JPH07328250A - Cloth product made of nylon 6 (r) for interior decoration of vehicle, cloth product for chair upholstery and its recycling method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily execute recycling of returning cloth products composed of cloth and accessories for interior decoration of vehicles down to blank raw materials and reutilizing these materials by unifying the blanks of the cloth and accessories by substantially Nylon 6 (R). CONSTITUTION:The blanks of the cloth and accessories of the cloth products composed of the cloth and accessories for interior decoration of the vehicles are unified by substantially the Nylon 6 (R). At this time, of the all blanks forming the cloth and accessories, >=80wt.% are formed of the Nylon 6 (R). The cloth products are any of the products for chair upholstery, seat cover products and interior linings. Further, epsilon-caprolactam is recovered by executing depolynm. of the recovered cloth products and is made into nylon fibers by melt spinning after refining and polymerizing. The epsilon-caprolactam is otherwise made into nylon molded articles by molding. As a result, the recycling of returning the cloth products down to the blank raw terials and reutilizing these materials is attained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle interior fabric product, a chair upholstery fabric product, which can be easily recycled, and a method for recycling the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in order to protect the global environment, effective use of resources, particularly recovery / reuse, so-called recycling, has been carried out. For example, it is established as a business to collect used glass and paper, sort them, and use them as recycled materials. Further, regarding thermoplastic molded articles such as PET bottles, it has been commercialized that used products are collected, sorted, remelted and molded for reuse.

There are many problems to be solved even in such recycling already carried out, and for example, the following problems are involved.

First, a great deal of equipment and labor are required for the collection and selection work. When the original product is manufactured using the recovered and regenerated raw material, a certain level of purity or higher is required. This is because if there are many impurities, the original product or even a similar product cannot be manufactured. Even for items that are relatively easy to sort, such as paper and glass, it takes a lot of effort to sort the items that are collected from an unspecified number of consumers, which increases the cost of collection and sorting, and the problem of recycling business Often becomes.

Secondly, the quality of products made from recovered raw materials cannot be sufficiently enhanced. As described above, even if a large amount of equipment and labor are applied to the selection, it is extremely difficult to obtain the same purity as the original raw material. Therefore, it is unavoidable to mix them with new raw materials little by little or to use them for other products with different quality standards.

Thirdly, since the amount of impurities in the product increases each time recycling is repeated, there is a limit to the number of times recycling can be repeated. Especially in the case of a resin, one recycling is the limit.

[0007]

By the way, since the fabric products for vehicle interiors and the fabric products for upholstery are discarded after being used in large quantities, there is a strong social demand for recycling. .

However, it is difficult to recycle the conventional vehicle interior fabric products and chair upholstery fabric products, such as paper, glass and resin molded products, by returning the recovered products to the raw materials for reuse.

Because the car seat, the seat cover,
Vehicle interior fabric products such as vehicle interior lining fabrics and chair upholstery fabric products include, in addition to the fabrics that are the main components thereof,
Many subcomponents, such as linings, linings, interlinings, sutures,
Many kinds of fabrics and accessories made of different materials are used, such as fiber members such as name plates, resin and metal members such as snaps, fasteners, Velcro fasteners, adhesives and fasteners. This is because it is impossible to disassemble and select to a recyclable place because many of these cloths and accessories are mixed with various materials.

Since many synthetic fibers made of petroleum such as polyester fiber and polyamide fiber are used in these vehicle interior fabric products and chair upholstery fabric products, resources for global environment protection are effective. From the point of use, effective recycling is required.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a recyclable vehicle interior fabric product and a chair upholstery fabric product in which the recovered fabric products are returned to the raw materials for reuse. The main purpose is to provide.

That is, it is an object of the present invention to allow the collected cloth products to be easily returned to the raw material and to be a raw material of good quality, and to be reused as the raw material.

[0013] Further, the collected fabric products can be provided for recycling without being disassembled and sorted, and can be provided for vehicle interior fabric products and upholstery fabric products, and recycling to return to raw materials. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a vehicle interior fabric product and a chair upholstery fabric product that can be repeated.

