JPH09140544A - Easily recyclable carpet and recycle method for carpet - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To recycle a used carpet by forming all of a pile fiber, a ground fabric and a filler material with a nylon-6 component, and containing a fiber separable from the nylon-6 component in the ground fabric in a pile carpet formed by planting pile fibers in the ground fabric. SOLUTION: A loop pile carpet comprises a pile fiber 1, a ground fabric 2 containing a fiber separable from a nylon-6 component, a filler material 3, and a lining material 4 containing a fiber separable from the nylon-6 component, wherein the nylon-6 component is used in all of the pile fiber 1, the ground fabric 2, the filler material 3 and the lining material 4. As a fiber separable from the nylon-6 component, glass fiber and metallic fiber of copper, lead, aluminum, iron or the like are used, and preferably the metallic fiber which is easily magnetic-separable is used. Only the nylon-6 component is separated from the above carpet, and the separated nylon-6 component is depolymerized and recovered to recycle the carpet.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to carpets. More specifically, the present invention relates to a pile carpet in which piles are planted on a base fabric that can be easily recycled.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to two needs, that is, environmental protection of the earth and efficient use of resources, the problem of treatment and reuse of industrial waste and general household waste has been increasing in importance. In many areas, many people are interested. However, in the field of carpets, most used carpets have been disposed of in landfills so far, and practical recycling technology for carpets is still in the development stage.

Generally, in order to obtain a quality suitable for the use of a carpet, a tufted pile base fabric is tufted with pile yarns, card webs are laminated and needle punched, surface fibers such as a woven or knitted fabric, and the back side thereof. It is composed of a stab base cloth, a sealing layer and a backing layer. The surface fiber determines the basic performance of the carpet. It is used for home, office, hotel / theater, car mat, store, etc. From the viewpoint of both the required function and price, various fibers such as natural fiber and synthetic fiber. Is selected and used. Natural tufts and polyester spunbonds are commonly used for tufted sashimi, and polyester spunbonds are the mainstream. The backing layer on the back side of the carpet is for home, office,
The required functions differ depending on the location and form of use, such as for automobiles, and the specifications are finely divided according to the product, such as the use of vinyl chloride or neoprene rubber that does not shift the layer, and the use of polyethylene that is easy to fix the form. Such a wide variety of materials and configurations make it difficult to put carpet into practical use. The roughly proposed recycling technologies are roughly classified into the following three.

[0004] The first is thermal recycling. It is a method of cutting a carpet into an appropriate form, burning it, and reusing it as in-house power generation and various types of heat energy. But,
This method is not preferable from the viewpoint of resource reuse.

[0005] The second is material recycling. This method differs from the following chemical recycling in that it is pelletized physically and mechanically. When this recycled pellet is reused, it is divided into two cases. One is to develop a product as a new material in consideration of the fact that various materials are mixed, such as flower beds, pots for bonsai, and decorative piles for sidewalks. The other is a case in which the materials are 100% identical and are collected, pelletized, melted and reused as in JP-A-5-212935 and JP-A-6-123052. Among them, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-123052, a product group in which 100% polyester does not satisfy the required function of the pile material, particularly in offices and hotels, has pile fatigue and is practically used as a product. There is a drawback that it is difficult to realize.

The third is chemical recycling. The chemical recycling that best matches the basic concept of recycling is chemical recycling, which collects products, decomposes them, and returns them to their original raw materials. However, since carpets have a wide variety of products and the material composition thereof is various, it takes some time to develop an economical depolymerization system. A means for solving this problem is JP-A-5-117441. As an auxiliary means for improving the efficiency of depolymerization, the carpet is fragmented, separated into small pieces containing nylon 6 which is a pile material and other small pieces by a separator, and the small pieces containing nylon 6 are supplied to a depolymerization system. This is a method of recovering ε-caprolactam as a raw material. However, this method also does not mainly aim at the separation of pile yarns. Therefore, even if the carpet is made into small pieces and separated by mechanical means, for example, due to the difference in specific gravity due to a cyclone, etc., the tuft spine is still contained in the small pieces containing nylon 6. It contains polyester spunbond for cloth and vinyl chloride, neoprene rubber, polyethylene for the sealing layer and backing layer, and the difficulty of depolymerization purification has never been solved.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to improve the above problems more efficiently and to provide a carpet which can be easily recycled.

[0008]

The easily recyclable carpet of the present invention has the following constitution in order to solve the above problems.

That is, in a pile carpet in which pile fibers are planted and sealed in a base cloth, pile fibers,
A carpet that is easy to recycle, characterized in that all of the base cloth and the sealing material are made of nylon 6 component, and the base cloth contains fibers that can be separated from the nylon 6 component.

