Textiles: weaving – Fabrics – Pile
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-20
2003-12-23
Calvert, John J. (Department: 3765)
Textiles: weaving
Fabrics
Pile
C028S100000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06666234
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a process for the manufacture of institutional towels with the resulting towel having a much longer life expectancy.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is well known to manufacture towels in a process utilizing yarn spun from 100% cotton fibers. In manufacturing such a towel, the yarn is woven, as is well known, on a loom with the 100% cotton yarn being contained in the ground, fill, and pile yarns. In fact it is the 100% cotton aspect of the towel that makes it more “desirable” by the consumer since it is fixed in the mind of the purchaser that 100% cotton towels are more absorbent than other types of towels. However, when considering an institutional towel there are many drawbacks to providing 100% cotton spun yarns woven into towels since there are other issues which must be considered, which from an institutional standpoint creates disadvantages to the institution, for example a hotel chain. A hotel providing towels is a cost of doing business, thus any reductions in the cost of providing towels goes straight to the bottom line. However, cost reductions are not acceptable if customer satisfaction is sacrificed.
In manufacturing a typical towel through a continuous process, the towel is woven from the yarns accumulated on beams with the output from the loom being a continuous web of interconnected toweling product which must be bleached to remove any materials applied during the slashing process including a washing step. The toweling products that are desired to be a colour (other than a white colour) are subsequently dyed through a cold pad batch or beck dying process, washed and finally dried, then separated and finished into towels, or other terry products.
The output therefore from the process herein described includes terry products of various colours including white and other shades. For a towel or a terry product for the retail market, the consumer is quite content to wash the dyed towels without bleaching and to apply a fabric softener either in the wash or in the dryer.
However, with institutional towels the concern for the life expectancy of the towel and the sanitation of the product are very important. All institutional towels are washed with bleach time after time and as a result it can be expected that the dyed products will fade after as little as ten washings with the colour being substantially gone after twenty washings. Even with these results some hotels use dyed towels, but most feel that the fading and “colour matching” problems are not acceptable. As a rule most institutional towels are white. (Our process also enhances the ability of white products to withstand the rigors of institutional laundries and its colour retention is improved. All cotton products will become dingy over a period of time.) Over the years, most of the major hotel chains have experimented with dyed towels, in fashionable colours. Many have tried on several occasions. The outcome was a mandate by some Corporate offices to halt all use of other coloured towels and to use only white towels. Our product will have to overcome such mandates, prejudices and widely held conceptions that it is impossible to provide a coloured towel that will maintain its colourfastness.
It is known in the patent literature to provide a towel construction wherein it is suggested that yarns for ground fill, ground warp and the pile warp, although preferably being made of cotton, may also be manufactured from yarns made of blends of cotton and polyester. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,400 describes this alternative. It is also discussed within U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,400 that a checkered patent may be provided in the terry cloth by utilizing different colour yarns. There is no discussion however as to how the yarns might be manufactured and coloured. We are also aware of other constructions for towels, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,273 discusses in the Background of the Invention a preference of cotton and alternatively that synthetic fibers may be blended with the cotton fibers. Rayon yarns are also discussed in relation to their absorbency in that the rayon may be woven into the towel in the form of a 3-pick terry weave. U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,272 discusses that terry yarns have been formed of shrinkable synthetic fibers blended with cellulosic fibers, such as cotton. U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,274 teaches a woven terry towel wherein the ground warp and/or the filling yarns are composed of a blend of polyester and cellulosic fibers, but the terry pile is manufactured from 100% cotton. Within the reference it is stated that polyester has been heretofore considered an undesirable fiber for use in terry towels due to its low moisture absorbency characteristics. In fact, U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,272 issued May 16, 2000 teaches an all cotton pile with polyester being in the ground fabric. The pile yarns although desirably all cotton may include small quantities of other fibers such as polyester or rayon which would result in a corresponding decrease in the absorbency of the finished towel product. Specifically in the examples various compositions are described.
However, in spite of the general discussions in the above-mentioned patent literature there is no discussion of the present problems facing the institutions which purchase institutional towels. In none of the above patents, is colourfastness or longer life mentioned.
Our unique product provides many benefits to institutional towel users. However our principal objective is to provide a towel that will exceed current experience and expectations by providing a towel which will both (i) retain its colour and (ii) yield longer life expectancy, even when harsh chemicals are used in the laundering process.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an institutional towel and related toweling product which is the result of a manufacturing process resulting in minimum variation from batch to batch of the final product colour.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an institutional towel ensemble {i.e. all sizes} which includes a matching set of toweling products having very little colour variation from item to item in the ensemble.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a process of manufacturing an institutional towel which eliminates the need to dye the towel at the towel mill and thus eliminates the effluent waters created when dyeing product.
Further and other objects of the invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention and a more detailed description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the following definitions of various aspects of the invention colour is defined as any possible colour shade including various shades of white. Polyester has a raw colour of grey.
According to a primary aspect of the invention there is provided a process for manufacturing institutional terry/toweling products comprising the steps of:
1. providing cotton fibers;
2. providing pre-dyed polyester fibers;
3. orienting the fibers of the cotton in substantially a uniform parallel direction by carding;
4. orienting the pre-dyed polyester fibers in substantially parallel direction by a carding process;
5. draw blending the cotton and pre-dyed polyester fibers in a slivering process, in one embodiment in a ratio of 8 to 14% of the pre-dyed polyester fibers with the balance being the cotton fiber; in another embodiment in a ratio of less than or equal to about 5% of the pre-dyed polyester fibers with the balance being the cotton fiber; in yet another embodiment in a ratio of less than or equal to about 8% of the pre-dyed polyester fibers with the balance being the cotton fiber; in yet another embodiment in a ratio of about 25-35% and preferably less than or equal to about 30% of the pre-dyed polyester fibers with the balance being the cotton fiber; in another embodiment in a ratio of about 45-55% and preferably less than or equal to about 50% of the pre-dyed polyester fibers with the balance being the cott
Hamby David Eugene
Rice Wilbur Mattison
Blair Mills L.P.
Calvert John J.
Hughes Ivor M.
Hughes Neil H.
Muromoto Jr. Robert H.
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