[0014]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a vehicle interior or chair upholstery fabric product composed of a fabric and an accessory, wherein the material of the fabric and the accessory is substantially the same. Nylon 6 unified fabric products made of nylon 6 for vehicle interiors or upholstery, and after collecting this nylon 6 fabric product, depolymerization is performed to obtain ε
Nylon 6 in which caprolactam is recovered, and the recovered ε-caprolactam is purified, polymerized, and melt-spun into nylon fibers or molded into nylon molded articles.
A method for recycling cloth products for vehicle interiors or upholstering.

It is essential that the cloth product for vehicle interior or upholstery according to the present invention is made of nylon 6 for the purpose of being recyclable. That is, nylon 6 is most suitable for recycling to return to the raw material as follows.

First, nylon 6 is a raw material (monomer).
It is the only mass-produced polymer that can be easily decomposed and purified to high purity. When nylon 6 is heated in the presence of a depolymerization catalyst, ε-caprolactam, which is a raw material before polymerization, is depolymerized. Furthermore, this ε-caprolactam has a boiling point of about 140 under reduced pressure (about 10 mmHg).
Since it is ℃, it can be easily separated and purified by distillation.
Therefore, the ε-caprolactam obtained by depolymerization can be easily purified to the same degree of purity as new lactam by precision distillation or crystallization purification method, and can be reused as a polymerization raw material.

On the other hand, nylon 66 is difficult to depolymerize into a monomer and is difficult to purify the monomer. Further, although polyesters can be depolymerized to monomers, it is difficult to industrially carry out sufficient purification, and thus it is difficult to repeat recycling such as fiberizing again. Acrylic fibers are practically incapable of depolymerizing into monomers. Furthermore, although natural fibers such as wool and cotton can be recovered, they cannot be reduced to the raw materials (for example, protein and cellulose) and fibrillated again.

Secondly, nylon 6 is one of the mass-produced resins that has the most excellent function and can be easily formed into fibers and molded, and has strength and beauty as fibers,
It also has toughness as engineering plastics. That is, nylon 6 can be widely manufactured from fibers to resin molded products such as gears and fasteners.
With Nylon 6, from fibrous fabrics to fasteners, Velcro fasteners, fasteners, accessories such as reinforcements,
It can be manufactured substantially without using other materials. Therefore, if nylon 6 is used, it is possible to make a fabric product for vehicle interiors or upholstery made of the same material.

The fabric products for vehicle interiors or upholstery are mainly fabrics, linings, linings, interlining fabrics, and
Consists of fabric accessories for vehicle interior or upholstery such as sewing threads, nameplates, buttons, snaps, fasteners and clasps. In the nylon 6 vehicle interior or upholstery fabric product of the present invention, it is preferable that substantially all of the fabrics and accessories constituting the fabric product are made of nylon 6, but this does not adversely affect the depolymerization / purification process. Other materials may be used as long as the amount is small. However, it is preferable that the amount of other materials is as small as possible, and at most 20% by weight or less of the total fabric product for vehicle interior or upholstery, preferably 1
It is 0% by weight or less, more preferably 5% by weight or less.

Therefore, the fabric product for vehicle interior or upholstery according to the present invention includes a sewing thread, a name plate, a snap,
As many constituents as possible, including accessories such as fasteners, velcro fasteners, fasteners, and reinforcements, may be made of nylon 6. Furthermore, the amount of other materials added to these constituent members and the amount of other materials added by processing may be reduced as much as possible.

For example, a woven fabric, a knitted fabric, or a non-woven fabric made of only nylon 6 individual fibers is used as the main fabric, lining, lining or interlining fabric, and sewing thread or name plate is made of nylon 6 individual fibers. Further, nylon 6 molding may be used for buttons, snaps, fasteners, velcro fasteners, fasteners, and reinforcing materials.

The nylon 6 used in the present invention may be any polymer obtained by polymerizing ε-caprolactam by a conventional method. The degree of polymerization is preferably in the range of 2.0 to 4.0 in terms of relative viscosity of a 98% sulfuric acid solution.
The nylon 6 polymer may contain a small amount of other types of nylon (copolymer) or additives such as titanium oxide and a heat-resistant agent as long as they do not hinder the depolymerization process. However, it is preferable to reduce the amount of these other materials as much as possible, and it is within a range that does not adversely affect the depolymerization / purification process.

This nylon 6 is spun into a nylon 6 fiber having a predetermined thickness by a conventional method. For example, there may be mentioned a method of melt-spinning and stretching to obtain a fiber, and a method of forming a fiber without substantially stretching by high-speed spinning. These fibers may be further processed such as crimping,
It may be staple.

