers 31/4" in length were lapped into continuous web 11 and then needle punched to form continuous batt 14. bat 1
4 was punched with loom 17 to form loop 18. The fork needles 19 used in the needle room 17 were oriented with openings between the points of the fork arranged perpendicular to the machine direction. The batt 14 was then dried by passing it through an applicator 25 which applied a latex backing 24 designated as SBR to the backside 20 at a rate of 8 ounces per square yard. The latex bat 14 is then heated to an appropriate r. p. m. Loop 18 was cut by passing it through rotor 32 rotating either clockwise or counterclockwise at a speed of 15 feet per minute. The fabric 10 can be conventionally dyed to the desired color, or the fibers 12 can be stock or solution dyed so that the finished fabric will reflect that color.

As already mentioned, FIG.
2 illustrates another embodiment of the invention in which the batt 14 includes a predetermined amount of low melt fusible fibers that melt the batt 14. Although the particular low melt fibers and blend amounts are not critical, in a preferred embodiment of the invention batt 14 is made of 80% 18 denier, 3
It is a blend of 1/4 solution dyed polypropylene fiber and 20% 6 denier 1-7/8" clear polyethylene. The amount of low melt fusible fiber can vary from 10 to 35% and the amount of remaining fiber In the preferred case described above, the oven is operated at about 275° F. for 5 minutes to heat set the batt 14.

In another embodiment of the invention, the article is essentially nylon. The main components of Blend Bat 14 are 85-7
0% 18 denier, 3” staple solution dyed nylon, low melt fiber, 15 to 30 of the total batt 14
It is a combination of nylon 6 and nylon 12%. The low melt nylon combination fiber is 4.5 denier with a staple length of 51 mm. The bat 14 described here is 3
Place in an oven operating at a temperature of 0.000°F and dwell for approximately 5 minutes before cooling to complete melting of the fibers.

[0018] The above combination of fibers has a bearing (b)
arding), high tensile strength and a high degree of dimensional recovery. This batt is extremely stable due to the low moisture absorption of the combination of nylon 6 and nylon 12 versus low melt staple fibers.

A number of treatments can be carried out based on the use of nonwoven fabrics made by melting residual fibers and low melting fibers in a batt. This fabric can be needled to form loops with loops cut or remaining intact as shown in FIGS. 1-7. The fabric can also be needled for use only as carpet backing material and the like. Post-melting processing depends on the final use of the fabric, but a flexing step is usually included to make the melt-bonded batt more flexible and/or pliable. This step can include running in the compactor or over the edges to break the bonds of the fibers during or after cooling of the low melt fibers. Another possibility is to use a set of rotating wheels to machine the surface of the bat. All of these treatments are intended to provide flexibility to an otherwise stiff, plate-like fabric.

Fabrics made with a melt bonding process that joins low melt fibers to other fibers in a batt provide non-platy fabrics with excellent appearance and are easily sewn if their use requires. be able to.

Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above, it is contemplated that changes may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, and it is believed that the invention should not be limited only by the scope of the claims.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of manufacturing a desired textile.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a loop forming process.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a loop cutting device for cutting loops of needle fabric.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method of cutting a formed loop.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating another method of cutting a formed loop.

FIG. 6: 6-6 of FIG. 4 of the fabric with formed loops.
Cross section along the line.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a modification of the method shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. Layering and needling nonwoven staple fibers in a batt, needling the batt to form randomly spaced fibers open along the length of the batt, with loops on the face thereof. processing the back side of the batt to secure the loops formed therein, cutting substantially 100% of the loops of the batt, and removing the pile fabric formed after cutting the loops; A method of manufacturing a cut pile fabric comprising: 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the back of the bat is treated with latex or a similar material. 3. The batt is prepared by blending a plurality of low-melting fusible fibers in the bat, forming a loop therein, and then applying a temperature above the melting point of the low-melting fusible fibers therein. 2. The method of claim 1 for treating batts. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the loops are cut by a rotor having blades that span substantially all the filaments of each formed loop. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the loop is formed with fork needles aligned transversely of the bat and moving along the length of the bat. 6. Means for stacking and needling nonwoven staple fibers in the batt, providing the batt with a needle loom having fork needles, the fork needles lining the batt in a transverse direction, and providing the batt with a needle loom having fork needles arranged transversely of the batt; moving in the machine direction with an opening of the fork needle perpendicular to the machine direction of the fork to form a moving loop from the butt when needling with the fork, treating the back side of the butt to give it stiffness; and means for cutting substantially all loops formed in the batt. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the needle room includes a brush conveyor into which the fork needles project after being inserted through the butt. 8. A plurality of one type of staple fibers is blended with another type of low melt fusibility staple fibers, the low melt fusibility staple fibers melting and solidifying to provide bonding to the composite nonwoven fabric; The low-melting staple fibers are about 1% of the composite nonwoven fabric.
Composite nonwoven fabric containing 0-35%. 9. The nonwoven fabric of claim 8, wherein the low melt fusibility staple fiber is a blend of nylon 6 and nylon 12 fibers. 10. The nonwoven fabric of claim 9, wherein the one type of staple fiber is nylon. 11. The nonwoven fabric of claim 9, wherein the one type of staple fiber is solution dyed. 12. Synthetic staple fibers are blended with low melt fusible fibers and formed into a batt, the low melt fusible fibers comprising about 10 to 35% of the blend, and the batt of blended fibers is To provide a nonwoven fabric, the method includes needling the fibers, keeping the needled batt of fibers at a temperature equal to or higher than the melting point of the low melting fibers for a certain period of time, and cooling the meltable fibers to provide a bonded composite nonwoven fabric. Method. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the low melt fusibility fiber is nylon. 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the composite nonwoven fabric is needled again to form loops on one side thereof. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the formed loops are cut to form a plush or pile fabric. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the low melt fusibility fiber is nylon.