Method of making pile fabric

Details Method of making pile fabric Method of making pile fabric

2003-07-03

2004-12-21

Vanatta, Amy B. (Department: 3765)

Textiles: manufacturing

Textile product fabrication or treatment

Of thread interlaced article or fabric

C028S166000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06832419

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pile fabrics such as velours, velvets, and the like may be formed using a “sandwich” method in which two fabrics substrates are woven or knitted in face to face relation with the pile ends interlocking. A cutting blade slits through the center of the “sandwich”, cutting the pile ends to produce two separate pieces of fabric. Each cut piece provides a multiplicity of yarns project outwardly away from the base so as to define a user contact surface.
A common application for pile fabrics is in the covering of seating structures and other interior components for use within transportation vehicles. Such fabric is also used in the manufacture of furniture.
In forming a pile fabric around portions of a seating structure, the fabric bends around sharply defined radius portions of the surface being covered. Such bending typically causes the pile-forming yarns to spread apart, undesirably exposing a portion of the underlying base fabric. That is, bending of the fabric causes a visual “break” in the surface coverage provided by the pile yarns. Such a break in surface coverage is undesirable. To promote the uniformity of surface coverage around a sharp bend it may be possible to utilize extremely high pile density across the base fabric. However, such high pile densities may not be completely effective in avoiding pile separation. Furthermore, high pile density fabrics are expensive and relatively heavy, which is undesirable.
Another potential solution is to utilize so-called “textured” yarns in forming a pile across a fabric. Textured yarns are made using processes such as false twisting and the like so as to impart a textured irregular surface character along the length of the filaments within the yarns. This process of manufacture bulks the filaments along their length. The original uniform character of the filaments within the textured yarns is substituted with an irregular random character in textured yarns. While such textured yarns may provide beneficial surface coverage characteristics, they may pose problems in fabric manufacture while also adding complexity and expense due to the texturizing processes required. In addition, the use of textured yarns may give rise to an enhanced potential for the occurrence of single end defects and non-uniformity in dyeing, which are undesirable.
Conventional Pile Fabrics
In
FIG. 1
, there is illustrated a typical prior art pile fabric
40
formed from multi-filament flat untextured yarns. As illustrated, in this construction the pile fabric
40
includes a base fabric layer
20
formed by the cooperating ground yarns
12
,
14
and an outwardly projecting pile layer
50
formed by an arrangement of tufts
51
including the cooperating pile-forming fibrous elements of pile yarns
30
,
32
. In such a construction, the pile-forming fibrous elements forming the pile portion
50
are generally of a substantially equivalent height across the surface of the pile fabric
40
. Moreover at the base of the prior art pile fabric
40
, there are peak shaped voids
52
between the tufts
51
(i.e. rows) projecting away from the base fabric
20
. As will be appreciated, upon bending the pile fabric
40
around a sharp radius such as a bolster portion of a chair, the pile-forming fibrous elements in the tufts may reveal undesirable voids at the radius of curvature, due in part to the excessive size of the peak shaped voids
52
.


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U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/438,497 entitled “Pile Fabric,” filed May15, 2003 (Milliken File No. 5607) to inventors Keller et al. (copy enclosed).
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/613,241 (Milliken File No. 5635) “Pile Fabric and Heat Modified Fiber and Related Manufacturing Process,” filed Jul. 3, 2003 to Keller et. al. (copy enclosed).

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