JPH06264345A - Production of water jet-interlaced nonwoven fabric and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a method and apparatus therefor to produce water jet- interlaced nonwoven fabric excellent in smoothness, capable of conducting interlacing or yarn splitting treatment without developing water residence on and inside a fibrous web. CONSTITUTION:Using at least one pair of a suction roll 12 wrapped with stainless steel wire and a suction box 10 located in front of a high-pressure water jet nozzle 1 relative to the advancing direction for a fibrous web, the water left on the web and that inside the web is removed through suction along with smoothening the uneven water jet left on the fibrous web, thus obtaining the objective water jet-interlaced nonwoven fabric. With this method and apparatus therefor, the aimed nonwoven fabric free from malformation such as offensive appearance, esp. excellent in smoothness, can be produced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of a fiber web in which the constituent fibers of the fiber web are entangled or split by injecting high-pressure columnar water onto the fiber web. During the above process,
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a hydroentangled non-woven fabric, which can be efficiently entangled or split into fibers with no accumulated water immediately below the nozzle, and has less uneven water flow traces.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, high pressure columnar water is jetted from a high pressure columnar water jet nozzle onto a fiber web which is being conveyed by a porous support, whereby the constituent fibers of the fiber web are entangled or split and the quality is improved. As a method for producing a hydroentangled non-woven fabric and an apparatus for producing a good non-woven fabric, for example, a treatment method and an apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-42031 are known.

In this technique, two different types of fibrous webs are laminated as a fibrous web, and high-pressure columnar water is jetted from the high-pressure columnar jet nozzle into the jet stream to jet the two types of fibrous webs into a tertiary form. Although originally entangled, in the vicinity of the collision point of the high-pressure columnar water with the fibrous web directly below the high-pressure columnar water injection nozzle, the high-pressure columnar water that is not discharged becomes the accumulated water with a thickness of about 1 to 5 mm. There is a problem in that the action and effect on the fibrous web supported on the porous support are weakened, and the action and effect of the jetting force on the fibrous web become non-uniform.

Therefore, in the above publication, as a means for discharging the accumulated water, a suction box having a porous support having a mesh of 80 mesh and a drainage port for the accumulated water only at a point directly below the high-pressure columnar injection nozzle is provided. From 680-109
It is proposed that suction is performed with a negative pressure of about 0 mmAq.

However, according to this technique, even if the accumulated water is sucked from the lower side of the porous support and the jetting process is performed,
Not all of the high-pressure columnar water penetrates the fiber web, and after colliding with the fiber web, a part of the high-pressure columnar water scattered above the fiber web again adheres and stays on the fiber web. The jetting energy of the high-pressure columnar water jetted from is blocked by the stagnant water. As a result, when the fibrous web is, for example, a divided fibrous web composed of ultrafine fiber bundles, the effect of high-pressure columnar water energy becomes non-uniform, resulting in entanglement unevenness and uneven splitting degree unevenness between the fibrous webs. A quality defect appears in which a horizontal striped pattern called "" appears.

When a 0.1 denier ultrafine fiber web or the like is laminated and subjected to a hydroentangling treatment, the water retained on the fiber web or the water present in the fiber web causes the fiber web to flow. The effect of the energy of the high-pressure columnar water on the pressure web becomes non-uniform, and the high-pressure columnar water collides with the accumulated water in the fibrous web, whereby the straightness of the high-pressure columnar water is lost, and Since the constituent fibers are moved, the web surface is in a state of being dug up, and there is a problem in that only a entangled nonwoven fabric with severe irregularities and extremely poor smoothness can be obtained.

Further, since the fibrous web is a double-layered and heavy-weight fabric, its suction force does not sufficiently reach the accumulated water on the fibrous web, which makes the capacity of the vacuum generator large. If you dare to suck by
There is a problem in that not only is the device expensive, but its power consumption (running cost) is too high to ignore.

Therefore, as an attempt to improve such a problem, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-56254, barriers facing each other in the width direction of the high-pressure columnar water injection nozzle are provided at both ends of the injection hole of the high-pressure columnar water injection nozzle. Therefore, although it has been proposed to control the retention phenomenon of the jet water, even with this technique, it is impossible to deal with the accumulated water that has scattered in the barriers facing each other and accumulated in the barriers. It was still in the barrier and could not completely solve the problem.

