TW202419706A - Method for producing flocculent by mixing kapok ball particles with chemical fiber and kapok chemical fiber flocculent - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for producing a kapok ball particle mixed chemical fiber floc and a kapok chemical fiber floc, wherein kapok fiber raw material and chemical fiber raw material are preliminarily mixed and combed, and then the kapok fiber is driven by air flow in a closed cotton mixing space to form small kapok balls, which are then mixed with chemical fibers to form chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles. , so as to form a chemical fiber flocculant layer uniformly mixed with kapok ball particles inside; the kapok chemical fiber flocculant is composed of at least one layer of chemical fiber flocculant layer, wherein the chemical fiber is formed into a web with a density of 41 to 104 fibers per mg, and the kapok fiber is uniformly mixed in the chemical fiber web with a particle size of 1 to ³ mm and a particle density of 25,000 to 80,000 particles/m2.

Description

A method for producing flocs by mixing kapok ball particles with chemical fibers and kapok chemical fiber flocs

The present invention relates to chemical fiber flocs and a manufacturing method thereof, in particular, a floc manufacturing method by mixing kapok ball particles with chemical fiber and the kapok chemical fiber flocs produced therefrom.

Chemical fiber, due to its low cost and wide popularity, can be made into thermal insulation materials or fillings to meet basic thermal insulation requirements, and can be said to be the most widely used material at present; however, compared with other products made of natural fibers, flocs or fillings made purely from chemical fibers have obvious shortcomings such as insufficient fluffiness and poor water resistance, and after washing, the fiber groups often clump together, resulting in reduced thermal insulation and the product cannot be used for a long time; therefore, taking into account various conditions such as production cost, finished product performance, and market demand, the development and improvement of thermal insulation flocs is the direction of continuous research and improvement by the industry in this field.

Among the known technologies, there are technical applications that use kapok fibers mixed with chemical fibers to improve the properties of thermal insulation materials. For example, the pre-treatment method of kapok fibers disclosed in CN-102182065A allows kapok fibers to be mixed with other fibers for spinning by spraying an auxiliary agent (silicone oil formula); another example is the method for manufacturing kapok thermal insulation materials disclosed in CN-103015035B, in which the pre-treatment and mixing process of kapok fibers involves spraying an antistatic agent and mixing for more than 2 to 4 hours, and then processing the mixed fibers into cotton wool for wadding.

The above-mentioned known mixing technologies all use additives to achieve the mixing of kapok fibers. However, this method has the following disadvantages in practice: (1) Spraying chemicals will destroy the excellent natural components of the kapok fiber surface itself, reducing the effective antibacterial and anti-mite components; (2) Using antistatic agents to avoid flying is not only time-consuming and cumbersome in the pre-treatment process, but the additives will also adhere to the machine equipment during the processing process, causing trouble in cleaning, and even affecting the performance of the equipment and parts, reducing durability and processing quality.

In view of the problems of the known technical method, the inventor of this case is committed to researching ways to improve it. After continuous attempts and efforts, the present invention is completed.

The main purpose of this invention is to achieve the mixing of kapok fiber and chemical fiber by a simple and convenient process without the need for additives, so as to generate kapok chemical fiber flocculent with good properties for subsequent processing.

The present invention mainly utilizes a series of mixing process equipment to allow the light-weight kapok fibers to naturally disperse and form small particles during the process, thereby improving the problem of easy flying and difficult mixing, and can be smoothly and evenly mixed with chemical fibers. After appropriate carding and net forming, a chemical fiber floc layer with kapok ball particles evenly mixed inside is generated.

This invention uses a special innovative cotton blending process to adjust the equipment running speed, such as feeding speed, spinning speed, combing speed, etc., to adjust the particle size and density of kapok ball particles in chemical fiber cotton wool, and produce cotton wool with better quality than 100% pure chemical fiber or the current conventional kapok chemical fiber blend, which has the effect of reducing costs and facilitating production. It is a mixing method that does not affect the natural good functionality of kapok fiber itself.

