KR910008667B1 - Polyester fiberfill - Google Patents

Abstract

New polyester fiberfill of round cross-section, but containing multiple peripheral voids around an axial void, and preferably seven such voids in a hexagonal packing arrangement, and processes for preparation and use, and articles filled with such new fiberfill.

Description

Polyester fiber peel

1 is a micrograph of a cross section of a typical polyester fiberfill filament according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged photograph of a spinneret orifice suitable for melt spinning a polyester fiberfill filament as shown in FIG.

3 shows a cross section of another embodiment of the invention.

The present invention relates to a novel polyester fiberfill containing a plurality of continuous pores along the length of the filament, to a process for its preparation and use thereof, and to a product filled with such a novel fiberfill.

Polyester fiber peels (sometimes called polyester fiber peeling materials) are well selected as moderately inexpensive fillers and / or insulator materials for pillows, cushions and other furniture materials and apparel, including bedding materials, and are manufactured in large quantities as commercially available products. And is used.

Originally, solid fibers with round cross sections were used, along with other polyester fibers, which are expensive to manufacture, and these solid circular polyester fiberfills are still in commercial use.

However, over twenty years ago, hollow polyester fiberfills have been proposed and used [see: US Patent Nos. 3, 772, 137 to Tolliver and British Patent Nos. 1, 168, to Glenzstoff; 759].

The hollow polyester fiberfill of the tolliver has a single hollow core, or has a continuous central void in the longitudinal direction.

Preferred forms of the pores are non-circular in cross section, but voids with roughly round cross-sections are also described, and a large amount of hollow polyester fiberfill is produced having a single central pore with a circular or non-circular cross section, which is a solid Lighter (low density), improved insulation compared to fiberfill and used for other aesthetic reasons.

Recently, four-sided, crimped shapes of equal size and equally spaced, non-circular voids around the solid shaft core and whose perimeter of the filament cross section are defined by four flat sides and four rounded corners Sawtooth-shaped and slinkner-treated hollow polyester fiberfills with improved flexibility, such as high bulk and high bulk durability as well as the flexibility of natural fillers (see EP A2 67, 684).

However, although surprisingly useful improvements have been made over the years with respect to the various forms presently proposed for use in commercially available polyester fiberfills with longitudinal voids, the improved novel polyester fiberfills according to the present invention It provides clear advantages for each of the particular prior art forms.

According to the invention, there are seven or more continuous voids with essentially circular cross sections along the length of the filament and one of these voids is essentially centered, while the remaining voids are essentially the same in size and around the central void. There is provided a polyester fiberfill which is essentially equally spaced apart and is essentially equally spaced from the periphery of the central void and the filaments and has a denier per filament of about 5 to about 20 and essentially rounded around the cross section.

According to one embodiment, all the pores are essentially the same size and are essentially equally spaced from adjacent pores, and as a concrete example and discussed later, a hexagonal compactness consisting of a central pore and six external pores It consists of exactly seven numbers in an array.

However, the cross section of the central void may be somewhat larger than the cross section of the outer void, the outer voids being substantially the same size and spaced equally from each other, being equally spaced from the periphery of the central void to provide the benefit of a larger central void. According to this embodiment, it is preferred that the outer voids consist of eight symmetrically arranged and constitute a total of nine voids with even, in particular central voids.

Preferred total porosity may generally be about 8 to about 25% (average area measured for the cross section of the polyester filament).

As known in the art and discussed below, imparting crimp to polyester fiberfill is of great importance in providing bulk or loft, and in terms of its durability, and crimp recovery is from about 1.5 to about 5 crimps. from about 4 to about 12 crimps / in, approximately corresponding to / cm. Is preferred.

It is desirable to use a durable sleekner to smooth the fiberfill.

According to the present invention, a process for producing novel polyester fiberfills and precursor filaments as described hereinafter and filled with polyester fiberfills mixed with products filled with these new polyester fiberfills alone or with other filler materials Including products, furniture and apparel products filled with these new polyester fiberfills are provided.

An essential component of the present invention is the number and arrangement of a number of continuous voids along the length of the round filaments, which provide an improvement over the fiberfills that have been presented and used for polyester fiberfills up to now.

It may be inferred that at least some of the advantages can be explained by similarities and differences with the form / section of the prior art, but as far as polyester fiberfill is concerned, the combination of these elements is considered novel.

I think it is important that the surroundings are round.

It is important that the void is located in the center, ie axially.

The characteristics of the polyester fiberfill according to the present invention are in common with those previously proposed by Tolliver.

