Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
This lnvention relater to a process for the 61multaneous and continuous
consolidation and coatlng of a non-woven textile, particularly for interlinlng
or interfacing materials, ~ith a bonding agent and with an adhesive mass, in
which the bonding agent is pressed or printed on fro~ one side simultaneously
against an adhesive applied from the other side, in superimposed areas spaced
from one another.
Such a process is already known from Japanese patent application lald open
9 January l975 under number l667/l975, inventors Katsuoshi Yamauchi et al
according to which the bonding agent and the adhesive are applied while the
textile is passed between a pair of engraved or screen rollers. The
lmpressions which result on both sides are similar but this is not the intended
object in using the two substances.
Bonding agents serve primarily to fasten the fibres of a non-~oven
tcxtile to one another and thus to impart strength to the fabric. This
strength rises as the number of fibres bonded together rises. It
is thus desirable that the bonding agent penetrate into the interior of the
fAbric belng treated and that, after consolidation, the bonding agent remain
dl~trlbuted as evenly as possible throughout the overall cross-sectlon.
Cross-linkable pol~ner substances, particularly, find praccical application as
bonding agents.
~ dhesives ayplied on the surfaces of interlining or interfacing materials
serve to permit their adhesion to an ad~acent fabric clothing material, to
strengthen, shape and stiffen the fabric. Adhesives for this purpose are thermo-
plastic7 and are usually activated by the application of pressure and heat,
for example9 by use of a presslng lron. As dl~tinguished therefore from
bonding agents, ~t is desirable that such adhesives not penetrate into the
interior of the textile during the ironing process, but remain as far as
possible undispersed ac the surface to effect the mutual adhesion of the
interlining to the material to be strengthened.
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The process of the Japanese application l667/lg75 described
above makes it possible to superimpose the ~onding
agene and the adhesive over one another on the upper and on the under side of
t~e textile respectively. The identical printing processes employed for the
treatment of the upper and under sides result in equal pressing forces and thus
Lt is extremely dlfficult to effect the desired diiferential penetration of the
bonding agent and the adhesive. It is not possible respectively to adjus~ the
sizes of the applied areas, and at greater printing speeds, particularly when
treating non-woven textiles which have not been previously consolidated,
blurring of the printing occurs, thus yielding indeterminate characteristics
for the interfacing material and its fixing surface.
Already known from European Patent 12776 published 15 December 1982,
Lnventors Walter Fottinger et al,~s a process which permits the consolidation
o~ ~ non-woven textile by printlng with an ultra-violet hardenable bonding
agent, subsequently irradiated with a high pressure mercury lamp at an
operating speed of more than 50m/min. The question of application of a mass of
~dlle~ivc ls not addressed~
~ n ~he present disclosure simultaneous and continuous application of a
bonding agent and an adhesive on an unconsolidated, non-woven te~tile is
described in which a precise printed image in the form of areas with
superimposed centre lines is achieved, and which makes it possible to vary the
specific quantities applied as well as the pressing effect on both sides, at
high operating speeds. Reduction of the specific energy consumption required
is one advantage which can flow from this.
As here described,a bonding agent which can be cross-linked by irradiation
is printed against a thermo-plastlc adhesive mass, itself printed onto the
upper side of a non-woven textile by the hot-melt principle. The bonding agent
is then lrradiated to effect polymerization.
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Neither the bonding agent paste nor the charge of adhesive contain any
components which require removal by expensive and subsequent drying
procedures. The cross-linking of the bonding agent can be carried out with
high-energy lrradiation almost instantaneouslyO The new yrocess, being a
single stage method, is not only extraordinarily free of problems, but also
permits operating speeds greater, for example, than 50 to l50m/min while at the
sarne time having a reduced specific energy consumption. It is a considerable
advantage that preliminary consolidation of the textile is not necessary. On
the contrary, it is sufficient that its inner structure be consolidated by
preliminary pressing to the point at which the confLguration of the fibres is
not disturbed during the printing process. This objective can be achieved
wichout difficulty with a non-woven textile consisting of fihres laid up in a
random distribution and having a basic length of at least 25 mm.
