JPS6317125B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing synthetic fibers for blow molding having a down-like feel, drapability and heat retention properties, and bulkiness. Bird feathers have traditionally been used for various fillings. However, natural feathers have problems such as quantitative limitations, complex manufacturing processes, uneven quality, and high price, making it difficult to use them for a wide range of purposes. There has been an increasing demand for filling materials with the following characteristics. The feathers used for various fillings consist of small feathers obtained from the wing parts of waterfowl and down obtained from the breasts. Products with a higher proportion of down are softer and have better drape, and are bulkier and more expensive. It is treated as. The present invention relates to a method for producing synthetic fibers for blow molding that have downlike flexibility, bulk, and heat retention properties, and are made by blowing the synthetic fibers directly onto the side fabric using an air flow using a blow molding machine used for feathers. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for easily producing synthetic fibers. Various methods for producing feather-like synthetic fibers for blow molding using synthetic fibers have already been proposed. For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 52-28426 and 57-50308, the method of modifying ordinary fibers by attaching silicone oil to them can certainly improve drapability slightly, but the bulk is insufficient. The texture is completely different from that of feathers, and only those with poor compression recovery properties can be obtained. Furthermore, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 48-7955 and 57-39134, the method of making the fiber aggregate state spherical or radial is certainly unique in terms of morphology, but it does not satisfy the characteristics of feathers. It has not become familiar. In addition, as shown in JP-A-56-141206, stable fibers with fine denier and low coefficient of friction, as shown in JP-A-56-141206, have a soft texture, excellent heat retention, and excellent drapability. It is known that cotton wadding can be obtained. Synthetic fibers with a fine denier of 3 denier or less and a low friction coefficient provide a downlike feel, heat retention, and drapability, but the smaller the single yarn fineness, the more difficult it is to open the fibers in the synthetic fiber manufacturing process. Sexuality becomes worse.
That is, the synthetic fiber itself contains many unopened fiber portions of the scallops, resulting in a low bulk fiber. Therefore, if you try to directly blow fine denier synthetic fibers into the side fabric using a blow-molding machine (stuffing machine) for natural feathers, the synthetic fibers may wrap around the blower fan or clog the blower or duct. Unable to proceed with work smoothly. Even if you manage to proceed with the stuffing process, the synthetic fibers stuffed into the side fabric will not be fully opened and will have a low bulk, and will form lump-like fiber clumps, resulting in unevenness on the stuffing surface. The unevenness is not preferable because it impairs the quality of the textile product and also impairs its feel when worn, giving it a sense of discomfort. Strictly considering the spreadability, there are two definitions. (1) Uniform spreadability: There are parts in the fiber aggregate where single fibers form clusters forming a scallop-like shape and parts where single fibers are separated, and when the ratio of the latter is high, it is considered uniform. It is said to have good opening properties. (2) Bulky fiber-spreading properties: Uniform fiber-spreading properties are poor in fiber aggregates.In other words, there are relatively many scallop-shaped aggregate fibers, but the scallop-shaped aggregate fibers and a large number of separated single fibers are randomly dispersed, resulting in bulk. If this is the case, it is said to have good bulk and spreadability. In addition, if the uniform opening property is good, the bulky opening property also tends to be good. In the present invention, the fiber-spreading ratio is defined by the following equation as a measure of uniform fiber-spreadability. Spreading rate (%) = total fiber amount (g) - scallop-shaped collective