JPH0826485B2 - Core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber with scent - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber having a durable scent. For more details, comforter, comforter,
By blending with cotton or non-woven fabric such as pillows, cushions, stuffed animals, etc., these products have a "forest bathing" effect,
The present invention relates to a novel short staple composite fiber that can provide a "comfortable sleep" effect, a "cooling" effect, and the like for a long period of time.

(Prior Art) Japanese cypress has long been used on the pillars and floors of houses, and its scent calms people's hearts, giving them a "forest bathing" effect while at home. However, this fragrance easily disappears,
It was difficult to sustain this effect for a long time. Therefore, various methods have been proposed in which the natural essential oil component substances that are scattered and drifting in the forest are applied to indoor installation items such as bedding, interiors, or interior materials for homes to obtain a "forest bathing" effect. ing. For example, a method of adsorbing or adhering the essential oil to the final fiber product by post-processing has been proposed, but the essential oil tends to fall off by washing with water or washing, and the rate of reduction of the essential oil due to volatilization is fast, resulting in poor aroma persistence. It was a thing. Recently, JP-A-61-201012
JP-A No. 62-85010 discloses a fiber obtained by kneading an essential oil obtained by mixing several kinds of natural essential oils or components separated therefrom into the core of a hollow core-sheath type composite fiber. A core-sheath type composite fiber has been proposed. However, all of these have insufficient aroma persistence, and further improvement is desired.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a scented core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber having an extremely long lasting aroma as compared with a conventional product. To provide.

(Structure of the Invention) As a result of intensive studies to achieve such an object, the present inventors have used, as a core, a mixture of an essential oil with a modified olefin polymer having a polar group and an olefin polymer having no essential oil. The present inventors have found that a core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber having a polyester sheath portion is extremely effective in achieving the above object, contrary to the conventional prediction, and arrived at the present invention.

That is, the present invention is a core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber having the following olefin-based polymer composition containing 0.1 to 5% by weight of essential oil as a core part and polyester as a sheath part. It is a core-sheath type solid composite short fiber having a scent characterized by having a length of 30 to 100 mm.

Olefin-based polymer composition (excluding essential oil) (A) Olefin polymer essentially consisting of α-olefin and having no polar group: 98 to 50% by weight (B) Unsaturated carboxylic acid, unsaturated alcohol and these Modified olefin polymer in which 3 to 30% by weight of at least one selected from ester, acid anhydride or amide is copolymerized: 2 to 50% by weight. The aromatic component used in the present invention is an essential oil, particularly a natural essential oil such as hinoki oil. It is important to be peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, hiba oil, camphor oil and the like. These essential oils are usually obtained by steam distillation from the branches and leaves of plants, rhizomes, bark, fruits, buds, resins, etc., and contain terpenoids as a main component. This terpenoid is extremely difficult to permeate the polyester layer used for the sheath portion, while as described in detail later, it has an appropriate affinity with the modified olefin polymer having a polar group among the olefin polymers used for the core portion, It plays the role of holding essential oils, while it has low affinity with polyolefins that do not have polar groups and allows essential oil components to permeate appropriately, so by blending both at a specific ratio, the aroma intensity is optimized and the aroma effect is achieved. It is extremely easy to achieve (forest bathing effect, etc.) for a long period of time.

In the present invention, natural essential oils are mainly targeted as the aroma component as described above, but the components contained in these essential oils may be separated and produced, or synthetic essential oils may be used. Good.

The blending amount of the essential oil with respect to the polymer constituting the core is
It should be 0.1 to 5% by weight, preferably 0.5 to 2% by weight. When it is less than 0.1% by weight, the essential oil component is less likely to be volatilized into the air, and a sufficient aroma effect such as a forest bath effect cannot be obtained, which is not preferable. On the other hand, if it exceeds 5% by weight, the solubility and dispersibility in the core polymer is deteriorated and stable melt spinning cannot be performed, and the obtained fiber has too much volatilization amount of the essential oil component into the air. It is not preferable because it causes discomfort.