Further, in a pile carpet in which pile fibers are planted and sealed in a base cloth and a backing material is attached to the back surface of the base cloth, all of the pile fibers, the base cloth, the sealing material and the backing material are nylon. A carpet which is composed of 6 components, and in which at least one of a base fabric and a backing material contains fibers which can be separated from the nylon 6 component, and which is easy to recycle.

Further, the carpet recycling method of the present invention has the following constitution in order to solve the above problems.

That is, all of the pile fiber, the base cloth, and the sealing material are composed of nylon 6 component, and only the nylon 6 component is separated from the carpet containing the nylon 6 component and the separable fiber in the base cloth, This is a carpet recycling method characterized by depolymerizing the separated nylon 6 component and recovering it as ε-caprolactam.

Further, the pile fiber, the base cloth, the sealing material and the lining material are all made of nylon 6 component, and at least one of the base cloth and the lining material contains a fiber which can be separated from the nylon 6 component. In this method, only the nylon 6 component is separated from the carpet, and the separated nylon 6 component is depolymerized and recovered as ε-caprolactam.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The easily recyclable carpet of the present invention will be described in detail below.

The easily recyclable carpet of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a model of an easily recyclable carpet of the present invention. In the loop pile carpet shown in FIG. 1, 1 is pile fiber, 2
Is a base cloth containing fibers that can be separated from the nylon 6 component, 3 is a sealing material, and 4 is a backing material that contains fibers that can be separated from the nylon 6 component. Generally for carpet, pile fiber,
The base cloth, the sealing material, and the lining material are all made of different materials, which is a major obstacle when they are collected and reused.
Therefore, in the present invention, the pile fiber, the base cloth, the sealing material and the lining material all use nylon 6 component. Nylon 6 component has hygroscopicity, and if a carpet is made of 100% nylon 6 component, it has the property of expanding and contracting in response to humidity changes in the atmosphere. At the same time, wrinkles may be generated by stretching or shrinking during use. Therefore, in the present invention, in order to improve the dimensional stability and the shape fixing property, a fiber which is stable against moisture and is separable from the nylon 6 component is mixed in the base cloth or the backing material.

In the present invention, stable with respect to water means
It means that the dimensional change due to the influence of water is small.

As the moisture-stable fiber, it is preferable to use a fiber which has a small dimensional change in the standard state (20 ° C. × 65% RH) and water. The dimensional change is ± 0.
2% or less is preferable. If it exceeds ± 0.2%, it may expand or contract with respect to the change in water content during carpet production, and at the same time, it may expand or contract during use to cause wrinkles and the like.

Here, in the case of a simple carpet composed only of pile fibers, a base cloth and a sealing material, fibers which are stable to moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component are mixed only in the base cloth. In the case of a carpet composed of a base cloth, a sealing material and a backing material, fibers which are stable to moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component are used only in the base cloth or in the base cloth and the backing material. is there.

The carpet of the present invention can be subjected to any of material recycling, chemical recycling and thermal recycling. In particular, chemical recycling, which is the basis of recycling, decomposes recovered products to return them to the original raw materials,
In particular, depolymerization / purification by the method described in JP-B-42-18476, etc., and recovery as ε-caprolactam,
It is easy to reuse again as the raw material of nylon 6.

Further, as the fiber which is stable to moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component, glass fiber and metal fiber such as copper, lead, aluminum and iron which are easily pulverized and easily separated by blowing are preferable. A metal fiber that is easy to separate magnetic force is more preferable.

The fiber used in the present invention, which is stable to moisture and easily separated from the nylon 6 component, is used only in the base cloth or in the base cloth and the backing material to reduce the dimensional change of the entire carpet. 5 to 5 for the entire base cloth and lining material.
50% by weight is desirable. If it is less than 5% by weight, it is difficult to obtain sufficient dimensional stability, and if it exceeds 50% by weight, the separation / collection efficiency may decrease.

Fibers that are stable to moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component are more preferable if they are also stable to heat. This is preferably stable in the temperature range up to hot water of 98 ° C in consideration of dyeing, and is stable in the temperature range up to dry heat of 80 ° C in applications such as automobiles exposed to direct sunlight. Is preferred.

Next, a method for manufacturing a carpet which is easy to recycle according to the present invention will be described. In the present invention, when manufacturing a base fabric or a backing material, a nylon 6 fiber is mixed with a fiber which is stable against moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component, for example, glass fiber or metal fiber such as lead or copper to form a non-woven fabric. , Nylon 6 fibers and glass fibers or metal fibers such as copper, lead and iron are combined and twisted to form a woven or knitted fabric, and nylon 6 fibers and glass fibers and metal fibers such as copper, lead and iron are mixed and woven. Any method can be used.

