MXPA00008552A - - Google Patents

Description

THERMAL AND ACOUSTIC INSULATION PROTECTION The present invention relates to a thermal and acoustic insulating protection and more particularly to a protection that is adhesively bonded to an object to be protected. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Thermal and acoustic insulating protections have long been known in the art. These protections are used in a wide variety of applications, among which are protection in spacecraft, automobiles, household appliances, electrical components, industrial machinery, boiler room and the like. Some of these protections have proportionally smaller thermal insulation value and proportionally larger acoustic insulation value, and vice versa. Of course, there are intermediate protections. In relation to the thermal insulating value, protections are known that provide thermal insulation, mainly by virtue of being a thermal protection by radiation, while others provide thermal insulation, being, mainly, thermal protection by conduction, and, again, there is protections that are intermediate. For example, for a long time the sheet of compressed and formed metal has been mounted by bolts, nuts, screws, welding, etc. between an object to be protected, for example, shielded, for example, the floor pan of a car, and a heat source, for example, a portion of the exhaust system. This sheet of compressed and formed metal provides thermal insulation, mainly by re-radiating heat from the exhaust system portion back into the environment and / or other colder parts of the underside of the car of a car to isolate thermally plows the floor of that portion of the exhaust. These compressed metal sheet protections, however, have little acoustic insulating value, and a large portion of noise produced in an adjacent portion of the exhaust system can be transmitted through the automobile floor pan to the passenger compartment. . Additional noise can be produced by loose protections that vibrate and / or rattle. These compressed metal sheet protections, also, provide thermal insulation value relative to conductive heat, since these compressed metal sheet protections will be separated between the floor pan and the exhaust portion, and that space provides a gap of air between the protection and the floor pan that reduces the transfer of conductive heat, and to some degree, convective. When substantial acoustic protection is also required, the metal protections, as described above, are not satisfactory. In these requirements, the protections are generally at least partially of fibrous nature, for example blocks of fibrous glass fiber material, which provide increased sound insulation as well as a good thermal insulation of conduction. However, this insulation can only be used when there are insignificant forces, both static and dynamic, in the fibrous insulation, since blocks of fibrous fiberglass material, for example, have very little resistance in any direction, ie already either in the directions X, Y or Z. These protections, however, are very useful in certain applications, for example, thermal insulation in household dishwashers. A very particular problem with respect to these protections has been found by the automotive industry and similar industries, and that problem has become more acute in recent years. Since the overall size of automobiles continues to decline, the space within any portion of the assembled automobile is in great demand. For example, in previous car designs, there was enough space between the car's exhaust system and the car's floor tunnel that the usual sheet metal guard could be suspended in the tunnel, for example, with bolts, screws, welding and the like, with specially provided lugs or tongues or connectors, so as to separate that protection of compressed metal sheet from the tunnel and from the protection system. This provided a radiation barrier to heat transfer from the exhaust system to the tunnel, as well as a conductive and convective heat transfer barrier in view of the separation between the guard and the tunnel. This design also provided some acoustic insulation. However, with modern designs, the separation between the exhaust system and the tunnel is now much reduced, and in many situations, it is no longer practical to suspend protections between the exhaust and the tunnel, and, furthermore, the reduced separation correspondingly reduces any air gap remaining between the guard and the tunnel, resulting in very little conductive and convective heat insulation or sound insulation. As a result of the earlier difficulty in modern designs, automobile manufacturers have increased the thickness of the material that forms the floor covering the interior part of the passenger compartment, ie the insulation between the carpet and the floor pan (usually "shoddy" material), so that the transfer of heat from the exhaust system to the passenger compartment decreases. This approach, however, is very expensive, it is quite laborious, and even more, it is still not satisfactory, because a passenger, especially where the feet rest, can feel the increased temperature and detect the increased noise. However, this approach does not protect the exterior of the floor pan, and at higher temperatures of that exterior, the coating on the floor will bulge and result in corrosion. The art has long recognized that blocks of fibrous material, usually containing inorganic fibers, such as glass fibers, mineral and clay wool fibers, aluminum oxide-silicon oxide fibers, silicon oxide fibers and the like They provide very good thermal and acoustic insulation and could potentially be a replacement for metal sheet suspended protections. The problem with this insulation is that blocks of fibrous material, especially of these inorganic fibers, are usually made by air-overlaying fibers on a moving web, and, therefore, the fibers tend to be stratified in non-discrete layers throughout the thickness (Z direction) of the blocks of fibrous material. Since these fibers are not substantially interleaved in the Z direction, the block of fibrous material has very little tensile strength in the Z direction. Even under the static load of its own weight, for example, a block of fibrous fiber material Glass is simply deformed from its original configuration when suspended from a top surface thereof. Therefore, the technique has expended substantial efforts in trying to provide greater tensile strength to these blocks of fibrous material, with respect to both the X and Y directions as well as the Z direction.

