CA1149522A

CA1149522A - Wadding materials

Info

Publication number: CA1149522A
Application number: CA000385799A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Yugoro Masuda; Shigeru Kawase; Toyokazu Nonaka
Original assignee: Kanebo Ltd
Current assignee: Kanebo Ltd
Priority date: 1980-09-18
Filing date: 1981-09-14
Publication date: 1983-07-05
Also published as: ATE10520T1; EP0048605A1; DE3167486D1; JPS5756560A; JPH0120912B2; US4481256A; EP0048605B1

Abstract

Abstract of the Disclosure Wadding materials suitable for bedclothes and clothes and having high bulkiness and compressibility, excellent bulkiness recovery, light weight and high warmth retaining ability, which consist of a blend of 80-20% by weight of staple fibers (A) having a monofilament denier of 3-10 deniers, a curliness of not less than 15% and 20-80% by weight of synthetic polymer staple fibers (B) having a monofilament fineness of 0.7-4 deniers which is smaller than that of the staple fibers (A) and a curliness of less than 15%.

Description

z The present invention relates to wadding materials having high bulkiness, high compressibility, excellent recovery, light weight and high warmth retaining ability.
As an ideal wadding material, feathers have been known for long. Quilts and winter clothes using feathers are bulky and warm even in a small amount of wadding and further can be folded in a compact form when foldin~ and laying away these articles and a large keeping place is not necessary and further the recovery of bulkiness upon reusing is excellent. Therefore~ a variety of attempts have been made in order to artificially obtain wadding materials having feather properties. For example, it has been attempted to incorporate polyester staple fibers in natural down or to treat polyester fibers with silicone resin but these attempts have not been satisfied and the delicacy structure and other excellent properties of the natural down, for example, high compressibility capable of being folded and laid away compactly, excellent original bulkiness, excellent bulkiness recovery when reusing after folding and laying away, excellent recovery owing to mechanical force (beat back property) and soft skin touch have not been yet obtained and satisfactory articles have not been obtained~
The inventors have continued diligent studies and found wadding materials having unique properties.
An object of the present invention is to provide wadding materials having high bulkiness, moderate resiliency, high drape property, good body fitness, soft touch, light weight and excellent warmth retaining ability.
Another object is to provide wadding materials ~ ' which can be folded into a compact form upon folding and laying away and are small in storing space, are excellent in the bulkiness recovery when reusing and can recover the original properties.
The other objects may be clarified by the following e~planation.
The above described objects can be attained by wadding materials composed of a blend of 80-20% by weight of staple fibers (A) having a monofilament fineness of 3-lO deniers and a curliness of not less than 15% and 20-80% by weight of staple fibers (B) composed of synthetic polymers and having a monofilament fineness of 0.7-4 deniers, which is smaller than that of the staple fibers (A) and a curliness of less than 15%.
The staple fibers (A) to be used in the present invention include various fibers of polyesters~ poly-propylenes, polyethylenes, nylons, wool and the like and in particular, polyester fibers readily obtain various effects mentioned hereinafter and are preferable for obtaining the wadding materials of the present invention.
As the fiber length of the staple fibers (A), 20-120 mm is usually used, 20-lO0 mm is preferable and 20-80 mm is more preferable. It is not necessary for the fiber length to be uniform but fibers having different length may be blended. If the fineness and curliness of the staple fibers (A) are within the moderate range under the state where the staple fibers (B) are blended, the original bulkiness is high and the compressibility is high, reversely the compression stress and the instant repellency are low ~ and the formed fibrous articles are readily folded and laid away in a compac-t form and the touch is soft and the body fitness is good. However, when the fineness is too large, the compressibility becomes low and the compression stress and the repellency are too large and it is difficult to fold and lay away the formed fibrous articles in a small space and when the fineness and curliness are too small, the bulkiness is poor and the compression stress becomes too small and the resiliency is lost. From these results, the monofilament fineness of the staple fibers (A) is 3-10 deniers, preferably 4-7 deniers and the curliness is not less than 15%, preferably not less than 18%.
The upper limit of the curliness is about 30% in view of the production of crimped fibers.
"Curliness" used herein is expressed by the following formula BBA x 100 (%) A : The fiber length when a load of 2 mg/denier is applied.
B : The fiber length when a load of 50 mg/denier is applied.
A large number of fibers are sampled from the fibrous assembly of the produced fibrous blend and the measurement is effected with respect to this sample and an average value is determined.
The staple fibers (B~ to be used in the present invention include various synthetic fibers of synthetic polymers of polyesters, polypropylenes, polyethylenes, nylons, etc. and among them, polyester fibers can easily provide the effects of the present invention and -these fibers are preferable. The fiber length of the staple ~ ~ 9 5 ~ Z

