MXPA99007535A - Method and device for making textile products and resulting textile products - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for producing an initially brushed-bonded textile product (70, 80) of fibres and/or filaments moving forward in the form of a nap, comprising at least a step called"preliminary texturing"in which the fibres or filaments are individually subjected to a texturing transversal to the forward progression of the nap, optionally accompanied by a transversal drawing. This method then comprises a step of confining the paralleled fibres and/or filaments in the form of stitches, this last step of confinement being carried out directly on a support (100) without the use of carrying elements such as needles or transfer elements.

Description

PROCEDURE AND DEVICE FOR MANUFACTURING TEXTILE PRODUCTS AND TEXTILE PRODUCTS OBTAINED OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improved process for the manufacture of textile products of "ñapado-pegado" type directly from fibers and / or filaments. The invention also relates to a device for carrying out the process, as well as to the products obtained by said process.

STATE OF THE ART BASE OF THE INVENTION The products called "ñapados-pegadas" are the products that are made from a textile web, and preferably from a web already made up of threads, or possibly from a fibrous web, which is subjected to a succession of bends in order to form folds that can be assimilated in the direction of the advance of the nappa to loops or curls. This folded web is then simply attached to a support by gluing. A product is thus obtained in which the threads and / or fibers do not pass through the support, unlike the punched products, which are presented in the form of a succession of loops passing through the support. Currently there are essentially two large families of procedures for the production of textile products of the "ñapado-pegado" type. The first family is the best known and understands the procedures that use a machine arms on which are fixed blades. A web of yarns is pushed by these blades successively on a first backing, and then on a second backing which is parallel to the first in order to form by bending a succession of loops. Next, these loops are joined to a support, which is preferably previously coated with a glue such as a plastisol of polyvinyl chloride, on which the loops will be deposited, the assembly being thus constituted by the support and the looped loops subjected to following a heat treatment, for example a passage through an infrared oven. According to another embodiment, the loops can be held between two supports before a hot melt passes through said supports in order to impregnate the bases of the loops. It is obtained in all cases, either with a PVC or hot melt type of solder, or a curly-looking product that looks like a curled needle-punched product, or a "sandwich" type product consisting of loops trapped between two supports that can be foreseen to cut longitudinally in order to obtain two velvet-like products. Another alternative is to propose the use of tensioned cables to replace the blades mentioned above. According to the second large family of processes, the successive folds are formed by a rotating system, pushing the strands and / or fibers of the web successively into excrescences present on a grooved cylinder. The folds are created under the action of a bending organ such as a blade or a roller in turn slotted. Next, a support, preferably previously coated with glue, is arranged on the succession of the loops or curls obtained by folding. If necessary, the support assembly / loops are subjected to heat treatment before they are removed from the slotted cylinder. It should be noted that all these procedures have the following disadvantages: - their production speed is relatively low. By way of example, 120 strokes per minute is a relatively high speed for an arm system such as that described above, due to the complexity of the movement produced by the cam organs; - the amount of adhesive necessary to join the loops to the support is important, and therefore, the products obtained are also relatively too expensive; - the range of the products of type "ñapado-pegado" achievable is relatively limited. On the other hand, the applicant has developed a technique for producing textile products directly from fibers and / or filaments, which is called "verticalisation technique". This technique is described in the patent application published under the number WO 91/00382, and allows directly, from fibers and / or filaments circulating in the form of a veil, the realization of products such as floor coverings and / or carpet type walls. The described technique consists in making the fibers and / or the filaments suffer a "transverse ripple" accompanied by a "stretching" and in obtaining an accumulation of the fibers and / or filaments in the form of a corrugated "pseudo-thread", in which the fibers and / or filaments are parallelized. This stage is generally referred to as "(pre) kinked" stage and should not be assimilated to a fold. In this document, it is described that the transverse ripple accompanied by stretching is performed for each individual fiber or filament with the aid of rotating elements or curling disks, separated and arranged on a transverse axis with respect to the direction of advance of the web and between the webs. which curling fingers are arranged. In this way, each fiber or filament is in principle involved in at least one ripple. Thus, a non-twisted pseudo thread obtained by the accumulation of the various fibers and / or elementary filaments well parallelized, having a curled shape. The accumulation of the fibers and / or filaments parallelized in the form of pseudo-filament is effected either in the open eye of needles as described in detail in the publication WO91 / 00382 of the applicant, or in slots provided in elements of transfer as described in WO96 / 10667 also of the applicant. The pseudo-filament is then transported with the aid of these conveying means constituted either by the needles, or by the transfer elements, in the form of transverse rows of loops, towards a support to which the loops are joined. In the publication WO91 / 00382, the assembly is carried out by passing the needles through this support in order to more specifically perform a "tuft" type floor covering. This procedure has also been improved by proposing the improvements described in the European patent application EP-95870093.2, in which the procedure described in the publication WO91 / 00382 is combined with the use of a napkin stretcher such as that described in EP -A-0520911. Furthermore, it is proposed to unfold the curling elements by adding a step called "undulation step" so as to limit the stresses on the trees that result from the use of a veil from a conventional weather.

