JPH0447068B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for fibrillating and entangling fibrous structures formed containing multicomponent fibers. More specifically, a substance that has the effect of plasticizing or swelling a part of the component (component A) constituting the multicomponent fiber is added to a fiber structure formed including multicomponent fibers, and the component A is plasticized. After turning or swelling,
The present invention relates to a method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers, characterized in that fibrillation and entanglement of the multicomponent fibers are simultaneously performed by spraying a high-speed fluid stream onto the fiber structure.

Conventionally, several methods have been proposed for producing a fiber entangled sheet by applying a high-speed fluid flow to a fiber sheet. For example, a web made of staples or filaments, or a nonwoven fabric with relatively loosely entwined fibers, is placed on a wire mesh, and a high-speed water stream is blown onto it from above, and the force of the water stream entangles the fibers, causing fiber entanglement. A method for producing a sheet, in which a fiber sheet formed by a papermaking method or a melt-blowing method is placed on a knitted fabric or woven fabric, and a high-speed water jet is blown thereon to form a knitted fabric or woven fabric with the fibers that make up the fiber sheet. For example, a method of manufacturing a fiber-entangled sheet by intertwining the fibers with other fibers and integrating the two. However, in these methods, the fibers entangled by the high-speed water flow are not fibrillated, but are simply thick fibers that are entangled with each other. Therefore, in the method using fibers of normal thickness, it is difficult to intertwine the fibers with high density because the fibers are thick and have high rigidity. On the other hand, in the method using ultra-fine fibers, the length of the ultra-fine fibers must be extremely short in order to improve dispersibility in the paper-making liquid; When the resulting fiber sheet is entangled with a high-speed water stream, the fine fibers tend to scatter due to the force of the water stream, and the resulting fiber entangled sheet has a weak strength because the ultrafine fibers tend to fall off. Ta. In addition, in the melt-blowing method, which produces a fiber sheet composed of ultrafine fibers that are longer in length than the papermaking method, the ultrafine fibers in the fiber sheet are deposited without being stretched, so the entangling treatment with high-speed water jets is required. Even if this method is applied, only a fiber entangled sheet with weak strength can be obtained. Moreover, lumps tend to get mixed into the ultrafine fiber deposited sheet, making it difficult to obtain a fiber sheet with good uniformity.

In addition, as a method for producing another fiber entangled sheet, a large number of ultrafine single fibers spun by the cuprammonium method are bundled in a semi-solidified state to form a cellulose self-adhesive fiber bundle, and a cellulose self-adhesive fiber bundle is formed using this fiber. A method of producing a non-woven fabric by spraying a high-speed water jet onto a fiber sheet to peel off the self-adhesive parts. There is a method of manufacturing fiber cloth by dividing it vertically along the lines of a mold. However, each of these methods had several drawbacks as described below. That is, in the method (2), when the cellulose ultrafine fibers extruded into a coagulation bath are bundled in a semi-solid state and self-adhered to each other, it is extremely difficult to control the adhesion strength. If the adhesion strength is low, problems such as fluffing will occur in subsequent processes, and if it is strong, there will be problems such as the fibers hardly peeling off even when sprayed with high-speed water jets, making it extremely difficult to implement the method industrially. It was difficult. In this method, it is necessary to spin the fibers using a spinneret with a specially shaped discharge hole.
For this reason, processing of the spinneret is difficult, and the molten polymer tends to bend immediately after being discharged from the spinneret during fiber spinning, requiring spinning to be carried out under extremely strict control of conditions. In addition, in order to split these Y-shaped cross-sectional fibers with a high-speed water stream, a high-speed water stream with high collision energy is generated using a high-speed water stream generator with a high pressure system exceeding ¹⁸⁰ kg/cm 2, and multiple treatments are required. This results in extremely high fluid consumption and, from an industrial point of view, production costs are quite high. Also,
Split fibrillated fibers are only about 2 to 3 times thinner than the original fibers, and even after split fibrillation, the fibers are still thick, so the fiber entanglement density is low, and the sheet The uniformity was also poor.

Furthermore, a method has also been proposed in which a string-like fiber entangled product is produced by applying a high-speed fluid flow to a string-like material. For example, a sliver or filament bundle is passed through a small-diameter nozzle while running, and a high-speed air flow or high-speed water flow is applied from around it, and the force of the fluid entangles the fibers to produce a string-like fiber entanglement. For example, how to do this. However, in the string-like fiber entanglements obtained by these methods, the fibers entangled by the high-speed fluid are not fibrillated, but are instead thick fibers entangled with each other. It was something I didn't like. For this reason, the rigidity of the fiber is high,
The intertwining density of the fibers was also low, and unsightly fluffing was likely to occur on the surface of the string-like material, resulting in poor shape retention.

One object of the present invention is to very easily and effectively produce a product without requiring strict control of manufacturing conditions, special high-pressure high-velocity fluid flow generators, and large amounts of fluid as in these conventional methods. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers, which can fibrillate fibers and intertwine the fibers densely. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method capable of converting multicomponent fibers into ultrafine fibers without using the usual method of dissolving and removing some components using a solvent. Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description.

