Classifications

• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D04—BRAIDING; LACE-MAKING; KNITTING; TRIMMINGS; NON-WOVEN FABRICS
  • D04B—KNITTING
  • D04B1/00—Weft knitting processes for the production of fabrics or articles not dependent on the use of particular machines; Fabrics or articles defined by such processes
  • D04B1/14—Other fabrics or articles characterised primarily by the use of particular thread materials
  • D04B1/16—Other fabrics or articles characterised primarily by the use of particular thread materials synthetic threads
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06C—FINISHING, DRESSING, TENTERING OR STRETCHING TEXTILE FABRICS
  • D06C29/00—Finishing or dressing, of textile fabrics, not provided for in the preceding groups
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M11/00—Treating fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, with inorganic substances or complexes thereof; Such treatment combined with mechanical treatment, e.g. mercerising
  • D06M11/32—Treating fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, with inorganic substances or complexes thereof; Such treatment combined with mechanical treatment, e.g. mercerising with oxygen, ozone, ozonides, oxides, hydroxides or percompounds; Salts derived from anions with an amphoteric element-oxygen bond
  • D06M11/36—Treating fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, with inorganic substances or complexes thereof; Such treatment combined with mechanical treatment, e.g. mercerising with oxygen, ozone, ozonides, oxides, hydroxides or percompounds; Salts derived from anions with an amphoteric element-oxygen bond with oxides, hydroxides or mixed oxides; with salts derived from anions with an amphoteric element-oxygen bond
  • D06M11/38—Oxides or hydroxides of elements of Groups 1 or 11 of the Periodic Table
  • D06M11/40—Oxides or hydroxides of elements of Groups 1 or 11 of the Periodic Table combined with, or in absence of, mechanical tension, e.g. slack mercerising
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M13/00—Treating fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, with non-macromolecular organic compounds; Such treatment combined with mechanical treatment
  • D06M13/08—Treating fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, with non-macromolecular organic compounds; Such treatment combined with mechanical treatment with halogenated hydrocarbons
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M23/00—Treatment of fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, characterised by the process
  • D06M23/10—Processes in which the treating agent is dissolved or dispersed in organic solvents; Processes for the recovery of organic solvents thereof