The bondlng agent paste or the adhesive "melt" are applied on each
respective slde in areas, whose centre points are arranged on a common centre
linc and are arranged symmetrlcally to one another.
~he ~i~e of these area~ can be varied rela~ively to one another and thus
cnrl be ~o ~stabli~hed that the de~lred result in eflch case, namely the
consolldatlon of the textile and thermal-flxabillty to another material, can be
achieved. It has been found to be advantageous to apply the bonding agent ln
small areas having a breadth at least as lar~e as that of the areas of the
aclhesive. Particularly good prevention of the penetration of the adhesive mass
through the flxing layer durlng lronlng can be achieved if the areas of the
bonding agent are of a greater diameter than the areas of the adhesive. 'rhis
difference should not exceed 60%, to prevent any undesired stiffening of the
fixing layer.
The areas are distributed on the interlining in a surface raster pattern,
which can be either evenly or unevenly distributed. Th~s can influence the
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drape of the textile7 in addition to affecting the sti~fness.
The printing processes used for applying the adhesive mass and the bonding
agent Carl be of fundamentally different types, whereby the two substances which
fulfil different functions can be applied in a coordinated manner. It is also
of importance that of the two counter-rotating printing rollers, at least one
displays soft-resilient characteristics, so tha~ any dLfferences in the
thickness or elasticity of the textile being coated are cancelled out and
dLsruption of the prlnted image is avoLded.
The bonding agent can be applied by using high, medium or low pressure
rollers having a soft-resilient covering of rubber. In all three cases, it is
possible to achieve good results in introducing the substance into the interior
of the fabric. The high pressure process carries with it the additional
atJv~ntage of particularly high elastLcity of the surface with good resistance
to fouling by fibre residues which separate from the surface of the textile.
In the high and medium pressure process the quantities of bonding agent applied
c~n b~ varied continuously by adjustment of the pressure. Where corresponding
~hl~rl~etJ i~re required in the use of low pressure, a modlfied roll must be used.
Modified rolls are also necessary if the si~es of the areas are to be changed ln
any of the printing processes described.
The use of a bonding agent which can be cross-linked with high intensity
ultra-violet radiation makes it possible to achieve almost spontaneous
hardening of the bonding agent. The surplus thermal energy which is
unavoidably present, and which can amount to 50% of the total, may sometimes
lead to separation of the fabric parts if not adequately cooled, and also to
very poor sharpness of outline of the thermo-plastic adhesive mass applied to
the upper surface.
Thls disadvantage can be avoided if a bonding agent cross-linkable ~y
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electron radiation is used, and electron irradiatlon apparatus replacegthat
for the ultra violet. An energy of about 50 to about 500 keV has been
found suitable. In this case no further heating of the adhesive mass takes
place during the polymerization of the ~onding agent. ~n the
contrary, the spontaneous cooling of the thermo-plastic melted adhesive
mass against the bondlng agent which has been printed on at a temperature of>
for example, only 60C, leads to spontaneous hardening and thus to an extremely
precise image, or print pattern.
All appropriate adhesives can be used, for example, those based on
polyolefins, copolyamides, polyurethanes or copolyesters. In general the
melting point should be in the range between 100C and 130C.
The adheslve is prlnted onto the fabric in molten for~ with a heated nap
roll. To cut down contamination of the surface this roll is provided, for
exa~ple, with a sllicone or PTFE coating,
The upper and the lower print rolls are connected through a gear
trnn~mlsslon, which permlt9 the superimposed constant arrangement of the ar0as
prlnted with bonding agent and adhesive. Such a rigid drive permits mutual
slignment of very great precision in which the centre points of the areas
can cover each other in good register at a workin~ wldth acro~s the fabrlc of
more than l m,with areafl of a diameter of le~s than l m~.