fibers (B) is abou-t 20-200 mm, preferably 20-150 mm, more preferably 20-120 mm. In this case, bias-cut fibers may be used. The relation of the various effects to the fineness and fiber length of the staple fibers (B) is substantially the same as in the staple fibers (A) but in order to develop the maximum effect in the fibrous assembly wherein the staple fibers (B) are blended with the above described staple fibers (A), the fineness of the staple fibers (B) must be smaller than that of the staple fibers (A) and is within a range of 0.7-~ deniers, preferably 1-3 deniers. The curliness of the staple fibers (B) is less than 15%, preferably less than 10% and only when the staple fibers having such a small curliness which is not usually used, including curliness of 0, that is having no crimps, are used, the effect of the present invention can be obtained to the maximum limit and when the fiberous articles stored compactly are particularly reused, if the articles are beaten or shaken slightly and a mechanical stimulation or vibration is given, the bulkiness is recovered (referred to as "beat back property" hereinafter).
The staple fibers (A) and (B) may be no-t only the fibers consisting of one component alone but also include composite fibers wherein different polymers, the same kind of polymers having different viscosity and the like are conjugate spun in concentric, eccentric or side-by-side type. In addition, the staple fibers (A) and (B) include hollow fibers and porous fibers. If composite hollow fibers are used as the staple fibers (A), crimps can be easily obtained and are fast and such fibers are light and bulky and are high in the warmth retaining ~9~

ability, so that such fibers are particularly preferable.
In this case, the hollow percentage is generally about 5-30%.
Furthermore, it is preferable that both the staple fibers ~A) and the staple fibers (B) are treated with a lubricating agent, such as oils, silicone compound, fluorine compound, if necessary, to make the static friction coefficient between fibers to be less than 0.45, preferably less than 0.20.
In the present invention, it is essential that the particularly de~ined s~aple fibers (A) and (B) as described above are blended but in the particularly defined blend range, the compressibility is high, the instant elastic recovery and the compression stress are moderate, the laying away is easy and the moderate resiliency is obtained, the use feeling, touch feeling and drape property are excellent. Moreover, suprisingly the blend of the staple fibers (A) and the staple fibers (B) provides the synergistic effect which has not been expected from the single component case, and the original bulkiness and the bulky recovery upon reusing after folding and laying away :.are excellent and the bulkiness is maintained in using and the warmth retaining ability is excellent. The reason why such a synergistic effect is obtained is not clear but it is considered that the entanglement between fibers is reduced due to blending of fibers having a moderate small fineness and a low curliness. For the purpose, 80-20% by weight, preferably 80-30% by weight, more preferably 70-40% by weight of the staple fibers (A) and 20-80% by weight, preferably 20-70% by weight, more preferably 30-60% by weight of the staple fibers (B) are blended.

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Beyond the above described blend range, the above described excellent effects can not be obtained.
In the range within which the object of the present invention is attained~ s-taple fibers other than the staple fibers (A) and the staple fibers (B) may be blended in an amount of less than about 30% by weight based on the total fibers. As these staple fibers, mention may be made of synthetic fibers of polyamides, polyesters, polyethylenes, polypropylenes etc. natural fibers, such as wool etc. Furthermore, fibers in which the fineness and the curliness are not covered by the defined ranges of fineness and curliness of the staple fibers (A) and (B), that is the fibers composed of polymers of a low melting point may be blended. The polymers having the low melting point are ones having a melting point which is more than 20C, preferably more than 30C lower than any polymer composing the staple fibers (A) and (B).
The wadding materials consisting of the staple fibers (A) and the staple fibers (B) of the present invention may be blended by a conventional process.
The wadding materials of the present invention may be used not only in web-form but also in random fibrous mass, for example by disturbing the arrangment of web or separating about 1-10 cm of fibrous mass by means of a mechanical, wind or manual force. When the wadding materials are used for bedclothes, the wadding materials of the present invention can be used alone in a single layer or a laminate and when using in a multi-layer, the wadding may be used as either or both layers of the upper and lower layers or as an intermediate layer.

