US1662470A - Imitation fur and process of making the same - Google Patents

Description

March 13, 1928.

C. T. PASTOR IMITATION FUR AND PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME Filed March 1926 INVENTOR BY f3 ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 13, 1928.

UNITED STATES- CARLOS T. PASTOR, OF PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK.

IMITATION run AND rnocnss or MAKING THE SAME.

Application filed March 20, 1926, Serial No.

The invention relates to anartificial or imitation fur, and the object thereof is to provide a fabric which will simulate natural fur as closely as possible both in appear- 5 ance and in touch.

There is a real need for artificial furs and fur imitations since the present supply of natural furs is wholly inadequate to meet the demand and the price thereof is conse- .0 .quently so high as to be prohibitive except for the rich.

Such fur imitations have heretofore been made by weaving a pile fabric and then pressing or dyeing it in imitation of the real 5 'fur. The warp and filling of the ground or base of these pile fabrics, however, is relatively thick and stiff, and, being heavyt-o the touch, produces an effect quite different from the soft elastic quality-of the tanned l skin of real fur. Furthermore, the effect ob tained by pressing the pile is not lasting.

I have discovered that by embedding and anchoring the ends of suitable fibres or tufts of fibres in a thin sheetof soft pliable material, such for example as a soft vulcanized rubber or some equivalent material or composition, I can obtain a fur imitation which is very similar in appearance and touch to a natural fur.

0 The difficulty, from the manufacturing point of 'view, has been in the insertion of the fibres evenly or in the pattern desired, in the backing or skin of soft rubber or other plastic composition before it solidifies 5 or is hardened by vulcanization sufiiciently to thereby fix the fur fibres in place. This difficulty I now overcome in the following manner, with a ground of warp and filling and with the pile distributed therein as desired, and I then apply to the back or under surface of the fabric the permanent backing or skin in manner to cause it to adhere to and securely fix the pile and thereupon remove the original ground of warp and filling threads which has now served its purpose.

The invention is illustrated, in its several stages, in they accompanying drawings, wherein Fig. 1 is a section, on an enlarged scale, of the pile fabric as first formed, comprising pile threads or fibres a, warp b, and lling a, Fig. 2 is a. corresponding section showing the fabric after the permanent backing d e has been applied thereto, and

5 Fig. 3 shows, in a like section, the fabric 96,344, and in Germany fiovember 28, 1925.

when completed by the removal of the warp and filling.

For a. backing or skin of rubber, which is the material I prefer to use for the purpose, the back of the pile fabric is spread with a rubber solution or sprayed with spray-rubber so that the soft rubber coating d will adhere to and penetrate more or less into and around the fibres constituting the pile at their looped inner ends, and then a thin sheet e of rubber is laid thereon and the whole fabric is vulcanized, in a vulcanizing oven or in any suitable way. In case a. cel lulose or other composition is used for the backing or skin, a suitably thick or stiff solution of the composition may be spread in a thin coating over the back of the pile fabric and allowed to solidify.

.After the permanent backing has been applied to the fabric, the temporary ground of warp and. filling may-be removed mechanically or otherwise; but, in the preferred practice of my invention, I first carbonize or decompose the fibres of these threads by chemical action and then effect their removal by stretching and beating or brushing the fabric, usually with the assistance of a vacuum suction. The pile or fur will preferably be of tussah silk, mo-

hair, camels hair, wool of various kinds, or other animal fibre, which will not be affected by the chemical action referred to, while the warp and filling are of cotton or other vegetable fibre and hence are readily carbonized or decomposed by a weak ten per cent. solution of hydrochloric acid, for example, or preferably by soaking the fabric in an acid-carrier such, as a solution of aluminum or magnesium chloride and then effecting the release of the acid radical therein and the chemical reaction by the aplication of heat. A temperature suitable or the purpose will range from about 80 to the neighborhood of 120 C. In case it is desired to use threads of. vegetable fibre, as cotton, rayon, etc., for the pile, these threads can be rendered immune to the action of the acid used for the removal of the ground threads by soaking them for example in asoap or other alkaline or anti-acidsolution and allowing them to dry before weaving them into the fabric; or the warp and filling threads may be filled in advance of the weaving with. an acid-carrier, preferably aluminum chloride, which releases its acid radical very slowly if at all at -ordinary atmospheric temperatures. Stated generally, the pile on the one handv and the ground threads on the other should be of different materials Or one or the other or both so treated in advance of the weaving, or the chemical employed should be so selected, that the ground threads only will be affected by the chemical reaction.

The operation for the removal of the temporary ground threads may be carried out in any suitable or convenient mannerfor instance, by running a length of the then vulcanized fabric continuously, first. through a tank containing the acid or acid-carrying solution and a heated chamber or over a suitably heated drum, and finally, after a sufficient interval, between a beater-roll opgrating on its back and a suction-box at its ace.

It will of course be understood that the invention may be variously modified in its several details, within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the principle or sacrificing the substantial advantages thereof.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

'1. The process of making a fabric of the character described which comprises making a pile fabric having warp and filling, applying to the back of the fabric a permanent backing adhering to and fixing the inner ends of the pile, and removing the warp and filling.

2. The process of making a fabric of the character described which comprises. first, the aflixing to the looped inner ends of the pile of a pile fabric having ground threads a sheet of homogeneous material providing a soft pliable backing therefor, and then the removing of the ground threads of the fabric.

3. The process of making a fabric of the character described which comprises forming a pile fabric with pile and ground threads, applying to the back of the fabric a soft pliable rubber-like backing ada ted to adhere to the inner ends of the pile o the fabric and to fix the same therein, and then decomposing chemically and removing from the fabric the ground threads.

4. The process of making a fabric of the character described which comprises makin a pile fabric with pile of animal fibre an ground threads of vegetable fibre, applying tothc back of the fabric a coating of soft rubber in manner to adhere to and to fix the pile therein, vulcanizing the fabric, decomposing the vegetable fibres of the ground threads by chemical action, and removing such decomposed fibres.

5. The process of making imitation fur which comprises making a pile fabric with a pile of animal fibre and ground of cotton warp and filling, applying to the back of the fabric an adhesive coating. and then laying thereon a thin sheet, of soft rubber, vulcanizing the rubber, treating the fabric with an acid-carrying solution to decompose the cotton ground threads, and removing from the fabric these decomposed ground threads.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a pile fabric comprising a soft, pliable and elastic skin-like'body ofhomogeneous material and a regularly distributed pile of loose fibres fixed therein and bound together solely thereby.

7. As a new article of manufacture, an imitation fur comprising a. pile of regularly distributed animal fibres and as the sole body therefor a skin-like backing of rubber to which the inner ends of the pile fibres are fixed by vulcanization.

8. As a new article of manufacture, a fabricated fur comprising a fur-like body of regularly distributed animal fibres and as the sole backing therefor a skin-like pliable sheet of homogeneous composition which is soft to the touch and in which the folded ends of the fibres of the body are imbedded.

CARLOS T. PASTOR.

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