A method of applying a melt of nylon 6 polymer can be used as a method for sealing the pile on the base cloth, and a method of adhering the base cloth and the lining material is a melt of nylon 6 polymer. Can be applied to the base cloth or the backing material, and the base cloth and the backing material are superposed and adhered in a molten state. In addition, the method of fixing the pile to the base cloth and the method of adhering the backing material to the base cloth are used. For example, nylon 6 is copolymerized with nylon 6, and the melting point is 100 ° C.
It is also possible to use a method in which the powder is lowered back and forth to form a fine powder, which is applied to a base cloth or a backing material and melt-bonded by heat treatment. For the separation of nylon 6 and moisture-stable fibers that can be separated from nylon 6 components, for example, fibers that are stable to moisture and that can be separated from nylon 6 components have large differences in specific gravity, such as glass fibers and metal fibers. In this case, the carpet can be crushed and the fibers which are stable to the nylon 6 component and moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component can be separated by blowing. In addition, if the fiber that is stable against moisture and can be separated from the nylon 6 component is a component that is attracted by magnetic force, such as a metal fiber, magnetic separation is also possible.

The nylon 6 component separated by the above-mentioned method is treated with superheated steam at a temperature above the melting point of nylon 6 together with the method described in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 42-18476, specifically a depolymerization catalyst, By depolymerizing ε-caprolactam in the distillate by a method of separating and purifying, ε-caprolactam, which is a raw material of nylon 6, can be recovered with high efficiency.

[0027]

Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples and Comparative Examples. The method of measuring various characteristics described in the present invention is as follows.

[Dimensional Change of Fiber] The fiber was carefully pulled out from the carpet so as not to be distorted, and then the standard state (20
The length (L ₀ ) under a load of 0.1 g / denier is measured at ₀ ° C. × 65% RH), and the length is 2 in 20 ° C. water under no load.
After soaking for 4 hours, it was quickly taken out, the length (L ₁ ) under a load of 0.1 g / denier was measured, and the dimensional change of the fiber was determined by the following formula.

Dimensional change of fiber (%) = (L ₀ −L ₁ ) × 100 [Example 1] An ordinary nylon 6 chip is used in Japanese Examined Patent Publication 55-9.
Spinning, drawing, and crimping processes according to the method described in 086 publication, melting point 215 ° C., fineness 2600 denier, filament number 1
60 field type hollows (hollowness 14%), crimp elongation 25
% Crimped yarn was obtained.

Separately from this, a normal nylon 6 chip is spun, drawn and crimped into a staple having a melting point of 215 ° C., a fineness of 6 denier and 64 mm. 5% by weight of glass fiber is mixed with this nylon 6 staple and spun. The fabric was woven and processed to obtain a nylon 6 / glass fiber mixed fabric base fabric. Using this nylon 6 / glass fiber mixed woven fabric as a base fabric, the nylon 6 crimped yarn was tufted to obtain a loop pile carpet greige machine with a pile length of 5 mm and a stitch of 12.5 co / in. The resulting carpet was dyed with a conventional Wins dyeing machine. During dyeing, there was almost no problem due to stretching or shrinking of the base fabric.

On the other hand, a nylon 6 staple having a melting point of 215 ° C., a fineness of 10 denier and a cut length of 64 mm obtained by melt spinning and stretching using a normal nylon 6 chip was mixed with 5% by weight of glass fiber and spun and woven. Then, it was processed into a lining material of nylon 6 / glass fiber mixed woven fabric.

On the base cloth surface of the dyed carpet, nylon 6 and nylon 10 were copolymerized, and a fine powder of copolymerized nylon having a melting point of 100 ° C. was applied, and a backing material was overlaid.
While continuously passing through an atmosphere of dry heat of 130 ° C., the carpet and the backing material were adhered and the pile was fixed to the base fabric to obtain a carpet of 100% nylon. The dimensional change of the pile nylon 6 fiber in this carpet is -1.8.
%, The dimensional change of the base fabric nylon 6 fiber was -1.6%, the dimensional change of the backing material nylon 6 fiber was -1.7%, and the dimensional change of the glass fiber was 0%.

The obtained carpet was used for 6 months, but there was almost no problem due to expansion and contraction of the base cloth and the backing material.

Further, after this use, the carpet is collected and defibrated by a fluffing machine, crushed by a crusher, and separated by air blowing to separate the glass fiber.
It was depolymerized and purified by the method described in Japanese Patent No. 8476 and recovered as ε-caprolactam.

[Comparative Example 1] A carpet was obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that glass fibers were not mixed in the production of the base cloth and the backing material. The dimensional change of the pile nylon 6 fiber in this carpet was -1.9%, the dimensional change of the base fabric nylon 6 fiber was -1.7%, and the dimensional change of the backing material nylon 6 fiber was -1.7%. .

When the obtained carpet was used for 6 months, wrinkles were generated or deformed due to expansion and contraction of the pile, the base cloth and the backing material, and the appearance was not good.

