JP2811588B2 - Manufacturing equipment for patterned laminated nonwoven fabric - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing a laminated nonwoven fabric,
The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously producing a multilayered patterned nonwoven fabric suitable as a packaging material or a decorative material having various colors in a series of steps.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, as a method of giving an arbitrary pattern to a nonwoven fabric, a method of printing or embossing a nonwoven fabric formed by a web in which one or two or more colors of raw cotton are mixed, A method in which a fiber sheet slit or die-cut into an arbitrary shape in advance is subjected to needling on a nonwoven fabric, or as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-13951, setting the culling conditions to reduce the amount of fiber falling. A method of simultaneously collecting and dropping fibers on a conveyor while simultaneously increasing and increasing a fiber group such as raw cotton and wrap and a different or different color sliver or a lump-shaped fiber aggregate to a fiber supply unit. And so on.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the case where the die-cut fiber sheet is needled on the nonwoven fabric, the pattern portion becomes thicker, and the thickness becomes uneven as a whole. In addition, the method of collecting fiber aggregates and continuously collecting them on a conveyor has the disadvantage that it is difficult to form delicate patterns such as geometric patterns, the contours of the patterns are unclear, and the pattern pattern has poor three-dimensional appearance. is there.

In order to solve this problem, an arbitrary pattern is sewn to a sheet-like material obtained by pre-needling an expanded cotton laminate of an arbitrary short fiber using an arbitrary thread or a thread-like material, and an arbitrary pattern is sewn. Although a method of applying a ring process for patterning has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-35044), this method has the drawback that the number of manufacturing steps is large and it takes time.

Patterned nonwovens are usually applied to relatively expensive products such as carpets, while the contours of the pattern are clear,
The standards required for products are strict, as the thickness is also strictly regulated. However, those provided for applications such as packaging materials are important in terms of economy and appearance.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing a low-cost, good-looking, patterned laminated nonwoven fabric with a reduced number of manufacturing steps and time required for the manufacturing.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present inventors have previously proposed an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a laminated nonwoven fabric (Japanese Patent Application No. 1-162781 (JP-A-03-3325)).
No. 3). The manufacturing apparatus includes: a. A net-shaped endless belt that moves at a constant speed; and b. A hood that is cascaded in a plurality of stages on the net-shaped endless belt, and each stage is disposed on the upper surface of the net-shaped endless belt. Raw material supply device for feeding raw material fibers into the inside, a suction blower for sucking air through a suction hood arranged on the lower surface of the net-like endless belt, and raw material deposited on the net-like endless belt by air suction by the suction blower A layer forming stage group consisting of a heat compression roller pair for heating and compressing the fiber; and c. A heat compression roller pair for finally heating and compressing and fusing the raw fibers sequentially laminated by the plurality of layer forming stage groups. It is configured.

According to the present invention, at an arbitrarily selected stage of the layer forming stage group, the layer moves at the same speed in close contact with the lower surface of the main endless belt, and a ventilation portion formed according to a desired pattern and other non-moving portions. This is a configuration in which a sub endless belt having a ventilation portion is provided.

(Operation) In the above manufacturing apparatus, in each layer forming stage, when different raw material fibers are supplied from the raw material supply device for each stage into the air flow sucked by the suction hood, the raw material fibers are mixed with air. Therefore, each raw material fiber is uniformly deposited on the net-shaped main endless belt, and is temporarily fixed by the heating and compressing roller pair.

Here, in the stage provided with the arbitrarily selected sub-endless belt, since the air flow concentrates only on the ventilation portion of the sub-endless belt formed according to the required pattern, the portion on the net-shaped main endless belt at that portion is concentrated. Only at this time, the raw fibers are deposited, and a pattern is formed.

In this way, different kinds of fibers are successively laminated and finally thermocompression-bonded, and a multilayer laminated nonwoven fabric having a plurality of patterns can be manufactured in a series of steps.

In the patterning, if the air-permeable portion and the non-air-permeable portion have the opposite relationship between the sub-endless belts of two adjacent stages, a patterned nonwoven fabric having a uniform thickness can be obtained.

The thinner and shorter the fibers used for patterning, the clearer the outline of the pattern. Conversely, if fibers having a length of several cm are used, a blurred pattern can be obtained.

Also, instead of having a pair of stages in which the ventilated portion and the non-vented portion of the sub-endless belt are opposite to each other, by using only one stage or by omitting a specific stage, a laminated nonwoven fabric having a three-dimensional pattern or a see-through pattern can be formed. Obtainable.