fiber amount (g) / total fiber amount (g) x 100 As a measure of bulky fiber opening ability, as will be described in detail below in the present invention, after unpacking Adopts unloaded bulk. According to the study results of the present inventors, the workability of the blow molding machine is good and the bulkiness of the obtained filling is good when both the uniform spreadability and the bulky spreadability are high. In the conventional manufacturing method of synthetic fibers, the spun raw yarn is generally multiplied into a tow of 100,000 to 3,000,000 denier, which is stretched at an appropriate stretching ratio, then an oil agent is applied and crimped. The crimps are then heat-set and immediately cut into staple fibers, which are packed in bales. With such conventional methods for producing synthetic fibers, there is a limit to the ability to obtain synthetic fibers with a single filament fineness of 3 deniers or less that have a high opening rate and are bulky. For example, if you try to spread the staple fibers by blowing compressed air strongly with an air nozzle after cutting the tow, no matter how high the compressed air pressure is, it will have almost no effect. By the way, even if the staple fibers are pneumatically transported through an air duct to the packaging process, they are hardly separated and opened. (The bulkiness and spreadability will not improve.) Furthermore, in order to obtain a more down-like soft texture, increasing the amount of the oil agent that gives flexibility to the tow causes the single yarns to adhere to each other due to the adhesive force of the agent itself and spread the fibers uniformly. make sex worse. In addition, increasing the crimp performance to an extreme degree in order to improve the bulkiness of the filler also deteriorates the uniform opening property. As mentioned above, in conventional synthetic fiber manufacturing methods, when synthetic fibers with a single filament fineness of 3 denier or less and treated with a treatment agent are used, it is difficult to blow them in with a normal feather blow molding machine, or even if it is possible to blow them in, they are too bulky. I could only get fillings with low quality. The purpose of the present invention is to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and to provide a synthetic fiber having a single yarn fineness of 3 deniers or less and which has excellent blow moldability even when treated with a softener, is extremely bulky and flexible, and has excellent heat retention and drapability. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a good synthetic fiber for blow molding. In other words, the present invention is based on "single yarn fineness of 3 denier or less, coefficient of static friction between fibers"
After the heat-set crimped tow of 0.3 or less is passed through a step of repeatedly relaxing and tensioning at least in the length direction of the tow to produce tension fluctuations and a step of opening it with a gear-like opening body, Cut into fibers with a length of 200 mm or less, then immediately spray with compressed air to separate and separate.
A method for producing synthetic fibers for blow molding, which comprises opening the fibers. The synthetic fibers used in the present invention may be polyester-based, acrylic-based, polyamide-based, polyolefin-based, etc., but polyester-based synthetic fibers are most preferred from the standpoint of bulkiness. The single yarn fineness is 3 denier or less to approximate the soft texture, drapability, and heat retention of downlike.
Particularly preferred is 1 denier or less. In order to increase the bulkiness and heat retention of the filling, a mixture of different denier fibers is made by uniformly mixing 0.001 to 0.5 denier fibers and 0.5 to 3 denier fibers in a ratio of 20:80 to 80:20. It is a preferable embodiment to use a From the point of view of spreadability, the cross-sectional shape of the fibers should be one that has one or more protrusions on the side surface of the fibers, so that it is easy to cause misalignment between the fibers when the tow is spread.
It is preferable to have an arbitrary cross-sectional shape as shown in FIG.
Those with a high degree of atypicality are more preferable. In addition, heat retention,
To improve the bulkiness as well, the hollowness ratio should be 3 to 45.
