Bulky nonwoven fabric

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9701095-B2
Application number	US-201113085023-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 12, 2011
Priority date	Apr 13, 2010
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

The invention provides a nonwoven fabric which can improve these problems of the conventional technologies, can be produced at relatively low costs, is bulky and excellent in cushioning properties, has a good texture and is excellent in shaping ability at post-processing. Specifically, the present invention provides a bulky nonwoven fabric, comprising a fiber layer A containing a spiral crimp fiber and a fiber layer B, wherein the fiber layer B is laminated on at least one surface of the fiber layer A, the spiral crimp fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B are partly entangled and integrated at the interface in a thickness direction of both layers, the fiber layer B exhibits a structure in which the layer is lifted up to the fiber layer B side between individual entangled parts; and having a specific volume of 30 cm 3 /g or more.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A bulky nonwoven fabric, comprising:
a fiber layer A comprising a spiral crimp fiber and at least one surface, and
a fiber layer B comprising a fiber, wherein the fiber layer B is laminated on the surface of the fiber layer A,
wherein the spiral crimp fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B are partly entangled and integrated at an interface in a thickness direction of both layers, and the fiber layer B exhibits a pleat structure in which the layer is lifted up to the fiber layer B side between individual entangled parts; and
wherein the bulky nonwoven fabric has a specific volume of 30 cm 3 /g or more and a unit weight of from 30 to 100 g/m 2 .

2. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the spiral crimp fiber contained in the fiber layer A is a fiber obtained by allowing a latent crimpable fiber to exhibit a spiral crimp and, at the time of generating the spiral crimp of the latent crimpable fiber, the spiral crimp fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B are entangled and integrated at the interface of both fiber layers.

3. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber layer A further comprises a latent crimpable heat-fusible conjugate fiber, and entangled points at the entangled parts of the spiral crimped fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B are bonded to each other by at least heat-fusion of the latent crimpable heat-fusible conjugate fiber.

4. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber layer B is pressed with a mold on which a shaping pattern is engraved.

5. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber layer B is pressed with a hot emboss roll to be press-fused.

6. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 5 , wherein one fused region press-fused has an area of 0.1 mm 2 to 4.0 mm 2 ; the fused region and an adjacent fused region have the shortest distance of 2.0 mm or more; and the fused regions have an area percentage of 2% to 25% to the area of the whole nonwoven fabric.

7. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the spiral crimp fiber contained in the fiber layer A is a conjugate fiber having a side-by-side type and/or eccentric sheath-core type cross-section which is composed of an ethylene-propylene random copolymer and/or an ethylene-propylene-butene-1 random copolymer and polypropylene.

8. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 7 , wherein the random copolymer and the polypropylene are contained in a conjugate ratio of in the range of 30/70 to 70/30 on the basis of weight.

9. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber in the fiber layer B is a heat-fusible conjugate fiber comprising two components, and has at least one cross-section structure selected from the group consisting of a sheath-core type, an eccentric sheath-core type and a side-by-side type.

10. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 9 , wherein the two components are contained in a conjugate ratio of 30/70 to 70/30 on the basis of weight.

11. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber layer A has a fiber fineness of 1.5 dtex to 17.6 dtex and a fiber length of 30 mm to 128 mm.

12. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber layer B has a fiber fineness of 1.5 dtex to 6.7 dtex and a fiber length of 30 mm to 102 mm.

13. A product comprising the bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 .

14. A process for producing the bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , comprising:
laminating, on at least one surface of a fiber layer A comprising a latent crimpable fiber, a fiber layer B which is spirally crimped weaker than the fiber layer A or is not spirally crimped at a temperature that the fiber layer A is spirally crimped, to obtain a laminate;
subjecting the laminate to a thermal treatment to partly entangle the spirally crimped fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B and to form entangled parts at an interface in a thickness direction of both layers and lifting up the fiber layer B to fiber layer B side between individual entangled parts, to obtain the bulky nonwoven fabric.

15. The process according to claim 14 , wherein the latent crimpable fiber contained in the fiber layer A is a latent crimpable conjugate fiber and, upon the subjecting of the spiral crimp of the latent crimpable fiber to the thermal treatment, the spiral crimp fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B are partly entangled at the interface in the thickness direction of both layers and integrated.

16. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the latent crimpable conjugate fiber contained in the fiber layer A is a latent crimpable heat-fusible conjugate fiber and the entangled points at the entangled parts of the spiral crimp fiber of the fiber layer A and the fiber of the fiber layer B are bonded to each other by at least heat-fusion of the latent crimpable heat-fusible conjugate fiber.

17. The bulky nonwoven fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the pleat structure of the fiber layer B comprises eight or more pleats per 50 mm.

Assignees

• Fujiwara Toshikatsu
• Terada Hirokazu
• Jnc Corp
• Jnc Fibers Corp

Inventors

• Fujiwara Toshikatsu
• Terada Hirokazu

Classifications

• B32B5/06

  characterised by a fibrous {or filamentary} layer {mechanically connected, e.g. by needling} to another layer, e.g. of fibres, of paper · CPC title

• B32B2307/732

  Dimensional properties · CPC title

• B32B2262/12

  Conjugate fibres, e.g. core/sheath or side-by-side · CPC title

• Y10T442/635

  Synthetic polymeric strand or fiber material · CPC title

• D04H1/06

  by treatment to produce shrinking, swelling, crimping or curling of fibres · CPC title