A first attempt with respect to this is described in U.S. Patent No. 3,975,565 to Kendall, which proposes a composite structure of inorganic fibers in layers and organic fibers that are stitched together to provide blocks of insulating fibrous material ( both thermal and acoustic) that have higher tensile strengths in all directions, especially in the Z direction. In this approach, an inorganic fiber layer, such as that of glass fibers, is sandwiched between two layers of organic fibers, by example, cellulose acetate fiber, and the seaming of the composite sandwich layers is achieved either on one or both sides of the composite to conduct portions of the organic fibers from the organic fiber layer or layers through the inorganic fiber layer. (glass fibers) and, in this way, solidify the composite together and, particularly improve the resistance in the Z direction. gone to the sewing technique used in this process, the density of needle perforations could not be greater than about 40 needle holes per square centimeter, since, above 40 needle holes per square centimeter, fiber damage would result of glass and with a loss greater than 25 percent mat strength. While this approach certainly improves resistance in the Z direction, with these low numbers of needle punctures, the resistance of the Z direction of this compound is still quite low and unacceptable for most modern applications and thermal / acoustic insulation where Static and dynamic dynamic forces are placed in that isolation, for example, in use suspended with a car, as discussed above. In U.S. Patent No. 4,237,180 to Jaskowski, it is proposed to improve these blocks of thermal and acoustic insulating fibrous material by including heat shrinkable organic fibers in the inorganic fibrous layers. After; of the seam, the composite block is subjected to temperatures sufficient to cause the organic fibers to shrink, for example, at least 40 percent of their length, whereby the mechanically shrunk fibers are entangled with inorganic fibers in a more consolidated form and therefore improves the resistance, particularly in the Z direction. However, the shrinkage of the fibers not only is a difficult process, but is substantially incont olable, and this approach does not result in uniform products. Moreover, the tensile strengths, and particularly the tensile strengths in the Z direction, do not improve by this process. U.S. Patent No. 4,522,876 to Hiers acknowledges the problems noted above and specifically addresses the problem of the low number of needle perforations described in the Kendall patent and the undesired results thereof. The Hiers patent takes a different approach because it achieves higher numbers of needle perforations per square centimeter by the technique of ensuring that the barbs of the needles that pass through an outer layer or layers of organic fibers are carded with the organic fibers of the fibers. that or those layers before the beards reach the layer of adjacent glass fibers. Since the barbs are filled with organic fibers, the barbs can not get stuck and break the glass fibers as the needles pass through the fiberglass layer, and the resulting block of fibrous material can be better sewn with a directional resistance Exceptional Z, as well as greatly improving the directional resistance X and Y. Although this approach is a very determined advance in the art, it still encounters difficulties when these blocks of fibrous material experience high static and dynamic loads, as is the case with a automobile with suspended protection, as described above. These difficulties will be clearer later in the present. A somewhat different approach in the art is described in U.S. Patent No. 4,851,274 of D'Elia. In this approach, an intermediate layer of mineral fibers of short lengths is placed on a costable substrate to prevent the interlacing of other fibers of the structure. The top layer of the organic fibers is placed on it. The seam is achieved through the top layer and the intermediate layer towards the substrate with needle perforations up to about 465 per square centimeter. Since the organic fibers are not substantially entangled, the fabric becomes quite flexible and a binder can be applied to that structure, such as a phenolic binder, and fixed to form a moldable, acoustic and thermal protection useful, for example, as a liner. porters. However, the use of a synthetic resin to achieve the formability of this protection is a decided disadvantage, since it is quite expensive to use a binder, and, moreover, the protection must be molded with conventional dies and tools, which by themselves They are quite expensive. U.S. Patent No. 4,996,095 to Behdorf et al. Attempts to solve the problem by still another approach. In that patent, it is proposed that a fiberglass mat be glued to an aluminum sheet by an adhesive of a special nature and that the composite bonded to the adhesive be used as a protection between an automobile floor board and a system escape The composite of the aluminum sheet and fiberglass mat is shaped to the contours of the vehicle by conventional processes, such as deep stretching, combined by deep stretch-bend, bent and wavy formation. The protection thus formed is then applied to the vehicle by means of a special fastening. Although this approach provides good thermal and acoustic insulation, it still requires conventional training techniques, as noted above, to configure the protection of the object to be protected and also requires special fasteners to fix the protection to the vehicle. All this is expensive and time consuming to assemble the car and does not solve the problem of severely limited space in modern designs, as noted above. As can be appreciated from the foregoing, it could have particular advantage in the art to provide thermal and acoustic insulation protection that is flexible, so that it can be applied manually to the contours of the vehicle, or to another structure, without having to preform into processes of conventional form, and this protection is adhesively unible to the object to be protected and without the need of any mechanical fastening device such as staples, screws, bolts, welds and the like. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an adhesive and heat-insulating adhesive and insulating protection, and the invention is based on several primary and secondary discoveries. First, it was found that the sewing technique of US Pat. No. 4,522,876, described above, could be modified so that, when sewing the organic fibers of the layers of organic fibers that sandwich the Inorganic fiber, cusps of the organic fibers may protrude from the opposite outer sides of the organic fiber layers so that they form a topped surface and a bottom surface co-patterned with the block of stitched fibrous material. As another primary discovery, it was found that therefore, an adhesive could be applied to the top surface and the underside of the block of fibrous material, so that the top and bottom surface cuffs are secured to those surfaces by the top surface. adhesive. This prevents the tufts from being pulled from that surface during the high static or dynamic load of the protection, as would be found by use in an automobile, in this way, they would provide very high resistance in the Z direction to that block of composite fibrous material. As another primary discovery, it was found that when an adhesive is used on the bottom surface of the block of fibrous material, then a flexible protective film can be permanently adhered by the adhesive to the lower surface of the block of fibrous material. This provides a lower protective surface to the block of composite fibrous material to avoid mechanical damage, for example, of rocks and other debris on the road, while at the same time providing radiation insulation to the protection. As another additional primary discovery, it was found that when the adhesive on the upper surface of the block of fibrous material is an activatable adhesive, such as a pressure-sensitive adhesive, a release, flexible