Fabric (woven – knitted – or nonwoven textile or cloth – etc.) – Nonwoven fabric – Including strand or fiber material which is a monofilament...
Patent
1997-11-13
2000-10-17
Copenheaver, Blaine
Fabric (woven, knitted, or nonwoven textile or cloth, etc.)
Nonwoven fabric
Including strand or fiber material which is a monofilament...
1563082, 264119, 264123, 26417215, 442407, 442411, D04H 100
Patent
active
061331716
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to mechanically strengthened nonwovens for the production of dimensionally stable, flexible molded articles.
The term "mechanically strengthened nonwovens" is understood to imply nonwovens which are mechanically strengthened by means of barbed needles in needle-punching, by water jets according to the spunlaced procedure, or by coulier needles in a stitchknitting method. These nonwovens may be manufactured, for example, by using polyester fibers stretched or partially stretched as polyethylene terephthalate fibers, as bicomponent fibers of polyethylene terephthalate polymers having differing softening points, or as homopolymeric melded fibers.
There are several techniques to manufacture nonwovens for moldings. For example, according to the so-called thermofusion procedure, these nonwovens of coarse polyester fibers (PES) having a portion of PES-bicomponent fibers (core/sheath) are deformed under pressure and temperature after solidification. The enveloping layer of the bicomponent fibers starts to fuse, thus causing the polyester fibers and the bicomponent fibers to fuse together at their crossings. This method is described in the journal "Techtextil Telegramm", 1991, number 21, page 3. The production of PES-spunbonded nonwovens using special binding fiber components represents another technique; under pressure and temperature these are processed into molded parts having a deformation depth of 35 cm, for example, used as primary substrate for formed tufted carpets (Konferenz Einzelbericht: Textilien im Automobil, Kongre.beta. der VDl-Gesell. Textil und Bekleidung, 1993, Dusseldorf, Oct. 14th-15th 1993, pages 9-23).
Furthermore, mechanically strengthened nonwoven mats are known which, composed of three plies (covering nonwoven-filling nonwoven-covering nonwoven), are deformed under heat and used as supporting substrate for molded articles. This method is described in Konferenz Einzelbericht: 32nd Int. Chemiefasertagung 1993, Dornbirn, Austria, Sept. 22nd to 24th 1993, pages 1-25, Paper No. 68.
The known techniques permit the production of molded articles made of pure-grade fibrous materials which may be recycled.
Although extensive deformations may be achieved, these methods have the disadvantage that, in case of an extreme deflection angle and sophisticated forms, the materials break at the points of deflection or form weak points. To obtain a dimensionally stable deformation, these nonwovens must be strengthened to a high degree, and this results in loss of flexibility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly the object of the present invention to provide a nonwoven for the production of dimensionally stable, flexible molded articles that are highly strengthened on the one hand, and which neither break nor form weak points on the other hand, even in case of large deformation angles of >80.degree. over a distance of >5 cm.
Side-by-side bicomponent fibers consist of two polymer components, in a round fiber cross-section each half consisting of one polymer.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention this object is achieved by the fact that the mechanically strengthened non-woven comprises 40 to 75 wt. % of homopolymeric, amorphous meldable fibers having a melting range of 165 to 175.degree. C. and 10 to 40 wt. % of side-by-side bicomponent fibers.
To ensure good deformability, dimensional stability and the property of being recycled, further embodiments of the invention provide that the nonwoven preferably comprises 45 to 65 wt. % of melded fibers and 20 to 30 wt. % of side-by-side-bicomponent fibers.
Meldable fibers based on PES and bicomponent fibers based on PES (polyester)/CoPES(copolymeric polyester) are preferred. More preferably, the meldable fiber is based on pure PES. The preferred meldable fiber is amorphous polyethylene terephthalate having a crystalline portion of about 10-12 wt. %. The preferred CoPES contains a portion of polyethylene terephthalate.
The deformability is supported by a filling
REFERENCES:
patent: 4883707 (1989-11-01), Newkirk
patent: 5198057 (1993-03-01), Newkirk et al.
patent: 5569525 (1996-10-01), Masuda et al.
Potzler Bernd
Riediger Wolfgang
Copenheaver Blaine
Lohmann GmbH & Co. KG
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