JPH0126314B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention provides at least 50% by weight of a web-like composite fiber assembly consisting of a large number of continuous filaments made of at least two different thermoplastic synthetic polymers.
This relates to a filling that has good bulk, does not lose its shape, and has excellent heat retention. Traditionally, Japanese futon, Western futon or futon,
Furthermore, a wide variety of synthetic fibers, including thermal clothing, are produced and sold in large quantities as filling materials, but most of these are short fibers or staple fibers as substitutes for cotton. . On the other hand, some futons using long fibers as a filling material are known, but the main examples are tow futons made by laminating and opening tow, which is the raw material for producing staple fibers. In this tow futon, the arrangement of the long fibers that make up the tow is limited to a certain direction, and the fibers are not spread uniformly enough, so when stuffed with cotton, it tends to lose its shape and break, similar to short fibers. Moreover, tow futons lack drapability, and are complicated to form into cotton pads because they require a composite structure in which the tow is preformed into a corrugated shape and then joined to fabric or the like. Another example of using long fibers as a stuffing material is to randomly stretch cotton strips of a certain fineness discharged from a regular orifice-type spinning machine using high-pressure, high-speed air. There is a so-called spunbond spun long fiber futon cotton that is made into a web, but it not only has the disadvantage of requiring a huge amount of energy and increasing costs due to manufacturing problems, but also has the disadvantage that fiber bundles that move at high speed are required. Since the fibers are opened, the drawback of web unevenness cannot be avoided. Therefore, the present inventors created a web-like fiber aggregate that is inexpensive, has fewer web irregularities, and has the characteristics of a down comforter, which has been known for a long time, with less deformation and cotton breakage. With this in mind, as a result of intensive research, we have completed the filling of the present invention. That is, the filling of the present invention, in summary, consists of a web-like fibrous assembly consisting of a large number of continuous filaments of a thermoplastic synthetic polymer, (i) the filaments having an irregular pattern along their length; The cross-sectional area of the filament changes periodically, and (ii) the coefficient of variation of the cross-sectional area of the filament [CV(F)]
(iii) the average fineness of the filament is in the range 0.5 to 2.0 denier, and (iv) at least 10% of the filament has a cross section taken at right angles to its length. at least 2
It has a structure in which different types of polymer phases form an average of 2 to 4 layers, and (v) each filament is partially bonded to each other. To further explain the filling of the present invention, the aforementioned web-like fiber aggregate has a bulk density in the range of 0.005 to 0.05 g/cm ³ and a light load bulk in the range of 20 to 100 cm ² /g. Furthermore, the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate have a degree of crimp (also referred to as crimp rate) in the range of 15 to 50% and an average number of crimp in the range of 3 to 20 crimps/inch. It is characterized by what it does. Conventionally, it has been impossible to manufacture a filling having the characteristics described above, which is composed of a web-like fiber aggregate consisting of a large number of continuous filaments.
Patent application filed in 1983 by some of the inventors
No. 38993 (filed on March 28, 1980) The packing flux (Pf) stated in the specification is 10 ^-4 ~
Since high-density fiber aggregates in the range of 10 ^-1 can now be easily produced, it is possible to produce webs with less unevenness by simply converting the high-density fiber aggregates into webs through a simple process. It has now become possible to produce fiber aggregates easily and at low cost. Furthermore, the patent application proposed by some of the inventors earlier
No. 55-162684 (filed on November 20, 1982), a good web-like fiber aggregate can be obtained by a simple process that combines stationary mixing elements that form a layered mixture flow. has reached the point where it can be manufactured. Packing flux (Pf) referred to here
represents the ratio of the total cross-sectional area of all fibers in the fiber bundle to be spun to the area of the fiber forming region of the spinneret; Here, SO: Area of fiber forming region (cm ² ) Ai: Cross-sectional area of individual filamentary fiber (cm ² ) The density of fibers spun (discharged) from the fiber forming region, that is, a measure of high-density spinning performance. By the way, when we compare the packing flux of the aforementioned spunbond type long-staple futon cotton, we can easily understand the high density from the fact that it shows a value smaller than 10 ^-4 . Therefore, the first object and advantage of the present invention is to
The object of the present invention is to provide a batting containing a new type of web-like fiber aggregate that cannot be obtained by known methods for obtaining web-like materials from thermoplastic synthetic polymers. A second object and advantage of the present invention is that the web has properties similar to natural fiber webs, such as feathers, and has a fiber cross-sectional shape and irregular periodic changes in the fiber cross-sectional area size in the fiber axis direction. The object of the present invention is to provide a cotton wadding comprising a web-like fiber aggregate consisting of a large number of continuous filaments. The third object and advantage of the present invention is that each filament is partially joined three-dimensionally, the entire web is integrally molded, and the web shape has good bulkiness and good recovery properties. An object of the present invention is to provide a cotton filling containing a fiber aggregate. The fourth object and advantage of the present invention is that most