sheet could be releasably adhered to an adhesive. sensitive by pressure on the upper side of the block of fibrous material, so that, by removing the release sheet, the protection can be fixed only and pressed to configure and permanently adhere to the upper surface of the protection of the object to be protected. In this way, no forming apparatus or joining elements, such as staples, bolts, screws, welds and the like are required to permanently configure and place the protection on the vehicle, for example, under the floor pan to protect the plows the floor of the exhaust components. As an additional subsidiary discovery, it was found that if the block of organic and inorganic composite fiber material is of certain thicknesses and the protective film is of certain materials and certain thickness, the protection can easily be deformed manually by a worker when placing the protection near the contours of the object to be protected, and, accordingly, no preforming is required, such as conventional stamping, stretching, etc., although this pre-forming can be practiced if desired. As another primary discovery, since the protection is adhesively bonded directly to the object to be protected, there needs to be no space between the object to be protected, for example, the floor pan, and the same protection, which allows the use of protection present in very restricted and diminished spaces of modern automotive designs. However, with the combination of the protective film, particularly when the sheet is a radiation barrier sheet, and the block of composite fibrous material, high thermal insulation and high sound insulation results. As a subsidiary discovery, it was found that when the protective film and / or the release sheet is pressed to the upper and lower surfaces covered with adhesive and when the protection is pressed to the contours of the object, the tufts on the surface, subject to the adhesive, tend to bend and compress from the vertical, further blocking these tufts on the surfaces of the block of fibrous material. This provides yet further reinforcement to the block of fibrous material in the Z direction, because the tufts bent or compressed, somehow like toes, become very difficult to separate from the surfaces of the block of fibrous material and, thus, they maintain that block of fibrous material in the Z direction with higher strengths, and these resistances can prevent the separations of the block of fibrous material during high static and dynamic loads on the block of fibrous material. In summary, the present invention provides a thermally and acoustically insulating, adhesive-bondable, flexible insulation. The protection has a block of flexible, stitched fibrous material, having an insulating layer of insulating fibers disposed between opposing tie layers of tie fibers. The binding fibers of each tie layer are disposed in a stitched manner across the insulating layer and an opposing tie layer to provide tufts of bonding fibers protruding from that opposite tie layer. This forms a topped surface and a bottom surface of the block of fibrous material. An adhesive is disposed and adheres substantially on the upper surface and the lower surface of the block of fibrous material so that the tufts on the upper and lower surfaces are secured to those surfaces by the adhesive. A flexible protective film adheres permanently to the adhesive to the lower surface of the block of fibrous material. The protection can be flexed and pressed to configure and permanently join the upper surface to an object that is to be protected. The invention also provides a method for producing this thermal and acoustic insulating protection, adhesively unible, flexible. In the method, a block of flexible, fibrous material is formed, having an insulating layer of insulating fibers disposed between opposing tie layers of bonding fibers. The block of fibrous material is sewn such that the binding fibers of each tie layer are sewn through the insulating layer and the opposing tie layer to provide bungs of bonding fibers protruding from the surface of the tie layer opposite. This provides a topped top surface and a bottom underside of the block of fibrous material. The flexible adhesive is applied and adhered on the block of fibrous material so that the tufts on the upper and lower surface are secured to the surfaces by the adhesive. A flexible protective film is applied and permanently adhered by the adhesive to the lower surface of the block of fibrous material. In this way, the protection can be flexed and pressed to configure and permanently attach the upper surface to an object to be protected. The invention also provides a method for applying the protection of the invention to an object so that it is protected thermally and acoustically. In this method, the upper surface of the block of fibrous material, with the adhesive exposed thereon, is pressed into the protective film sufficiently to configure the protection of the contour of the object to be protected, and the pressure-sensitive adhesive causes that permanently adhere to the contours of that object. In this way, by this method, the protection can be placed directly and permanently on the object to be protected and without the need for any joining device, such as bolts, screws, welds, staples and the like. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of the protections of the prior art. Figure 2 is a diagrammatic illustration showing another form of the protections of the prior art. Figure 3 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the prior art seam of an inorganic fiber layer sandwiched between layers of inorganic fibers. Figure 4 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the topped surfaces of the present invention. Figure 5 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the cusps, the adhesive and the sheets assembled to form the present protection. Figure 6A is a diagrammatic illustration of a stack of protections of the invention, separated by release sheets. Figure 6B is a diagrammatic illustration of a preferred embodiment of the invention wherein a release sheet protects the adhesive on a top surface of the shield. Figure 6C is a diagrammatic illustration of a stack of the present protections. Figure 7 is a diagrammatic illustration of another embodiment of the invention. Figure 8 is a diagrammatic illustration of another embodiment of the invention. Figure 9 is a diagrammatic illustration of the application of the present protection to an object to be protected. Figure 10 is a diagrammatic illustration of the sewing technique used to produce the present protection. Figure 11 is a block diagram of the process for making the present protection. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES The protections of the present nature were provided with an air gap between the protection and the object to be protected, and these protections were generally hung (suspended) from that object by means of staples, bolts, screws, welds , and similar. Figure 1 illustrates this prior art, for example, such as the device of the Behdorf et al. Patent, described above. As can be seen from Figure 1, the object to be protected 1 could be, for example, the floor plate of a car. The heat source 2 would be, for example, part of a car exhaust system. As shown in Figure 1, the guard 3 (usually a block of insulating fibrous material) is supported by a support 4 and is separated from the object 1 by fasteners or clips, etc., so that a generally air gap is provided. , is between object 1 and protection 3. This air gap 6 and protection 3, in combination, provide relatively good thermal and acoustic insulation, but, as can be seen from Figure 1, the combination of protection 3, the support 4, and the fasteners or staples 5 and the air gap 6 require considerable space in the automobile, which is not acceptable with modern designs. In addition, protections of that nature take time to install and are expensive. The reason that the prior art required these arrangements, as briefly