To achieve the above purpose, the present invention is a method for making flocs by making kapok ball particles mixed with chemical fibers. The main steps are as follows: a) combing kapok fiber raw materials and chemical fiber raw materials together in proportion, so that the kapok fibers and chemical fibers therein are combed into a ball shape and intertwined with each other to form a combed mixed material; b) feeding the combed mixed material into a mixing space in batches, and using a continuous high-speed rotating The dispersion module allows the mixed materials to be repeatedly dispersed in the air of the mixed cotton space, and forms an internal airflow in the mixed cotton space to drive the kapok fibers to rotate to form a plurality of small kapok balls, which are then mixed with chemical fibers to generate a plurality of chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles, and then output from the mixed cotton space; c) The chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles are combed to form a web, generating a chemical fiber floc layer with the kapok ball particles uniformly mixed inside.

According to the above-mentioned mixing process of the present invention, a further step d) can be provided afterwards, which is to cross-stack the chemical fiber flocculent layer generated in step c) through a web-laying machine to form a shape with a predetermined number of layers, and then perform double-sided gluing, heat-setting in an oven, and cooling in room temperature air. When it is finally completed, a flocculent with a slightly hot surface that can be used for filling is formed.

The kapok chemical fiber wadding produced according to the present invention mainly comprises at least one chemical fiber wadding layer containing kapok fiber particles, and the chemical fiber wadding layer is a mixture of 10-30wt% kapok fiber and 70-90wt% chemical fiber, wherein the chemical fiber is formed into a web with a density of 41-104 fibers per mg, and the kapok fiber is uniformly mixed in the chemical fiber web with a particle size of 1-3 mm and a particle density of 25,000-80,000 particles/ ^m2 .

According to the manufacturing method described above, the ratio of step a) is 10-30wt% of kapok fiber raw material and 70-90wt% of chemical fiber raw material; further, 0-25wt% of the selected chemical fiber raw material can be replaced by low-melting point chemical fiber, so that the 70-90wt% of chemical fiber raw material can be divided into 0-25wt% of low-melting point chemical fiber and 45-90wt% of non-low-melting point chemical fiber.

In a feasible embodiment, the product performance is better when about 15wt% of kapok fiber raw material and about 85wt% of chemical fiber raw material are mixed.

In this way, the quality of the final chemical fiber cotton wool padding product mixed with kapok ball particles can be greatly improved to be better than 100% chemical fiber quality. Since kapok fiber itself is not pressure-resistant and has a high moisture content after washing, the structure of particles wrapped in chemical fiber can effectively improve the fluffiness and surface water repellency. Therefore, in the appropriate ratio, even without adding low-melting point chemical fiber, good performance can be maintained.

Furthermore, in another feasible embodiment, when about 25wt% of kapok fiber raw materials are used, the chemical fiber raw materials used can be replaced with about 20wt% of low-melting-point chemical fiber raw materials and about 45wt% of general chemical fiber raw materials, and the performance of the product produced by mixing them is better; mainly based on the low resilience and high water absorption of kapok fiber itself, when it is in a higher ratio, replacing it with an appropriate amount of low-melting-point chemical fiber can help maintain a fixed wadding structure, so that the product can maintain good water resistance and resilience, and ensure fluffy thickness.

According to the manufacturing method of the present invention, step b) is carried out in a specially made processing cotton mixing box, which is designed with a closed cotton mixing space and a pipe for feeding and discharging materials. The dispersing module is arranged in the cotton mixing space, and includes at least two tin rings arranged longitudinally. The needle cloths of the tin rings are used to disperse the mixed materials upward in the cotton mixing space; wherein, the distance between the needle cloths of each tin ring used for dispersing is preferably 1.5~2mm, and the rotation speed of the tin rings is preferably 90~150rpm.

Furthermore, a conveyor belt is provided in the processing and mixing box to gradually convey the mixed materials to the mixing module for mixing, and the processing and mixing box is also provided with an optical sensing unit to sense the mixed materials to be processed in front of the mixing module, so as to adjust the conveying speed of the conveyor belt (and adjust the feeding speed) accordingly.