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The wadding materials of the presen~ invention may be used for bedclothes such as, futon (Japanese mattress), clothes needing protection against the cold and warmth retaining ability by being covered with a proper cloth, various industrial materials needing heat insulation and the like.
The first effect of the wadding materials of the present invention is high in the warmth retaining ability.
The wadding materials of the present invention are rich in the bulkiness and hold a large amount of air between fibers, so that said materials are warm. The bedclothes and clothes are preferred to be light and warm and the bulkiness can reduce an amount of wadding filled and it is possible to reduce the weight. In the bedclothes and clothes which are poor in the drape property and are not fit to body3 air warmed by body heat is escaped from gaps, but the wadding materials of the present invention are fit to body and keep warmed air, so that said materials are high in the warmth retaining ability.
The second effect is that the wadding materials of the present invention can be folded in a compact form when laying away. Namely, the wadding materials of the present invention are properly low in the compression stress and high in the compressibility, so that the volume can be reduced by a relatively small force. When a pressure is removed, if there is an instant elastic recovery, the portion other than a very narrow zone where is pressed with hand, instantaneously expands, so that it is impossible to make the entire portion compact. However, the wadding materials of the present invention are low in this instant ' elastic recovery, so that said materials can be folded and laid away in a small space. In prior wadding materials, ones having a high bulkiness are difficult in compression and ones which are easily compressed, are poor in the bulkiness and have no resiliency and it has been difficult to satisfy both the requirements. But the wadding materials of the present invention are bulky and are easlly compressed and can satisfy both the performances.
The third effect is as :Eollows. ~nless the bulkiness is recovered when the wadding materials folded and laid away in a compact form as described above are reused, there is no commercial value but the wadding materials of the present invention are excellent in the elastic recovery ana particularly in the beat back property and the total recovery combining both the recoveries is very good and the thickness near the original bulkiness is recovered. Prior wadding materials are low in the beat back property and the recovery has relied upon only the elastic recovery, but the wadding is compressed with compressing force when laying away and further the fibers in the wadding are entangled with one another when the ~adding is made into a compact form, so that it is impossible to obtain even the satisfactory elastic recovery and even if the wadding material is bulky at the the original stage, the original bulkiness is no longer obtained when reusing.
The fourth effect is that the skin touch is soft, the drape property is excellent and the moderate resiliency is provided with, so that when the wadding materials are used as the bedclothes and clothes, the wear ~0 feeling is good ~ 5 ~2 The wadding materials of the present invention can be produced by means of a usual carding maehine without needing a specific appara~us and are economically and industrially advantageous.
As mentioned above, the present invention can provide qualitatively e~cellent wadding materials by using simple raw materials and process, so that the commercially utilizing value is very high.
The following examples are given for the purpose of illustration of this invention and are not intended as limitations thereof. "Part" in the following examples means by weight. The following properties were determined as follows.
A sample was compressed to 5 mm by means of Instron and left to stand under the compressed state for 3 minutes and then the weight was removed and left to stand under the unloaded state for 3 minutes and then again compressed.
Original bulkiness (A): Thickness ~mm) when an preliminary load (1.3 g/cm2 stress) was applied to the sample in the course of the above described first compression.
Compression stress: Stress (g/cm2) immediately after the first compression to 5 mm.
Compressibility: AAB x 100(%) ~5 B : Thickness when the stress became 28.3 g/cm? in the course of the first compression.
Initial compression hardness: Stress (g/cm2) when the sample subjecting to the first compression was compressed 20 mm from the thickness when the above described preliminary load (1.3 g/cm?) was applied.

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Elastic recovery: A x 100(%) C : Thickness when the above described preliminary load ~1.3 g/cm2) was applied to the sample in the course of the second compression.
~ high load of 70 g/cm2 was applied to the sample for 24 hours and then the load was removed and left to stand for 1 hour to permit the sample to naturally recover the bulkiness and then the above described preliminary load (1.3 g/cm2) was applied to said sample to determine the thickness (D). Then the thus treated sample was rotated for 3 minutes with a tumbler drier to give vibration and thereafter the preliminary load (1.3 g/cm2) was applied to the sample to determine the thickness (E).
Beat back amount : E-D (mm) Total recovered bulkiness : E (mm) Total recovery : A x 100(%).
Static friction coefficient between fibers was measured by Radar process.
Example 1 60 parts of staple fibers (~) consisting of polyester fibers having a fiber length of 76 mm, a curliness of 20-21% as shown in the following Table 1 and a mono-filament fineness of 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 12 deniers and 40 parts of staple fibers (B) consisting of polypropylene fibers having a fiber length of 38 mm, a curliness of 6.8%
and a monofilament fineness of 1 denier were blended and this blend was piled in a rate of 0.4 kg/m2 to prepare a wadding material. This wadding material was covered with a cover cloth. ~ith respect to this article, various properties were evaluated and the obtained results are 5~2 shown in the following Table 1. Both the fibers were treated with a silicone lubricating agent to make the static friction coefficient between fibers to be 0.16.