explained, is that in the prior art the protections of the present nature, the resistance in the Z direction of the fibrous insulation fibrous material blocks is not sufficient for the protection sustains substantial static and dynamic loads as would be incurred in a modern automobile. Figure 2 illustrates a block material of insulating fibrous material of the prior art, typically made of glass fibers. In Figure 2, the block of fibrous material, generally, 20 has a number of glass fibers 21 generally arranged in the X, Y directions. Although those glass fibers 21 can be significantly interlaced in the X, Y directions, under of the method by which fiberglass fibrous material blocks are made, ie air-layer formation of glass fibers, these fibers are not significantly interlaced in the Z direction. Therefore, these blocks of fibrous material they have little tensile strength in the Z direction, and the blocks of fibrous material 20 can easily be separated into several planes 22 in the Z direction. Thus, for example, if the block of fibrous material has a cover 23 (shown in part in Figure 2) to suspend the block of fibrous material 20 via a joint 24, the resistance in the Z direction is not sufficient to prevent the block of fibrous material from separating, for example in planes 22, under prolonged static and dynamic load, as could be caused, for example, in a car. Also as briefly described above, U.S. Patent No. 4,522,876 to Hiers discloses a means of substantially increasing the Z-direction strength of fibrous material blocks of inorganic fibers, e.g. blocks of fiber fibrous material. of glass, and Figure 3 illustrates this. In that Figure, the block of fibrous material, generally 30, has the layers 31 and 32 of organic textile fibers that sandwich a layer of glass fiber 33. By needle punching, in the manner described in that patent, the organic fibers of the organic fiber layers 31 and 32 are formed in stitches 34 running from one of the layers of organic fibers 31 and 32, through the block of fiberglass fiber material 33 and towards the opposite organic fiber layer 31, 32. Using the sewing technique described in that patent, a large number of these stitches 34 can be used to sew this block of composite fibrous material to provide a very high resistance in the Z direction. These resistors in the Z direction are acceptable for many applications, but where very high Z-direction resistances are required, such as in automotive protections, the separation of the block of fibrous material in the Z direction may occur, especially under the conditions of static or high dynamic repetitive loads of long duration. The present invention provides a block of stitched fibrous material similar to that of the Hiers patent, but where the stitching has been modified to provide stitches on opposite surfaces of the block of stitched fibrous material. As shown in Figure 4, the present block of fibrous material, generally, has layers of organic fibers which function, in the present invention, as tie layers 41 and 42. An insulating layer 43 of insulating fibers 44 is disposed between the opposite tie layers 41. and 42 of the binding fibers 45. In the present invention, the binding fibers 45 of each tie layer are stitched together through the insulating layer 43 and an opposing tie layer 41, 42 to provide tufts 46 of bonding fibers 45 projecting from the opposing bonding layer to form a tufted top surface 47 and a tufted bottom surface 48 of the block of fibrous material 40. In this respect, as used in this specification and in the claims, the term Upper and lower is used only as identifying designations and does not purport to indicate direction. The tufts 46 on the opposite surfaces, ie the upper surface 47 and the lower surface 48, lock the binding fibers 45 (in the form of stitches, generally 34) so that these stitches 34 can not be pulled through the composite on high static or dynamic load in the Z direction of the block of fibrous material 40. The presence of these tufts 46 greatly increases the strength in the Z direction of the block of fibrous material thus sewn, but the seam still leaves the block of fibrous material very flexible, so that the block of fibrous material can be easily bent to desired configurations. Although the tufts 46 provide a very high resistance in the Z direction, in the present invention, that resistance in the Z direction is further increased, as shown in Figure 5. In this Figure, a flexible adhesive 50 is disposed and adhered substantially on top surface 47 and bottom surface 48 (shown only partially arranged in Figure 5 for clarity). The application of the adhesive 50 causes the tufts 46 to deform somewhat or bend from the plane or surfaces 47 and 48 of the block of fibrous material 40 so that the tufts 46 on the upper and lower surface 47, 48 are secured to the surfaces 47, 48 by means of the adhesive 50. This distortion of tufts 46 greatly increases the strength of the bonding fibers 45 to pull on the opposite surface and thus cause a failure (separation) of the block of fibrous material in the In addition, as soon as the adhesive 50 dries, that adhesive adheres the tufts 46 to the respective surfaces 47, 48, and this further increases the directional resistance Z of the block of fibrous material 40. However, with the present invention, that resistance in the Z direction still increases further, as also shown in Figure 5. A flexible, protective film 51 (only partially shown in Figure 5 for clarity) adheres permanently by means of the adhesive 50 to the lower surface 48 of the fibrous material block 40, and in the application of that film 51, the tufts 46 are further distorted, for example, flattened, folded, chamfered, sealed, and the like. , so as to further increase the strength of the binding fibers 45 of the stitches 34 being pulled through the block of fibrous material 40 under high static or dynamic load. Preferably, but not required, a flexible, peelable sheet 52 (only partially shown in Figure 5 for clarity) is releasably adhered by the adhesive 50 to the upper surface 47 of the block of fibrous material 40. Thus, similar to the effect of the protective film 51, the application of the release sheet 52, likewise, distorts the tufts 46 and additionally locks and secures these tufts on the upper surface 47. However, a release sheet is not required, especially for the reasons explained further ahead. When using a pressure sensitive adhesive, however, it is necessary to protect the pressure sensitive adhesive from inadvertently sticking to any object during boarding and the handling of the protections. However, this can be done simply by inserting a releasable sheet between the stacked guards, as shown in Figure 6A, where a stack, generally 60, of the guards 61 has a releasable sheet 62 between the guards 61 and on the surface 47 of the block of fibrous material 40 with a pressure-sensitive adhesive 50 thereof (see Figure 5). In this way, this stack 60 can be loaded and operated. From the stack 60, therefore, individual protections 61 can be serially removed for application to a series of objects to be protected, for example, a series of automobiles in a production line. When a guard 61 is removed from the stack, the upper surface 47 has the exposed pressure sensitive adhesive 50 and when that top surface is pressed onto an object to be protected, as explained in more detail below, the cusps 46 will be further distorted, in the same manner as described above in connection with the application of the protective film 51 to the adhesive. In accordance with the above, the same protection results will instead follow when a release sheet is used between the protections in a protection stack as it occurs when a release sheet is used. However, care must be taken to ensure that the stack remains in place to protect the pressure sensitive adhesive 50 on the top surface 47. In addition, a preforming operation, as described below, would be difficult to perform with only a releasable sheet. For this reason, the release sheet is preferred.