In the present invention, the kapok fiber raw material and the chemical fiber raw material are used, wherein the average length of the kapok fiber is shorter than the average length of the chemical fiber; more specifically, the average length of the kapok fiber is between 5 and 25 mm, the average length of the chemical fiber is between 30 and 60 mm, and the denier number is between 1.5D and 7D.

The present invention utilizes kapok fiber ball particles to increase the thickness and fluffiness of chemical fiber cotton batting, and by maintaining the good properties of chemical fiber cotton batting itself, it overcomes the problems of kapok fiber becoming tangled after washing, decreasing thickness, and high water absorption that cannot maintain good warmth retention and durability, thereby effectively improving the warmth retention and durability of kapok products.

In order to provide a more detailed understanding of the above-mentioned purposes, effects and features of the present invention, a preferred embodiment is given below with accompanying drawings:

10: Chemical fiber

20: Kapok fiber

21: Kapok ball particles

30: Processing cotton mixing box

31: Feeding pipe

32: Discharge pipe

33: Cotton blending space

34: Hook and Dispersion Module

341: Xilin

342: Motor

351, 352, 353, 354: conveyor belt

355: Motor

36: Air outlet

37: Optical sensing unit

S01~S05: Steps

A:Mixed materials

B: Chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles

[Figure 1] is a schematic diagram of the structure of a common chemical fiber flocculant.

[Figure 2] is a schematic diagram of the process flow of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 3] is a schematic diagram of the structure of the cotton mixing box processed in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 4] is a schematic diagram of the structure of the kapok chemical fiber flocculant of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 5] is an appearance diagram of the kapok chemical fiber wadding material according to an embodiment of the present invention.

It is known that the cotton wool material composed of chemical fiber 10 has a structure as shown in FIG1. Compared with natural fiber cotton wool, it has the disadvantages of insufficient fluffiness and poor water resistance. Adding other fibers to improve performance is a common improvement technology. In the present invention, it is about the scope of mixing kapok fiber and chemical fiber to make cotton wool. However, in the known process, since kapok fiber is easy to fly, the use of additives will damage the product and equipment to some extent, and the anti-static process is too cumbersome and time-consuming, which causes troubles during mixing processing.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing flocculants by mixing kapok ball particles with chemical fibers. The method mainly uses a self-developed processing and mixing equipment to form a special mixing process to achieve the effect of mixing kapok fibers and chemical fibers without additives, thus improving the problem that kapok fibers are easy to fly and difficult to mix.

As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the method adopted by the present invention mainly includes a material preparation step S01, a preliminary mixing and combing step S02, a kapok ball processing and mixing step S03, a combing step S04 and a shaping step S05.

In step S01, the main step is to prepare appropriate amounts of kapok fiber raw materials and chemical fiber raw materials in proportion; in the present invention, the kapok fiber raw materials used account for 10~30wt% of the total amount, and the chemical fiber raw materials account for 70~90wt% of the total amount.

In step S02, the kapok fiber raw material and the chemical fiber raw material are mainly sent to the combing and loosening equipment together, so that the two can be combed together in proportion, so that the kapok fiber and the chemical fiber are combed into a ball, and the two materials are entangled with each other at least in part of the area to form a combed mixed material A.

After step S02 is completed, step S03 is performed, which is to put the mixed material A completed in step S02 into a processing mixing box 30; in practice, the combing and loosening equipment in step S02 and the processing mixing box 30 in step S03 can be directly connected by a pipeline, so that the mixed material A completed in step S02 can be directly supplied to the feeding pipeline 31 of the processing mixing box 30 and put into the processing mixing box 30.

The processing cotton mixing box 30 mainly has a closed cotton mixing space 33 inside, and is matched with the design of the inlet pipe 31 and the outlet pipe 32 to achieve the effect of closed processing.