More preferred are hollow fibers having a non-circular cross-sectional circumference of %. For example, Fig. 4 to Fig. 8, Fig. 10, Fig. 2
Figure 2 etc. When opening the tow using hollow fibers as described above, the cross-sectional shape of the fibers is greatly deformed by external force, making it easier to open the tow. The coefficient of static friction between fibers (hereinafter referred to as μs)
The measurement method is based on JIS L-1074,
The smaller the value, the better the smoothness between the fibers. In the present invention, when μs is 0.30 or less, the opening property during tow opening is good, and the resulting fiber has a down-like and extremely soft texture. μs
If it exceeds 0.30, the opening properties during tow opening will deteriorate, and at the same time, the texture of the resulting fibers will also be poor, which is undesirable. In order to make μs 0.30 or less, it is preferable to treat with a surface treatment agent mainly composed of silicone resin. Specific examples of silicone resins containing silicone resin as the main component include methylhydrodiene polysiloxane, which reacts and cures on the fiber surface to form a film, epoxy group-containing polysiloxane, amino group-containing polysiloxane, and oxyalkylene group-containing polysiloxane. , methylvinylpolysiloxane, alkoxypolysiloxane, and mixtures thereof, and reactive organopolysiloxanes in which these are mixed with a crosslinking agent such as aminosilane are preferred. These can be applied in the form of solutions or emulsions. Since silicone resins usually have poor antistatic properties, a small amount of cationic or anionic surfactant is added to impart antistatic properties. The amount of the treatment agent containing silicone resin as a main component is preferably 0.1 to 3% based on the dry weight of the fibers. If it is less than 0.1% by weight, downlike flexibility cannot be imparted as described above. Also,
Even if it is added in excess of 3.0% by weight, smoothness and flexibility will not improve much. The tow treated by the method of the present invention is a crimped tow that has been crimped and heat-set at 80°C or higher.
The crimp performance of the crimped tow is that the number of crimps is 5 crimps/25mm or more,
It is desirable that the degree of crimp is 5% or more. It is preferable that the number of crimps is 5 crimp/25 mm or more because bulkiness and compression recovery properties are excellent, and the fibers are less likely to come out from the side fabric while wearing the stuffed product.
It is possible and preferable to use a coarse side fabric that has a relatively large amount of air permeability, that is, an inexpensive side fabric. Although the method of the present invention can be used even when the number of crimps is less than 5 crimp/25 mm, the bulkiness and compression recovery properties are slightly reduced due to the fineness of the single yarn. If the degree of crimp is less than 5%, the bulkiness and compression recovery bulkiness of the filler will not reach a sufficiently satisfactory level.
It is preferable that the degree of crimp is 5% or more because good bulkiness and compression recovery properties can be obtained. The crimp type may be a zigzag-like planar crimp using the push-in crimp method, a three-dimensional crimp that imparts anisotropy to the fiber cross section and develops latent crimp through composite spinning or asymmetric cooling spinning, or a mixture of both. But that's fine. Next, it is necessary to repeatedly relax and tension the heat-set crimped tow to produce tension fluctuations, and this relaxation and tension may be applied in the length direction and width direction of the tow, but at least in the length direction. need to be applied. For example, as a specific example, a pair of rollers that rotate faster than the tow feeding speed is provided between a pair of feed rollers that rotate at approximately the same speed and a pair of take-up rollers, and at least one of the rollers is aligned along the axis. You may also use a method such as using a cut roller to alternately apply tension and relaxation to the tow.
Publication No. 14169). In order to spread the crimped tow, it is possible to effectively spread the fibers by adding a method of rubbing with a spreading body having edges and meshing like gears to the above method. In other words, an opening body is provided that has a pair of edges that rotate faster than the tow feeding speed between a pair of feed rollers that rotate at a substantially constant speed and a pair of take-up rollers that mesh like gears. This method involves rubbing and opening the fibers. The width of the opened tow is about three times the width of the tow before opening, and it is once converged and cut. The method for cutting the tow may be any method such as a circle cutter or a guillotine cutter. The cut length (fiber length) is preferably 200 mm or less. Particularly preferred is 20 to 76 mm. If it exceeds 200 mm, blow moldability deteriorates, causing troubles such as wrapping around the air blower fan, which is undesirable. When using synthetic fibers with a normal single filament fineness of 4 to 8 deniers, practical blow moldability cannot be obtained unless the fiber length is 35 mm or less, but in the present invention, despite the fine denier of 3 deniers or less, Blow molding is possible even if the fiber