of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate are within the range of 0.1 to 30 deniers, have a gentle fineness distribution, and are random and irregular. The object of the present invention is to provide a stuffing made of web-like fiber aggregates having good bulkiness, bulk retention, and heat retention properties. The present invention will be explained in more detail below. First, a general method for producing cotton wadding constituted by a web-like fiber bundle consisting of a large number of continuous filaments made of the thermoplastic synthetic polymer of the present invention will be outlined. The present invention can be achieved by basically applying and using the manufacturing apparatus described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 162684/1984 (filed on November 20, 1981), which some of the present inventors had previously proposed. A starting fiber bundle constituting the cotton wadding was obtained. This will be explained in more detail below. The fiber bundle includes a mixture forming region (A) comprising a mixing static element that forms a layered mixture flow of at least two types of molten thermoplastic synthetic polymers, and a fiber bundle formed from the molten mixture flow. Using an apparatus for producing a composite filament-like fiber bundle consisting of a fiber cambium region (B) to be formed, the fiber bundle is pulled upward in a direction opposite to the direction in which gravity acts. Here, the mixture forming region (A) consists of (i) a stationary mixing element in which a large number of plates having concave portions are laminated, and (ii) a plate having each concave portion in which the molten polymer flows. (iii) the element is composed of plates having at least two types of concave shapes, and (iv) the elements are composed of plates having the same concave shape at the inlet portions when viewed from a certain stacking direction. (v) the elements form a common area for the molten polymer to be mixed; A plurality of introduction zones and a coplanar discharge zone from which the molten polymers are mixed and discharged are provided, and the fiber forming layer area (B) includes at least two types of thermoplastic synthetic polymers. It has a number of slits on the discharge side that push out the mixture flow, adjacent slits are provided with discontinuous protrusions, and a certain slit is formed through the concave areas existing between the ridges. Spinning yarn having a structure such that the mixture stream extruded from the slit can communicate with the mixture stream extruded from other slits adjacent thereto, and having heating means for heating at least the vicinity of the discharge side surface. A forming device comprising a spinneret, a cooling means for cooling the surface of the spinneret, and a taking-off means for taking off the filament-like composite fiber bundle formed from the flow of the polymer mixture. It is said that The fiber bundle obtained in this way was subjected to the method described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 1983-45389 (filed on March 30, 1982), which was proposed by some of the present inventors. Then, the conjugate fiber bundle, which is uniformly arranged in bulk density, is further stretched into filament-like conjugate fibers by using electrostatic repulsion to form a web. By doing so, a web-like fiber aggregate constituting the good cotton wadding of the present invention can be obtained. As explained above, this method is a conventional method in which the discharge surface of the polymer melt is a smooth surface, and discharge holes (orifices) for the melt are independently bored in a regular array. This is fundamentally different from the method of manufacturing fibers in which the melt is extruded from a spinneret. According to this method, for example, if the spinneret has a thick denier of about 30 to 100 deniers, there will be about 50 to 150 filaments per cm ² of the spinneret, or if the average fineness of the spinneret is about 1 to 5 deniers, About 100~600
books, and if the average fineness is less than about 1 denier
A filament-like composite fiber bundle of 600 to 1,500 or more fibers can be produced continuously and stably. The filament-like composite fiber bundles having tens of thousands of deniers to hundreds of thousands of deniers thus obtained are then continuously rolled using a wide roller to improve the material properties within the range of about 1.1 times to about 3.5 times without nipping. Heat stretching or cold stretching is also performed, and the resulting fiber bundle maintains the state in which each filament is opened by efficiently utilizing the naturally generated and charged static electricity. According to the present invention, the filament-like composite fiber bundle is randomly opened while overfeeding the filament-like composite fiber bundle by a factor of 3 to 20 so as to overlap partially with respect to the traveling direction of the filament-like composite fiber bundle. An exemplary web-like fiber assembly was obtained. In addition, in order to eliminate the web unevenness of the web-like fiber aggregate as much as possible,
When overfeeding the filament-like composite fiber bundle 3 to 20 times in the traveling direction in a folded manner, a certain space is provided and a voltage of about 20,000 KV to about 50,000 KV is applied in the space. It is desirable to apply ten charges of high voltage. By heat-treating the bulky web randomly opened in this way and causing crimp,
A web-like fiber aggregate constituting the good batting of the present invention is obtained. Moreover, the web-like fiber aggregate constituting the cotton wadding of the present invention can also be obtained by other means. For example, while holding a randomly opened bulky web in a porous general conveyance belt spaced at intervals of 10 cm to 30 cm, countless extremely small air jet nozzles are placed above and below the porous general conveyance belt. After ejecting an air jet pulse to increase fiber entanglement in the web thickness direction of the web-like fiber aggregate,