The polymer constituting the core portion of the core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber of the present invention is an olefin polymer (A) consisting essentially of α-olefin (A) of 98 to 50% by weight, preferably 98 to 70% by weight, Modified olefin polymer (B) 2 to 50% by weight, preferably 2
It is important to mix with ~ 30% by weight. If the amount of the component A is more than 98% by weight, the dispersibility of the essential oil component in the polymer constituting the core part is deteriorated and the spinnability is deteriorated. In addition, the essential oil concentration in component B is high and the essential oil component and A
Due to its low affinity with the component, the diffusion rate of the essential oil component in the core polymer is increased and the duration of the aroma effect is reduced. On the other hand, when the amount of the component A is less than 50% by weight, the essential oil has a relatively good affinity with the component B, and the concentration of the essential oil in the component B becomes low, so that the diffusion rate of the essential oil component in the core polymer decreases. As a result, a sufficient aroma effect cannot be obtained.

As the olefin polymer which is preferably composed of substantially α-olefin, for example, ethylene, propylene, butene-1, hexene-1 and other α-olefin homopolymers, copolymers, and small amounts thereof An example thereof is a copolymer of a nonpolar third component (usually 10 mol% or less). The non-polar third component is a copolymer component having no polar functional group such as ester bond, carboxyl group and hydroxyl group, and is exemplified by unsaturated hydrocarbons such as styrene and norbornadiene. It

On the other hand, the modified olefin polymer as referred to in the present invention is an olefin polymer having a polar group, and is a polymer having a polar group such as unsaturated carboxylic acid, unsaturated alcohol, and ester, acid anhydride or amide thereof. It is important to copolymerize at least one selected from the functional monomers with the α-olefin in an amount of 3 to 30% by weight, preferably 5 to 20% by weight. If the amount of this copolymer is less than 3% by weight, the affinity with the essential oil component is not improved and the persistence of the aroma effect is not improved. If it exceeds 30% by weight, the affinity with the essential oil is increased. Since the property is improved, the diffusion rate in the core polymer is decreased, and the aroma effect tends to be difficult to be exhibited. As the polymerizable monomer having such a polar group, for example, acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid and lower alkyl esters or amides thereof, maleic anhydride,
Vinyl acetate and the like are preferably used.

Since the essential oil used in the present invention has poor heat resistance and is easily evaporated or decomposed by heat, it is desirable to use a polymer having a low melting point (softening point) for the core. Polyethylene polymers such as density polyethylene, medium density polyethylene, low density polyethylene,
As the component B, an ethylene / vinyl acetate copolymer is preferably used.

The polymer constituting the sheath portion of the composite short fiber of the present invention needs to be a polymer in which the essential oil component is less likely to diffuse and permeate, and which can impart excellent mechanical performance to the fiber, and a polyester polymer is preferable. Among them, since the short fibers of the present invention are praised as stuffed cotton or nonwoven fabric, it is desirable that they are also excellent in performance such as bulkiness and settling resistance, and 95 mol% or more is composed of ethylene terephthalate or butylene terephthalate. Polyethylene terephthalate polymer or polybutylene terephthalate polymer is preferable.

The ratio of the polymer constituting the core portion and the sheath portion in the present invention is preferably such that the weight ratio of the core portion / the sheath portion is 70/30 to 30/70. If the ratio of the core portion exceeds 70, it may be difficult to form the core-sheath structure, and the core portion may be exposed to deteriorate the durability of the aroma effect. On the other hand, when the ratio of the core portion is less than 30, the occupied cross-sectional area of the core portion becomes small, and the amount of the essential oil component volatilized into the air decreases, so that the aroma effect tends to decrease.

In order to produce the core-sheath type solid conjugate fiber of the present invention, a conventionally used apparatus for core-sheath type composite spinning can be used as it is, and melt spinning and drawing may be carried out according to a conventional method. At this time, the essential oil may be attached to the surface of the olefin polymer chip and / or the modified olefin polymer chip having no polar group and then supplied to the composite melt spinning device, or in advance in the modified olefin polymer. You may use what was melt-blended with. In particular, the latter method is preferable because the dispersion state of the essential oil in the polymer constituting the core portion is improved, and the melt spinnability and the duration of the aroma effect are improved.

In the present invention, since the modified polyolefin having a good affinity with the essential oil component is used as described above, even the essential oil component having a relatively low boiling point is not vaporized and foamed in the die block. Furthermore, since the sheath component is rapidly solidified after fiber formation, it also has an effect of suppressing evaporation of the essential oil component.

The unstretched composite fiber thus obtained is stretched, crimped if desired, and then cut into short fibers. In the present invention, this cut length is also important and is 30 to 10
It should be 0 mm, preferably 40 to 70 mm. When the fiber length is less than 30 mm, the amount of the essential oil contained in each short fiber becomes small, and the sustaining effect of the forest bath becomes insufficient. On the other hand, when the short fiber length exceeds 100 mm, the card passing property is deteriorated and the bulkiness is poor when used as futon cotton, which is not preferable.