(Example) Hereinafter, an Example is described in detail with reference to drawings. First
The figure shows an apparatus for producing a patterned laminated nonwoven fabric according to one embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 81 denotes a net-shaped main endless belt, which moves in a direction of an arrow at a constant speed. On the main endless belt, first, second, third, and fourth layer forming stages are cascaded. this house,
The second and third stages are pattern forming stages. 11,12,1
Reference numerals 3 and 14 denote raw material supply devices for supplying raw fibers into the hoods 21, 22, 23 and 24 of the respective stages arranged on the upper surface of the main endless belt 81, and 31, 32, 33 and 34 denote main endless belts. Suction hoods 41, 4 of each stage arranged on the lower surface of 81
Suction blowers that suck air through 2, 43, 44, 51a, 51b,
52a / 52b, 53a / 53b, 54a / 54b are suction blowers 31, 32, 33, 3
A pair of heating and compression rollers 61, 62, 63, and 64 for heating and compressing the raw fibers deposited on the main endless belt 81 by the air suction by 4 and temporarily fixing the heating and compression rollers 51a and 52, respectively.
a, 53a and 54a pressurizing machines.

Reference numerals 71 and 72 denote sub-endless belts disposed in the suction hood in the second and third pattern forming stages. The sub-endless belts circulate at the same speed in close contact with the lower surface of the net-shaped main endless belt 81, and Each has a ventilation part and another non-venting part according to a required pattern.

Further, 82 is a thermocompression roller pair for finally heating and compressing and fusing the raw material fibers sequentially laminated by each layer forming stage, and 83 is a raw material supply control for controlling the raw material supply devices 11, 12, 13, and 14. Device, 84 is a pressurization control device for controlling the pressurizing machines 61, 62, 63, 64, 85 is a suction blower control device for controlling the suction blowers 31, 32, 33, 34, 86a, 86b is the first stage This is a pair of sealing rollers arranged at the entrance of the stage so as to prevent the inflow of outside air as much as possible, and can be replaced with, for example, a flexible sealing member. 87 is a vice endless belt
This is a position control device that matches the relative positions of the patterns 71 and 72.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, raw material fibers are put into the hood 21 of the first layer formation stage from the raw material supply device 11 controlled by the raw material supply control device 83, and mixed with air flowing through the hood. On the other hand, since the suction blower 31 draws air below the main endless belt 81 via the suction hood 41, the raw fibers are sequentially deposited on the main endless belt 81 moving at a constant speed, and the web-like layer is formed. create. The web moves into the hood 22 of the second pattern forming stage while the surface thereof is lightly compressed by the heating and compressing roller 51a heated near the melting point of the raw fibers.

A sub-endless belt 71 is disposed in the suction hood 42 of the second pattern forming stage, and the sub-endless belt 71 has a desired pattern on the belt as shown in FIG. 2 (a), for example. It is a punched part and the punched ventilation part 92
And other non-ventilated parts 91. Then, it circulates at the same speed in close contact with the lower surface of the net-shaped main endless belt 81. Therefore, when the raw material fibers forming the pattern are supplied into the hood 22 from the raw material supply device 12 controlled by the raw material supply control device 83, the flow of air in the hood 22 is reduced by the punching ventilation portion of the sub-endless belt 71. 92
Therefore, the raw fibers are deposited in an island shape only on the main endless belt 81 corresponding to the ventilation portion 92. The doubly deposited web moves into the hood 23 of the third pattern forming stage while its surface is lightly compressed by the heating and compressing roller 52a.

As shown in FIG. 2 (b), the sub-endless belt 71 of the second stage is provided on the third pattern forming stage.
A sub-endless belt 72 having a non-ventilated portion 93 having a desired design and a non-ventilated portion 93 having a desired design and a net-vented portion 94 is arranged on the lower side of the main endless belt 81 (FIG. 2 (a)). Is circulating closely at the same speed. Further, the position is adjusted by the position control device 87 so that the position of the pattern island deposited in the second stage and the position of the non-ventilated portion 93 of the sub-endless belt 72 match. Therefore, when the raw material fiber is supplied from the raw material supply device 13 controlled by the raw material supply control device 83 into the hood 23,
The air flow inside 23 is the non-ventilated part of sub-endless belt 72
Guided to avoid 93 net-shaped main endless belt
Raw material fibers are deposited on 81 so as to surround the pattern island. The web moves into the hood 24 of the fourth layer forming stage while the surface thereof is lightly compressed by the heating and compressing roller 53a.

In the fourth layer formation stage, a uniform third layer web is deposited similarly to the first layer formation. The continuous web of the web that has passed through the final stage is heated and pressed by the thermocompression roller pair 82 to complete the patterned nonwoven fabric.