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z From the results in Table 1, it can be seen that when the monofilament fineness of the staple fibers (A) is within the particularly defined range, the original bulkiness is satisfactory, the compressibility and the compression stress are moderate and the samples can be folded and laid away in a compact form and since the compression stress is not too small, the samples have resiliency when using and the initial compression hardness is low and the skin touch is soft.
_xample 2 The same procedure as described in Example 1 was made except that the monofilament fineness in the staple fibers (A) was made 7 deniers without varying the fineness and the curliness was 11.2, 15.8, 18.7, 21.3 and 25.9%.
The obtained results are shown i.n the following Table 2.

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From the above described resul~s, it can be seen that if the carliness of the staple fibers (A) is not less than 15%, the original bulkiness is excellent, the compression stress is moderate and the samples can be folded and laid away in a compact form but the resiliency is not too low, the initial compression hardness is relatively low and the touch is soft.
Example 3 40 parts of polyester staple fibers (A) having a .
monofilament fineness of 5 deniers, a curliness of 22.8%
and a fiber length of 60 mm and 60 parts of polyester staple fibers (B) having a fiber length of 30 mm, a curliness of about 8% and a fineness as shown in the following Table 3 were blended to prepare wadding materials and these material.s were covered with cover clothes of polyester woven fabric. ~ith respect to these articles, various properties were determined to obtain the results as shown in Table 3.
Both the staple fibers were treated with a silicone lubricating agent to make the static friction coefficient between fibers to be 0.~8.

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From the above described results, it can be seen that when the fineness of the staple fibers (B) is within the particularly defined range, the original bulkiness is excellent, the compression stress is moderate and the samples can be folded and laid away in a compact form and the samples have moderate resiliency and soft touch.
Example 4 The same procedure as described in Example 3 was made except that the monofilament fineness of the staple fibers (B) was 2 deniers without varying the fineness and the curliness was varied as shown in the following Table 4 and the obtained results are shown in Table 4.
Table 4 Staple fibers (B) Original Beat back Sample No. Curliness bulkiness amount (%) (mm) (mm) 4-1 (Present 0.2 51.5 24.1 4-2 ( " ) 4.7 54.3 23.5 4-3 ( " ) 6.8 53.8 21.8 4-4 ( " ) 10.6 50.7 19.5 4-5 ( " ) 14.1 49.3 16.3 4-6 (comparative) 17.9 46.2 11.7 ~5 From the above described results, it can be seen that when the curliness of the staple fibers (B) is moderately low, the original bulkiness is high and the beat back amount when the sample folded in the compact form is reused, is large and the bulkiness near the original stage can be again obtained.

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Example 5 Staple fibers (A) consisting of polyester fibers having a fineness of 6 deniers, a fiber leng-th of 50 mm and a curliness of 21.5% and staple fibers (B~ consisting of polyester fibers having a fineness of 1.5 deniers, a fiber length of 48 mm and a curliness of 5~1% were blended in the ratio shown in the following Table 5 and the blends were piled in a rate of 0.4 kg/m2 to prepare wadd~ g materials. These materials were covered with cover cloths of polyester woven fabrics and various properties were determined with respect to these samples and the obtained results are shown in Table 5. Both the fibers were treated with a silicone lubricating agent to make the static friction coefficient between fibers to be 0.1~.

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~4~Z2 From the above described results, it can be ceen that when the blend ratio of the staple fibers (A) to the staple fibers (B) was in the proper range, the original bulkiness is high, the compressibility is satisfactorily high and the compression stress is moderately low (not so low as the resiliency is lost) and the instant elastic recovery is relatively low, so that the samples can be laid away in a compact form and upon reusing, the beat back property is excellent, so that the original bulkiness can be recovered. In addition, the synergistic effect of the blend of both the fibers can be found in the original bulkiness, the total recovered bulkiness and the total recovery.
From the results of the initial jmpression hardness it has been found that the higher the soft touch and the higher the blend ratio of the staple fibers (B), more excellent the drape property is and the better the fitness to the body is.
Example 6 Staple fibers (A) consisting of composite hollow fibers obtained by conjugate-spinning polyethylene terephtha-late having a relati.ve viscosity (~rel) of 1.37 and poly-ethylene terephthalate having a relative viscosity (~rel) of 1.25 in a ratio of 1:1 in a side-by-side type and having a hollow ratio of 15.7%, a fineness of 6 deniers, a curliness of 22.3% and a fiber length of 65 mm and polyester staple fibers (B) having a fineness of 1.3 deniers, a curliness of 7.0% and a fiber length of 38 mm were blended in a ratio of A/B of 60/40 (parts by weight) to prepare a wadding material. The obtained wadding materi.al was ~ 5 ~ ~