In this case, there are at least two sets of different elements: the first set is intended to perform a ripple stage with the aid of a device constituted by the interpenetration of a first set of corrugator discs with a first set of corrugating fingers , while the second set is intended to perform the later classical stage called pre-ripple stage with the help of a device constituted by the interpenetration of a second set of discs called curling discs with a second set of fingers called curling fingers, this being second set disposed downstream of the corrugating device with respect to the direction of advance of the web. The gauge of the crimping device is a multiple of the gauge of the pre-crimping device. The products proposed in this document are presented essentially in the form of punched products. In this phase, this verticalization technique has been able to truly achieve an industrial application. Indeed, it has been possible to control the levels of efforts and of pairs even in the case of very large working widths (greater than 4 meters, for example). However, although this procedure is fully feasible in industrial terms, it must be admitted that its productivity is still limited. This is essentially due to the presence of transport organs that perform an reciprocating movement that present themselves either in the form of needles, or also in the form of transfer elements such as those described in WO96 / 10667. In fact, the speed of production that can be expressed as the product of the advance by hit of the substrate (in mm) by the speed of beat of the needles (in strokes per minute) reaches an order of dimension from 1, 5 to 4.5 m / min., which is totally admissible for making tufted products (tufted) but is still too low in the case of a production comparable to a punching line, whose production speed can reach an order of 15 m / min . In addition, and this for obvious reasons of volume due to the presence of needles and even of transfer elements between the curling disks, the gauge of a so-called verticalization device may hardly be less than 1/10 of an inch, that is 2 , 54 mm, unless very precise organs are allowed and therefore relatively expensive, and which would deprive the so-called verticalization process of the possibility of producing low-cost products. On the other hand, an evolution linked to the taste of consumers towards fine gauge products is observed. These products are those for which the advance per stroke is smaller, and therefore productivity as well. Thus, the interest that a procedure for which very fine gauges would be easily realizable would be measured, and this without having to limit the speed of production.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention envisages proposing a solution to the existing limitations, and more particularly to the one concerning productivity, in the procedures used in the so-called verticalization technique such as that described in WO91 / 00382 and WO96 / 10667. The present invention more particularly provides for the production of so-called "glued-glued" products which can have an aspect close to those known in the state of the art while allowing a very high productivity when the application of the process takes place. The present invention provides additionally allowing the production of products of the type "pin-glued" fine gauge, ie having a lower gauge 1/10 of an inch. Furthermore, the present invention provides for the realization of new products that were currently impossible to perform using the technique described in the applicant's previous publications, and more particularly in the publications WO91 / 00382 and WO96 / 10667.

