Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Coated or structually defined flake – particle – cell – strand,... – Staple length fiber
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-15
2002-05-14
Dixon, Merrick (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Coated or structually defined flake, particle, cell, strand,...
Staple length fiber
C428S364000, C428S332000, C428S333000, C428S401000, C428S220000, C428S293400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06387488
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a fiber having a multi-ply laminar structure and to a structure employing the same, particularly to a color-developing composite short fiber which reflects visible or invisible rays and interferes with them to develop a color with high transparency and has sophisticated design and which also has excellent optical properties, and also to a color-developing structure formed by adhering the fiber on a support such as a sheet, a film or a metal plate or to a color-developing structure having the form of sheet, nonwoven fabric, paper or the like formed by binding such fibers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, fibers having expressiveness such as bulkiness are being developed by using fibers with modified cross sections instead of simple round cross sections and by combining two or more kinds of fibers so as to satisfy demands for high-quality textures in fabrics, and they made entries as new fibers into the market. Fibers having more sophisticated expressiveness or functions are now in demand, and what are required of the fibers include color deepness and luster. However, if a fiber having a deep color and luster is to be obtained, an unvivid dull-colored fiber is resulted, although it may have a deep color; whereas if one tries to obtain a lustrous fiber, a gaudy glittery fiber is resulted. Accordingly, there has so far developed no technique for producing fibers fully satisfying both color depth and luster, as far as the present inventors know.
The reason is that dyes and pigments have been employed for developing colors in the prior art, and since dyes and pigments develop colors based on light absorption, the deeper is the color one tries to obtain, the smaller becomes the reflected light to cause the luster to be lost. Now, when we look around the natural world, we will find creatures satisfying both color depth and luster, for example, jewel beetles and morpho butterflies, and they have colors satisfying color depth and luster simultaneously. These creatures develop colors respectively resorting to reflection and interference of light as the mechanism of color development, and extensive studies are being made so as to find out whether this dolor-developing mechanism can be utilized in synthetic fibers.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 43-14185 discloses a coated three-layer composite fiber having pearl effect. It is true, however, such fibers having merely three layers may develop colors based on light reflection and interference, but the degree of color development is too limited to be able to satisfy the demands for higher expressiveness. Meanwhile, as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 60-1048, a multilayered synthetic fiber whose interfaces are all substantially parallel to one another can be obtained by combining different kinds of polymers alternately and repeatedly in a spinning pack equipped with a stationary mixer, and the resulting polymer is injected through injection orifices. In this official gazette, there is described an example of composite fiber consisting of polyethylene terephthalate and nylon 6 formed by layering them via a multilayered film component employing a stationery mixer, and this fiber can give textiles having pearl effect.
However, if a multilayered fiber is to be obtained according to this method, the laminar flow is disturbed little by little each time two polymers are combined with each other. Although a multilayered structure can be obtained somehow, this technique is not satisfactory to obtain a multilayered structure having a thickness controlled with optical accuracy. Particularly, when a multilayered structure having 10 or more layers is to be formed, polymers must be combined several times or more, so that the layers are liable to have irregular thickness giving coherent beams of light having insufficient intensity and that coherent beams of light having various wavelengths, that is to say, turbidity in color, are observed, resulting in the failure of obtaining a color having satisfactory expressiveness.
Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 57-20842 describes a static fluid mixer; and Japanese Patent Publication Nos. Sho 53-8806 and Sho 53-8807 describe methods of spinning blended yarns and apparatuses therefor. According to these methods, fibers are obtained by combining two kinds of polymers and separating them repeatedly, so that the polymers are mixed due to complication of the polymer flows to be unsuccessful in forming a multilayered structure having optical dimensions. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. Sho 62-170510 also discloses a method for obtaining coherent beams of light by forming fine unevenness on the fiber surface. According to this method, interference of light is induced by forming a diffraction grating on the fiber. A like method is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 4-202805. In these methods, although such fibers may show color development based on interference of light, the wavelength of coherent beams of light in fabrics woven by them vary depending on the angle of view like in the thin film as described above. That is, in this case, the colors of the fabrics vary only to give cheap and unsatisfactory expressiveness.
In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. Sho 59-228042 and Sho 63-64535, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 60-24847, etc. propose color developing fibers and fabrics developed taking a hint from the morpho butterflies in South America which are famous for their variable color tone depending on the angle of view and bright color effect. However, the fibers employed in the inventions described in the above official gazettes are flat yarns formed by laminating different kinds of polymers together, so that it is almost impossible to obtain a thickness so as to induce interference of light even if these polymers are laminated, and such structures merely serve to control reflection of light. Meanwhile, another proposal is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 54-42421 disclosing a method for obtaining a multi-ply lamination fiber of different kinds of polymers is disclosed. However, in this method, the laminated portion is allowed to assume a hollow annular form, and one component in the laminated portion is melted to obtain a superfine fiber. Accordingly, this proposal does not suggest such fibers as can give the effect of interference in which multiple layers are all allowed to have optical dimensions.
There is also published a technique for obtaining a material which shows color development by employing a sandwich structure of a molecule-oriented anisotropic film between a pair of polarizing films (e.g., Journal of Textile Machinery Society, Vol. 42, No. 2, p.55 (1989), and Vol. 42, No. 10, p.160 (1989), ibid.). Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. Hei 7-97766 and Hei 7-97786 disclose fiber fabrics each having on the surface a light interference film provided with a substantially transparent thin film layer which can develop color with the aid of the reflected light of incident light from the front surface and the light reflected by the rear surface. Wavelength of coherent beams of light resorting to such thin films varies depending on the angle of view, so that the color of the fabric changes depending on the angle of view, only to give here again cheap expressiveness.
Under such circumstances, the present inventors was successful in enabling formation of a multilayered structure having a ply number of more than 10 so as to obtain a single color development and also in developing a composite polymer fiber which has a uniform ply thickness and a thin-layer laminar portion formed by laminating alternately two kinds of polymers which develop effective interference color, a technique for forming it and a spinneret employable for forming it, and they recently filed a patent application.
However, when a color-developing composite fiber obtained according to this technique is
Asano Makoto
Kumazawa Kinya
Kuroda Toshimasa
Sakihara Akio
Shimizu Susumu
Dixon Merrick
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Nissan Motor Co,. Ltd.
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