When heat-treated, the web-like fiber aggregate was bulky and had good bulk retention properties. As described above, the method for producing the web-like fiber aggregate is not limited to the above representative examples. Fabric weight of the web-like fiber aggregate (g/m ² )
can be controlled within a desired range by the weight of the polymer discharged from the above-mentioned uneven porous die and the amount of overfeed of the molded filamentary fiber bundle. The filamentary composite fiber bundle obtained by the method outlined above has a packing flux (Pf) as defined above of 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-1 , preferably 2×, directly under the uneven porous mouthpiece. 10 ^-4 ～
This is on the order of 10 ^-2 , which is a marked difference from conventional melt-spinning methods, and although it is an extremely dense bundle, unlike the state of conventional tow, the individual composite filaments are very close together. It is characterized by being in a separated state. Furthermore, in the process of drawing and web-forming the filament-like composite fiber bundle, the filament-like composite fiber bundle is generally fed without being nipped by a roller with wide surface grooves, resulting in a low cost. It is characterized by being constantly maintained in a state where it can be easily divided and opened by energy. Next, the physical properties of the cotton wadding containing the web-like fiber aggregate consisting of a large number of continuous filaments made of the thermoplastic synthetic polymer of the present invention will be described in detail. The filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention include: (i) the filaments have irregular and periodic changes in cross-sectional area along their length; (ii) the filaments The cross-sectional area variation coefficient [CV(F)] is
(iii) the average fineness of the filaments is in the range 0.5 to 20 denier; and (iv) at least 10% of the filaments have a cross section taken at right angles to their length that is at least It has a structure in which two different polymer phases form an average of 2 to 4 layers, and (v) each filament is partially bonded to each other. It is different from any man-made filament or fiber known in the art. The coefficient of variation of the filament's internal cross-sectional area [CV(F)] here refers to the variation in fineness in the length direction (axial direction) of the filament, and is the coefficient of variation of the filament's internal cross-sectional area (CV(F)). , select an arbitrary 3cm area, measure the cross-sectional area at every 1mm interval using a microscope, and
The average value (A) of the 30 cross-sectional areas and the standard deviation (σA) of the 30 cross-sectional areas are determined, and the calculation can be performed using the following formula. CV(F)=σA/A The filament constituting the composite fiber bundle of the present invention has the above CV(F) in the range of 0.05 to 1.0,
Particularly preferred is a range of 0.08 to 0.7, especially 0.1 to 0.5. It is thought that such characteristics are formed by a method for producing fiber aggregates that is completely different from the conventional melt spinning method described above. The continuous filament constituting the filling of the present invention is characterized by having a non-circular cross-section, having irregular periodic changes in cross-sectional area along the length of the filament, and Along with this, there is also a change in cross-sectional shape. The degree of non-circularity of the cross-sectional shape of the filament is expressed by the irregularity coefficient, which is expressed as the ratio (D/d) of the maximum distance (D) between the two circumscribed parallel lines and the minimum distance (d) between the two circumscribed parallel lines. be able to. The filament constituting the cotton wadding of the present invention has this deformation coefficient (D/
d) is at least 1.1, most at least 1.2
It is. Furthermore, the filament constituting the cotton stuffing of the present invention is characterized in that the above-mentioned deformation coefficient (D/d) changes along the length direction of the filament. Furthermore, the filament constituting the cotton wadding of the present invention has a maximum deformation coefficient [(D/d) max] and a minimum deformation coefficient [(D/d) min] in an arbitrary range of 30 mm along its length. It is characterized in that the maximum difference in the irregularity coefficient expressed by the difference [(D/d) max - (D/d) min] is at least 0.05, preferably at least 0.1. A batting made of an aggregate of filament-like composite fibers having the above-mentioned characteristics was completely unknown heretofore. The average fineness of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention is in the range of 0.5 to 20 deniers, and most of the filaments are
It is characterized by having a smooth fineness distribution within the range of 0.1 to 30 deniers. The average fineness and fineness distribution of the filament described here are determined by the method described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 55-38993 (filed on March 28, 1980), which was proposed by some of the present inventors. It was measured using The fineness distribution of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention will be explained in more detail. When a conventionally known web-like fiber aggregate is made by mixing filamentous fibers of different deniers obtained by the conventional orifice spinning method, the fineness distribution of the web is different at different deniers. However, since the manufacturing method of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention is completely different from that of conventionally known ones, the fineness of the filaments is , statistically, it is distributed with a constant standard deviation value. Furthermore, to explain the fineness distribution in detail, the fineness distribution often has one gentle peak, but some have a plurality of gentle peaks. The fineness distribution of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention is determined by the fiber cross-sectional area variation coefficient within the aggregate [CV(A)] defined below.