Example 2 An ordinary nylon 6 chip was spun, stretched and crimped by the method described in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 55-9086, melting point 215 ° C., fineness 2600 denier, 160 filament filament hollow. A crimped yarn having a crimp elongation of 25% was obtained with a hollow ratio of 14%. Further, it was twisted and dyed into three colors with cheese to obtain a pile yarn.

Separately from this, a normal nylon 6 chip is spun, drawn and crimped into a staple having a melting point of 215 ° C., a fineness of 6 denier and 64 mm. After spinning this nylon 6 staple, it is made of nylon 6 spun yarn and iron. The fine fibers of (1) were twisted, woven and processed to obtain a base fabric of nylon 6 / iron fine fiber mixed woven fabric. The iron fine fibers in the base cloth were 6% by weight.

Using this nylon 6 / iron fine fiber mixed woven fabric as a base fabric, the cheese-dyed nylon 6 pile yarn was tufted to obtain a cut pile carpet with a pile length of 12 mm and a stitch of 10 co / in.

On the other hand, nylon 6 woven fabric is spun, woven and processed using nylon 6 staple having a melting point of 215 ° C., a fineness of 10 denier and a cut length of 64 mm obtained by melt spinning and drawing using ordinary nylon 6 chips. Backing material.

Nylon 6 and nylon 10 were copolymerized with the base cloth surface of the cheese-dyed carpet to give a melting point of 10
The carpet is coated with a fine powder of copolymerized nylon at 0 ° C and the backing material is overlaid, and the carpet and the backing material are adhered and the pile is fixed to the base cloth while continuously passing through an atmosphere of dry heat at 130 ° C. Got The dimensional change of the pile nylon 6 fiber in this carpet is -1.6%, the dimensional change of the base cloth nylon 6 fiber is -1.7%, the dimensional change of the backing material nylon 6 fiber is -1.6%, and The dimensional change of the fine fibers was 0%.

The obtained carpet was used for 6 months, but there was almost no problem due to expansion and contraction of the base cloth and the backing material.

Further, after this use, the carpet is recovered and defibrated by a fluffing machine, crushed by a crusher, placed on a belt conveyor to remove only iron fine fiber components by a magnetic separation device having a magnetic field, and then a nylon component. The Japanese Examined Sho 42-18476
It was depolymerized and purified by the method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. JP-A-2003-242, and recovered as .epsilon.

[0044]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, nylon 6 polymer is used for the pile, the base cloth, the sealing material and the lining material, and some of the base cloth and the lining material are stable against moisture and have a nylon 6 component. By mixing fibers that are easy to separate,
Used carpet can be recycled more efficiently without compromising the quality required for the carpet application.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a model of an easily recyclable carpet of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Pile fiber 2: Base fabric containing fibers separable from nylon 6 component 3: Sealing material 4: Lining material containing fibers separable from nylon 6 component

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A pile carpet in which pile fibers are planted and sealed in a base cloth, the pile fibers, the base cloth and the sealing material are all made of nylon 6 component, and the base cloth is made of nylon 6 component. An easy-to-recycle carpet characterized by containing fibers that can be separated from each other. 2. A pile carpet in which pile fibers are planted and sealed in a base cloth, and a backing material is attached to the back surface of the base cloth, and all of the pile fibers, the base cloth, the sealing material and the backing material are nylon. A carpet that is composed of 6 components and that contains fibers that can be separated from nylon 6 components in at least one of the base fabric and the backing material, and is easy to recycle. 3. A standard condition (20 ° C. × 65% RH) of a fiber that can be separated from a nylon 6 component and the dimensional change of the fiber in water is ± 0.2% or less. Or the easily recyclable carpet according to the item 2. 4. The fiber capable of being separated from the nylon 6 component is glass fiber or metal fiber.
The easily recyclable carpet according to any one of to 3. 5. A pile fiber, a base cloth, and a sealing material are all composed of nylon 6 component, and the nylon 6 component alone is separated from a carpet in which the base cloth contains fibers that can be separated from the nylon 6 component, A carpet recycling method, characterized in that the separated nylon 6 component is depolymerized and recovered as ε-caprolactam. 6. A pile fiber, a base cloth, a sealing material and a backing material are all composed of a nylon 6 component, and at least one of the base cloth and the backing material contains a fiber which can be separated from the nylon 6 component. A method for recycling carpet, wherein only the nylon 6 component is separated from the carpet, and the separated nylon 6 component is depolymerized and recovered as ε-caprolactam. 7. The recovered carpet is crushed, and a nylon 6 component and a fiber capable of separating the nylon 6 component are blown and separated,
6. A depolymerization of nylon 6 component.
Alternatively, the carpet recycling method as described in 6 above. 8. A crushed recycled carpet and magnetically separating nylon 6 component and fibers capable of separating nylon 6 component,
6. A depolymerization of nylon 6 component.
7. The method for recycling a carpet according to any one of to 7.