In this embodiment, the processing blending box 30 is provided with a plurality of conveyor belts 351, 352, 353, 354 inside, a loosening module 34 is provided in the blending space 33, an air outlet device 36 is provided in the discharge pipe 32, and an optical sensing unit 37 is provided at an appropriate position. The dispersing module 34 includes at least two tin rings 341 arranged longitudinally, which are driven by a motor 342 to disperse the mixed material A fed in upward in the cotton mixing space 33. Each tin ring 341 is provided with a card cloth for providing a dispersing effect, and the card cloth spacing is set to 1.5~2mm; the conveyor belt 351 is set between the material feeding point and the dispersing module 34, and is driven by a motor 355 together with the conveyor belt 352 to transport the penetrated material (mixed material A) to the dispersing module 34, and the conveyor belts 352, 353, and 354 are respectively set at the rear side of the dispersing module 34 to the material discharging point to output the processed products.

In step S03, the combed mixed material A is put into the processing mixing box 30, and then gradually sent to the mixing space 33 through the conveyor belt 351, and sent to the dispersing module 34. The dispersing module 34 continuously rotates the double tin rings 341 at high speed to allow the mixed material A to be repeatedly dispersed in the air of the mixing space 33. Through the dispersing action of the high-speed rotation of the tin rings 341 and the function of the air outlet device 36 of the discharge pipe 32, an internal circulating convection airflow can be formed in the mixing space 33, driving the kapok fiber 20 to rotate to form a plurality of small granular kapok ball particles 21, which are then mixed with the chemical fiber 10 to form a plurality of chemical fiber balls B containing kapok ball particles, and output from the mixing space 33.

In the operation process of step S03, the rotation speed of the tin 341 is preferably 90-150rpm. In addition, in the feeding part, the accumulated amount of the mixed material A to be processed before the dispersing module 34 can be sensed by the optical sensing unit 37, and the feeding speed of the conveyor belt 351 is controlled accordingly to achieve the purpose of feeding the material in gradually, that is, when there is too much mixed material A to be processed, the feeding speed is reduced to avoid the problem of ball processing or incomplete mixing, and the chemical fiber group B containing kapok ball particles is indeed produced.

In step S04, the mixed chemical fiber group B containing kapok ball particles is sent to a carding and feeding machine for carding and web forming. Through the relevant parameter control (the carding and feeding machine's sieve speed is controlled at 250-500rpm/mins), the kapok ball particles 21 can still maintain a granular structure and be mixed in the carded chemical fiber 10, as shown in Figures 4 and 5, to generate a chemical fiber flocculent layer uniformly mixed with the kapok ball particles 21.

In step S05, the chemical fiber flocculent layers are cross-stacked through a mesh machine to form a shape with a predetermined number of layers, and then double-sided gluing is performed on both sides, and heat-setting is performed in an oven. Finally, the flocculent can be cooled in normal air to generate a slightly hot-hot flocculent that can be used for filling (as shown in Figure 5). In this step, the gluing is performed by spraying glue on the surface, and acrylic resin can be used to allow the finished product to have a light water-repellent effect after the shaping process.

In the present invention, the kapok fiber raw material used is unprocessed natural kapok fiber, and the chemical fiber raw material is chemical fiber (including low melting point fiber) with a Denier number between 1.5D and 7D; the average length of the kapok fiber is shorter than the average length of the chemical fiber, more specifically, the average length of the kapok fiber is between 5 and 25 mm, and the average length of the chemical fiber is between 30 and 60 mm. In addition, the chemical fiber raw materials accounting for 70 to 90 wt% of the total can be further divided into 0 to 25 wt% of low melting point chemical fiber and 45 to 90 wt% of non-low melting point chemical fiber (i.e., normal chemical fiber).

The flocculent made of kapok ball particles 21 mixed with chemical fiber according to the manufacturing method of the present invention is also a kapok chemical fiber flocculent, which mainly includes at least one chemical fiber flocculent layer containing kapok ball particles 21, and the chemical fiber flocculent layer is mixed with 10-30wt% kapok fiber and 70-90wt% chemical fiber; wherein the chemical fiber 10 is formed into a web with a density of 41-104 fibers per mg, and the kapok fiber 20 is uniformly mixed in the web of the chemical fiber 10 with a particle size of 1-3 mm and a particle density of 25,000-80,000 particles/ ^m2 .