Definitions

• This invention relates to a process for producing a highly stretchable woven or knitted fabric, and is more particularly concerned with a process for producing a high-bulk, highly stretchable, low-growth fabric from yarn composed of a blend of polyester and cellulosic fiber material.
• Stretch fabrics containing no rubber or other elastomeric fibrous material have recently become highly desirable in the trade. Accordingly, increased efforts have been made to find a method for imparting a high degree of stretch in a fabric knitted or woven from yarn composed of a blend of polyester staple and cotton. Stretch fabrics of these components would be highly desirable in order to take advantage of the known special properties of polyester/cellulosic blends, such as washand-wear qualities, wrinkle resistance, strength and good textile aesthetics.
• a surprising improvement, in the process of producing fabric from yarn composed of a. blend of polyester fibers and cotton is obtained when fabric formed of yarn containing at least 30% high-shrinkage polyester fiber and at least 20% cotton fiber is treated, in the absence of tension on the high-shrinkage yarn, with a mixture of methylene chloride and strong aqueous sodium hydroxide solution to shrink the polyester and cotton fibers simultaneously to provide a fabric shrinkage of at least 10%.
• the fabric is then removed from the mixture and washed with water until free of the shrinkage agents.
• the simultaneous shrinkage process is then followed by the finishing operations well known in the art for treating polyester/ cotton blend fabrics, preferably including a heat-setting step.
• fabric can be prepared which has a widthwise stretch of at least 14% and a widthwise growth of less than 6.3% after being held extended at of the stretch potential for 2 hours and then allowed 1 hour to recover.
• the mixture of sodium hydroxide and methylene chloride can be stirred continuously to insure uniform impregnation of the polyester and cotton fibers.
• a suitable emulsifying agent is preferably used to eliminate the necessity for continuous stirring.
• the yarn containing high shrinkage polyester fibers is preferably used in the fill direction.
• a preferred sequence of fabric treatment consists of cold washing, ex-
• yarn containing high shrinkage polyester fibers is used in both directions.
• the preferred sequence of treatment to produce stretch in both the warp and fill directions of a fabric is to cold wash, extract to about 20% moisture, pad the fabric with the said caustic/methylene chloride .mixture, immerse it into the said mixture for further impregnation, and then remove the agents by a final cold wash. Bleaching, and other finishing steps are performed under minimum tension.
• the conventional cotton spinning system is preferably used.
• cotton and polyester staple are either picker-blended, or slivers of cotton and slivers of polyester are draw-frame blended. Drafted slivers are then reduced in size and twisted in conventional fashion to produce the yarn.
• a part or all of the polyester content of the yarn can be one or more continuous filaments, suitably incorporated in the yarn, e.g., core spun or plied.
• fiber as
• At least 30% of the fiber must be high shrinkage fibers, which may be continuous filaments and/ or cut from high-shrinkage polyester filaments.
• a normal-shrinkage polyester fiber is one which shrinks less than 8% of its initial length upon immersion in boiling water
• a high-shrinkage polyester fiber is one which shrinks more than 10% (preferably from 15 to 60%) of its length upon immersion into boiling water.
• Processes for producing high-shrinkage polyester (polyethylene terephthalate) filaments are well known in the art. For example, the jet quenching procedure described in Kilian US. Patent No. 3,050,821 dated Aug. 28, 1962, combined with the drawing procedure described in Calton US. Patent No.
• EXAMPLE I Two grey woven fabrics (A and B below) are prepared according to the following specifications: For the warp, a blend of 65% of normal-shrinkage polyethylene terephthalate staple and 35% cotton is spun to 50/1 cc. (11.8 tex) yarn with a twist of 25.5 turns/inch (10 turns/ cm.). For the filling, a blend of 33% high-shrinkage polyethylene terephthalate staple, 33% normal-shrinkage polyethylene terephthalate staple, and 34% cotton is used. This blend is spun to 50/1 cc. (11.8 tex) yarn, with 21.5 turns/inch (8.5 turns/cm.), for fabric A. The same blend is spun to 30/1 cc.
• the first swatch is dipped into a 25% aqueous solution of NaOH (slackmercerization process) for 5 minutes.
• the second swatch is dipped into a mixture consisting of equal volumes of 25% aqueous NaOH and methylene chloride to which has been added 1% by volume of a saturated hydrocarbon sodium sulfonate which acts as an emulsifying agent, for 5 minutes under substantially no widthwise tension. All swatches are then cold-washed, rinsed, scoured, bleached, and dried.
• the widthwise shrinkage results are as follows:
• EXAMPLE II This example illustrates the high degree of recoverable stretch with low growth provided by the present invention, and the improvement obtained in comparison with prior art slack mercerization treatment, for various fabrics. The results are summarized in the table.
• the filling'yarn is a blend of high-shrinkage polyethylene terephthalate staple and 35% cotton spun to 50/1 cc. (11.8 tex) with a twist of 25 .5 turns/ inch (10 turns/cm.).
• the high-shrinkage staple is cut from continuous filaments which shrink about 60% of the initial length upon immersion in boiling water.
• the above fabrics are cold-washed and extracted to about 20% moisture. They are then processed as indicated in the table by treatments described below.