It is possible to understand the substance by looking at the fineness distribution map, which is divided into 0.2 denier increments. The fineness distribution diagram, like the pattern diagram in FIG. 1, plots denier on the horizontal axis and frequency percentage on the vertical axis. The coefficient of variation of the fiber cross-sectional area within the aggregate here [CV
(A)] is measured by the method described below. A partial aggregate with an apparent volume of approximately 5 cm x 5 cm x 5 cm is cut from any location of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention, and at least 100 or more filament-like composite fibers are randomly cut from this partial aggregate. They are drawn with tweezers and arranged in the same direction to form at least 100 random partial bundles (about 5 to 7 cm long). By observing the cross-section at any position of this partial focusing body under a microscope, the size of each cross-section is measured from the cross-sectional photograph, and the average value () of each cross-sectional area of any 100 pieces is calculated. The standard deviation (σB) of the cross-sectional area can be calculated using the following formula: CV(A)=σB/B. The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has this CV(A)
It is in the range of 0.1 to 1.5, and particularly preferably in the range of 0.2 to 1.0. This CV(A) value changes somewhat when fibers obtained by a conventionally known orifice method are mixed into the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention. However, in the fineness distribution map divided into 0.2 denier ranges, it appears that either the batting is composed only of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention, or that fibers obtained by other conventional orifice methods are mixed in. It is possible to clearly determine whether or not the material is stuffed with cotton. From the filling of the present invention, take out the aligned partial focus body extracted during the above-mentioned CV(A) measurement,
It is sufficient to draw a fineness distribution map of these fiber bundles divided into 0.2 denier units. This will be explained in more detail using the schematic diagram of the fineness distribution map pattern shown in FIG. FIG. 1-a is a pattern diagram of a typical example of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention, which is characterized by a Mt. Fuji-shaped distribution. FIG. 1-b is a pattern diagram of a typical example of a fiber aggregate obtained by conventionally known orifice spinning. FIG. 1-D is a pattern diagram of a typical example of a fiber aggregate obtained by the conventionally known orifice method spinning on the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention.
The part indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 1-D shows the amount of fiber aggregate obtained by orifice spinning. The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention may have a single peak shape in the pattern of the fineness distribution diagram, but preferably, in the fineness distribution diagram separated by 0.2 denier, as shown in Figure 1-C. It is preferable to have two or more peaks. In the present invention, the term "mixed aggregate of filamentary fibers of different deniers" refers to "a fiber aggregate that has two or more peaks as shown in Figure 1-C in the fineness distribution map separated by 0.2 denier". is defined as At least 10% of the filament constituting the filling of the present invention has at least 2 to 4 layers of at least two different polymer phases on average in a cross section taken at right angles to its length. It has a structure that Here, the polymer phase is not necessarily a phase consisting of a single polymer, but also a homogeneous mixed polymer in which two or more types of polymers are mutually dissolved and mixed.
It means a finely dispersed mixed polymer in which at least one other polymer exists in a finely dispersed state. This finely dispersed mixed polymer phase shows that when a cross-section of a filament is observed using a micrograph, a large number of other polymers are dispersed in a fine shape (island-like or star-like) within a certain polymer (sea). It refers to something that can be seen with the naked eye. In this case, the appropriate magnification of the photograph is approximately 300 to 1000 times. The filament constituting the cotton wadding of the present invention is
In its cross-sectional shape, at least two different polymer phases are combined to form an average of 2 to 4 layers. Here, the polymer phases may be different as long as the physical and chemical properties of each phase are different. For example, differences in physical properties include melting point, thermal contraction rate, thermal expansion rate, specific gravity, hardness, refractive index, degree of crystallinity, degree of orientation, polarization, antistatic property, and the like. Furthermore, degree of polymerization, intrinsic viscosity [η], melt viscosity, strength,
Dynamic physical properties such as elongation, Young's modulus, and elasticity are also cited as differences in physical properties. On the other hand, differences in chemical properties include differences in properties such as dyeability, solubility resistance, hydrophilicity, chemical resistance, flame retardancy, and heat resistance. Among the above-mentioned physical properties, those with particularly strong temperature dependence can be classified as thermal properties. For example, melting point, softening point, melt viscosity, heat shrinkage rate,
Specific examples include thermal expansion coefficient, thermal contraction stress, density change due to temperature change, crystallinity degree, and orientation degree. Among the above-mentioned physical and chemical properties of the different polymer phases, it is preferable to combine them with different melting points, boiling water shrinkage rates, crystallinity degrees, heat shrinkage rates, heat shrinkage stresses, etc. At least 10% of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber assembly of the present invention have an average of 2 to 4 polymer phases of at least two different types in a cross section taken at right angles to their length. It is characterized by having a layered structure. Discrimination of such different polymer phases in the fiber cross section can be measured by the following method. (i) Since the difference in dyeing speed and the difference in desorption speed after dyeing are sensitive to even very subtle differences, this difference can be used to color different polymer phases with different dyes. There is a way. (ii) Identification using an optical microscope equipped with a hot plate or a polarizing microscope equipped with a hot plate, using the upper surface condition of the fiber cross section near the melting point, or the difference in refractive