However, the polyester fiberfill of the present invention is provided with only one void while the polyester fiberfill of the present invention is provided with a plurality of voids which are essentially parallel to the polyester fiberfill of the present invention. It is distinguished from the form of tolliver.

In contrast, EP A2 67, 684 provides a number of essentially parallel pores (four), thereby providing a particular improvement over tolyber's polyester fiberfills containing only one single pore located in the axial direction. Inducing; The polyester fiberfills of EP A2 67, 684 are distinguished in several respects.

That is, the polyester fiberfill has only four parallel continuous voids or lobes that are essentially quadrilateral around the cross-section and the solid axial core and itself are not round but round only at the corners of the four sides.

As will be seen later, the polyester fiberfill of the present invention is capable of improvement in crimped form, which was considered more difficult and nearly impossible to achieve with the prior art polyester fiberfill.

Although the present invention is not limited by any manipulation theory or any specifiable rationalization, many of the ones having a single central void in the form of the present invention are still not fully understood in view of the numerous factors and reasons for improvement. It can be inferred that the voids in some respects provide good compression resistance while increasing the stiffness for the same porosity, and after crimping, the crimped form is a conventional crimped form for polyester fiberfills with similar porosities. It can also be inferred that the sawtooth crimp shape or edge that can be produced by gives a more rounded edge, as opposed to the sharp crimp shape, and because of this (with respect to the roundness of the cross section), The friction characteristics are excellent and the durability is higher.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 1, which is exactly the same size and is equally spaced from adjacent pores, that is to say exactly 7 pores in a hexagonal dense arrangement, is symmetrical and optimal in strength: light (in light sense) relation. It is believed that it is possible to provide an optimal structure for providing.

However, for some applications, it may prove desirable to increase the size of the central pore (relative to the outer pore) to derive some of the benefits of the large central pore proposed by Tolliver with respect to the structure with multiple voids. Can; In this regard, the inventor believes that symmetrical arrangements provide an advantage.

That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, eight equally spaced outer voids 21 are arranged around the large void 22 in the center and equally spaced from the central void 22. It is understood that the periphery of the cross section 23 essentially provides a total of nine essentially parallel voids within the round filament, which may provide particular advantages and that other arrangements where multiple voids exist around the central void may be possible. This arrangement is generally less symmetrical than the dense arrangement of hexagons.

In principle, the technique of melt spinning hollow filaments from polyester and other synthetic polymers is known as H. H.Bohringer and F. [Development and Evaluation of Profiled Synthetic Fibers With and Without Hollow Core, "Faserforschung und Textitechnik 9, No. 10 (October, 1958) pages 405. -416]

This document mainly describes the provision of nylon filaments for use in making woven fabrics, for example knits, but is essential as far as it relates to the production of hollow filaments, unlike polyester fiberfills for use as fillers. The same applies.

Nevertheless, a number of various hollow filaments are shown with spinneret designs for obtaining such a plurality of hollow filaments (although common to many other documents), but in this document the guns with the central voids in essentially round filaments No method is described for forming the form according to the invention with seven or more pores.

Achieving this task requires considerable difficulty and a lot of experience, and some people believe that this is due to, for example, the filament's fineness and voids, and the well-known back-orifice expansion phenomena, and the difficulties known as “kneeing”. I doubt that the task can actually be accomplished.

Nevertheless, this challenge, as explained below, is arranged by six orifices 11 (on the surface 12 of the spinneret) such that the polymer is extruded through each orifice and then coalesced to This is achieved by using a spinneret orifice design as shown in FIG. 2, which can form round filaments having seven voids that are essentially the same size and are equally spaced as shown.

This design, as mentioned, follows the general principles already outlined in the art, but requires considerable effort and experience to produce a plurality of round hollow polyester filaments having a central void according to the present invention.

Apart from the formation of the polyester filaments according to the invention in particular form, pillows and other filling products, including the production of filaments, including the manufacture of polymers, the processing of filaments and the conversion to staple fibers and garments The handling and use of fiberfill as a filling material in the manufacture of quilts, including the manufacture of products such as (eg, cushions) or quilted products, are in accordance with known techniques as mentioned elsewhere herein. Can be done.

As described, poly (ethylene terephthalate) is generally preferred as a polyester polymer in terms of its commercial availability and price, and the relative viscosity is appropriately selected in terms of processing conditions to provide the desired form, which is the subject of the present invention. Will be.

It is also possible to use chain branching agents as described in pending US patent application No. 014, 246, filed February 11, 1987, pending Brodudus et al.