Further, in JP-A-4-34057, a high-pressure jet nozzle for jetting high-pressure air is provided near a collision point where high-pressure columnar water jetted from a high-pressure water jet nozzle collides with a fiber web. It has been proposed that the retention phenomenon of the high-pressure columnar water be regulated by the above, but even with this technique, although the retained water retained on the surface of the fibrous web can be removed, what should be done about the retained water inside the fibrous web? It was not possible to solve the complete problem.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to inject high-pressure columnar water with the amount of accumulated water on the fiber web being reduced to the extent that it does not hinder the hydroentangling treatment. By maximally utilizing the energy of the high-pressure columnar water from the high-pressure injection nozzle, the effect of the injection force exerted on the fibrous web is made uniform, and an excellent quality entangled nonwoven fabric with less uneven water flow traces can be obtained. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric having a simple structure and a low running cost.

[0011]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the inventors of the present invention have conducted extensive research and as a result have invented a method for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric and an apparatus therefor. That is, in the method for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the present invention, high-pressure columnar water is jetted from a high-pressure columnar jet nozzle onto a running fibrous web on a porous support to entangle the web, and a stainless wire
The accumulated water on the web and the water in the web are sucked and removed by a suction roll wound with a roll or a pair of the roll and a suction box, and the web is rolled by the roll.
It is characterized in that it is produced by sandwiching it between the porous substrate and the porous support and smoothing the uneven water flow traces on the surface of the web.

The apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the present invention comprises a porous support for running a fibrous web, a high-pressure columnar injection nozzle and a suction box for injecting one or more pairs of high-pressure columnar water, and a traveling direction of the fiber web. On the other hand, it is characterized in that it is provided with a suction roll wound with one or more stainless wires in the front direction of the nozzle, or with one or more pairs of the roll and a suction box. is there.

The fiber web to which the method and apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the present invention can be applied is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include ordinary nonwoven fabrics, woven fabrics, and laminates of woven fabrics and knitted fabrics with nonwoven fabrics. It can be applied to a laminate of a plurality of non-woven fabrics having different properties. In addition, these fibrous webs include a card, a cross wrapper, a random webber,
It can be manufactured by a manufacturing method such as a filament web forming method or a wet papermaking method, and if necessary, a needle punch,
It can be produced by fixing fibers by a treatment method such as primary water stream treatment.

The type of fibers constituting the fibrous web used in the present invention is not particularly limited,
Organic synthetic fibers such as polyester fibers, polyolefin fibers, polyacrylonitrile fibers, polyvinyl alcohol fibers, nylon fibers, urethane fibers, and regenerated fibers, semi-synthetic fibers, natural fibers and the like, or these Any fiber consisting of a combination of

The method and apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric according to the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings showing an embodiment of the method for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric according to the present invention. The present invention is not limited to this example.

FIG. 1 is a right side view of the apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of the surface of a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric produced by a conventional apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a high pressure columnar water jet nozzle for jetting high pressure columnar water onto the fibrous web 3 on the porous support 2. The high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 has a width slightly wider than the width of the fibrous web 3, and internally has an internal filter-4 for filtering the high-pressure columnar water as shown in FIG. 1 and a constant pitch in the width direction of the fibrous web. A plate nozzle 6 having a plurality of orifices 5 formed therein is housed therein and is fixed by a pressure plate 7 which can be moved up and down by a hydraulic pump (not shown). The high-pressure columnar water inlet 8 on the upper side is connected to a high-pressure water producing device (not shown) such as a plunger pump and a flexible hose.
(Not shown). Therefore, the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 can jet high-pressure high-pressure columnar water from the orifice 5 at high speed in the width direction of the fibrous web 3 on the porous support 2.

As the porous support 2, for example, a wire made of a plain weave, a twill weave, or the like, a metal such as stainless steel or bronze, or a reinforced polyester, a plastic such as polyamide, or the like can be used. In this example, an endless 100-mesh stainless wire was used as the porous support. However, not only a belt-shaped support but also a drum-shaped or roll-shaped support is used. Good.

The fibrous web 3 can be conveyed along the suction plate 9 which is a support block by a driving roll while being loaded on the porous support 2. A fibrous web 3 having a fiber diameter of 1 denier or more
Has good air permeability of the fibrous web 3 itself, and the high-pressure columnar water jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 penetrates the fibrous web 3 almost completely, and the fibrous web 3 and the fibrous web 3.
Almost no accumulated water accumulates inside. On the other hand, the fibrous web 3 having a fiber diameter of less than 1 denier, especially 0.5 denier or less, has poor air permeability, so that high-pressure columnar water is difficult to penetrate, and stagnant water is generated. Become.