MAIN CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing a textile product of the "pin-stick" type starting from fibers and / or filaments that circulate in the direction of advance in the form of a web, this process comprising at least one step called pre-ripple stage in which the fibers and / or filaments individually suffer a transverse ripple with respect to the direction of advance, possibly accompanied by a transverse stretch. As already mentioned above, the transverse ripple accompanied by stretching is performed for each individual fiber or filament with the help of rotating elements or curling disks separated and arranged on a transverse axis with respect to the direction of advance of the web and between which Curling fingers are arranged. This allows obtaining that each fiber or filament is involved in at least one previous ripple stage and allows the parallelization of these fibers and / or elementary filaments. The present method is characterized in that a confinement of the material in the form of loops or curls formed by the fibers and / or filaments is carried out particularly well parallelized and because this confined is produced directly on a support without intervention of transport organs such as needles or transfer elements.

This confinement is obtained after a first transitory stage linked to the beginning of a product line and during which the first loops obtained by the pre-ripple stage of the individual fibers and / or filaments randomly form a stop. The confinement appears in the form of an accumulation of loops, constituted by fibers and / or parallel filaments, one behind the other. The positioning of the successive loops is effected essentially vertically with the aid of a separating element, which allows the material to be guided to the support while holding it at the same time by being leveraged. The support can be directly the final substrate of the product to be made, and in fact be constituted by a mat or mat of fibers, a plastic film, a reverse of type PVC, Eventually, instead of being directly deposited on the substrate of the final product, the confined material could be taken by an intermediate element such as a tape with tips, a brush or a support Velero®, whose function is to maintain the wavy shape of the loops while the free end of the material is joined to a substrate. This solidation to the substrate is carried out with the aid of a glue whose viscosity is studied to allow a drag of the individual fibers and / or filaments of the material with the substrate while performing an effective bonding.

In general, either piastisols can be used. or resins (acrylic, isocyanates, styrene-butadienes, phenolic, etc.), or thermoplastics in the form of hot melt, film or powder (polyesters, polypropylene, EVA, PVC, etc.), or foams (PVC, acrylics, etc.), or by direct adhesion by melting the verticalized fiber on the substrate. The means used to provide the necessary calories for this are preferably provided by an infrared oven, a calender or a heating drum or also heating blades which are presented in the form of flat metal parts comprising electrical resistances or fluid passageways heat carriers. The speed of advance of the substrate can either be uniform, or be carried out discontinuously, in such a way that a confinement of the most marked textile material is obtained on this support.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES The present invention will be described in more detail with the help of the following figures: Figure 1 schematically describes the verticalization device such as that used in the present method.