Hoffman, U.S. Pat. Salamon et al., US Patent Nos. 4, 146, 674 and Takemoto Oil & Fat Co., Ltd., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 58-214, 505 (1983). As can be seen, smoothing polyester fiberfills using polysiloxane slickening agents has long been known and practiced commercially.

Polysiloxanes and / or other slinkners are used to improve the aesthetics of the polyester fiberfill, the use of which is preferred for some purposes in accordance with the present invention.

Non-silicon Sleekner, as described in pending US patent application No. 921,646, filed Oct. 21, 1986, will prove beneficial for several purposes.

The slinkner is preferably cured on the filament for most purposes, for example by heating, to improve the durability of the filament.

In this regard, reference may be made to the following examples which further illustrate the invention.

EXAMPLE

Using an orifice as shown in FIG. 2, under a polymer temperature of 291 to 297 ^° C., the discharge per capillary was 0.3061bs./hr. (0.139kg / hr) and the capillary number was 288 at 900ypm (823mpm). Spinner filaments are spun from polyethylene terephthalate with a relative viscosity of 20.4 (measured for 80 mg of polymer in 10 ml of hexafluoroisopropane containing 100 ppm sulfuric acid at 25 ^° C.).

The filaments are concentrated to form a rope (relaxed stretched denier 914,000).

The rope is drawn in the usual manner using a draw ratio of 3.46 times in the hot wet drawing zone maintained at 90 ^° C.

The stretched filaments are crimped in a conventional cantilever (3.5 in., 8.9 cm, size) stuffer box crimp and the crimped ropes are relaxed in a 180 ^° C. oven.

A Sleekner processing agent containing polyaminosiloxane was treated to the filaments to produce about 0.32% by weight (silicone solid) on the fibers and about 0.07% by weight of a conventional antistatic agent.

The fibers are cut to a length of 3.0 inches (75 mm) in a conventional manner.

The total porosity of the fibers was found to be about 12.3% on average and about 9 denier per filament.

The cross sections of the fibers are parallel and approximately equally spaced, as shown in FIG. 1, where the six voids are spaced about equally around the seventh void forming the center of the fiber. ).

The circumference of the fiber is round and flat.

For contrasting purposes, a similar sample (C) of denier was prepared similarly, except that it contained four parallel continuous pores with a solid axial core and an average total porosity of 17.7%, and with a crimp recovery (at 0.02 psi C) The bulk is crimped so that it is identical to the fiber having seven voids.

Various properties of the fiber of Example (1) having seven voids and the control fiber (C) having four voids were measured and listed in the table.

Lower F-F friction (fiber-to-fiber friction coefficient), somewhat better bulk at 0.001 psi, a surprising advantage.

The fiberfill according to the invention with seven voids and the control fiberfill with four voids are processed into a 20 oz. Rolled batting pillow.

Their heights are similar as listed in the table, but after both are freshly prepared and stomped in the laboratory, the feel of a pillow made of fiber with seven pores is softer and more desirable.

Fibers with seven voids appear to be slow in recovery from compression, which is highly desirable.

TABLE 1

Claims (10)

There are seven or more continuous voids with essentially circular cross sections along the filament length and one of these voids is essentially centered, while the other voids must be the same size and spaced equally around the central void. Polyester fiberfill, equally spaced from the periphery of the central void and filament, with denier per filament of about 5-20 and essentially rounded around the cross section. The polyester fiberfill of claim 1, wherein the seven pores are essentially the same size and are essentially equally spaced from adjacent pores. The polyester fiberfill of claim 2 wherein the fiberfill is smoothly treated by a durable slicker. The polyester fiberfill of claim 1, wherein the total porosity is from about 8 to about 25%. The polyester fiberfill of claim 1, wherein the polyester fiberfill is crimped with a recovery of about 4 to about 12 crimps / in. In a method of making a polyester fiberfill, there are seven or more continuous voids along the length of the filament in which the polyester is essentially circular in cross section and one of these voids must be centrally located while the other voids are A method characterized in that it is essentially identical to one another and is essentially equally spaced around the central void, is essentially equally spaced from the central void and the melt spinning is essentially round filaments around the cross section. The method of claim 6, wherein the filaments are processed into tow form by drawing, slinkner treatment, crimping and relaxation, and then converted into staple fibers. 8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the filaments contain seven voids along the length of the filament that are essentially circular in cross section and one of these voids is essentially centered while the other voids are essentially sized. A method that is identical to one another and is essentially equally spaced about the central void and essentially equally spaced from the central void. A bat consisting essentially of the polyester fiberfill according to any one of claims 1 to 3. Filled furniture or garment product filled with the polyester fiberfill according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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