Abrasive tool making process – material – or composition – Bag or filled cloth
Patent
1997-11-12
1999-01-26
Jones, Deborah
Abrasive tool making process, material, or composition
Bag or filled cloth
51295, B24D 328
Patent
active
058633057
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for manufacturing abrasive articles, and particularly to a method and apparatus for manufacturing nonwoven abrasive articles comprising fine abrasive particles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Nonwoven webs comprising open, lofty, three dimensional structures of fibers bonded to one another at their mutual contact points are used extensively in the manufacture of abrasive articles for cleaning, abrading, finishing and polishing applications on any of a variety of surfaces. Exemplary of such nonwoven articles are those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,958,593 to Hoover et al. Such nonwoven webs comprise a suitable fiber such as nylon, polyester, blends thereof and the like and are capable of withstanding temperatures at which impregnating resins and adhesive binders are typically cured. The fibers of the web are often tensilized and crimped but may also be continuous filaments formed by an extrusion process such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,350 to Fitzer, for example. Nonwoven webs are readily formed on conventional equipment such as a "Rando Webber" machine (commercially available from Rando Machine Company, New York), for example.
Fine abrasive particles (defined herein as particles having a distribution of sizes wherein the median particle diameter in the distribution is about 60 microns or less) may be bonded to the fibers of a nonwoven web to provide abrasive articles suitable for use in any of a variety of abrasive applications, and such articles may be provided in the form of endless belts, discs, hand pads, densified or compressed wheels, floor polishing pads and the like. A particularly appropriate use for articles comprising the aforementioned fine particles is in the automotive aftermarket industry, where the abrasive articles are employed to "scuff" or lightly abrade automobile body panels in preparation for painting. In these applications, the abrasive article is applied to a previously-painted surface. During the application, the abrasive particles in the article scratch the surface to reduce the surface gloss to a "haze". Although the commercial success of available abrasive articles has been impressive, it is desirable to further improve the performance of certain abrasive articles especially in applications in the automotive aftermarket, for example.
In the manufacture of these articles, a nonwoven web is prepared, as mentioned. The web is reinforced, for example, by the application of a prebond resin to bond the fibers at their mutual contact points. Additional resin layers may subsequently be applied to the prebonded web. A make coat precursor is applied over the fibers of the prebonded web and the make coat precursor is at least partially cured. A size coat precursor may be applied over the make coat precursor and both the make coat precursor and the size coat precursor are sufficiently hardened in a known manner (e.g., by heat curing). Fine abrasive particles, when included in the construction of the article, are conventionally applied to the fibers in a slurry with the make coat precursor.
Prior to or during the curing of the make coat, the resinous slurry of make coat precursor and fine abrasive particles is known to migrate and to concentrate or agglomerate at the intersection of two or more fibers in the web, or at points where a single fiber crosses itself, due to known surface tension effects, for example. The resulting abrasive articles have a substantially nonuniform distribution of the agglomerated resin and the fine abrasive particles along the lengths of the fibers. Further, because the particles are applied to the web in a resinous slurry, the fine abrasive particles tend to become engulfed in the cured resin, as is illustrated in FIG. 1 wherein the resinous adhesive forms agglomerates 12 along the lengths of the fibers 10 of the nonwoven web with the fine abrasive particles dispersed and engulfed within the resin. In such a construction, the fine abrasive particles may not be immediate
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Beardsley Kris A.
Lise Jonathan M.
Niccum Brent D.
Sanders, Jr. Rufus C.
Bardell Scott A.
Jones Deborah
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
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