Figures 2 describe the successive stages of the preparation of the textile material, of the verticalization of the fibers and / or filaments constituting this material, of its parallelization as well as its confinement. Figure 3 describes a device that allows the realization of a textile product in the form of sandwich-sticky product according to a first embodiment of the method according to the present invention. Figure 4 describes a device that allows the realization of a textile product containing bentonite powder according to another embodiment of the process according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS THE INVENTION In a conventional manner, a web of fibers and / or filaments having position conditions of the fibers and / or filaments within the web and of weight such as those described in the applicant's previous publications is brought to the level of the device. of verticalization described in figure 1. This device essentially comprises a set of discs called "curling discs" bearing the reference 11 and supported on a transverse common shaft 13 driven in continuous rotation at a peripheral speed preferably equal to the speed of entry of the device. veil O. The curling discs 11 are provided on their periphery with a toothing 15 having an appropriate angle with respect to the tangent and allowing the entrainment of the inlet veil. Curling fingers 21 are disposed between each of the discs, the end of which is essentially tangential to the discs. This device allows to perform the stage called "pre-ripple stage", which consists in making the fibers and / or filaments suffer individually a transverse ripple accompanied by a stretch, in order to paraielizarios properly. In order to better understand the base process of the present invention, it is convenient to refer to the different figures 2a to 2e, which describe the successive steps of the preparation of the textile material intended for the realization of the specific products of ñapado-pegagado type. More particularly, figure 2a describes the stage in which the web O consisting of individual fibers and / or filaments 10 is introduced between the curling discs 11 and * the curling fingers 21. The fibers and / or filaments 10 individually suffer the pre-crimp stage already described and corresponding to an individual transverse ripple possibly accompanied by a stretch. Next, the fibers and / or parallel filaments 10 are brought to the end of the curling fingers 21. According to the method of the present invention and due to the absence of transport organs such as needles or transfer elements suffering from a alternative movement, there is no limitation in dimensioning, and therefore, the efforts embedded may be clearly more important. This also means that the efforts suffered by the tree may be more important, which leaves a greater latitude in the orientation of the fibers and / or filaments at the entrance of the veio. Figure 2b shows that the fibers and / or filaments 10 that continue to be driven in rotation by the curling discs 11 are then blocked by the presence of separating feet 31 against which they begin to accumulate one after the other in order to forming a stop (or "stopper") 20. In this case, the fibers and / or filaments are very inclined and can even be presented, in the limit, almost horizontally. Figure 2c shows that this stop or "plug" 20 has a tendency to expand downwards in the direction of a substrate 100. Figure 2d shows that the "stopper" 20 constituted by the accumulation of fibers and / or filaments paraielized and corrugated ends to reach a volume such that it comes into natural contact with the substrate 100 arranged just below the curling fingers 21. In this case, the fibers and / or filaments that come directly from the pre-ripple stage are condensed when a stage called "confined stage", this time vertically, against the obstacle constituted by the "plug". Figure 2e shows that the "plug" 20 is dragged by the substrate 100, assisted in this by the rotation of the curling discs 11 and by the pressure exerted by the fibers and / or parallel filaments 10 that continue to come from the fingers fingers 21 . This phase shows that the fibers and / or filaments are then deposited regularly on the substrate 100 without accumulation already in the form of a "plug". In this case, these fibers and / or filaments are arranged essentially vertically. According to a particularly preferred embodiment, it has been provided that the separating feet 31 have a particular shape in order to facilitate this step. The separator feet are arranged so that they can make a funnel 41 between said feet and the substrate 100 that continues to pass. In this last step, the separating feet 31 no longer have the function of separating the fibers and / or filaments from the curling fingers, but rather the function of favoring the solidation of said fibers and / or filaments on the substrate. The rounded part of the separating feet will also guide the fibers and / or filaments confined to the substrate, while their oblique part, located at a distance from the substrate slightly lower than the height of the ripple, will exert a pressure on the fibers and / or parallel filaments in order to force them to adhere to the support. The tension present in the fibers and / or filaments at the time they are confined on the separating feet is lower than that which prevails in the material undergoing the previous ripple stage, which allows easy dragging of the fibers. the fibers and / or filaments parallel to the substrate. In fact, if the tension suffered by the fibers and / or filaments at the end of the popping fingers when the pre-curling step takes place is lower than the reaction pressure exerted by the "cap" or stop on the funnel formed by the separating feet 31 and the substrate 100, the fibers and / or filaments 10 would then begin to accumulate between the curling discs 11 and curling fingers 21, and this until the entrance of the web. Therefore, there would be no automatic drag of the material with the substrate. This tension essentially depends on the orientation of the fibers and / or filaments in the web at the entrance of the verticalization device. The existence of this tension within the fibers and / or filaments allows the assembly to function as a "non-return valve" preventing the fibers and / or filaments from accumulating on the curling fingers. It should be noted that although there is not, as has been described in the applicant's previous publications, a true creation of a thread or pseudo-thread, it is also obtained that the fibers and / or filaments are perfectly parallelized. The density of the loops is also adjustable by varying the rate of advance of the substrate with respect to the speed of dragging the disks. In order to realize the products of the ñapados-pegados type, it is preferable that the substrate 100 is previously coated with a glue whose viscosity will have been chosen so as to allow the fibers and / or filaments 10 to be dragged with the substrate while performing an effective bonding at the same time.