More particularly in accordance ~ith the invention there is provided
a pro~ess for the sim~ltaneous consolidation and coating of a non-woven
textile material with a bonding agent and an adhesive, comprising the steps of;
pressing a radiation polymerizable bonding agent onto one side of said
material, while simultaneously hot-melt pressing a thermo-plastic adhes~ve onto
the other side of said material, the bonding agent and adhesive being applied
on superposed areas separated by thlckness of the material,
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allowing sald bondlng agent to penetrate into said materlal, subs~antial
penetration of said adhesive belng checked by said bondlng agent,
and irradiatlng said material to ,oolymeri~e the bonding agent.
Speciflc embodiments of the invention will now be described ha~lng
reference to the accompanying drawing and the following example:
Uslng a plurality of longitudinally oriented carding devices, a non-woven
textile of 50% polyester fibres of 1.7 dtex/38 mm and 50% polyestr flbres 3.3
of dtex/60 mm and speclfic weight of 25 g/m2 was produced at a 3peed of 65
m/mln, The fabric was passed between a pair of couneer pressure rollers at a
linear pressure of 13 kpjcm~ and surface tempera~ure of 165C9 where it was
consolidated.
Immedlately afterwards the fabrlc was passed through an imprintlng device
us lllustrated ln the drawing.
The lower roll 2 was a rubber hlgh pressure roll, the rubber belng
reslitant to organlc liquids with a Shore-A h,ardness of 65. The printlng
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pattern on the roll was divided into two sections 9 the first was a 17 mesh
point series and the second a so-called computer point matrix in which there
were 52 statistically distributed protrusions per square centim~ter. Identical
special individual hot-melt engraved rolls were associated with each of these
two printing rolls.
The diameter of the printing points on the surfaces of the high pressure
rolls amounted to 0.8 mm, and the engraving wa~ 0.4 mm deep.
A bonding agent mlxture described below was transferred from a pre-polymer
bath 5 preheated to 60C via a pick-up roll 4 of rubber through a transfer roll
3 also heated to 60C to the rubber high pressure roll 20 The roll 3 had a 60
mesh engraving and was chromium platedO The speed of the pick-up roll 4 was
ad~usted so that imprinting from the high pressure roll onto the fabric
resulted at 2.5 g/m2. The two rolls 2 and 6 were adjusted 80 that the centres
o the areas being lmprinted from both sides with bonding agent and adhesive
respectively coincided.
The bonding agent mixture had the following composition:
Epoxy acrylate 70 parts
Oli~otrlacrylate 30 "
Benzophenon 2 "
Benzyldimethylketal 1 "
N-Methyl-Diethanolamine 3 "
Optical brightener 0.03 "
A copolyester was employed as a fusible adhesive, the melting range of
which lay between 113C to 116C and which had a melting index of 12/140C at
18 g/10 min. It was melted in an extruder to a final temperature of 175~C and
passed through a heated broad slot nozzle to a heated adhesive bath 7,` The
engraved roll 6 was at a temper~ture of 170C.
In both ln8tances the nap diameter of the engraved roll amounted to
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0.55 mm and the nap depth to 0.2 mm~
The nap of the rotating engraved roll filled with molten polymer from the
bath 7 which polymer was from ehere transferred to the non-woven textile.
Slmultaneously the bondlng agent a~ a temperature of 60C was pressed into the
lnterior of the fabrlc from Lhe under side by the high pressure roll 2. This
led to spontaneous cooling and hardening of the adhesive on the upper surfaceO
The adhesive was applled at 14 g/~m. No further processing of the fusible
adhe~ive was requlred.
After leaving the prlnting device the textile was moved on a metal carrier
through a light lock into a light cabinet where it was passed ~et~een an upper
and a lower row of high-pre~sure mercury lamps havlng a power output of 200
Watt/cm. The bonding agent hardèned instantaneously. The fabric left the
cabinet through a second light lock,and after passing through a cooling roll
wa~ cut into two strips each 90 cm wide, and then rolled.
The thermally fixable interlinlng fabrLc produced in this manner is
extremely ~oft and has good drape. It displays good resistance to chemical
~'Leaning and shows excellent laundering properties. It can be processed very
easily ln conventional flat and continuous presses and even when wet has no
tendency for the adheslve to bleed through the interlining fabric.
