Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Pile or nap type surface or component – Composition of pile or adhesive
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-12
2004-11-23
Juska, Cheryl A. (Department: 1771)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Pile or nap type surface or component
Composition of pile or adhesive
C428S089000, C428S397000, C428S400000, C264S17800F, C264S182000, C264S204000, C264S206000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06821599
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an acrylic fiber used mainly in pile fabrics, a pile fabric comprising this acrylic fiber, and a method of producing this acrylic fiber, and more particularly relates to an acrylic fiber which is easily porosified by a porosification treatment operation following spinning, and which has an external appearance in which a feeling of the presence of individual fibers is emphasized, and a pile fabric which is manufactured using this fiber, and which has extremely superior external appearance characteristics in which a feeling of the presence of individual fibers constructing the pile part is visually emphasized.
BACKGROUD ART
Acrylic type synthetic fibers have a fur-like hand and luster, and are widely used in the knit field, as well as in the boa and high-pile fields. In recent years, furthermore, there has been an increased demand to make the external appearance and hand of piles resemble those of natural fur more closely by using such acrylic fibers. In natural furs, the standing-hair portion of the fur generally has an intrinsic two-layer structure consisting of long hairs known as “guard hairs”, and short hairs known as “down hairs” which grow densely beneath the guard hairs. Pile fabrics are fabrics which mimic this natural fur structure “as is”; acrylic type synthetic fibers have already seen wide use in pile products as a result of the natural hand and luster of such fibers. Usually, acrylic fibers used in the field of such pile products are subjected to working such as the creation of a shading effect by kneading a metallic compound into the fibers in order to cause the luster to resemble that of natural fur. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.S56-44163, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.S56-44164 and the like, methods are proposed in which acrylic fibers that have a fur-like luster are obtained by adding metallic compounds and cellulose derivatives to copolymers consisting of acrylonitrile. Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.H3-146705, it is indicated that a fur-like luster can be realized by subjecting acrylic type synthetic fibers following drying (in which a metallic compound is added during the spinning process) to rapid cooling and overdrawing so that the fibers have cracks that are perpendicular to the axial direction of the fibers. However, although fibers obtained by these techniques have a fur-like external appearance at first glance, the impression that the individual fibers are covered by other surrounding fibers cannot be eliminated in cases where individual fibers are formed into a standing-hair fabric. Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.H9-31797, it is indicated that in a pile fabric obtained by constructing the fabric from fibers produced by adding a delustering agent at the rate of 1.5 wt % or less to dischargeable fibers having a fixed thickness, and fibers containing such a delustering agent at the rate of 0.7 wt % or less, fibers with different brightness values are present in aggregations, so that the fabric has a wood-like coloring showing a grain. However, most of these effects relate to the print coloring characteristics in the pile fabric, and are not effects in which a feeling of the presence of individual fibers is visually emphasized in cases where the fabric is formed into a standing-hair fabric.
Thus, in the past, there have been few reports of fibers showing an external appearance in which a feeling of the presence of the individual fibers is emphasized in a pile fabric. Such reports include a technique in which the vaporization of a low-boiling-point solvent is utilized to endow the fiber cross section with voids (as indicated in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.S62-177255) as a technique relating to coloring properties utilizing the porous structure of fibers. However, since this technique uses a low-boiling-point solvent as a bubbling agent, the technique suffers from a problem in terms of manufacture: namely, it is difficult to recover the low-boiling-point solvent used to form voids in the fiber cross section.
Meanwhile, in regard to fibers in which acrylic type copolymers are combined with other polymers, a fiber obtained by utilizing a void stabilizing agent such as cellulose acetate to stabilize the voids in the manufacturing process of the fiber is introduced in (for example) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.S54-101920, and a fiber obtained by mixing cellulose acetate with an acrylic polymer produced by copolymerizing monomers containing 3 wt % or more sulfonate groups is introduced in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.H6-2213. However, both of these fibers aim at improving the hygroscopic properties, so that the application of the fibers differs from that of the present invention. Moreover, these fibers are used in fields that require a water-absorbing/perspiration-absorbing function, such as underwear, socks, sportswear, towels and the like; accordingly, the denier of the fibers is small, and it appears from the embodiments that the width in the direction of the major axis of the fiber cross section, i. e., the maximum width, is 60 &mgr;m or less. Furthermore, an acrylic fiber which has a rubber-form polymer such as a polyvinyl acetate in an acrylic copolymer is introduced in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.S60-110913; however, this fiber aims at preventing fiber splitting, and does not aim at endowing a fabric with an external appearance that is superior in design quality, in which a feeling of the presence of individual fibers (of the type described above) is emphasized. Furthermore, this fiber does not have a porous structure. Moreover, in regard to fibers in which a modacrylic type polymer and a vinyl acetate type polymer are combined, a porous fiber obtained by utilizing phase-separated polymers such as a modacrylic type polymer and a vinyl acetate type polymer, and arranging the process so that a void structure formed in the spinning process is maintained after spinning, is introduced in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.S57-58811; however, the object in this case is to improve the hygroscopicity by means of voids formed by phase separation. Furthermore, the addition of a vinyl acetate type polymer to an acrylonitrile type polymer is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.H10-110326; however, this technique relates to process stability with the aim of increasing the productivity of acrylic fibers, and does not aim at emphasizing a feeling of the presence of the fibers, i. e., at obtaining an external appearance in which the individual fibers are visually emphasized, as in the present invention.
Thus, in the past, there has been no technique of obtaining an external appearance in which the individual fibers are emphasized by porosification following spinning.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pile fabric which is endowed with external appearance characteristics that are superior in terms of design quality, i. e., in which a feeling of the presence of the individual fibers forming the pile part is emphasized, by porosifying acrylic fibers and using these porous acrylic fibers to form the pile fabric. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel porous acrylic fiber which can give an external appearance that is superior in terms of design quality, in which a feeling of the presence of the individual fibers is visually emphasized in the standing-hair part of a pile fabric, and in which such a special feature of the external appearance can be caused to appear conspicuously by porosification of the fiber in after-working following spinning, and a method of producing this fiber.
As a result of diligent research conducted by the present inventors in order to achieve the abovementioned object, it appeared that it was necessary to form a structure in which visible light passing through the interiors of the fibers is to some extent scattered and reflected in order to o
Harada Satoru
Kuroda Minoru
Murata Shoichi
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Juska Cheryl A.
Kaneka Corporation
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