The release sheet can be made from the same material as the release sheet, as discussed below. The preferred protection, thus, as shown in Figure 6B, has a release sheet 52 releasably adhered by the pressure sensitive adhesive 50 to the upper surface 47 of the block of fibrous material 40 so that, by removing the Removable sheet 52, as indicated in Figure 6B, the protection can be flexed and depressed to configure and permanently attach to the upper surface 47 of an object 1 to be protected. Instead of the release sheet between the protections of a protection stack, the lowermost surface of the protective film 51 can be coated with a release coating so that the stacked guards can be handled and then separated. This embodiment is shown in Figure 6C, wherein each shield 61 has a coating 63 of a release material on the lowermost surface of the protective film 51. The block of fibrous material 40 can be of various thicknesses, depending on the degree of required thermal and acoustic insulation, the particular binding fibers 45 of the tie layers 41, 42 and the particular insulation fibers 44 of the insulation layer 43. However, in general terms, the block of fibrous material will have a thickness of between approximately 0.254 to 5.08 centimeters. Similarly, depending on the fibers and the application, the weight ratio of the insulating layer 43 to each tie layer 41, 42 can vary considerably, but, in general, the ratio will be between about 0.5 and 12.0: 1. The weight of each of the tie layers 41, 42 may be different, depending on the application, but usually, for most applications, the weight of each tie layer is substantially the same. The insulating fibers will preferably be any of the usual inorganic fibers, such as glass fibers, mineral fibers, aluminum oxide fibers and the like, but, more usually, the insulating fibers are glass fibers. However, when the thermal insulation requirement is lower and the sound insulation requirement is greater, insulating fibers do not need to be organic fibers and can be, at least in part, organic fibers, such as polyester fibers, nylon fibers and Similar. These fibers can be solid or hollow, the latter of which provide greater thermal insulation. Binding fibers are usually organic fibers, such as polyester fibers, nylon fibers, olefin fibers, and cellulose acetate fibers. The denier of insulating fibers can vary considerably, but, in general, deniers of about 0.1 to 25 are acceptable in most applications.

Likewise, the denier of the binding fibers, for example, organic fibers, can vary widely, but more usually that denier will be between approximately 2 and 7. The length of the fiber of the insulating fibers can be from very short lengths, for example , 50 microns to quite long lengths, for example, 12.7 centimeters. The lengths of the bonding fibers will normally be between approximately 0.508 and 20.32 centimeters. The needle density for preparing the present blocks of fibrous material can vary widely, depending on the stress where the tensile strength in the Z direction required for the anticipated static or dynamic load on the shield. However, the binding fibers disposed between needles 45, as shown in Figure 5, will generally have a needle density of approximately between 77.5 and 1550 needle holes per square centimeter of the block of fibrous material 40. Thus there are, likewise, between approximately 77.5 and 1550 cords 46 per square centimeter on the upper surface 47 and the lower surface 48. However, more usually, there will be between about 108.5 and 775 tufts 46 per square centimeter on the upper surface 47 and the lower surface 48. The increased strength of the block of stitched fibrous material, especially in the Z direction, is generally proportional to the number and size of the crests. Apart from the number of tufts, as described above, tufts should have a size such that the increase in strength of the block of fibrous material in the Z direction is at least 50 percent by 155 tufts per square centimeter, and more preferably approximately when less 100 percent by 155 tufts per square centimeter, as opposed to the same material of the block of fibrous material but without copete. The increase, however, can be much larger. The adhesive can be any desired known adhesive, but preferably the adhesive is an activatable adhesive, such as a heat activated adhesive, by a solvent or by pressure, for example, a conventional polyester adhesive. In this way, the adhesive can be activated by heat with a hot air gun or an infrared heater or a hot or activated roll by spraying or brushing a solvent on it or activating it by pressure (pressure sensitive adhesive), all of which they are well known in the art. The preferred adhesive, however, is a pressure sensitive adhesive. The adhesive can be applied to the block of fibrous material by spraying, coating or by a "transfer tape" (a film of adhesive on a sheet of release paper). The pressure sensitive adhesive of the preferred embodiment can be chosen from a wide variety of known pressure sensitive adhesives, but a preferred pressure sensitive adhesive is the commercial acrylate adhesive, and particularly the methacrylate adhesive and the ethylacrylate adhesive . The protective film 51 can be of a variety of materials, for example plastics, metals, fabrics (woven and non-woven) and the like, but it is preferable that the protective film 51 be either a sheet of metal, especially aluminum foil, or a sheet of plastic, especially a sheet of polyester plastic. More preferably, the sheet will have a heat reflective color, either naturally or as a pigment in the sheet or as a coating on the sheet. For example, when the sheet is made of aluminum, aluminum itself has a heat-reflective color. On the other hand, when the sheet is a sheet of plastic, such as a sheet of polyester, that sheet of polyester can be coated with aluminum to provide a reflective color to heat. The thickness of the protective film can vary considerably, but generally the thickness of the film will be between about 0.0508 mm and 2.54 mm, although the thicknesses will more generally be between about 0.254 mm and 1.27 mm. In somewhat similar manner, the release sheet 52 of the release sheet 62 may be a metal or a plastic or a fabric or a paper, but it is preferred that the sheet be a conventional sheet of paper. The release sheet or the release sheet should have a conventional release coating, for