Eventually, it is possible to provide means for activating the glue in order to react it at the time of depositing the fibers and / or filaments on the substrate. Of course, examples of glues such as plastisol, acrylic or other glues can be envisaged. Activation devices and methods may be chosen from contact devices or procedures such as calenders, heating blades, etc., devices or methods that work with hot air such as furnaces, pulsed air devices, etc., or optionally the devices or methods working by radiant energy, infrared, Figure 3 represents a preferred embodiment of the use of the method according to the present invention in order to realize sandwich-type glued products. In this figure, a curling disk 11 on which a curling finger 21 is superimposed is shown in extension, of which a separating foot 31 is disposed. A web O of appropriately oriented fibers is dragged by a succession of curling disks 11. The process of pre-curling and confining the material directly on a advancing support is carried out in the manner described in Figures 2a to 2e. According to the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a plastisol deposit is made with the help of a doctor blade 51 in order to join the loops formed by fibers and / or filaments left from the pre-ripple stage and from the step of confined to the substrate 100. Next, the product obtained is subjected to a heat treatment with the aid of heating plates 54 in order to obtain gelation of the plastisol. A second substrate 102, also coated with a plastisol deposited with the help of a doctor blade 52, is then deposited on the product constituted by the first substrate 100 and the loops joined together in order to create a sandwich product 60. This sandwich product 60 it is again subjected to a heat treatment with the help of heating plates 56 in order to obtain gelation of the plastisol present on the second substrate 102. Finally, a knife 58 separates the sandwich product 60 into two in order to obtain two products Velvet type 70 and 80. The present invention allows to make a series of products that could not be obtained using the methods and / or devices such as those described in the applicant's previous applications. Three large families of textile products are possible thanks to the process according to the present invention. A first large family includes floor, wall or automobile coatings. In particular, it is foreseeable to make a product that is related to the "curly tuff or velvet for which the most common gauges are 5/64" to 5/32"In this case, the tails used will be mainly plastisols, PVC or some acrylics while the substrates can be some fabrics, some nonwovens or also some glass mats (in the specific case of the slab).

It is also foreseeable to make products with homogeneous aspect of low velvet density of vertical punching type for which the gauges will go from 1/16"to 5/64". Finally, the products of small height but high density of flocked type velvet can also be made for gauges smaller than 1/16"In this case, the tails used are preferably thermoplastics. Advantageously, it is observed that the device used for carrying out the process according to the present invention does not comprise any sensitive organ such as needles or transfer elements which effect reciprocating movements.Therefore, one can even use coarse natural fibers.These different products present an intrinsic economic interest and interesting functional aspects such as low sensitivity to humidity, ease of maintenance, etc. The second large family groups the furnishing fabrics such as the upholstery of chairs, the draperies, etc. In this case, the gauges are particularly small, of the order of 1/32", and the fibers used are preferably very thin.The use of microfibers is even foreseen.In particular, in order to obtain an appearance that mimics the skin of Sweden, it is used a glue that has the property of expanding until it completely fills the space between the two substrates of a sandwich type product, such as a PVC, acrylic or polyurethane type foam glue, in order to imprison the fibers. The third family refers to technical textiles that have a structure in the form of a sandwich and that are not cut, among these textiles, geotextiles that can be used as a draining structure can be cited. or as a structure with inclusion of bentonite-type powders, the structures in panels, whose rigidity is provided by the sandwich form, can also be mentioned. and in which the space between the two substrates is filled with a resin or foam. In order to better illustrate this last family of products, reference will be made to Figure 4, which describes how to more precisely make a composite geotextile product including clay powder of the bentonite type. According to a preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a pre-curling step is carried out according to the present invention with the aid of curling discs 11 between which curling fingers 21 are present and in extension of which spacer feet are provided. 31. A web formed in the present case is introduced into this device by fibers of a high titer, for example greater than 80 dtex, optionally mixed with finer fibers, which have, for example, a titer of 17 dtex. objective to facilitate the carding of the veil. The web O is drawn between the succession of discs 11 and curling fingers 21 in order to perform the pre-crimping and confining steps as described in detail in Figure 2. A substrate 104 is led to the separation point. of the fibers resting on a heating blade 61. The substrate is preferably constituted by fibers having a melting point higher than the melting point of the fibers present in the loops left from the pre-crimping and confining steps. This heating blade 61 allows reaching a temperature that is higher than the melting temperature of the loops. by contact they adhere directly to the substrate 104 in order to obtain a product 60. Next, bentonite powder is deposited with the aid of a conventional means 63 on the product 60 constituted by the substrate joined to the loops. The assembly then passes on a vibrating table 65 in order to favor the migration of the bentonite powder within the product 60 in order to obtain a distribution that is as homogeneous as possible. This is particularly possible due to the high titer of the fibers present in the loops and their significant resilience, which prevents them from being crushed under the pressure of the powder. The height of the loops is also chosen according to the weight of the powder to be deposited in order to obtain a space on the upper part of the product that is free of dust, in such a way that it can be deposited therein, with the help of a second heating blade 67, a second substrate 105.