In the process of preparing kapok ball particles mixed with chemical fiber in the present invention, the kapok chemical fiber flocculent produced has the best performance when the ratio of kapok fiber 20 is between 10-30wt% and chemical fiber 10 is between 70-90wt%. When the chemical fiber 10 is a normal chemical fiber (not a low melting point chemical fiber), the best ratio is 15% kapok fiber and 85% chemical fiber. In actual operation, the ratio is followed in sequence as follows: After the aforementioned material preparation step S01 and preliminary mixing and combing step S02, the mixed material A is subjected to kapok ball processing and mixing step S03 to generate chemical fiber group B containing kapok ball particles 21, and then the combing step S04 is performed to obtain a chemical fiber flocculant layer uniformly mixed with the kapok ball particles 21. Finally, the kapok chemical fiber flocculant with appropriate number of layers and thickness can be made by the shaping step S05 for filling or application in various products.

Furthermore, in the actual operation of the present invention, when the ratio of the kapok fiber 20 used is increased, in order to allow the produced kapok chemical fiber flocs to still have good properties, the chemical fiber 10 is replaced with an appropriate amount of low-melting-point chemical fiber. After actual experiments and tests, the best ratio of this formula is 25% kapok fiber, 55% chemical fiber (non-low-melting point) and 20% low-melting-point chemical fiber. With this ratio, the steps of the aforementioned preparation step S01, preliminary mixing and combing step S02, kapok ball processing and mixing step S03, combing step S04, and shaping step S05 can be carried out to produce the kapok chemical fiber flocs with good performance of the present invention.

Below, the properties of the kapok ball granules 21 products (Examples 1 and 2) made by the two best ratio embodiments of the present invention are tested and compared with the mixed cotton products mixed with kapok fibers (mixed kapok products 1, 2, 3) and the products made of purified fibers (purified fiber products 1, 2, 3) on the market as follows:

From the above comparison table, it can be seen that the invention develops a kapok chemical fiber floss product containing kapok ball particles 21. The two preferred ratio embodiments have a 100gsm specification and the CLO values of the warmth test are 2.30 and 1.92 respectively. The warmth and fluffiness are better than those of products made purely of chemical fibers. In general, the performance of the product made by the invention (mixed with kapok ball particles 21) is as follows:

(1) The thermal insulation CLO per unit weight can maintain more than 0.0192clo/gsm. When the unit area is 60gsm, the optimal thermal insulation CLO per unit weight can even reach 0.0297clo/gsm. The thermal insulation properties of the products using the present invention are generally better than those of general pure chemical fiber products.

(2) The thickness recovery rate after washing is maintained at about 81%~91%, which is slightly better than general pure chemical fiber products, but significantly better than other kapok chemical fiber mixed products on the market.

(3) The unit weight thickness is maintained at about 0.014~0.015cm/gsm. Compared with general pure chemical fiber products and kapok chemical fiber mixed products, it can have better fluffiness. And for products of the same thickness, the product using the present invention has a lighter weight advantage.

(4) The moisture content after washing (before drying) is about 36~40%. Although it is not as low as the moisture content of general pure chemical fiber products, the present invention utilizes the structural characteristics of the kapok ball particles 21 to greatly improve the disadvantage of the high moisture content of conventional wood fiber mixed cotton products after washing.

Furthermore, when the process of the present invention is carried out, water-repellent glue can be used to spray the surface in the shaping step S05, thereby significantly reducing the moisture content after washing, so that the kapok chemical fiber flocculent containing kapok ball particles 21 produced by the process of the present invention has a better water-repellent effect, thereby improving the overall competitiveness of the product.

In summary, the invention can effectively improve the fluffy thickness of kapok chemical fiber blended cotton products after washing and improve the warmth retention of CLO by generating a special kapok ball particle 21 structure in the process. It can form a series of simple processes by connecting equipment in series, and no additives are required during the process, reducing the pollution and wear and tear inside the machine parts, forming an invention with many excellent effects such as convenient production, stable quality, and optimized product characteristics. Therefore, a patent application is filed in accordance with the law.