length is increased to 200 mm. Fibers cut to 200 mm or less are immediately separated and opened by compressed air sprayed from a nozzle. As mentioned above, even if it is attempted to sufficiently open ordinary crimped short fibers having a fineness of 3 deniers or less using only this compressed air, it is impossible. By repeatedly relaxing and tensioning the tow at least in the length direction to produce tension fluctuations, and then passing it through a tow opening device, it is possible to achieve a high degree of separation and opening that cannot be achieved with conventional methods. be. Furthermore, in order to randomize the direction of the synthetic fibers that have been opened and cut into the tow, and to create a bulkier filling, it is necessary to separate and open the fibers by blowing compressed air immediately after cutting. The method of the present invention will be explained below based on the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a conventional cotton manufacturing method after the tow crimping step. The crimped tow 1 is heat-set in a heat treatment machine 2 and then cut into table fibers 4 by a cutter 3. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an outline of one embodiment of the manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 2, the crimped tow 1 is heat-set in a heat treatment machine 2 and then fed through a guide roller 5 to a series of tow gripping and transferring rollers 6, 8, 10. A pair of rollers 7 (this pair of rollers will be referred to as first opening rollers) is provided between the rollers 6 and 8, one of which is a cut roller 7 and the other of which is a regular roller 7''. 3 denier. Fibers with irregular cross-sections having the following finenesses, especially those with protrusions on the outer periphery, such as the cross-sections shown in Figures 3 to 22, are relatively easy to spread because the contact area between the fibers is small and shearing is likely to occur. If synthetic fibers with such a cross section are used, good fiber opening can be achieved to some extent just by using the first fiber opening roller 7 and the gripping and transferring rollers 6 and 8. In addition to this, with a hollow cross section This is preferable since the cross section easily deforms during expansion and contraction, making it easier to spread the fibers uniformly.The circumferential speed of the first spreading roller is usually 1.5-7.
It is set to be twice as fast. When the crimped tow is temporarily held between the non-cutting surface of the cutting roller 7' and the ordinary cylindrical roller 7'', the crimped tow between the roller 6 and the first opening roller 7 becomes in tension. , the first fiber opening roller 7 and the roller 8 are in a relaxed state. Also, the crimped tow is temporarily not gripped between the cutting surface of the cutting roller 7' and the ordinary roller 7'', so that the crimped tow is not held between the cutting surface of the cutting roller 7' and the ordinary roller 7''. Up to 8, the entire crimped tow is in a relaxed state. As a result of this repeated action of tension and relaxation, the crimped tow is spread wider and more uniformly in the tow width direction. In FIG. 2, in the case of a fiber having a circular cross-section yarn having a single filament fineness of 3 deniers or less and having no protrusions, the above-mentioned first fiber opening roller 7 and the gripping transfer roller 6,
If the fibers are only configured with 8, the fibers cannot be opened sufficiently, so a pair of fiber spreaders 9 which have a plurality of edges between the gripping and transferring rollers 8 and 10 and mesh like gears is added.
(This pair of opening bodies is called the second opening roller)
It is necessary to provide The rotational speed of the edge tip of the second opening roller is normally set to be 1.5 to 7 times faster than the tow transport speed, that is, the surface speed of the rollers 8 and 10.
Therefore, the crimped tow is spread by being rubbed by the gear tip. In this way, the crimped tow 1 is
The fibers are further opened sufficiently by the opening roller 9. The shape of the edge part may be any shape as shown in Fig. 24, such as a flat plate as shown in Fig. 24, a wedge shape as shown in Fig. 23, or a trapezoid as shown in Fig. 25, as long as it can rub the tow without damaging the fiber itself. , second
It is preferable to make the tow slightly rounded as shown in FIGS. 7 and 28 because it allows the tow to pass through smoothly and prevents fuzzing due to single yarn breakage. As mentioned above, even if the first fiber opening roller causes tension fluctuations and then the second fiber opening roller rubs the fibers, the second fiber opening roller performs the fiber opening process and then the first
A similar opening effect can be obtained by repeatedly applying tension and relaxation using an opening roller or by reversing this order. The tow opened in this way is transferred to a roller 10
The fibers are fed into a bundle through a cutter 3, cut into a desired fiber length, and separated and opened by an air nozzle 12 provided near the cutter. The separation and opening by the air nozzle 12 is easy because the short fibers have already been opened by the first opening roller 7 and the second opening roller 9. For example, the number of crimps is 5 or more per inch, and the crimp rate is 5%.