index, polarization, etc. of the fiber cross section. There is a way to do this. (iii) After subjecting the fiber cross-section to ion etching treatment or chemical etching treatment using chemicals, the surface roughness of the fiber cross-section was observed using a scanning electron microscope at a magnification of approximately 1000 times, and different weights were determined. There is a method to identify coalescent phases. (iv) If there are differences in the types of micro additives such as polymerization catalysts in different polymer phases, an There is a way to diagram the boundaries of coalescent phases. In addition to these, various identification methods can be considered, but by combining the four identification methods described above, different polymer phases in the cross section of the filament constituting the cotton knot of the present invention can be identified. . FIG. 2 shows a state in which different polymer phases are mixed in the above-mentioned mixture forming region (A) by a stationary element for layered mixing and a state in which different polymer phases are mixed by a spinneret having a finely uneven surface structure. It is a diagram schematically showing the cross-sectional state of the composite fiber that has been made into fibers. When three or more different polymer phases combine in a layered structure in the cross section of the fiber, the layered structure is obvious at first glance, but it may be a structure in which two different polymer phases are combined. If it has, it may be in a state closer to the expression side-by-side than layered, but this aspect is also included in the present invention. The average number of blocks (B) of different polymer phases in the fiber cross section of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention was randomly extracted from the micrograph obtained by the above-mentioned block state identification method. It can be determined as the average value of the number of blocks in 100 fiber cross sections. When manufacturing the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention, some of the present inventors proposed the patent application No. 55-16284.
No. (filed on November 20, 1982), the fluid mixing stationary element for forming a layered mixture flow is utilized, so that the average block of different polymer phases in the fiber cross section is The feature is that the number (B) can be set arbitrarily. The filaments constituting the cotton wadding of the present invention are characterized by being partially bonded to each other, and the manner of bonding can be classified as follows. (i) Patent application filed in 1984 by some of the inventors
No. 38993 (filed on March 28, 1982) refers to the crosslinking point between filaments, which is the starting material for the web-like fiber aggregate constituting the filling of the present invention (unstretched). ) These are crosslinking points that are formed when filamentary composite fibers are made into fibers from the spinneret. (ii) When the typical manufacturing method of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has already been described above, after drawing the filament-like fiber aggregate fiberized from the spinneret,
It can be seen that these fiber bundles are opened into a web by means such as electrospreading. After this web-forming step, the heat treatment imparts crimp performance to the filament-like composite fibers, and the polymer phases having low melting points of the different polymer phases are fused with other filament-like composite fibers. There are junctions that can be made. (iii) Furthermore, there are bonding points that are formed by using a binder to fuse the fibers together by heat treatment after the web-forming step. Generally, methods classified as (iii) are called resin processing of fillings. Since the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has the ability to fuse fibers together, it is not necessarily necessary to perform resin processing in this category (iii). It is also characterized by having sufficiently good filling performance. Here, basically, the number of junction points classified into three can be statistically approximated for the filling of the present invention by the following method. Approximately 2 cm x 2 from any location of the filling of the present invention
Cut a web with an apparent volume of cm x 2 cm, carefully take out a large number of short fibers with tweezers, count the junctions (m) between these short fibers, and calculate the approximate number using the following formula. . ~W/9× ¹⁰⁵ ×De×m×2 Where, W: Weight (g) of a web having an apparent volume of approximately 2 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm: Average fineness (de) of the web-like fiber aggregate: Average Distance between joining points (cm/piece) m: Number of actually measured joining points (m pieces) The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has a bulk in the range of 0.005 to 0.05 g/cm ² when left as it is. It has density. This bulk density can be easily determined by roughly measuring the apparent volume and dividing it by its weight. Further, the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has a
It is characterized by having a light load bulk in the range of 100 cm ² /g. More preferably, a web-like fiber aggregate having a light weight and bulk in the range of 20 to 70 cm ² /g is preferred. In the present invention, this light load bulk is defined as follows. A 20 g sample was selected from any part of the web-like fiber aggregate, carefully packed into a transparent cylinder with a diameter of 10 cm, and a heavy load of 10 g/cm ² was applied to the web-like fiber aggregate in the cylinder for 10 minutes. Pre-compression was carried out for 2 minutes, and the pretreatment was completed by deflating for 2 hours under no load.The light load volume on the first day was measured when a light load of 0.5 g/cm ² was applied for 0.5 hours. 17 after deflating for 1.5 hours in the state
A load of 10 g/cm ² was applied for an hour, and the bulk at that point was taken as the bulk under heavy load on the first day, and then allowed to shrink for 5 hours under no load. Repeat this for 5 days, and then
The "light load bulk (cm ² /g)" on the following day is defined as the "light load bulk" of the present invention. It can be said that the larger the light load volume defined in this way is, the lighter and bulkier the feather is, the less it flops, and the filling performance that is similar to that of natural feathers. The filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention each have crimps of randomly different shapes, and the average number of crimps is 3 to 20 crimps/inch, preferably 5 to 13 It is characterized by being in the range of ke/inke. The crimp ratio of the filaments constituting the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention is 10 to 50%, preferably 15%.