However, the above description is only for the better embodiment of the present invention. Any extension, modification, simple change or equivalent replacement made according to the technical means of the present invention should also fall within the scope of the patent application of the present invention.

10: Chemical fiber

20: Kapok fiber

21: Kapok ball particles

30: Processing cotton mixing box

31: Feeding pipe

32: Discharge pipe

33: Cotton blending space

34: Hook and Dispersion Module

341: Xilin

342: Motor

351, 352, 353, 354: conveyor belt

355: Motor

36: Air outlet

37: Optical sensing unit

A:Mixed materials

B: Chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles

Claims (10)

A method for producing flocculent by mixing kapok ball particles with chemical fibers, comprising the following steps: a) Comb the kapok fiber raw materials and chemical fiber raw materials together in proportion, so that the kapok fibers and chemical fibers are combed into loose clumps and entangled with each other to form a combed mixed material; b) The combed mixed materials are fed into a cotton mixing space in batches, and a continuously high-speed rotating dispersing module is used to repeatedly disperse the mixed materials in the air of the cotton mixing space, and an internal airflow is formed in the cotton mixing space to drive the kapok fibers to rotate to form a plurality of small kapok balls, which are then mixed with chemical fibers to form a plurality of chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles, and then output from the cotton mixing space; c) The chemical fiber clusters containing kapok ball particles are used to form a web, generating a chemical fiber flocculent layer uniformly mixed with the kapok ball particles. The flocculant manufacturing method as described in claim 1, wherein after step c), there is a step d), which is to cross-stack the chemical fiber flocculant layers generated in step c), and then perform double-sided gluing and heat drying to form flocculant for filling. The flocculant manufacturing method as described in claim 1, wherein the proportions in step a) are 10-30wt% of kapok fiber raw material and 70-90wt% of chemical fiber raw material. The flocculant manufacturing method as described in claim 2, wherein the chemical fiber raw material accounting for 70-90wt% is further divided into low-melting point chemical fiber accounting for 0-25wt% and non-low-melting point chemical fiber accounting for 45-90wt%. The flocculant manufacturing method as described in claim 1, wherein the dispersing module in step b) is arranged in the cotton mixing space, and comprises at least two tin rings arranged longitudinally, each of which is provided with a card cloth for dispersing, and the card cloth spacing is 1.5-2mm, and the mixed material fed in is dispersed upward in the cotton mixing space at a rotation speed of 90-150rpm. The flocculant manufacturing method as described in claim 1, wherein the average length of the kapok fibers in the kapok fiber raw material is shorter than the average length of the chemical fibers in the chemical fiber raw material. The method for producing wadding as described in claim 6, wherein the average length of the kapok fiber is between 5 and 25 mm, the average length of the chemical fiber is between 30 and 60 mm, and the denier number is between 1.5D and 7D. The flocculant manufacturing method as described in claim 1, wherein in step b), a conveyor belt is used to transport the mixed material to the mixing module in the mixing space, and the conveying speed of the conveyor belt is adjusted based on an optical sensing unit sensing the mixed material to be processed in front of the mixing module. The flocculent manufacturing method as described in claim 1, wherein the chemical fiber flocculent layer produced in step c) has a web density of 41-104 chemical fibers per mg, and the density of the kapok ball particles contained therein is 25,000-80,000 particles/m ² , and the particle size of the kapok ball particles is between 1 and 3 mm. A kapok chemical fiber wadding material comprises at least one chemical fiber wadding material layer containing kapok fiber particles, and the chemical fiber wadding material layer is a mixture of 10-30wt% kapok fiber and 70-90wt% chemical fiber, wherein the chemical fiber is formed into a paving net with a density of 41-104 fibers per mg, and the kapok fiber is uniformly mixed in the paving net of the chemical fiber with a particle size of 1-3 mm and a particle density of 25000-80000 particles/ ^m2 .

Images