The obtained nylon 6 filaments or staples are formed into filament yarns, spun yarns or the like, and knitted or woven by a usual method to obtain a predetermined cloth. This yarn or cloth may be mixed with other fibers, such as polyurethane fiber, nylon 66 fiber, natural fiber, etc., as long as it does not interfere with the depolymerization / refining process. Good.

The cloth is water-repellent / oil-repellent, antistatic, water-absorbent / moisture-absorbent,
Finishing with a processing agent for antibacterial / deodorization may be performed. For example, coating with acrylic resin or polyurethane. In this case also, it should be within the range that does not hinder the depolymerization and purification process.

Among the members constituting the fabric product of the present invention,
Members made of fibers such as body cloth, lining, interlining, sewing thread, name plate, etc. are made of nylon 6 described above.
Although it is preferably made from fibers, other fiber products may be included as long as they do not interfere with the depolymerization / refining process.

Further, members other than the fibers constituting the fabric product of the present invention, such as fasteners, Velcro fasteners, snaps, buttons, fasteners, reinforcing materials, etc., are also made by molding from nylon 6. However, other materials may be included as long as they do not interfere with the depolymerization / purification process. Of these accessories, buttons, snaps, fasteners, reinforcements, etc., which are relatively easy to remove from the vehicle interior fabric product, may be removed before being subjected to depolymerization.

Accessories such as snaps, buttons, fasteners, and reinforcing materials made of nylon 6 may be manufactured by a method similar to that of ordinary nylon 6 molded products, for example, injection molding or extrusion molding.

Among the materials constituting the fabric product of the present invention, the total weight of the materials other than nylon 6 introduced in the above-mentioned steps is at most 20% by weight or less, preferably 10% by weight or less.
Although the content is less than or equal to% by weight, it is preferable to limit these other materials to substances that do not adversely affect the decomposition and recovery process.

For example, substances that do not change in the depolymerization process, such as inorganic pigments, metals, and chemically stable organic compounds, remain as reaction residues and can be removed by a separate treatment. In addition, volatile organic substances by-produced in this depolymerization step can be separated and removed from ε-caprolactam by means such as purification.

However, a substance or a device which has a boiling point close to that of the target volatile compound (ε-caprolactam) generated during the depolymerization reaction of nylon 6 or which generates a compound flowing out by azeotropic distillation A substance that corrodes the material is not preferable because the depolymerization / purification process becomes complicated.

Specifically, polyester is not preferable because it generates a large amount of low-boiling compounds such as ethylene glycol and acetaldehyde at the decomposition temperature of nylon, and is preferably not contained as much as possible. In addition, substances such as vinylidene chloride and vinyl chloride that generate corrosive hydrochloric acid gas when decomposed are not preferable and may be contained as little as possible.

Most ideally, from the main fabric to the lining,
Nylon 6 is used as all the components such as lining, interlining, sewing thread, fasteners, snaps, buttons, fasteners, and reinforcing materials.

In this way, 80% by weight or more of the constituent materials,
Preferably, 90% by weight or more, and more preferably substantially all of nylon 6 is unified with nylon 6 to reduce the load of the recovery step and the depolymerization step, and to separate and collect ε. -Caprolactam can be easily purified, and high-purity ε-caprolactam can be obtained.

The recovered nylon 6 fabric material for vehicle interiors or upholstered chairs is disassembled as necessary to obtain nylon 6
After removing the material parts other than the above and further removing stains as necessary, the material is supplied to the depolymerization step in the state of the vehicle interior fabric product. The depolymerization may be carried out by a usual method of adding a depolymerization catalyst while heating and melting to perform depolymerization.

The ε-caprolactam obtained by depolymerization is purified by a conventional purification method such as precision distillation or crystallization purification method to increase its purity. Obtained high purity ε-
Caprolactam is mixed with a new ε-caprolactam (not a recovered product), if necessary, and polymerized by a usual method to produce nylon 6.

The nylon 6 from the recovered lactam produced in this manner may be melt-spun again as nylon fiber, or may be molded by an ordinary method to be a molded article such as a button or a reinforcing material. Good.

