Compositions – Textile processing aid compositions – or processes of preparing
Reexamination Certificate
1993-12-29
2001-03-13
Green, Anthony (Department: 1755)
Compositions
Textile processing aid compositions, or processes of preparing
C252S008840, C008S115600
Reexamination Certificate
active
06200492
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention pertains to textile lubricants containing certain acrylate- and/or methacrylate-containing homo- and/or co-polymers, a process for producing textile lubricants containing these homo- and/or co-polymers, and the use of these homo- and/or co-polymers in textile lubricants to reduce the throwing off (usually called “slinging” in the art) of textile lubricants from the fiber surface during fiber manufacturing and/or processing.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
In the production of melt-spun chemical fibers, the first processing step immediately after the formation of the filaments is treatment of the fiber surface with materials called fiber preparations, which contain lubricants and antistatic agents as their principal active ingredients (cf., e.g.,
Chemiefasern/Textil
-
Industrie
1977, p. 328-335). It is generally known that without such a preparation, synthetic fibers cannot be practically produced or used in textile processing. A smoothing agent for the fiber surfaces is necessary, because the original surface of most polymeric fiber materials generates high frictional forces, so that as a result of the continuous contacts with, for example, guide devices during the manufacturing and processing steps, wearing away of the fibers takes place and can ultimately lead to filament or yarn breakage. In addition, polymeric filament materials generally absorb only a little water. Therefore they tend to develop electrostatic charges.
In the present state of the art, in fiber manufacture as well as in the further processing of the fibers, high-speed machines with thread speeds of up to 6,000 meters per minute (“m/min”) are customary. At these high speeds, a considerable fraction of the applied textile lubricant often sprays or slings off. Not only does this slinging of the lubricants represent a waste, but also, as a result of the throwing off, it is practically impossible to consistently achieve the precise amount of lubricant desired for the individual process steps. In addition, the slinging also causes safety hazards, for example, slippery floors in the immediate vicinity of the machines, respiratory problems, and skin irritations due to spun-off droplets that disperse in the form of fine mists.
To reduce the slinging of textile lubricants during fiber manufacture and processing, it has been suggested many times that polymer compounds be added to the textile lubricants. For example it is known from European patents EP 261,415 and EP 127,293 that the use of high molecular weight polyisobutenes as well as the use of copolymers containing butenes in combination with C
5-20
-alpha-olefins as monomeric constituents will reduce the slinging of spool oils during yarn processing.
U. S. Pat. 3,977,979 of Aug. 21, 1976 to Crossfield teaches that slinging off can be reduced by adding a hydrocarbon soluble, long molecular chain polymeric viscosity improver to an “otherwise conventional” finish formulation. Polymethacrylates, polyalkystyrenes, and polyisobutylenes are stated to be satisfactory, with the latter preferred and the only polymer type described in specific examples. along with hydrocarbon oils as the only base for the formulations. Closely related U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,098,702 and 4,908,703, both of Jul. 4, 1978, and 4,105,569 of Aug. 8, 1978, all of these patents being issued to Crossfield alone or with other inventors, have very similar teachings.
In all these Crossfield patents, the requirements for the polymeric viscosity index improving agents are specified primarily by molecular weight, for example polyisobutenes with molecular weights of between 20,000 and 2,000,000, polyalkylstyrenes with molecular weights of between 20,000 and 2,000,000, or polymethacrylates with molecular weights of between 300,000 and 800,000.
The weight average molecular weight of polymers (“M
W
”) is related to the intrinsic viscosity (“&eegr;
i
”) according to the equation &eegr;
i
=k(M
W
)
&agr;
, where k and &agr; are constants that depend on the temperature at and the solvent in which the intrinsic viscosity is determined and the particular type of homopolymer or copolymer being considered. Cf., e.g., P. J. Flory,
Principles of Polymer Chemistry
(Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1953), p. 313 and E. Penzel and N. Goetz,
Die Angewandte Makromolekular Chemie
, 178, p. 201-208 (1990).
However, these and other polymer anti-sling additives known from the state of the art can be incorporated only with difficulty into textile lubricants, because on one hand vigorous agitation is required for producing homogeneous polymer containing mixtures, while on the other hand vigorous agitation worsens the splashing behavior of textile lubricants. In addition, polyolefins do not dissolve in lubricants that contain carboxylic acid esters (“ester oils”) as the principal lubricant components. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide, in particular, carboxylic acid ester based textile lubricants which, in comparison to known textile lubricants, have substantially improved adhesion properties on the fiber surface and thus are not thrown off at all, or only in very small quantities, at the high thread speeds customary today, and are also easy to produce.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In this description, except in the specific examples, the claims, and where otherwise explicitly stated to the contrary, all numbers denoting amounts of materials or conditions of manufacture or use are to be understood as modified in all instances by the term “about” in defining the broadest scope of the invention. Practice within the exact numerical limits specified is generally preferred. Also, where examples of ingredients suitable for particular purposes are given, unless otherwise explicitly stated, mixtures of the listed ingredients are as effective in the invention as single examples of the listed ingredients.
It has now been found that the above stated objects can be fulfilled if acrylate- and/or methacrylate containing homo- and/or co-polymers with limiting viscosities (alternatively called “intrinsic viscosities”), measured in tetrahydrofuran solvent at 20° C., of at least 200 milliliters per gram (“mL/g”) are added to textile lubricants, particularly those based on esters of carboxylic acids.
Correspondingly, one embodiment of the invention includes textile lubricants, which may contain, for example, smoothing agents, emulsifiers, antistatics, and/or wetting agents, and which contain polymers that have limiting viscosities, measured in tetrahydrofuran at 20° C., of at least 200 mL/g, said polymers being constituted of the following monomeric units:
A. from 100-30 percent by weight (“wt %”) of monomeric units derived from esters of acrylic acid and esters of methacrylic acid with monohydric saturated aliphatic alcohols, which may be straight chain, branched, and/or cyclic, and which contain from 1-22 C atoms; and
B. up to 70 wt % of monomeric units derived from one or more of the following groups:
1. unsaturated aliphatic carboxylic acids with 3-5 C atoms and their amides,
2. styrene and/or alkylstyrenes with 1-4 C atoms in their alkyl residues,
3. acrylonitrile,
4. vinyl esters of aliphatic C
1-18
carboxylic acids, and
5. amino substituted esters of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid with monohydric alcohols having from 2-6 carbon atoms.
An additional embodiment of the invention is a process for producing textile lubricants as specified above, in which method polymers as specified above are added in the form of aqueous dispersions to textile lubricant compositions as previously known in the art, under agitation at temperatures of between 15 and 80° C. under normal atmospheric pressure.
The limiting viscosity for the purposes of defining this invention is determined in accordance with the method described in B. Vollmert,
Grundri&bgr; der makromolekularen Chemie
(English translation of title is “Outline of Macro-molecular Chemistry”), Vol. III, pp. 55 ff, (E. Vollmert Verlag, Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany, 1988). In the case of copolymers, especially those containin
Botulinski Andreas
DeWitt Charles G.
Eicken Ulrich
Fiedler Heidi
Fleming Issac
Drach John E.
Grandmaison Real J.
Green Anthony
Henkel Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien
Trzaska Steven J.
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