example a polyolefin coating, on one side thereof which makes contact with the adhesive, for example, pressure sensitive adhesive, so that the Sheet can be easily removed from the protection to expose the adhesive to adhere the protection to the surface to be protected. The sheet can have any desired thickness, but generally that thickness will be between approximately 0.054 millimeters and 1.27 millimeters. The present protection will also have forms of protective layers, such as shown in Figure 7, wherein the protection has two layers 70 and 71 of blocks of fibrous material 40 adhered to each other by the adhesive 50 and having the protective film 51. and the release sheet 52 (or the release sheet 62). Of course, more than two layers can be used. The guard may be closed at its periphery as shown in Figure 8, wherein the block of fibrous material 40 is enclosed within the protective film 51 by sealing the periphery 80 of the protective film 51 and then placing the pressure sensitive adhesive. 50 and the release sheet 52 on top of it. The protection, as described above, can be applied to an object to thermally and acoustically protect that object. As shown in Figure 6B, removing the release sheet 52 from the upper surface 47 of the block of fibrous material 40 (or removing a protection from the stack 60, as shown in Figure 6C), the pressure sensitive adhesive 50. in it is exposed. As shown in Figure 9, by pressing the block of fibrous material 40 into the protective film 51 sufficiently to configure the protection to the contours 90 of the object, generally 91, to be protected, this causes the pressure-sensitive adhesive 50 is permanently adhered to the contours 90. Preferably, the pressure on the protective film 51 is a manual pressure, as shown in Figure 9. However, if preferred, before removing the release sheet 52, the protection can be subjecting to a preforming step to conform the protection to the general contours 90 of the object 91. This will allow less manual formation of the protection to the contours 91 when the contours have rather complex configuration. The seam used in the present invention is illustrated in Figure 10. As a needle 100 having a beard 101 begins to penetrate the tie layer 42, the beard 101 collects and is essentially carded with tie fibers 45 in that beard. The needle then passes through the insulating layer 43 without picking up substantial insulating fibers since the beard is essentially carded. The needle then passes through the opposite tie layer 41 so that the beard penetrates below the bottom surface 48 and presents a top 46 beyond the bottom surface 48. As the needle 100 is retracted back through the junction layer 41, that tuft 46 remains on the lower surface 48. Of course, during that sewing operation, as is common with barbed needles, the binding fibers 45 will also be pulled with the needles to form stitches 34 of those fibers as shown in Figure 5. In this way, with the retraction of the needle 100, the tufts 46 that terminate the stitches 34 of the fibers 45 remain on the surface. Using conventional sewing machines, where sewing is conducted from both sides of the block of fibrous material 40, the tufts can be arranged on both the upper surface 47 and the lower surface 48, as shown in Figure 5. To achieve the topped surfaces, at least the lowermost beard of any needle should pass through the lower surface 48 or the upper surface 47, depending on the direction of the needle, sufficiently so that the co-patted fibers remain on the respective surface when the The needle 100 is removed from the block of fibrous material 40. In general, that lower beard should penetrate beyond the surface 48 (or surface 47) by at least about 1.58 mm, more preferably at least about 3.175 mm, for example, approximately 8.46 mm, and still up to as much as 12.7 mm as 19.05 mm. This will ensure that a substantial crest is placed on the surface with each needle piercing. The overall production process of the present protection is shown in Figure 11. To produce the present protection, a block of flexible fibrous material of an insulating layer of insulating fibers is disposed between the opposing carded bonding layers of the bonding fibers, that is, formed by carding a bonding layer, then placing an insulating layer on it, either preformed or by carding, and then cardando a layer of union on it, all in the conventional way. After that, the block of fibrous material is sewn in the manner described in relation to Figure 10 so that the binding fibers 45 of each tie layer 41, 42 are sewn through the insulating layer 43 and the tie layer. opposing union 41, 42 to provide tufts 46 of bonding fibers 45 projecting from the opposite bonding layer 41, 42 so as to form an upper surface with tufts 47 and a bottom surface with tufts 48 of the block of fibrous material 40. adhesive 50 is applied on substantially the upper surface 47 and the lower surface 48 of the block of fibrous material 40 so that the cords 46 on the upper surface 47 and the lower surface 48 are secured to the surfaces 47, 48 by the adhesive 50. A flexible, protective film 51 is applied and permanently adhered by the adhesive 50 to the lower surface 48 of the block of fibrous material 40, and, preferably, a flexible release sheet 52 is it is releasably applied and adhered by the adhesive 50 to the upper surface 47 of the fibrous material block 40. In this way, the protection can be flexed and pressed to configure and permanently attach the upper surface 47 of the object to be protected 91. The invention will now be illustrated by the following example, wherein all percentages are by weight, unless otherwise indicated, which is also the case of the specification. EXAMPLE A first network of polyester fibers with fiber lengths of 7.26 centimeters, denier 3, was carded on a conveyor belt with the fabric weighing approximately 68 grams / square meter. A block of fibrous preformed glass material (Owens Corning SR-26 glass range) thickness 2.54 centimeters and density of 0.016 grams per cubic centimeter 'was unrolled on the mobile conveyor and was placed on the upper part of the carded fabric of polyester fibers . A second fabric of polyester fibers, which was equal to the first fabric, was carded on the mobile conveyor and above the block of fibrous glass material, to form a sandwich of the fibrous fiberglass material block between the two fiber fabrics of carded polyester.