covered with a cover cloth of polyester woven fabric and various properties were determined with respect to this sample. The original bulkiness was 55.2 mm, the initial compression hardness was 6.4 g/cm2, the compression stress was 39.5 g/cm2, the compressibility was 83%, the elastic recovery was 69%, the beat back amount was 22.3 mm, the total recovered bulkiness was 5~.6 mm and the total recovery was 99%.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A wadding material consisting essentially of a blend of 80-20% by weight of staple fibers (A) having a monofilament fineness in the range of from 3 to 10 deniers and a curliness of not less than 15%, and 20-80% by weight of synthetic polymer staple fibers (B) having a monofilament fineness in the range of from 0.7 to 4 deniers lower than that of the staple fibers (A) and a curliness of less than 15%.

2. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, wherein the monofilament fineness of the staple fibers (A) is 4-7 deniers.

3. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, wherein the curliness of the staple fibers (A) is not less than 18%.

4. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the fiber length of the staple fibers (A) is 20-120 mm.

5. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, wherein the staple fibers (A) are synthetic fibers of polyamides, polyesters, polyethylene or polypropylene.

6. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the monofilament fineness of the staple fibers (B) is 1-3 deniers.

7. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the curliness of the staple fibers (B) is less than 10%.

8. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the fiber length of the staple fibers (B) is 20-200 mm.

9. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the staple fibers (B) are syntheitc fibers of polyamides, polyesters, polyehtylene or polypropylene.

10. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, consisting essentially of a blend of 80-30% by weight of staple fibers (A) and 20-70% by weight of staple fibers (s).

11. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or both of the staple fibers (A) and the staple fibers (B) are polyester fibers.

12. A wadding material as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or both of the staple fibers (A) and the staple fibers (B) have a static friction coefficient between fibers of less than 0.20.

13. A wadding material consisting essentially of a blend of (1) 80% to 20% by weight of staple fibers (A) having a monofilament fineness in the range of from 4 to 10 deniers and having a curliness of from not less than 15% up to about 30%; (2) 20% to 80% by weight of staple fibers (B) made of a synthetic polymer and having a monofilament fineness in the range of from 0.7 to 4 deniers and lower than the fineness of said staple fibers (A), said staple fibers (B) having a curliness of less than 15%, in which the curliness of said staple fibers (A) and (B) is equal to x 100%, wherein A is the fiber length under a load of 2 mg/denier and B is the fiber length under a load of 50 mg/denier; and (3) up to less than about 30% by weight of staple fibers (C) different from said staple fibers (A) and (B).

14. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13 wherein a monofilament fineness of the staple fibers (A) is 4-7 deniers.

15. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13 wherein the curliness of the staple fibers (A) is not less than 18%.

16. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, 14 or 15, wherein the fiber length of said staple fibers (A) is 20-120 mm.

17. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13 wherein, said staple fibers (A) are synthetic fibers of polyamides, polyesters, polyethylene or polypropylene.

18. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, 14 or 15, wherein the monofilament fineness of said staple fibers (B) is 1-3 deniers.

19. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, 14 or 15, wherein the curliness of said staple fibers (B) is less than 10%.

20. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, 14 or 15, wherein the fiber length of said staple fibers (B) is 20-200 mm.

21. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, 14 or 15, wherein said staple fibers (B) are synthetic fibers of polyamides, polyesters, polyethylene or polypropylene.

22. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13 consisting essentially of a blend of 80-30% by weight of said staple fibers (A) and 20-70% by weight of said staple fibers (B).

23. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, wherein one or both of said staple fibers (A) and said staple fibers (s) are polyester fibers.

24. A wadding material as claimed in claim 13, wherein one or both of said staple fibers (A) and said staple fibers (B) has a static friction co-efficient between fibers of less than 0.20.

25. A wadding material according to claim 13, wherein said staple fibers (C) are composed of polymers having a melting point at least 20°C lower than the melting point of said staple fibers (A) and (B).

26. A wadding material according to claim 13, wherein said staple fibers (A) are composite hollow fibers having a hollow space percentage of 5 to 30%.

27. A wadding material consisting of a blend of (1) from 70% to 40% by weight of polyester staple fibers (A) having a monofilament fineness in the range of 4 to 7 deniers and a curliness of from not less than 18% up to 30%;
and (2) from 30% to 60% by weight of polyester staple fibers (B) having a monofilament fineness in the range of from 1 to 3 deniers and having a curliness of less than 10%, in which curliness (%) is equal to x 100, wherein A
is the fiber length under a load of 2 mg/denier and B is the fiber length under a load of 50 mg/denier.