Although the present invention is intended for short fibers, it goes without saying that a good fragrance effect can be obtained even when the filament before cutting is used for cutting the filament after weaving like a cut panel yarn of carpet. Absent.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the core-sheath solid conjugate fiber of the present invention does not have a hollow portion, and has a relatively good affinity as an essential oil component as a polymer of the core portion. A modified olefin polymer (having a function as a storage place for essential oil components) and an olefin polymer (which serves as a permeation and volatilization passage for essential oil components) that does not contain polar groups and has good diffusibility of essential oil components Since it is used together, it is presumed that the aroma effect such as the forest bathing effect can be stably obtained for a long time.

Therefore, the fiber of the present invention, futon, pillow, cushion,
When applied to products in the fields of clothing, bedding, interiors, vehicle interiors, furniture, household miscellaneous goods such as stuffed cotton or non-woven fabrics such as stuffed animals, it is possible to enjoy aroma effects such as forest bathing effects for an extremely long period of time. is there.

(Examples) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples. Since it is difficult to measure the forest bathing effect, the evaluation of fragrance was based on the following.

Evaluation of fragrance The odor intensity was evaluated after storage for a predetermined period of time after being stored in the open air. After production, the uncut tow was stored and evaluated for 5 grades with the aroma of this raw cotton cut to 51 mm as a standard.

When there is almost no difference from the standard: 5 When the odor is completely absent: 1 Bulk measurement method and specific volume were measured according to JIS-l-1097.

Example 1 A chip blend of 5 parts by weight of an ethylene / vinyl acetate copolymer (copolymerization weight ratio 84:16) containing 20 wt% of hinoki cypress extract essential oil and 95 parts by weight of high-density polyethylene having a melt index of 250 was used. To the core portion melted at ℃, also to the core-sheath composite spinning device so that polyethylene terephthalate having an intrinsic viscosity of 0.64 is melted at 280 ℃ and placed in the sheath portion,
Extruded from a die with a hole diameter of 0.5 mmφ and 260 holes,
I picked it up at a speed of 800 m / min and shook it into a can. The core / sheath ratio at this time was 50/50.

The obtained unstretched yarn was bundled into 4 million denier, stretched 3 times at 70 ° C in warm water, supplied to a stuffing box to be crimped, and then heat treated at 120 ° C for 30 minutes to obtain a fiber length of 51 mm. It was cut into short fibers to obtain about 6 denier short fibers.

Almost no fragrance was felt in this raw cotton in the state of the undrawn yarn and the tow that had not been cut after the drawing heat treatment, and the fragrance became felt only when cut into short fibers.

After putting this raw cotton on a card to make a web, weigh 1.8K
When the quilt of g was used, a quilt having a good sleep effect that smells of forest was obtained. Even if this futon was dry cleaned, the odor intensity did not decrease. Also,
The odor intensity of the forest remained almost unchanged even after two years, and was long-lasting. The results are shown in Table-1.
Shown in

Examples 2 to 5, Comparative Examples 1 to 8 The hinoki cypress extraction essential oil mixing ratio, the type and mixing ratio of the polymer used for the core, the type of the polymer for the sheath, the core / sheath ratio, the fiber cross-sectional shape, and the cut length were set. By changing as described in Table-1, short fibers and a comforter were obtained in the same manner as in Example 1. The evaluation results are also shown in Table 1.

In addition, as a standard for the fragrance evaluation, the sample tow stored in Example 1 was cut into 51 mm just before the measurement and used.

Examples 6 to 9 Short fibers and a comforter were obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the types of essential oil and polar polyolefin were changed as shown in Table 2. The evaluation results are also shown in Table 2.

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A core-sheath type solid composite staple fiber comprising the following olefin polymer composition containing 0.1 to 5% by weight of essential oil as a core portion and polyester as a sheath portion, wherein the fiber length of the staple fiber is A core-sheath type solid composite short fiber having a scent characterized by a size of 30 to 100 mm. Olefin polymer composition (excluding essential oil) (A) Olefin polymer having substantially no polar group consisting of α-olefin: 98 to 50% by polymerization (B) Unsaturated carboxylic acid, unsaturated alcohol and these Modified olefin polymer obtained by copolymerizing 3 to 30% by weight of at least one selected from ester, acid anhydride or amide: 2 to 50% by weight