The sandwich was moved from the conveyor to a conventional double action needle loom (Shoou Shyng Model SDP250112-2) fitted with conventional needles (Groz Beckert 15-18-36-3, style F 333). The sandwich was sewn into the double action loom with needle perforations of approximately 124 needle holes per square centimeter, with needle penetrations so that the barbs of the needles extended beyond the opposite surface of the sandwich at approximately 3.175 at 5.08 millimeters, so that a polyester fiber tuft was placed on that opposite surface in approximately all needle perforations. The sandwich perforated with needles was laminated in aluminum foil (zero tempering, alloy 1100, thickness 0.254 mm) using a heat-activated polyester adhesive (Turex P-900) and a conventional heated roll laminator (minimum temperature of the roll 260 °) C). A pressure sensitive adhesive was applied to the opposite laminate surface by applying a "transfer tape" made by Venture Tape (a solid film of acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive on a release paper - Venture Tape number 524CW), and pressing the "tape" to adhere the tape to the laminate passing the product through pressure rollers (approximately 2.8 to 4.2 kg / cm2). The product thus produced was rolled into a roll thereof.

From the roll, specifically formed guards were cut using a die press. A pull tab of the release paper was provided by arranging the cutting die so as not to cut through the release paper in a small section. Samples of the formed protections were tested by removing the release paper and pressing the protections on the side of the aluminum sheet to configure the protections to various contours and permanently adhere the protections to those contours. A. Samples of material that had been sewn, but not laminated, as previously reported, were prepared by cutting (stamping) samples of approximately 25.4 centimeters by 5.08 centimeters and cutting the samples in a plane parallel to the surface of the sample at the point medium thickness of the sample to provide two separate cutting sections of the sample, each having a cut length of approximately 2.54 centimeters. One of the cutting sections was clamped in one jaw of an Instron machine and the other cutting section was clamped in the other jaw of the Instron machine. The jaws were separated by the machine at a cross-head speed of approximately 3 meters per minute and the average internal gluing of the samples was determined to be approximately 9 Newtons.

B. Similar samples of the material after lamination with the adhesive / aluminum sheet and the adhesive / release paper, as previously reported, were similarly tested. The average internal bonding of the samples was determined to be approximately 31 Newtons. C. As a comparison, similar samples of a material stitched according to US Pat. No. 4,522,876 to Hiers (see Figure 3) were similarly tested. The internal bonding of these samples was between 1.5 and 5 Newtons (average approximately 3 Newtons). In this way, it can be seen that the samples of A, previous, have an internal bond much improved by virtue of the stitched tufts, as opposed to the stitching of the Hiers patent (the samples of C, above), and a bonding Very high internal is achieved when the block of stitched fibrous material is laminated with the protective film and release paper (samples B, above). It will be appreciated that obvious modifications can be made to the specific embodiments described above, and it is intended that such obvious modifications be contained in the spirit and scope of the appended claims. In the claims, the numerals of reference to the drawings are for convenience only and are not limitations of the claims.

Claims (44)

1. NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION Having described the foregoing invention, it is considered as a novelty and, therefore, the content of the following CLAIMS is claimed as property 1. A thermally and acoustically insulating, adhesively unible, flexible protection comprising: ( 1) a block of fibrous, flexible, stitched material having an insulating layer of insulating fibers disposed between opposing tie layers of bonding fibers with bonding fibers of each of the tie layers that are stitched across the layer insulator and an opposing tie layer to provide tufts of the tie fibers protruding from the opposite tie layer such that they form a topped top surface and a bottomed bottom surface of the block of fibrous material; (2) a flexible adhesive, disposed and substantially adhered on the upper surface and the lower surface of the block of fibrous material so that the tufts on the upper and lower surface are secured to the surfaces by the adhesive; and (3) a flexible, protective film permanently adhered by the adhesive to the lower surface of the block of fibrous material; and wherein the protection can be flexed and pressed to configure and permanently attach the upper surface to an object to be protected.
2. 2. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the adhesive on the upper surface is a pressure-sensitive adhesive and a flexible, removable sheet is releasably adhered by the pressure-sensitive adhesive to the upper surface of the adhesive. block of fibrous material so that by removing the release sheet the pressure sensitive adhesive on the upper surface is exposed.
3. 3. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the block of fibrous material has a thickness of between 0.254 and 7.62 centimeters and the weight ratio of the insulating layer to each bonding layer is approximately 0.5 to 12.0: 1.
4. 4. The protection according to claim 3, characterized in that the weight of each tie layer is substantially the same.
5. 5. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the insulating fibers are inorganic fibers.
6. 6. The protection according to claim 5, characterized in that the insulating fibers are glass fibers.