The fabric product for vehicle interior of the present invention is mainly composed of a woven fabric, a knitted fabric or a non-woven fabric used for vehicle interior, such as a car seat, a seat cover thereof, a vehicle interior lining (for example, ceiling lining or inner wall lining). However, it is difficult to apply it to textile products that require a backing material. The upholstery cloth product is represented by a sofa upholstery cloth or a cloth stretched over a seat portion of a wooden chair.

[0039]

【Example】

[Example 1] Nylon 6 spun yarn (No. 22) made from nylon 6 staple fiber (product number 3401 manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc., single yarn 2.2d, cut length 51 mm, crimp number 15) was used for the front pile fabric. , Nylon 6 filament yarn (21
Plain fabric of 0 denier 48 filaments (150g)
/ M ² ) and the weight of nylon 6 pile is 350 g /
was produced nylon 6 made moquette is m ^2. On this occasion,
It was dyed by a usual method for car seats, and an acrylic resin adhesive was used for fixing the pile.

The proportion of nylon 6 in the obtained moquette was 85% by weight. That is, use a material other than nylon 6 (acrylic resin adhesive, dye, titanium oxide, etc.)
It contained 5% by weight.

A vehicle seat for an automobile was manufactured using the obtained moquette, used, and then recovered.

After use, the sheet surface covering is collected and put into a nylon depolymerization facility without dismantling, and 2
While melting at 90 ° C., a phosphoric acid catalyst was added and decomposed, and the produced ε-caprolactam was distilled and cooled to be collected. Almost 90% of the charged raw material could be recovered as ε-caprolactam. The unrecovered residue was an additive other than nylon 6, a treating agent, a carbide generated in the depolymerization step, a gel, and the like.

The recovered ε-caprolactam was purified by ordinary rectification and crystallization purification methods. As a result, high-purity ε-caprolactam comparable to new ε-caprolactam obtained from petroleum raw materials was obtained. .

When the characteristics of the obtained recovered / purified ε-caprolactam were analyzed, as shown in Table 1, it was an excellent quality that could be used similarly to the characteristics of new ε-caprolactam. Each characteristic of ε-caprolactam was measured by the following methods.

Permanganate Value (PMV): Potassium permanganate was added to a 3 wt% aqueous solution of ε-caprolactam, and the time (seconds) until the purple color of the mixed solution coincided with the standard color tone was measured. The longer this time, the less impurities.

Color tone (APHA): JIS-K-41
In accordance with No. 01, the color tone of a 50 wt% aqueous solution of ε-caprolactam is measured by a method of comparing with the color tone of a standard solution.

Amount of free acid (FA) and free base (FB): Free acid (FA) and free base (FB) obtained by the method of neutralization titration of a 20 wt% aqueous solution of ε-caprolactam.
And the amount are expressed as the amount (milliequivalent) per 1 kg of ε-caprolactam.

Amount of Volatile Base (VB): An aqueous solution of ε-caprolactam is subjected to boiling distillation in the presence of caustic soda, and the entire amount of volatile base is absorbed in a liquid of a known amount of acid. The solution is subjected to neutralization titration to determine the amount of acid consumed by the volatile base, and the amount is expressed as the amount per 1 kg of ε-caprolactam (milliequivalent).

Ultraviolet absorption rate (UVA): 50% by weight aqueous solution of ε-caprolactam, when irradiated with ultraviolet rays of 290 nm, the transmittance (%) at an optical path length of 1 cm.
Ask for.

Water content: ε-caprolactam is dissolved in methanol to prepare a sample, and the amount of water contained in this sample is determined by a titration method using a Karl Fischer reagent.

The .epsilon.-caprolactam obtained by the recovery and purification was supplied to a nylon 6 polymerization facility and polymerized by an ordinary method. As a result, the same high quality nylon 6 as the nylon 6 from the new .epsilon.-caprolactam was obtained. . Then, the obtained nylon 6 could be melt-spun again to form a fiber, or could be formed into a molded product by molding.

[0052]

[Table 1]

Comparative Example A moquette was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that a cotton / rayon blended fabric (cotton / rayon = 65/35, 22nd yarn) was used as the base fabric. The ratio of nylon 6 in the obtained moquette is 62% by weight.
Met.

After being used as a car sheet in the same manner as in Example 1, it was supplied to the same decomposition equipment as that used in Example 1 without being recovered and decomposed, and depolymerized in the same manner.