The porosity of the porous support 2 is 40% or less,
The size of one opening is preferably 0.04 mm ² or less. If the porosity of the porous support 2 is greater than 40%, the resulting nonwoven fabric will have openings. On the contrary, the smaller the porosity is, the better the surface quality of the obtained nonwoven fabric is. However, if the porosity is too small, the water required for the entanglement does not escape downward from the porous support 2 and the porous support is obtained. After hitting the body 2, the fiber web 3 bounces again, and the bounced water pushes up the fiber web 3 and the fiber web 3 is damaged, which is not preferable.

The size of one of the pores of the porous support 2 depends on the basis weight of the target nonwoven fabric. That is, as a specific example, when the basis weight is 50 g / m ² , the opening area is 0.05 mm ² or less, and when the basis weight is 50 to 150 g / m ² , it is 0.0.
9mm ² below, when more than 150g / m ² is 0.2mm ²
The following are preferred. If a material larger than this is used, the nonwoven fabric will have pores. In addition, fibers are more likely to come off during entanglement, and the surface quality of the nonwoven fabric is deteriorated, which is not preferable.

The suction box 10 provided below the porous support 2 opposes the pressing force of the high-pressure columnar water sprayed from the high-pressure columnar water spray nozzle 1, and thus supports the porous support 2 directly below the nozzle. The suction plate 9 is equipped, and after the high-pressure columnar water is jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1, the accumulated water that has accumulated on the fiber web 3 on the porous support 2 and inside the fiber web 3 is This is a device for performing vacuum suction over the entire width direction of the web 3. The suction box 10 is connected to a roots type blower (not shown) and is sucked at a suction pressure of 1500 mmAq, and the suction pressure can be adjusted by a suction pressure adjusting valve.

The suction roll 12 in the present invention is
It is made of stainless steel, has a round hole on the surface of the roll, and a stainless wire 13 is wound around the hole. The mesh of the stainless wire-13 should be appropriately selected according to the type of fiber, fiber diameter, or fiber length. Further, the suction roll 12 may or may not have a driving part, but the rotation speed thereof needs to be the same as that of the fibrous web or the porous support. Further, the suction roll 12 is provided at one place where the suction portion 14 faces the fibrous web, is connected to a roots type blower (not shown) and is sucked, and the suction pressure is adjusted by the suction pressure adjusting valve. Can be adjusted.

The suction roll 12 is located in front of the high-pressure columnar jet nozzle with respect to the traveling direction of the fibrous web, is installed in contact with the surface of the fibrous web 3, and is directly below the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1. This is for sucking and removing the accumulated water on and inside the fibrous web 3 that cannot be completely removed by the suction box 10. Further, after the high-pressure columnar water collides with the fiber web 3, the reflected mist-like or droplet-like water splashes on the surface of the suction roll 12 before it re-aggregates and stays on the surface of the fiber web 3. Let it absorb,
It can be removed by the suction unit 14. Further, in the suction roll 12, the high-pressure columnar water collides with the fibrous web 3, and the reflected mist or droplet-like scattered water collides with the high-pressure columnar water jetted from the front and rear high-pressure columnar water jet nozzles 1. However, it also has the role of preventing the flow of high-pressure columnar water from being disturbed.

The stainless wire 13 wound on the outer side of the suction roll 12 is formed by the high-pressure columnar water jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 to form an uneven water flow mark on the surface of the fibrous web 3. This is for smoothing by sandwiching it between the porous supports. In particular, in the case of high basis weight, the strength of the high-pressure columnar water is increased in order to sufficiently entangle it, but at the same time, an uneven water flow trace that largely adheres to the surface of the fiber web 3 is formed immediately after the water flow trace is attached. By making the surface smooth, it is possible to manufacture a hydroentangled non-woven fabric having very few uneven water flow traces.

The suction box 10 provided directly below the suction roll 12 sucks at a suction pressure slightly higher than that of the suction roll 12, and inside the fibrous web 3 which cannot be completely sucked and removed by the suction roll 12. Remove accumulated water. Further, depending on the fiber web 3, the suction roll
The purpose is to prevent the device from being caught in the cable 12.

When the accumulated water is sucked only by the suction box 10 directly below the high-pressure columnar injection nozzle 1 as in the conventional method, as the entangled state of the fiber web 3 progresses,
As the basis weight is larger, the high-pressure columnar water is less likely to penetrate the fibrous web 3, and is retained on the fibrous web 3 on the porous support 2 and within the fibrous web 3, and the fibrous web 3 is spread over the entire width direction. , Vacuum suction becomes impossible.