The raw material supply devices 11, 12, 13, and 14 need to have a mechanism corresponding to the type and material of the raw material fibers. For example, when a long fiber bundle is used as a raw material, a cutter function is required, and when a short fiber is used, a certain amount of feeding mechanism is required. Further, since the fiber supply rate corresponding to the basis weight of each stage is different, the suction air amount is also different. In particular, at the stage of patterning, since the air passage area differs depending on the size of the pattern, the optimal suction air amount is obtained and controlled in advance. Furthermore, as the thickness of the web layer deposited on the net increases in sequence, the pressure applied to the surface varies due to the effects of airflow resistance and suction air, as described above, and the surface is contaminated. Gently compress the web surface with a roller heated to near the melting point of the raw material, and deliver it to the next stage.

A specific example in the case of manufacturing a three-layer laminated nonwoven fabric with a pattern using the above manufacturing apparatus will be described. In this case, the first to fourth stages are used, and the patterning is performed in the second and third stages. The raw materials used were a long fiber bundle of polypropylene split fibers in the first and fourth stages,
In the second and third stages, short polypropylene fibers were used. Therefore, the first and fourth stage material supply devices 11 and 14 are provided with cutters, and the second and third stage material supply devices 12 and 13 are provided.
Has a short fiber feed mechanism. These raw materials are put into a hood at a basis weight corresponding to each stage, mixed with air, and when air is sucked by a suction blower, a web layer is deposited on a net-like endless belt 81. The following table shows an example of the rate, the amount of air, the heating temperature of the heating compression roller, and the compression force.

In this case, the split fiber forming the base cloth has a width of 5 to 10 μm, a length of 20 to 50 mm, and the patterning fiber has a width of 5 to 10 μm.
μm and a length of 5 to 10 mm. In an example of this production, if a material having a long fiber length is used as the raw material of the second and third stages, the outline of the pattern becomes blurred, so that various patterns can be formed according to the application. If the second stage is omitted, a see-through pattern is obtained, and if the third and fourth stages are omitted, a three-dimensional pattern with irregularities is obtained.

In the above embodiment, the pattern color is described as one color,
In order to increase the number of types of colors, the number of the second pattern forming stages may be plural.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, in a manufacturing apparatus for a laminated nonwoven fabric, a required number of layer forming stages are cascaded on one line, and ventilation according to a desired pattern is performed. By installing a sub-endless belt device having a portion on the intermediate stage and controlling it according to various conditions such as the type of raw material fiber and the basis weight in each stage, a patterned nonwoven fabric having a plurality of layers is continuously produced. Thus, productivity can be improved and cost can be reduced. For example, 3
When the effect of the production of the layered nonwoven fabric is simply estimated, the patterning is performed by two or three steps in the prior art. However, according to the present invention, the production can be performed in one step. Furthermore, as a method of applying a pattern, it is possible to arbitrarily select a method of clearing an outline, a blur pattern, a watermark pattern, and a variety of patterns such as a uniform thickness pattern and a three-dimensional pattern, A wide range of products can be made according to the application.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an apparatus for producing a patterned multi-layer nonwoven fabric according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a sub endless belt. 11,12,13,14 …… raw material supply device, 21,22,23,24 …… hood, 31,32,33,34 …… suction blower, 41,42,43,44 …… suction hood, 51a ・51b, 52a / 52b, 53a / 53b, 54a / 54b… Heated compression roller pair, 61, 62, 63, 64… Pressing machine, 71, 72… Sub endless belt, 81… Net-shaped main endless belt, 82 ... thermocompression roller pair, 83 ... raw material supply control device,
84 …… Pressure control device, 85 …… Suction blower control device, 86a,
86b: Sealing roller pair, 87: Position control device, 91, 93
... non-ventilated part, 92, 94 ... vented part.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A net-shaped main endless belt moving at a constant speed; b. A plurality of stages are cascaded on the net-shaped main endless belt, each stage being provided on the upper surface of the net-shaped main endless belt. A raw material supply device for supplying raw material fibers into a disposed hood, a suction blower that suctions air through a suction hood disposed on a lower surface of the net-shaped main endless belt, and a net-shaped by suction of air by the suction blower. A layer forming stage group including a heat compression roller pair for heating and compressing the raw fibers deposited on the main endless belt; c. At an arbitrarily selected stage from the layer forming stage group, Moving at the same speed in close contact with the lower surface, each having a ventilation portion formed according to a required pattern and another non-venting portion; A sub-endless belt for forming a pattern by depositing raw fibers only on the corresponding main endless belt, and d. Finally heating and compressing and fusing the raw fibers sequentially laminated by a plurality of layer forming stages. A thermocompression roller pair, wherein the raw material fibers deposited in each of the stages are differently continuously laminated.