Fabric (woven – knitted – or nonwoven textile or cloth – etc.) – Nonwoven fabric – Containing at least two chemically different strand or fiber...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-11
2001-08-14
Cole, Elizabeth M. (Department: 1771)
Fabric (woven, knitted, or nonwoven textile or cloth, etc.)
Nonwoven fabric
Containing at least two chemically different strand or fiber...
C442S333000, C442S398000, C442S415000, C442S121000, C162S146000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06274522
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a liquid absorbing body and a method of manufacturing the liquid absorbing body.
BACKGROUND ART
In conventional liquid absorbing bodies, liquid absorbing fibers which are formed of natural cellulose fibers or synthetic fibers have been used. Further, in the case where a liquid absorbing body needs to have a fire resistant property, liquid absorbing fibers which are formed of fire resistant fibers have been used.
Such a liquid absorbing body which needs to have a fire resistant property is preferably used in ink jet printers. Specifically, in ink jet printers, printing is carried out by instantly heating printing ink to cause it to boil and then spraying such heated ink through a plurality of small holes provided in the printing unit. In such ink jet printers, a fire resistant liquid absorbing body is provided at the carriage return position of the printing unit in order to absorb waste ink adhering to the printing unit which is apt to become extremely hot.
In recent years, some of such ink jet printers have been made portable to improve the usefulness thereof. In this regard, in order for such portable printers to be made compact, the internal space thereof needs to be extremely small. Accordingly, such printers require small-size liquid absorbing bodies to absorb waste ink.
However, because conventional liquid absorbing bodies swell up when absorbing waste ink, the volume occupied by such a liquid absorbing body increases when it absorbs waste ink. Consequently, the increase in volume of the liquid absorbing body at the time of swelling must be taken into account when installing such a small-sized liquid absorbing body into the limited internal space of the printer. As a result, the absolute liquid absorption volume which can be absorbed by the liquid absorbing body becomes quite small.
Furthermore, there is a possibility that the waste ink that has been absorbed by the liquid absorbing body leaks out when such a compact printer is carried around. In particular, such a leakage is likely to occur when the conventional liquid absorbing body is placed in a vertically suspended condition. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to improve the absorbed liquid holding ability in a vertical state. As methods for improving the absorbed liquid holding ability, the following two methods have been known in the prior art.
In the first means, a sheet from which a liquid absorbing body is formed is made to have a high density. However, because this means reduces the spaces among the fibers of the liquid absorbing body, the absolute liquid absorption volume thereof is also reduced.
In the second means, high absorptive fibers or high absorptive resin or the like is contained in the liquid absorbing body. However, because such high absorptive fibers and high absorptive resin are likely to swell up, the volume of the liquid absorbing body also increases when swelling occurs.
The present invention has been made in view of the problem as described above. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid absorbing body which has an excellent swelling ability and an excellent absorbed liquid holding ability in a vertical state and which is suitable for mass production and can be manufactured at a low cost, and a method of manufacturing such a liquid absorbing body.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve the object, a liquid absorbing body according to the present invention comprises a dry-type mat-shaped absorbing body which is in the form of a web mainly formed from natural cellulose fibers and/or synthetic fibers; a thickening material interposed among at least parts of the mutual fibers; and a thermally fusible material for fixing the thickening material to the fibers.
According to the liquid absorbing body, when liquid enters into the spaces among the fibers of the liquid absorbing body, a viscosity of the liquid increases immediately due to the thickening material. Therefore, no liquid leaks out even if the liquid absorbing body that has absorbed liquid is suspended vertically. Further, since thus formed liquid absorbing body has an excellent swelling ability, a volume thereof hardly increases even after it has absorbed liquid.
The thickening material is fixed to the natural cellulose fibers and or synthetic fibers by means of the thermally fusible material. Therefore, as for the thickening material, various types of thickening material such as fiber type or powder type or the like can be used. Further, since the thickening material is fixed by means of the thermally fusible material, the fixed thickening material will not fall from the natural cellulose fibers and/or synthetic fibers.
In addition, since the natural cellulose fibers and/or synthetic resin are used as the liquid absorbing fibers, a raw material cost is inexpensive and therefore manufacturing cost thereof can be reduced.
In this way, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an excellent swelling ability by using such a thickening material. Therefore, since it is not necessary to take increase in a volume after absorbing liquid into account, a liquid absorbing body which has substantially the same size as a limited space defined for the absorbing body can be used.
Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an excellent absorbed liquid holding ability in a vertical state by using the thickening material. Therefore, even if it is applied to a portable type ink jet printer, any liquid which has been absorbed in the liquid absorbing body will not leak out during transportation.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the thickening material is fixed to support fibers by employing adhesiveness provided by the fusion of the thermally fusible material, it is not necessary to use a needle punch or the like for fixing the thickening material. In addition, since the liquid absorbing material can be manufactured in a series of manufacturing steps, it is suitable for mass production.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the thermally fusible material is used, it is possible to fix the thickening material and the fire resistant material to the support fibers simultaneously at the same manufacturing step.
Moreover, according to the present invention, since the thickening material can be fixed to inexpensive support fibers such as natural cellulose fibers or the like by means of the thermally fusible material, the manufacturing cost can be reduced.
The liquid absorbing body of the present invention comprises a dry-type mat-shaped absorbing body which is in the form of a web mainly formed from fire resistant fibers; a thickening material interposed among at least parts of the mutual fire resistant fibers; and a thermally fusible material for fixing the thickening material to the fire resistant fibers.
In the same manner as described above, this liquid absorbing body has an excellent absorbed liquid holding ability in a vertical state and an excellent swelling property. In addition, there is also an advantage that it exhibits an excellent fire resistant property since fire resistant fibers are used in the liquid absorbing body.
The liquid absorbing body of the present invention comprises a dry-type mat-shaped absorbing body which is in the form of a web mainly formed from natural cellulose fibers and/or synthetic resin fibers, a fire resistant material and a thickening material which are interposed among at least parts of the mutual fibers, and a thermally fusible material for fixing the fire resistant material and the thickening material to the fibers.
In this invention, the fire resistant material is fixed to the natural cellulose fibers and/or synthetic fibers by means of the thermally fusible material instead of the fire resistant fibers that are used in the invention described above. Since a raw material cost of the fire resistant material is inexpensive in comparison with the fire resistant fibers, the manufacturing cost of the liquid absorbing body can be reduced.
REFE
Miura Teruo
Miyata Kiyotaka
Sameshima Tadanori
Yagura Eiji
Abel David B.
Cole Elizabeth M.
Guarriello John J.
Oji Paper Co. Ltd.
Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP
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