However, as shown in FIG. 1, the suction roll 12 wound with a stainless wire in the front direction of the high-pressure columnar injection nozzle with respect to the traveling direction of the fibrous web,
Alternatively, by sucking with a pair of the rolls and a suction box, the fibers collide with the inside of the fibrous web 3 that has not penetrated the fibrous web 3 and the fibrous web 3, and then are reflected and scattered in the form of mist or drops. On the surface of the fibrous web 3, the water remaining on the surface of the fibrous web 3 can be completely removed with water, and the fibrous web 3 can be sandwiched between the suction roll 12 and the porous support 2. It is possible to smooth the uneven water flow traces on the surface.

In the present invention, the applied pressure of the high-pressure columnar water in the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 is 30 to 200 kg / cm ^2.
Is preferred. When the pressure is in this range, the effect of fiber entanglement or splitting is good, and there is no risk of hitting defects or deformation on the fiber web.

High pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 to fibrous web 3
The distance to the high-pressure columnar water collision point is 15 to 50 mm
The degree is preferable, and when the distance is within this range, the discharge area of the splashed water after the collision from the lower surface of the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 is maintained, and as a result, the accumulated water on the surface of the fibrous web 3 can be further reduced.

[0031]

When the high-pressure columnar water is jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 onto the fibrous web 3 on the porous support 2,
Most of the high-pressure columnar water is discharged through the water-permeable porous support body 2 after penetrating the fibrous web, but a part of the high-pressure columnar water is reflected after colliding with the fiber web 3. It becomes sprayed water in the form of mist or drops and again adheres to the fibrous web 3 to become stagnant water. The accumulated water is sucked and removed by a suction roll wound with a stainless wire, or a pair of the roll and a suction box, so that the high-pressure columnar water jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 is removed. All the jetting energy acts on the fiber web, and the fiber web 3 is sufficiently entangled or split. Furthermore, by sandwiching the entangled fiber web between the suction roll 12 and the porous support 2, a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric having very irregular water flow traces can be manufactured.

[0032]

【Example】

Example 1 Easily splittable composite fiber containing polyethylene terephthalate having a fineness of 3 denier and a fiber length of 5 mm and polypropylene as components, and producing ultrafine fibers with an average of 0.2 denier when divided into 17 parts. 97 parts, 3 parts of hot water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol fiber (VPW103, manufactured by Kuraray Co., Ltd.) having a fineness of 1 denier and a fiber length of 3 mm, were prepared by a wet papermaking method using a cylinder paper machine with a basis weight of 40 g / m ² and a width of 50 cm. To produce a fibrous web. Three of these were laminated on a porous support which was a 100-mesh stainless wire, and hydroentangling treatment was performed with a high-pressure columnar water flow at a transport speed of 7 m / min. 3 nozzle heads
Head used, the nozzle of the first head has a nozzle diameter of 120μ
m, nozzle spacing 0.6 mm, water pressure 125 kgf / c in 2 rows
m ² , the nozzle of the second head has a nozzle diameter of 120 μm, the nozzle spacing is 0.3 mm, the water pressure is 130 kgf / cm ^{2 in} one row, and the nozzle of the third head has a nozzle diameter of 100 μm and the nozzle spacing is 0.3 m.
m, water pressure is 150 kgf / cm ² in one row. The confounding was done on one side first. Next, the back surface was entangled under the same conditions. Figure 1
Is an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and 1 is applied to each front direction of each high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle with respect to the traveling direction of the fiber web.
A suction roll and a suction box wound with a stainless steel wire were installed at three places in total. The mesh of the stainless wire wound on the surface of the suction roll 12 was 100 mesh. The suction pressure inside the suction roll 12 was 800 mmAq, and the suction pressure of the suction box 10 just below the suction roll 12 was 1000 mmAq.

When the suction roll 12 and the suction box 10 directly below the suction roll 12 are used, no stagnant water is observed on the surface of the fibrous web 3 to be conveyed to the next high-pressure jet nozzle 1, and no high-pressure columnar water is generated. After colliding with the fibrous web 3, reflected or fog-like splashed water is also absorbed on the surface of the suction roll 12, and after the high-pressure columnar water collides with the fibrous web 3, reflected mist. Alternatively, the droplet-shaped splashed water does not disturb the water flow of the high-pressure columnar water jetted from the front and rear high-pressure jet nozzles 1 and is jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 onto the surface of the fiber web 3 being conveyed. Only columnar flow was observed. Visual inspection of the hydroentangled non-woven fabric obtained in this manner revealed that “single fiber” was uniformly split into “Iratsuki” 1
It was a grade with excellent smoothness in which uneven water flow traces due to high-pressure columnar water without 5 were not conspicuous.