• the conven tional finishing procedure referred to below consists of padding the fabric with an enzyme for desizing, crabbing, beck scouring, beck bleaching, drying, decating, heatsetting, singeing, light scouring, drying, and semi-decating; it will be understood that variations in these finishing steps will not have a significant effect on the results shown in the table.
• the fabric is immersed at room temperature for 15 minutes 10 minutes for Fabric 4) in a mixture of equal volumes of 25% aqueous sodium hydroxide and methylene chloride, emulsified with 1% by volume of a saturated hydrocarbon sodium sulfonate emulsifying agent.
• This treatment is performed while the fabric is under substantially no widthwise tension (lengthwise tension is also avoided for Fabric 4, which has high shrinkage polyester fiber in both yarn directions).
• the fabric is then cold-washed, rinsed, and finished according to conventional polyester/cotton finishing procedure, but avoiding tension in the fabric stretch direction or directions.
• the fabric is immersed at room temperature for 15 minutes in a 25 aqueous sodium hydroxide solution in accordance with the well-known slack mercerization process.
• the fabric is then cold-washed, rinsed and finished according to conventional polyester/cotton finishing procedure, with the exception that widthwise tension is avoided.
• the table gives values of UTS percent measured after the fabric is stretched to 85% of its stretch potential and so held for two hours, then released.
• the column heading indicates the time allowed after the tension is released from the fabric before the length measurement L is made.
• the concentration of sodium hydroxide to be used in the practice of this invention is preferably about 25% by weight; however, any concentration from 20-30% by weight is entirely satisfactory.
• the volumetric ratio of sodium hydroxide solution to methylene chloride solution is preferably about 1:1, although, depending on the ratio of cotton to high-shrinkage polyester content, reasonable variations in this ratio are suitable.
• the yarn can contain cellulosic fibers other than cotton and the amount of cellulosic fiber in proportion to the amount of polyester fiber in the yarn can be varied within reasonable limits to pro prise stretch fabrics in accordance with this invention.
• the yarn twist may be varied within reasonable limits to vary the amount of shrinkage.
• a twist multiplier of 3.0 is used instead of a twist multiplier of 4.0, shrinkage is enhanced and consequently the fabric has a higher degree of stretch.
• the immersion in, or padding of the fabrics with the sodium hydroxide/methylene chloride mixture only a few seconds contact is required. A IO-seconds immersion in a mixture containing an equal volume of 20% aqueous sodium hydroxide and methylene chloride induces about the same degree of shrinkage as 30 seconds immersion in the same mixture.
• This invention is applicable to both woven and knitted fabrics. For example, it can be applied to plain weaves, twill weaves, basket weaves, satin weaves, or sateen weaves. Many mixed yarns may be used in accordance with this invention. Two, three, or more types of polyester fiber materials possessing different shrinkage characteristics can be mixed with cotton or other cellulosic fiber in the blended yarn to be woven into a fabric to produce a stretch quality in the fabric. In addition to the polyester and cellulosic components, fibers such as acrylic, polyamide, modacrylic and others can be included in the blend. However, it is necessary that one of these be a high-shrinkage polyethylene terephthalate fiber and another be cellulosic fiber. This invention is also applicable to yarns and fabrics made of two or more blended fibers adequately shrunk simultaneously by two or more suitable chemical agents. This invention is further applicable to fabrics made from yarns having one component which is in a continuous filament form.
• the products of this invention may be used to produce all types of stretch wearing apparel and home furnishings, for example, shirts, slip covers for furniture, and bed sheets. It has also been shown that the products of this invention are easily molded into shaped forms as, for instance, brassiere cups.
• the important advantages of the products obtained by the process of this invention are that they possess a high degree of stretch and a low degree of Unrecovered Tensile Strain. These fabrics also have the advantage of possessing greater bulk than the conventional polyester/ cotton fabrics.
• a further advantage lies in the fact that a high ratio of polyethylene terephthalate staple to cotton may be used to make the yarn for the fabric because the polyester staple does not act to bind the shrinkage of cotton as in the prior art, but is used to complement the shrinkage, and therefore increases the propensity of the cotton to stretch. This feature enhances the desirable properties of the products of this invention because a high percentage of polyethylene terephthalate staple insures good Wash-and-wear properties of the fabrics produced from this yarn.
• a fabric produced by the process defined in claim 1 which has a widthwise stretch of at least 14 percent and a-Widthwise growth of-less than percent; after-being held for 2 hours at percent of the stretch potential and then allowed one hour to recover.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Textile Engineering (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Dispersion Chemistry (AREA)
• Chemical Or Physical Treatment Of Fibers (AREA)
• Woven Fabrics (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=23785778

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (7)

Citations (5)

• 1965
  • 1965-04-21 US US449861A patent/US3507609A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 1966
  • 1966-04-20 BE BE679759D patent/BE679759A/xx unknown
  • 1966-04-20 NL NL6605272A patent/NL6605272A/xx unknown

Patent Citations (5)

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