It is characterized by a range of % to 45%. The number of crimp and crimp rate of these filaments are in accordance with the measurement of short cotton according to JIS standard L-1074.
Measurements were made taking into consideration the average fineness () described above. The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has a thermal conductivity of 0.04 by adjusting the bulk density within the range of 0.005 to 0.05 g/cm ² during production.
~0.08Kcal/mh℃, preferably 0.04~
A feature of the present invention is that it can be adjusted to fall within the range of 0.06 Kcal/mh°C. This thermal conductivity was calculated using a sample thickness of 1.5cm according to the flat plate comparison method of JIS standard A-1412.
The measurements were taken under a light load of 0.5 g/cm ² . The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention is characterized by having a bulk retention rate of 70% or more. The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention has a bulk retention rate of 70% or more even without adhesive treatment because there are tertiary bonding points that partially bond each filament to each other. However, by adding an adhesive, such as an acrylic binder, in an amount of about 5 to 10%, the number of bonding points can be doubled to increase the bulk retention rate of the web-like fiber aggregate to 75% or more, preferably. has the characteristic that it can be improved by more than 80%. The bulk retention rate mentioned here was calculated by measuring the bulk of the light load (at 0.5 g/cm ² load) on the first day.
Repeat for several days, light load bulk (0.5g/cm2 ⁾ on the 5th day.
(at the time of load) was measured and calculated using the following formula. Bulk retention rate (%) = Bulk under light load on the 5th day (cm ² /g) / Bulk under light load on the 1st day (cm ² /g) × 100 Above, the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention, and , the performance and characteristics of the filling made of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention are clarified, and the present invention is completely different from conventionally known fillings. I understand that. Examples of the at least two different thermoplastic polymers that are the raw material for the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention include combinations of a large number of polymers as described below. (i) Polyesters; for example polyesters with aromatic, aliphatic or cycloaliphatic dicarboxylic acids as the dibasic acid component and aliphatic, cycloaliphatic or aromatic glycols as the glycol component are preferred. It is. More details will be described later. (ii) Polyamide; for example poly ε-caprolactam, polyhexamethylene adipamide, polyhexamethylene sebacamide. (iii) Polyolefin-based or polyvinyl-based polymers; for example, polyethylene, polypropylene, polybutylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl acetate, polyacrylonitrile, polyacrylic acid ester, or mutual copolymers thereof. (iv) Other polymers; In addition to the above-mentioned polymers (i) to (iii), polycarbonates using various bisphenols; Polyacetals; Various polyurethanes, polyfluorinated ethylenes, and copolymerized polyfluorinated ethylenes. The above-mentioned thermoplastic synthetic polymers may be used alone or in a finely dispersed mixture of two or more. More preferably, it is advantageous to select different polyester polymers from the group of essentially thermoplastic polyesters as the at least two different thermoplastic polymers. For example, terephthalic acid, methyl terephthalic acid,
Isophthalic acid, 5-methylisophthalic acid, 4-methylisophthalic acid, phthalic acid, diphenyl-4,
4′-dicarboxylic acid, diphenylethane-4,4′-
dicarboxylic acid, diphenoxyethane-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid, stilpene-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid, naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid, naphthalene-2,7-dicarboxylic acid, naphthalene-1,
Aromatic dicarboxylic acids such as 4-dicarboxylic acid and naphthalene-1,5-dicarboxylic acid; aliphatic dicarboxylic acids such as succinic acid, adipic acid, azelaic acid, sebacic acid, and decanedicarboxylic acid; or cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid and dihydroterephthalic acid , alicyclic dicarboxylic acids such as decalin-2,6-dicarboxylic acid as the dibasic acid component, ethylene glycol, trimethylene glycol, isopropylene glycol, tetramethylene glycol, hexamethylene glycol, neopentylene glycol, decamethylene glycol and aliphatic glycols in which a plurality of these are condensed through ether bonds; alicyclic glycols such as dichlorohexane-1,4-diol and cyclohexylene-1,4-dimethylol; aromatic glycols such as xylene glycol, etc. as glycol components. Advantageous polyesters are used. These dibasic acid components or glycol components are
Each polyester may be used singly or in combination of two or more types. Preferred examples include using terephthalic acid as a dibasic acid component and replacing a portion (usually 50 mol% or less, preferably 30 mol% or less) with other difunctional carboxylic acids mentioned above, or replacing terephthalic acid with ethylene glycol, trimester, etc. Polyesters in which ching glycol or tetramethylene glycol is used as a glycol component and a portion (usually 50 mol% or less, preferably 30 mol% or less) is replaced with other glycols mentioned above, such as polyethylene terephthalate, polytetramethylene terephthalate, polytrimethylene Terephthalate, U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,109;
