Hydroentangled split-fibre nonwoven material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9863073-B2
Application number	US-201514630741-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 29, 2004
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

A hydroentangled integrated composite nonwoven material, includes a mixture of randomized continuous filaments, splittable shortcut staple fibers, and optionally non-splittable staple fibers. The splittable fibers should be 3-16 mm long bicomponent fibers. Preferably there should be no thermal bonding points between the filaments. The nonwoven material has improved textile feeling and reduced two-sidedness. The continuous filaments should preferably be spunlaid filaments. Some of the staple fibers can be colored. A process of producing such a nonwoven material is disclosed.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of producing a hydroentangled integrated composite nonwoven material, comprising
forming a web of randomized continuous filaments on a forming fabric;
providing an aqueous fibre dispersion comprising splittable shortcut staple fibres having a length of 3 to 16 mm;
wetlaying the aqueous fibre dispersion on the web of continuous filaments;
thus forming a fibrous web comprising the continuous filaments and splittable shortcut staple fibres; and
subsequently hydroentangling the fibrous web to form a hydroentangled nonwoven material, wherein a numerical majority of the splittable fibres are split during the hydroentanglement step.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein no thermal bonding process step is applied to the web of continuous filaments.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the splittable shortcut staple fibres have a length of 3 to 10 mm.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the splittable shortcut staple fibres have a length of 3 to 7 mm.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the aqueous fibre dispersion and thus the fibrous web further comprises non-splittable staple fibres.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the non-splittable staple fibres are selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyesters, polyamides, polylactides, rayon, and lyocell fibres and/or from the group consisting of polyethylene-polypropylene, polypropylene-polyester, polypropylene-polyamides bicomponent fibres without ability to split.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fibrous web comprises 15-75% continuous filaments and 25-85% splittable shortcut staple fibres, all percentages calculated by weight of the fibrous web.

8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the fibrous web comprises 15-75% continuous filaments, 10-60% splittable shortcut staple fibres, and 1-75% non-splittable staple fibres, all percentages calculated by weight of the fibrous web.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the continuous filaments are spunlaid filaments.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the continuous filaments are spunbond filaments.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the continuous filaments are selected from the group consisting of polypropylene, polyester, and polylactide filaments.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the splittable shortcut staple fibres are selected from the group consisting of polyethylene-polypropylene, polypropylene-polyester, polypropylene-polyamide bicomponent fibres with ability to split.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the splittable shortcut staple fibres are selected from the group consisting of banded, crescent, star or pie types of bicomponent fibres.

Assignees

• Sca Hygiene Prod Ab

Inventors

• Stralin Anders
• Ahoniemi Hannu
• Fingal Lars
• Strandqvist Mikael

Classifications

• Y10T442/637

  Including strand or fiber material which is a monofilament composed of two or more polymeric materials in physically distinct relationship [e.g., sheath-core, side-by-side, islands-in-sea, fibrils-in-matrix, etc.] or composed of physical blend of chemically different polymeric materials or a physical blend of a polymeric material and a filler material · CPC title

• Y10T442/697

  Containing at least two chemically different strand or fiber materials · CPC title

• D10B2331/02

  polyamides (D10B2331/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• D04H3/033

  reorientation immediately after yarn or filament formation · CPC title

• D04H5/03 Primary

  by fluid jet · CPC title