Example 2 The fineness of the fibrous web 3 on the stainless porous support 2 was set to 0.
Polyethylene terephthalate with 1 denier and 7 mm fiber length
97 parts of fiber (fiber diameter 3 μm), fineness 1 denier, fiber length 3 mm, hot water soluble polyvinyl alcohol fiber (V
PW103, manufactured by Kuraray Co., Ltd.) was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the amount was 3 parts.

As in Example 1, when the suction roll 12 and the suction box 10 directly below the suction roll 12 were used, no accumulated water was found on the surface of the fibrous web 3 conveyed to the next high-pressure jet nozzle 1. Further, after the high-pressure columnar water collides with the fibrous web 3, reflected and mist-like or droplet-like splashed water is also absorbed by the surface of the suction roll 12, and the high-pressure columnar water collides with the fibrous web 3. After that, the reflected mist-like or droplet-like scattered water does not disturb the water flow of the high-pressure columnar water jetted from the front and rear high-pressure jet nozzles 1, and the surface of the fiber web 3 being conveyed has high-pressure columnar water. Only the columnar flow jetted from the jet nozzle 1 was observed. Visual inspection of the hydroentangled non-woven fabric thus obtained, the randomly dispersed ultrafine fiber single fibers were uniformly and efficiently entangled, and a very excellent texture and smoothness were obtained. .

Comparative Example 1 The same fibrous web as in Example 1 except that only the suction box 10 directly below the high pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1 of FIG. 1 was used.
Entangling was performed under water pressure and conditions. When the high-pressure columnar water was jetted from the high-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 1, the scattered high-pressure columnar water stayed on the fiber web 16 immediately below the nozzle, and in particular, the fiber web 16 at the rear position transported to the jetting point.
The accumulated water having a thickness of about 5 mm was constantly sprayed on the upper portion. When the fiber web 16 thus obtained was visually observed, the surface of the fiber web 16 was entangled between the single fibers as shown in FIG. , "Iratsuki" 1
Five appeared. Further, the surface of the fibrous web 16 was in a state where it was dug up, and only a entangled nonwoven fabric with severe irregularities and extremely poor smoothness was obtained.

[0037]

As described above, in the method for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the present invention, high-pressure columnar water is jetted from a high-pressure columnar jet nozzle onto a running fibrous web on a porous support to entangle the fibrous web, A suction roll wound with a stainless wire, or a pair of the suction roll and a suction box sucks and removes accumulated water on the fibrous web and water inside the fibrous web, and suctions the fibrous web. By sandwiching it between the roll and the porous support, the jetting energy of the high-pressure columnar water can be utilized to the maximum extent, and the hydroentangled nonwoven fabric has no "irritability" or uneven water flow traces. It is possible to obtain a product of excellent quality without disturbing the texture.

The apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the present invention has a simple suction roll structure, and since it is sufficient to attach a stainless wire and a suction pressure control valve to the suction roll, the equipment cost is low. In addition, the running cost is low, and the hydroentangled nonwoven fabric of the above excellent quality can be obtained with simple equipment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a right side view of an apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of a surface of a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric manufactured by a conventional hydroentangled nonwoven fabric manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 High-pressure columnar water jet nozzle 2 Porous support 3, 16 Fiber web 4 Internal filter-5 Orifice 6 Plate nozzle 7 Pressure plate 8 High-pressure columnar water inlet 9 Suction plate 10 Suction box 11 Drainage port 12 Suction roll 13 Stainless Wire-14 Suction Part 15 Irratsuki

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a method for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric, high-pressure columnar water is jetted from a high-pressure columnar jet nozzle onto a running fibrous web on a porous support to entangle the web, which is then wound with a stainless wire. The suction roll or a pair of the roll and the suction box sucks and removes the accumulated water on the web and the water in the web.
A method for producing a hydroentangled non-woven fabric, which comprises producing the web by sandwiching the web between the roll and the porous support, and smoothing uneven water flow traces on the surface of the web. 2. A hydroentangled non-woven fabric manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a porous support on which a fibrous web runs, a high-pressure columnar injection nozzle and a suction box for injecting one or more pairs of high-pressure columnar water, with respect to a traveling direction of the fibrous web. An apparatus for producing a hydroentangled nonwoven fabric, comprising a suction roll wound with one or more stainless wires in the front direction of the nozzle, or one or more pairs of the roll and a suction box. .