These include polyester elastomers described in No. 3023192, No. 3651014, and No. 3766146. Further, a flame-retardant polyester is prepared by adding a bromine compound, a phosphorus compound, a compound containing a bromine atom and a phosphorus atom, or a combination of these compounds as a flame retardant to the polyester; The agent is selected from the group consisting of metal sulfonate group-containing compounds such as 5-sodium sulfoisophthalate, long chain glycols having an ether bond such as polyoxyethylene glycol, or alkali metal carboxylate carbonates and halides. An easily dyeable polyester containing an alkali metal compound or a combination of these compounds; Also, a metal sulfonate group-containing compound or a polyoxyalkylene having an average molecular weight of 1,000 to 500,000 is added to the polyester as a hydrophilic agent or an antistatic agent. Mainly consisting of glycol or repeating units represented by the following general formula [-OC(CH ₂ ) _n NH]- (m represents an integer from 2 to 15) Addition of a polyamide component or a combination of these compounds Polyesters such as blended hydrophilic or antistatic polyesters are also used as suitable polyester polymers to form the composite polyester fibers of the present invention. Furthermore, the polyester used in the present invention may be a polyester that has undergone transesterification or polycondensation, such as by reacting dimethyl terephthalate with ethylene glycol, or may be a polyester that has undergone transesterification or polycondensation, such as by reacting dimethyl terephthalate with ethylene glycol. The polyester may be a polyester directly subjected to an esterification reaction and polycondensed as described above, or a combination of these may be used to form the composite polyester fiber of the present invention. Most preferably, at least 10% of the filamentous fibers making up the web-like fiber assembly
It is preferable that the fiber is a composite fiber consisting essentially of a polyethylene terephthalate component and a polytetramethylene terephthalate component. Furthermore, a plasticizer, a viscosity increaser, etc. may be added to the polyester polymer in order to increase plasticity and melt viscosity. Further, the polyester polymer may contain a light stabilizer, a crystallization nucleating agent, a pigment, a heat stabilizer, a flame retardant, a lubricant, an extinguishing agent, etc., which are usually used as additives for fibers. Furthermore, the polyester polymer is not necessarily limited to a linear polymer, but may be a polymer having a partially crosslinked three-dimensional structure as long as thermoplasticity is not impaired. The web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention can be used as a filler as it is, but it can be further used with up to 50% natural fibers or webs thereof, known synthetic fibers or webs thereof, or pulp-like materials to achieve the effects of the present invention. It may be partially mixed or laminated as long as it does not damage the properties. More preferably, the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention is partially mixed with or laminated with the above-mentioned fibrous materials other than the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention in an amount of 30% or less. Applications of the stuffing made of the web-like fiber aggregate of the present invention include stuffing for various futons such as Japanese and Western mattresses, quilts, and seat cushions, quilting, winter coats, Examples include stuffing for thermal clothing such as cold weather gear, and industrial uses such as cushioning packaging materials such as shock absorbers, but these are only examples of the application of the present invention and are limited to these. It's not a thing. The present invention will be described below with reference to Examples. However, the following examples are provided to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention in any way. Example 1 6-nylon (melting point 488〓, intrinsic viscosity [η]=
0.71) chips and polyethylene terephthalate (melting point 540〓, intrinsic viscosity [η] = 1.00 in Table 1)
Labeled as PET(1). ) and two chips each.
A fixed amount is supplied to a 30φ extruder to melt it, and a gear pump is used to send 110g and 140g per minute to the inlet of an I-type die through separate piping. The fluid mixing element described in the text, which was made by laminating a large number of photo-etched plates having a thickness of about 380 μm, was inserted to form a layered mixture flow of 6-nylon and the PET (1). The fibers are discharged as a trickle from a spinneret made of a plain-woven wire mesh made of 50 mesh stainless steel material and has a molding area of 100 cm ² , while cooling the vicinity of the spinneret heated by high current Joule heat using compressed air. A filament-like composite fiber bundle was obtained. Immediately, the bundle was stretched approximately twice as much on a heating plate, and the filament-like composite fibers were supplied to the opening section at an overfeed rate of 20 times, and a high voltage of 25 KV was applied to electrolytically open the fibers to form a web. I let it happen. The obtained web-like fiber aggregate has a basis weight of 280
g/ ^cm2 , and when dry heat treated at 160°C, it has the physical properties listed in Table 1.