According to the method of the present invention, the above crimped tow has an opening rate of 80
% or more of cotton. Therefore, the unloaded bulk of the cotton treated by the method of the present invention after unpacking is 35 cm ² /g or more, which is extremely bulky, and the permeability in the blow molding method is extremely good when a normal blowing machine is used. Yes, the bulk of the filling,
Drapability, heat retention, and texture are also extremely good.
Small feather: 20% or less down, 80% or more down, with characteristics similar to high-quality natural feathers. The synthetic fiber obtained by the method of the present invention can also be used in combination with feathers. In the method of the present invention, known moisture-absorbing, water-absorbing, flame-retardant, stain-proofing treatments, etc. may be applied before heat-setting the crimped tow, or after heat-setting and opening the crimped tow. Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained with reference to Examples. Example 1 Polyethylene terephthalate, which has an intrinsic viscosity (IV) of 0.65 when dissolved in O-chlorophenol and measured at 25°C, was made into a yarn with a cross-sectional shape as shown in Figure 4 and a hollow ratio of 15%.
The fibers are spun from 240 spinnerets at a spinning temperature of 280°C and a spinning speed of 1000 m/min, which gives a drawn yarn denier of approximately 300,000 denier. The fibers were drawn using a water drawing bath at a drawing speed of 100 m/min and a draw ratio of 3.2, and a mixed solution of dimethylpolysiloxane and methylhydrodiene polysiloxane was applied to the fibers at a dry weight of 0.3%. Crimp was applied using a post-push crimper and heat-set at 140°C for 30 minutes. The tow thus obtained was opened using a tow opening apparatus as shown in FIG. The diameter of the first opening roller 7 in FIG. 2 is the cut roller 7'.
The cylindrical rollers 7'' were each 15 cm long and had four cutting parts.
The peripheral speed was set to 4 times the peripheral speed of 0. The outer diameter of the second opening roller 9 is the upper and lower rollers 9',
9″ are both 15 cm and have the shape shown in Figures 24 and 27, the edge length is 1 cm, and each roller has a diameter of 15 cm.
The depth of engagement of the second opening rollers 9' and 9'' during tow opening was 5 mm.The circumferential speed of the second opening roller 7 was set to 5mm.
The peripheral speed was 4 times that of 8 and 10. The width of these roller groups used for tow opening was 50 cm. The tow opened in this manner was cut into 38 mm pieces while being refocused, and immediately separated and opened using compressed air. The physical properties of the obtained fibers are as shown in the column of Example 1 in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, the opening rate was extremely high. This was compressed to a specific volume of 2.5 cm ³ /g and packed into bales. When this product was unpacked after being left for about 20 days, the unloaded bulk was extremely high at 45 cm ³ /g. When this product was passed through a normal feather blow molding machine, it was able to be blown without any problems. Comparative Examples 1, 2, 3, 4 Comparative Example 1 in Table 1 shows the results of testing in Example 1 without performing tow opening. When the tow was not opened, the opening rate was low, the unloaded bulk after unpacking was low, and the blow moldability was poor, and the blow molding machine was frequently clogged, making it impossible to blow. Comparative Example 2 in Table 1 shows the results of testing in Example 1 without carrying out crimp heat fixing. In this case, the silicone resin does not react and the coefficient of friction is high, and even if the crimp is increased during the indentation crimping process, the crimp becomes stiff during the tow opening process, and the unloaded bulk after unpacking is low and the blow moldability is poor. Ta. The texture was also rough and not very nice. Comparative Example 3 in Table 1 shows the results of setting the number of crimps and the crimping rate to be slightly low when applying indentation crimps in Example 1. Since the number of crimp and the crimp ratio were low, the unloaded bulk after unpacking was low and blowing was possible, but it could not be said to be fully satisfactory. Comparative Example 4 in Table 1 shows the results of Example 1 in which decomposition and opening using compressed air was