In order to achieve this object, the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the method of the present invention
A substance (B substance) that has the effect of plasticizing or swelling a part of the component (A component) constituting the multicomponent fiber (B substance) ) and A
After the components are plasticized or swollen, a high-speed fluid stream is sprayed onto the fiber structure to selectively destroy the A component and simultaneously fibrillate and entangle the multicomponent fibers. This is a method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers.

The fiber structure in the present invention may be of any form as long as it is intended to fibrillate and entangle at least the multicomponent fibers contained in the fibers constituting it, and may vary depending on the purpose.
The multicomponent fibers included in the fibrous structure are preferably 10
A suitable amount is at least 20% by weight, more preferably at least 20% by weight. Examples of fibrous structures to which the method of the present invention is preferably applied include fibrous sheets, string-like objects, as well as cylindrical objects and tube-like objects. Fibrous sheets are nonwoven fabrics, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, paper sheets, other nonwoven fabrics, webs, etc. using staples, filaments, or both of these, and they are also laminated or inseparable. A sheet-like object formed by intertwining or combining. When using a nonwoven fabric as the fiber sheet of the present invention, a nonwoven fabric that has been entangled in advance by needle punching or the like is preferably used. Furthermore, the string-like material refers to a fiber structure having a long and thin string-like form, such as thread, string, rope, net, sliver, and filament bundle.

Further, it can be preferably applied to cylindrical or tube-shaped fiber structures.

The multicomponent fiber in the present invention refers to two types or two types of fibers.
A fiber that is mainly composed of one or more polymeric substances and can be transformed into a plurality of ultrafine fibers by chemical or physical treatment. In addition, this multicomponent fiber is one that forms an ultrafine fiber bundle or a porous hollow fiber as a result of removing some of its components, or one that forms a porous and hollow fiber even if some components are not removed. etc.

Specific examples of the polymeric substances used in the multicomponent fibers of the present invention include nylon 6, nylon 66, nylon 6-10, nylon 12, nylon 11, which can be dyed densely and has more amino groups than usual. Polyamides such as nylon and their copolymers, polyethylene terephthalate, copolymerized polyethylene terephthalate easily soluble in alkaline solutions, polybutylene terephthalate, polytetramethylene terephthalate, polytrimethylene terephthalate,
or polyethylene oxybenzoate, polyethylene sebacate, polyethylene adipate,
Polyesters such as ethylene isophthalate sulfonate-containing copolyesters and copolymers thereof, polyolefin polymers mainly composed of polyethylene, polypropylene, etc., and copolymers thereof;
Polyethers such as polyethylene oxide, polymethylene oxide, polyethylene glycol, polystyrene, polymethyl methacrylate,
Vinyl polymers and their copolymers, such as polyvinyl alcohol, acrylonitrile polymers, styrene-acrylonitrile copolymers, copolymers of styrene and higher alcohol esters of acrylic acid and/or higher alcohol esters of methacrylic acid, and silicone resins. , regenerated collagen, cuprammonium rayon, polyurethane and copolymers thereof, and mixtures thereof.

However, the combination of the above-mentioned polymers used as each component of the multicomponent fiber in the present invention may be a combination that achieves the present invention, and should be appropriately determined in consideration of the field of use of the fiber, manufacturing cost, polymer properties, etc. It cannot be determined uniformly.

Component A is easy to break when hit by a high-speed fluid flow, easily fibrillates into multicomponent fibers, easy to spin in combination with other polymeric substances, and relatively easy to dissolve and remove with a solvent. For these reasons, polystyrene, polystyrene-acrylonitrile copolymers, copolymers of styrene and higher alcohol esters of acrylic acid and/or higher alcohol esters of methacrylic acid, etc. are preferably used. Furthermore, the use of higher alcohol esters of styrene and acrylic acid and/or methacrylic acid has the advantage that they can be drawn at a high draw ratio, yield fibers with high strength, and are easily plasticized or swollen by substance B and are highly fibrillated. Copolymers with higher alcohol esters are more preferably used.

In addition, multi-component fibers in which polyalkylene glycols are mixed in the A component have a synergistic effect between the polyalkylene glycols inside the fiber and the externally applied substance B, which prevents fibrillation and entanglement caused by high-speed fluid flow. Since it can be carried out to a higher degree, it is preferably used in the present invention. If the amount of polyalkylene glycol added to component A is too small, the above-mentioned synergistic effect cannot be obtained, and if it is too large, the spinning stability of the multicomponent fiber may decrease.
The amount added is preferably 0.5 to 30% by weight based on the weight of component A. When component A is a polystyrene polymer, the amount added is preferably 0.5 to 10% by weight.

Methods for mixing polyalkylene glycols with component A include adding it during polymerization of component A, mixing and melting the two and discharging them into chips, mixing the chips of both, and melting them separately. There are methods of mixing.

