Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Coated or structually defined flake – particle – cell – strand,... – Rod – strand – filament or fiber
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-11
2002-08-20
Edwards, N. (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Coated or structually defined flake, particle, cell, strand,...
Rod, strand, filament or fiber
C428S378000, C428S390000, C442S181000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06436535
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a fiber with permanent hydrophilic nature having anti-static properties and softness obtained by adhering a fiber treating agent of a specific composition onto the fiber comprising hydrophobic thermoplastic resin; and to fabrics using said fiber.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a fiber having durable hydrophilicity and relates to fabrics using said fiber which is mainly useful as a face of hygienic goods such as disposable diaper or sanitary napkin in contact with human skin; or as a wiping cloth for industrial and medical use.
BACKGROUND ART
The consumption of fabrics represented by nonwoven fabric is increasing worldwide; especially the ratio shared by nonwoven fabric made of polyolefin fiber and polyester fiber is increasing year by year due to the spreading of one way goods such as disposable diaper, sanitary napkin or a wiping cloth. In the market of one way goods, cost competitiveness and differentiation from the other products are especially demanded in view of the product's nature of only one time use.
Among the requirements to fiber and nonwoven fabric used for such products, regarded as important are antistaticity to produce nonwoven fabric at high speed and durable hydrophilicity to differentiate from the other products.
Following methods are generally known to impart antistaticity and durable hydrophilicity to highly hydrophobic polyolefin or polyester fibers:
1) adhering a fiber treating agent onto fibers
2) fiber using resin comprising hydrophilic polymers
3) introduction of hydrophilic group to the surface of fiber through sulfonation, plasma treatment or corona discharge treatment.
Method 1) is most generally applied for hydrophilic fibers used in one way products. For example, in JP-A-49166/97, a fiber imparted to durable hydrophilicity through adhering small amount of fiber treating agent onto the surface of a fiber, is proposed. However, the fiber treating agent disclosed here, can impart durable hydrophilicity to some extent but insufficient to meet the current market demand.
By method 2), sufficient durable hydrophilicity has not yet been achieved. Moreover, problem is its high cost for disposable article.
As to method 3), though good hydrophilicity is obtained just after the treatment to fiber as mentioned above, hydrophilicity deteriorates due to change of the introduced hydrophilic group on the surface of fiber with time.
Inventors of the present invention have made enthusiastic effort to solve the above mentioned problems. As the result, we have found that a fiber or fabrics having durable hydrophilicity together with good antistaticity can be obtained by adhering a fiber treating agent containing specific amount of the mixture made by mixing specific compounds to the specific composition to the surface of thermoplastic resin fiber or fabrics, and have achieved the present invention based on the above finding.
As apparent from the foregoing, the object of the present invention is to provide a thermoplastic resin fiber having durable hydrophilicity which has been the problem of prior art as mentioned above together with good antistaticity and to provide fabrics using the fiber.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention also consists in:
(1) A fiber having durable hydrophilicity obtained by adhering a fiber treating agent comprising at least 60% by weight of a mixture consisting of the following components (A), (B), (C), (D) and (E) each at the following composition to fiber of thermoplastic resin at the level of 0.1 to 1.0% by weight based on fiber weight.
(A) 20 to 40% by weight, based on the total of (A) to (E), of polyglycerin fatty acid ester expressed by the following Formula A,
wherein R
1
represents alkyl or alkenyl group having 7 to 21 carbon atoms; R
2
and R
3
each represent H, alkanoyl group having 8 to 22 carbon atoms or alkenoyl group; “a” indicates an integer of 5 to 15.
(B) 5 to 20% by weight, based on the total of (A) to (E), of polyoxyalkylene modified silicone expressed by the following Formula B,
wherein R
4
represents H or alkyl group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms; R
5
represents CH
3
or C
3
H
6
O (C
2
H
4
O)
d
(C
3
H
6
O)
e
R
4
; “b” indicates an integer of 3 to 15; “c” indicates an integer of 10 to 120; “d” indicates an integer of 5 to 100; “e” indicates an integer of 5 to 100; with the proviso that “d+e” is an integer equal to or less than 105.
(C) 10 to 25% by weight, based on the total of (A) to (E), of alkyl imidazolium alkyl sulfate expressed by the following Formula C,
wherein R
6
represents alkyl group having 7 to 21 carbon atoms; R
7
represents methyl or ethyl group.
(D) 5 to 20% by weight, based on the total of (A) to (E), of alkylene oxide adduct of alkanoylamide expressed by the following Formula D,
wherein R
8
represents alkyl group having 7 to 21 carbon atoms; R
9
represents alkylene unit having 2 to 4 carbon atoms; “f” indicates an integer of 5 to 30.
(E) 25 to 40% by weight, based on the total of (A) to (E), of polyetherester expressed by the following Formula E, Formula E:
R
10
—R
11
—R
12
wherein R
10
represents moiety of aliphatic hydroxy compound having hydroxy value of 1 to 6; R
11
represents polyether-polyester block expressed by Formula F or Formula G; R
12
represents H, alkanoyl group having 2 to 18 carbon atoms or alkenoyl group having 16 to 22 carbon atoms.)
wherein Formula F and Formula G, R
13
represents alkylene unit having 2 to 4 carbon atoms; R
14
represents alkylene unit having 2 to 12 carbon atoms; “m” and “n” each indicates an integer equal to or larger than 1; “g
1
” to “g
m
” each indicates an integer provided that the sum g=g
1
+g
2
+ . . . +g
m
is 5 to 200; “h
1
” to “h
n
” each indicates an integer provided that the sum, h=h
1
+h
2
++ . . . h
n
is 5 to 200 and g≧h.
(2) A fiber having durable hydrophilicity described in item (1) above which is a conjugate fiber made by combining at least two kind of thermoplastic resins.
(3) A fiber having durable hydrophilicity described in either item (1) or (2) above in which at least one component of thermoplastic resins composing the fiber is polyolefin resin.
(4) A fiber having durable hydrophilicity described in either items (1) or (2), above in which at least one component of thermoplastic resins composing the fiber is polyester resin.
(5) A fabric comprising a fiber having durable hydrophilicity described in any one from item (1) to (4) above.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The present invention will be described in detail as follows.
As for fibers comprising thermoplastic resin in the present invention, the fibers comprising thermoplastic resin such as polyolefins, polyesters or polyamides can be illustrated. However, in case of using for the face material and so on in the field of hygienic materials, fibers comprising hydrophobic thermoplastic resin such as polyolefin resins or polyester resins are preferable from the point of dry touch feeling.
Polyolefin resins mentioned here indicate ethylene homopolymer, propylene homopolymer, &agr;-olefin copolymers of ethylene or propylene with other &agr;-olefin etc., or mixture of more than one of these. As for &agr;-olefin copolymers, binary or ternary copolymers comprising propylene as main component, copolymerized with ethylene, butene-1, 4-methyl pentene-1 etc. or mixture of one or more of these can be illustrated.
As for polyesters, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, poly(ethylene terephthalate-co-ethylene isophthalate), copolyetherester etc. or mixture of these can be illustrated.
Further, by use, a mixture of polyolefins with polyesters or polyamides can be suitably adopted.
When the fiber having durable hydrophilicity of the present invention is a conjugate fiber comprising two or more of thermoplastic resins, combination of thermoplastic resins to be used can be illustrated as polyethylene/polypropylene, polyethylene/&agr;-olefin copolymer, &agr;-olefin copolymer/polypropylene or po
Kataoka Yukinori
Katsuya Masahito
Minamoto Koji
Chisso Corporation
Edwards N.
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