not performed immediately after cutting. Although the opening rate was sufficient and there were few unopened areas, the fibers were not randomly dispersed, so the unloaded bulk after unpacking was insufficient and the blow moldability was poor. Examples 2 and 3 Example 2 in Table 1 shows the results obtained when the cross section of Example 1 was made circular and the single yarn fineness and crimp characteristics were slightly changed. The opening rate was high, the unloaded bulk after unpacking was high, the blow moldability was good, and the texture was soft and good. In Example 1, the cross section was made circular, the single yarn fineness and crimp characteristics were slightly changed, and the fiber length was changed to a large width, and the results are shown in Example 3 in Table 1. Blow moldability was good despite the long fiber length. Example 4 In Example 1, 50% by weight of polyethylene terephthalate with an IV of 0.65 and 50% by weight of polybutylene terephthalate with an IV of 0.65 were subjected to side-by-side conjugate spinning using a hollow spinning nozzle that gave a hollow ratio of 10%, and the stretching ratio was adjusted. Example 4 in Table 1 shows the physical properties of the fiber obtained by carrying out the same procedure as in Example 1 except that the ratio was set to 4.5. Although the crimp was in the form of three-dimensional curls, both the opening rate and the unloaded bulk after unpacking were high, and the blow moldability was good. Comparative Examples 5 and 6 Comparative Example 5 in Table 1 shows the results of carrying out the same procedure as in Example 4 except that octylphosphate potash was used instead of the silicone resin. Due to the high coefficient of friction, the unloaded bulk after unpacking was low and the texture tended to be rough, similar to Comparative Example 2. In Example 4, the single fiber fineness was set to 6 denier, which is outside the range of the present invention, and the tow was cut to 38 cm without being opened, and immediately opened using compressed air.The results are shown in Comparative Example 6 in Table 1. Blow molding was possible, but the texture was rough and far from feather down. 【table】

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a diagram of the conventional cotton manufacturing process in which crimped tow is heat-set and then cut; Figure 2 is a diagram of the cotton manufacturing process of the present invention;
Figures 3 to 22 are diagrams showing examples of irregular cross sections;
3 to 25 are examples of cross-sectional views of the second fiber opening roller. Figures 26 to 28 are numbers 23 to 25, respectively.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the edge of the second opening roller shown in the figure. 1 is a crimped tow, 2 is a heat treatment machine, 3 is a cutter,
4 is a staple fiber after being cut, 5 is a guide roller, 6, 8, 10 are tow gripping and transferring rollers, 7 is a first opening roller, 7' is a cutting roller, 7'' is an ordinary roller, 9 is a second opening roller. A fiber roller, 9' is a second upper opening roller, 9'' is a second lower opening roller, 11 is a guide roller, and 12 is an air nozzle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Single yarn fineness of 3 denier or less, interfiber static friction coefficient
After the heat-set crimped tow with a diameter of 0.30 or less is subjected to a step of repeatedly relaxing and tensioning at least in the length direction of the tow to produce tension fluctuations and a step of opening it with a gear-like opening body, Cut into fibers with a length of 200mm or less, then immediately spray with compressed air to separate them.
A method for producing synthetic fibers for blow molding, which comprises opening the fibers. 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the fiber is a yarn with an irregular cross section having at least one protrusion. 3. Claim 2, wherein the fiber is a modified hollow fiber having at least one protrusion and having a hollowness ratio of 3 to 45%.
Manufacturing method described in section. 4. The manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the crimped tow is a crimped tow to which a surface treatment agent containing silicone resin as a main component is added in an amount of 0.1 to 3.0% by weight based on the weight of the dry fibers. 5. The manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the fiber is a polyethylene terephthalate fiber.