7. 7. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the binding fibers are organic fibers.
8. 8. The protection according to claim 7, characterized in that the organic fibers are polyester fibers, nylon fibers, olefin fibers and cellulose acetate fibers.
9. 9. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the seaming fibers arranged by sewing have a needle density of approximately between 77.5 and 1550 needle perforations per square centimeter of the block of fibrous material and there are between approximately 77.5 and 1550 tufts per square centimeter of the block of fibrous material on the upper surface and the lower surface.
10. 10. The protection according to claim 9, characterized in that there are approximately between 108.5 and 775 tufts per square centimeter on the upper surface and the lower surface. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the adhesive is a pressure sensitive adhesive containing an acrylate. 12. The protection according to claim 11, characterized in that the acrylate is selected from the group consisting of methacrylate and ethylacrylate. 13. Protection in accordance with the claim in claim 1, characterized in that the protective film has a thickness of approximately between 0.0506 millimeters and 2.54 millimeters. The protection according to claim 13, characterized in that the thickness is between approximately 0.254 millimeters and 1.27 millimeters. 15. The protection according to claim 1, characterized in that the protective film is a sheet of metal or a sheet of plastic. 16. The protection according to claim 15, characterized in that the protective film is an aluminum sheet or a polyester sheet. 17. The protection according to claim 2, characterized in that the release sheet has a thickness between approximately 0.0254 millimeters and 1.27 millimeters. 18. The protection according to claim 17, characterized in that the release sheet has a release coating on one side thereof which makes contact with the pressure sensitive adhesive. 19. The protection according to claim 18, characterized in that the release sheet is a sheet of metal, a sheet of plastic or a sheet of paper. 20. The protection according to claim 19, characterized in that the peelable sheet is a sheet of paper. 21. A method for producing a thermally and acoustically insulating, adhesive-bondable, flexible insulation comprising: (1) forming a block of fibrous, flexible material having an insulating layer of insulating fibers disposed between opposing tie layers of bonding fibers; (2) sewing the block of fibrous material so that the bonding fibers of each bonding layer are sewn through the insulating layer and the opposing bonding layer to provide bursts of bonding fibers protruding from the opposite bonding layer to form a topped-up top surface and a bottomed, padded surface of the block of fibrous material; (3) applying and adhering a flexible adhesive on substantially the upper surface and the lower surface of the block of fibrous material so that the tufts on the upper and lower surface are secured to the surfaces by the adhesive; and (4) applying and adhering permanently by means of the adhesive a protective, flexible film to the lower surface of the block of fibrous material; and where the protection can be flexed and pressed to configure and permanently attach the upper surface to an object that is to be protected. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the adhesive on the upper surface is a pressure sensitive adhesive and a flexible, releasable sheet is releasably adhered by the pressure sensitive adhesive to the surface of the block of fibrous material so that by removing the release sheet the pressure sensitive adhesive on the upper surface is exposed. 23. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the block of stitched fibrous material has a thickness between about 0.254 and 7.62 centimeters and the proportion of the weight of the insulating layer of each tie layer is about 0.5. at 12.0: 1. 24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that the weight of each tie layer is substantially the same. 25. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the insulating fibers are inorganic fibers. 26. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the insulating fibers are glass fibers. 27. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the binding fibers are organic fibers. 28. The method according to claim 27, characterized in that the organic fibers are polyester fibers, nylon fibers, olefin fibers and cellulose acetate fibers. 29. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the joining fibers arranged by sewing have a needle density of approximately between 77.5 and 1550 needle perforations per square centimeter of the block of fibrous material and there are between approximately 77.5 and 1550 tufts per square centimeter of the block of fibrous material on the upper surface and the lower surface. 30. The method according to claim 29, characterized in that there are approximately between 108 and 775 tufts per square centimeter on the upper surface and the lower surface. 31. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that the adhesive is a pressure sensitive adhesive containing an acrylate. 32. The method according to claim 31, characterized in that the acrylate is selected from the group consisting of methacrylate and ethylacrylate. 33. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the protective film has a thickness of approximately between 0.0508 millimeters and 2.54 millimeters. 34. The method according to claim claimed in claim 33, characterized in that the thickness is between approximately 0.254 millimeters and 1.27 millimeters. 35. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the protective film is a sheet of metal or a sheet of plastic. 36. The method of compliance with the claim in claim 35, characterized in that the protective film is an aluminum sheet or a polyester sheet. 37. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that the release sheet has a thickness between approximately 0.0254 millimeters and 1.27 millimeters. 38. The method according to claim 37, characterized in that the release sheet has a release coating on one side thereof which makes contact with the pressure sensitive adhesive. 39. The method according to claim 37, characterized in that the release sheet is a sheet of metal, a sheet of plastic or a sheet of paper. 40. The method according to claim 39, characterized in that the peelable sheet is a sheet of paper. 41. A method for applying the protection of claim 1 to an object that is to be thermally and acoustically protected comprising: (1) exposing the adhesive on the top surface; and (2) pressing the block of fibrous material into the protective film to configure the protection to follow the contour of the object to be protected and causing the adhesive on the upper surface to adhere permanently to the contours. 42. The method according to claim 41, characterized in that a flexible, releasable sheet is releasably adhered by the adhesive to the upper surface of the block of fibrous material so that by removing the release sheet the adhesive on the Top surface is exposed. 43. The method according to claim 41, characterized in that the pressure in the protective film is a manual pressure. 44. The method according to claim 43, characterized in that before step (1), the protection is subjected to a preforming step to conform the protection to the general contours of the object.