The result was a cotton-like futon with high crimpability, good texture, and good bulk retention. Example 2 The PET (1) chips used in Example 1 and amorphous transparent polyethylene terephthalate (melting point 515〓,
Intrinsic viscosity [η] = 0.640, neopentyl glycol 8 mol% copolymer, indicated as PET (2) in Table 1. ) was used for spinning, drawing, opening into a web, and heat treatment using exactly the same equipment as in Example 1. As a result, a composite fiber with a high average degree of crimp of 26% was obtained on the 5th day. A bulky cotton filling with a light load bulk of 37 cm ² /g was obtained. Other stuffing properties were as listed in Table 1. Example 3 Chips of PET (1) and flame-retardant polyethylene terephthalate (melting point 528〓, intrinsic viscosity [η] = 0.540,
Modification by copolymerizing a compound containing prom and phosphorous atoms
PET (phosphorus content 0.14% by weight), in Table 1
Displayed as PET(3). ), using exactly the same equipment as in Example 1, spinning, stretching, opening into a web, and heat treatment were performed sequentially in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a material having the physical properties shown in Table 1. I got the stuffing. When the cotton stuffing obtained in Example 2 and the cotton stuffing obtained in Example 3 were put side by side and subjected to a combustion test, it was found that flame-retardant PET was arranged in the fiber cross section at an average number of blocks (B) of 23. The cotton stuffing of Example 3 was more flammable. Example 4 Using the PET (1) and PET (3) chips used in Example 3, the polymer volume ratio extruded from the 30φ extruder was adjusted to approximately 70:30 using a gear pump, and the same procedure as in Example 3 was carried out. After spinning, stretching, and opening into a web, an aqueous ethyl acrylate binder solution is sprayed onto the web, and the web is then passed through a heat treatment device to develop crimp and to remove the bonding points by the binder. The aim was to increase When the average inter-junction distance (l) of the resulting web-like fiber aggregate was statistically measured using the method described in the text, the distance was 8 cm, and a batting with high bulk retention was obtained. It was done. Example 5 Using chips of PET (1) and chips of polybutylene terephthalate (melting point 500〓, intrinsic viscosity [η] = 1.15), spinning, drawing, electrospreading and web-forming were carried out in the same manner as in Example 4. Heat treatment was performed. It was found that the obtained web-like fiber aggregate had an average number of crimps of 17 crimps/inch and an average degree of crimps of 30%, making it a composite fiber with very good crimp performance.
Furthermore, the obtained web-like fiber aggregate had a very good texture and good drape properties. Example 6 The same procedure as in Example 5 was carried out using the same equipment as in Example 5, except that one 50-mesh plain-woven wire mesh made of stainless steel and one 40-mesh plain-woven wire mesh were laminated and used in the spinneret. , spinning, drawing, electrospreading, and heat treatment, the light load bulk on the 5th day was 39.
cm ² /g, which was very high, and a good bulk retention rate of 83% was obtained. The fineness distribution map of the obtained web-like fiber aggregate was calculated using the method described in the text.
When plotted separately for each denier, it was found that the frequency peaks appeared at 1.0 denier, 1.5 denier, and 2.3 denier in a long distribution chart on the right side, clearly indicating a mixture of different deniers.
Further, when the fiber cross section of the composite fiber bundle obtained from the web-like fiber aggregate was observed under an optical microscope, it was found at first glance that it was an aggregate consisting of fibers of different deniers. Other stuffing properties were as shown in Table 1.

【table】

【table】 [Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a pattern diagram illustrating a fineness distribution diagram. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the different polymer phases fed to the spinneret are mixed in a substantially layered manner and a state in which the different polymer phases are mixed in a substantially layered manner in the cross section of the composite filamentary fiber obtained through the spinneret. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a mixed state.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Containing at least 50% by weight of a web-like fiber assembly consisting of a plurality of continuous filaments of a thermoplastic synthetic polymer, (i) the filaments are irregular along their length; (ii) The coefficient of variation of the cross-sectional area of the filament [CV(F)]
(iii) the average fineness of the filament is in the range 0.5 to 20 denier; (iv) at least 10% of the filament has a cross section taken at right angles to its length; It has a structure in which at least two different polymer phases form an average of 2 to 4 layers, and (v) each filament is partially bonded to each other. filling. 2 The web-like fiber aggregate has a weight of 0.005 to 0.05 g/
Filling according to claim 1, having a bulk density in the range cm ³ . 3. The filling according to item 1 or 2, wherein the web-like fiber aggregate has a light load bulk in the range of 20 to 100 cm ³ /g. 4. The filamentous fibers constituting the web-like fiber aggregate have an average number of crimps in the range of 3 to 20 crimps/inch, and have an average degree of crimp in the range of 10 to 50%. ~The filling according to any of item 3. 5. The filling according to any one of items 1 to 4, wherein the web-like fiber aggregate is a mixed aggregate of filament-like fibers of different deniers. 6. At least 10% of the filamentous fibers constituting the web-like fiber aggregate are the filler according to any one of items 1 to 5, consisting essentially of a polyethylene terephthalate component and a polytetramethylene terephthalate component. .