A sandwich structure is thus obtained in which the bentonite powder is homogeneously retained. These products are generally used in association with geomembranes to ensure tightness. In fact, in case of the presence of a liquid, the bentonite swells absorbing it and thereby creating a self-blocking of the gap.

Claims (13)

23 NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION CLAIMS

1. - Procedure for producing a textile product of the napped-glued type starting from fibers and / or filaments that circulate in the direction of advance in the form of a veil, this process comprising at least one stage called "pre-ripple stage" in the The fibers and / or filaments individually suffer a ripple transversely with respect to the direction of advance of the web, possibly accompanied by a transversal stretch, characterized in that it then comprises a step of confining the fibers and / or parallel filaments in the form of loops , this last stage of confinement being produced with the help of a separating element directly on the support without intervention of transport organs such as needles or transfer elements.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that after a first transient stage linked to the beginning of a line and in the course of which the first loops obtained after the pre-ripple stage randomly form a stop, obtaining the confined in the form of an accumulation of loops one behind the other and which are positioned essentially vertically on said support.

3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that the positioning of the successive loops is also carried out with the aid of a separating element that allows the material to be guided to the support while holding it at the same time by being leveraged.

4. Method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the support is the substrate of the final product.

5. Process according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the support is an intermediate element such as a tape with tips, a brush or also a Velero® support whose function is to maintain the wavy shape of the loops while the free end of the material is joined to a substrate. Method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the locks are fixed to the substrate with the aid of a glue whose viscosity allows the loops to be dragged with the substrate while performing an effective bonding. Method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the locks are fixed to the substrate by means of heating means such as a furnace, a calender, a drum or a heating blade, in order to obtain adhesion by melting the loops to the substrate. 8. Method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the speed of advance of the support is uniform or is carried out discontinuously. 9. Method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that a second substrate is deposited on the product comprising the base substrate and the loops joined together in order to make a sandwich product. 10. Method according to claim 9, characterized in that a cut of the sandwich product is carried out in order to obtain two products that are presented in the form of velvet. 11. Method according to claim 9, characterized in that a pulverulent material such as bentonite, gypsum or sand is introduced into the sandwich structure constituted by the two substrates, possibly accompanied by solid elements such as tubes or cables. 12. Device for performing the method according to any of the preceding claims, comprising a set of discs (11) supported on a common transverse shaft (13) dragged in continuous rotation and provided on its periphery with a toothing (15) that it presents an angle with respect to the tangent and between which are arranged curling fingers (21) whose ends are essentially of • Tangential shape with respect to the discs, characterized in that it also has, in extension of each curling finger (21), a separating foot (31). 13. Product obtained by the method according to any of claims 1 to 11 or the device according to claim 12, characterized in that it comprises a first substrate on which loops of fibers and / or parallel filaments are joined without having passed through said loops in the substrate, the loops possibly being shattered when a subsequent stage takes place. APPENDIX SHEET SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing a textile product initially of the ñapado-pegado type starting from fibers and / or filaments that circulate in the direction of advance in the form of a veil, this process comprising at least one step called "stage of pre-curling "in which the fibers and / or filaments individually suffer a ripple transversely with respect to the direction of advance of the web, possibly accompanied by a transverse stretching; this method then comprises a step of confining the fibers and / or filaments parallelized in the form of loops, this last stage of confinement occurring directly on the support without the intervention of transport organs such as needles or transfer elements. P99 / 917F