Nylon 6 became ε-caprolactam, but the coexisting cotton / rayon pyrolyzed a large amount of carbides,
Furthermore, water and hydrocarbons were generated and mixed in the lactam that was generated, so it could not be highly purified even after repeated distillation purification, and lactam of considerably inferior quality to new lactam was recovered. .

Example 2 Commercially available nylon 6 filament yarn (70 denier, 24 filament, Toray Industries, Inc.)
Half knitted fabric is knitted, then dyed and napped in the usual way to give a basis weight of 2.7k.
A g / m ² upholstery fabric was produced. The obtained cloth was composed of nylon 6 except for the dye, dyeing aid and titanium oxide in the fiber, and the ratio thereof was 96% by weight.

The obtained upholstery fabric was used as a seating material for a chair, and then peeled off and depolymerized in the same manner as in Example 1. As a result, ε-having substantially the same level of purity as in Example 1 was obtained.
Caprolactam has a lactam recovery rate of 9 against the input fabric.
Obtained in an amount of 2% by weight.

[0058]

The vehicle interior or upholstery fabric product of the present invention is recovered because the material thereof is substantially unified with nylon 6 which can be easily returned to the starting monomer and reused. It is possible to recycle the cloth product for vehicle interior or upholstery by returning it to the raw material monomer for reuse.

Further, by depolymerizing and refining the recovered constituent polymers of these cloth products, it is possible to obtain a raw material monomer having high purity and good quality. Therefore, nylon 6 fiber can be re-fiberized or molded. A nylon 6 molded product can be manufactured. Furthermore, it becomes possible to recycle repeatedly.

Furthermore, it becomes possible to subject these recovered fabric products to the depolymerization step without substantially disassembling / selecting, and the work of disassembling / selecting the recovered products is greatly reduced.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to recycle a raw material, a product, and a raw material in a closed system by generating a small amount of waste.

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle interior cloth product comprising a cloth and accessories, wherein the material of the cloth and the accessories is substantially unified with nylon 6, and a nylon 6 cloth for vehicle interior. Product. 2. The nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product according to claim 1, wherein 80% by weight or more of all materials constituting the fabric and the accessory are nylon 6. 3. The nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product according to claim 1 or 2, wherein substantially all of the material constituting the fabric and the accessory is nylon 6. 4. The nylon 6 vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle interior fabric product is any one of a vehicle chair upholstery fabric product, a vehicle seat cover product and a vehicle interior lining fabric product. Interior fabric products. 5. The nylon vehicle interior fabric product according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 is recovered and then depolymerized to recover ε-caprolactam. The recovered ε-caprolactam is purified and polymerized. A method for recycling a nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product, characterized in that melt-spun nylon fibers are used. 6. The nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 is recovered and then depolymerized to recover ε-caprolactam, and the recovered ε-caprolactam is purified. A method for recycling a nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product, which comprises polymerizing and molding into a nylon molded product. 7. The method for recycling a nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product according to claim 5, wherein the recovered nylon 6 vehicle interior fabric product is subjected to depolymerization without being substantially disassembled. . 8. A chair upholstery cloth product comprising a cloth and accessories, wherein the material of the cloth and accessories is substantially unified with nylon 6, and a nylon 6 upholstery cloth. Product. 9. The nylon 6 upholstery cloth product according to claim 8, wherein 80% by weight or more of all materials constituting the cloth and the accessory are nylon 6. 10. The nylon 6 upholstery fabric product according to claim 8 or 9, wherein substantially all the material constituting the fabric and the accessory is nylon 6. 11. The nylon chair upholstery fabric product according to claim 8, 9 or 10 is recovered and then depolymerized to recover ε-caprolactam. The recovered ε-caprolactam is purified, polymerized and melted. A method for recycling a nylon 6 upholstery fabric product, which comprises spinning a nylon fiber. 12. The nylon 6 upholstery fabric product according to claim 8, 9 or 10 is recovered and then depolymerized to recover ε-caprolactam, and the recovered ε-caprolactam is purified and polymerized. A method for recycling a nylon 6 upholstery fabric product, which comprises forming a nylon molded product by molding. 13. The method for recycling a nylon 6 upholstery fabric product according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the recovered nylon 6 upholstery fabric product is subjected to depolymerization without being substantially disassembled. .