The polyalkylene glycols to be mixed with the above component A include polyalkylene glycol or its derivatives, such as polyethylene glycol (polyethylene oxide) and those whose molecules are blocked at one or both ends with an alkyl group, polypropylene glycol, polyethylene-polypropylene, etc. Examples include, but are not limited to, glycol block polymers, polyalkylene glycol derivatives made from various glycols and acids, block polyether polyamides, and mixtures thereof.

Further, as these polyalkylene glycols, those having a molecular weight of 5,000 to 600,000 are preferably used, and those having a molecular weight of 5,000 to 100,000 are more preferable. Furthermore, it is also preferable to add the above-mentioned polyalkylene glycols to components other than component A of the multicomponent fiber, that is, to the ultrafine fiber component. In this case, the ultrafine fiber component itself is further subdivided, resulting in a structure in which thinner ultrafine fibers are intertwined more densely.

The multicomponent fibers used in the present invention are made by bundling microfibers directly produced by super draw, discharging from a large number of microscopic holes, jet spinning using gas flow, etc., and then combining them with other components. Multi-component fibers that are combined into a single composite fiber may be used, but spinning becomes unstable when the fibers become thin, ultra-fine fibers are difficult to produce by direct spinning, and fiber structures such as non-woven fabrics Ultrafine fiber-forming fibers obtained by multicomponent spinning described below are preferably used because they are difficult to process and difficult to handle, such as the fibers peeling off during the manufacturing process. That is, the ultrafine fiber-forming fiber preferably used in the present invention is
For example, fibers with a chrysanthemum-shaped cross section in which one component is interposed radially between other components, multilayer bimetallic fibers,
Multilayer bimetallic fibers with a donut-shaped cross section, so-called mixed spun fibers and fibers made by melting and mixing chips or beads of two or more types of polymeric substances, or by mixing and spinning melted components of two or more types of polymeric substances. Polymer mutually arranged fibers are made up of a large number of axially continuous ultrafine fibers that are combined with other components to form a single fiber, and even if two or more of these fibers are mixed or combined. good. Other component fibers, such as polymer array fibers and mixed spun fibers, can be obtained into extremely thin microfibers, so fibrillation and entanglement can be performed extremely densely through high-speed fluid flow treatment, resulting in excellent flexibility and shape retention. It is more preferably used because a fibrous structure can be obtained.

In the present invention, the fineness of the ultrafine fiber obtained from the multicomponent fiber is preferably 0.8 denier or less. 0.8
If it is thicker than the denier, it is difficult to obtain dense entanglement due to the high rigidity of the fibers, and the resulting fiber structure may lack flexibility and shape retention depending on the purpose. It is preferably 0.5 denier or less, more preferably 0.2 denier or less.

Substance B in the present invention is a substance that has the effect of plasticizing or swelling a part of the component (component A) of the multicomponent fiber. B that can be used in the present invention
Examples of the substance include a swelling agent for component A, a plasticizer, and a surfactant that has the effect of plasticizing or swelling component A. It goes without saying that depending on the polymeric material used as component A, it is necessary to apply material B that has the ability to plasticize or swell the polymeric material. Even if component A is not easily destroyed or is not easily destroyed by impact with a high-speed fluid when it is not plasticized or swollen, it is easily destroyed when it is plasticized or swollen by substance B. This is what happens. That is, B
When a high-speed fluid stream is applied to the multicomponent fiber to which the substance has been applied, the plasticized or swollen A component is selectively destroyed, and the remaining components are fibrillated and entangled. Here, the above-mentioned "selective destruction of component A" means that only a part of the component (component A) of the multicomponent fiber is plasticized or swollen compared to other components, making it soft. As it becomes weaker, some of its components are torn into small pieces or destroyed by the impact of the water stream. The remaining components other than some components (component A) are less likely to be destroyed by the impact of water flow than component A, so they will remain in many streaks as component A is destroyed, but they will be pushed in by the force of water. They become closely intertwined with each other. It is not clear why plasticizing or swelling a polymeric material makes it more likely to be destroyed by the impact of a high-speed fluid flow, but when material B is applied to a film made using this polymeric material, the film becomes plasticizes or swells. Furthermore, it was observed that when this film was struck by a high-speed fluid stream, the portions hit by the high-speed fluid stream were torn into small pieces and destroyed. Based on this, we believe that a similar phenomenon occurs in high-speed fluid flow treatment of fibrous structures. However, if the B substance applied to the A component has no or small ability to plasticize or swell the A component, or if the amount of the B substance applied is small, the object of the present invention will not be achieved. A
It goes without saying that the degree of plasticization or swelling of the components must be sufficient to achieve the objectives of the present invention. The amount of Substance B applied that is sufficient to achieve the object of the present invention varies depending on the type of substance used for Component A and Substance B, but
It is preferably 2% by weight to 200% by weight based on the weight of component A. More preferably, 10% by weight to 100% by weight is applied. When selecting the substance B, it is preferable to select the substance so that the A component can be well plasticized or swelled and the A component can be easily destroyed as much as possible.

The use of a highly volatile solvent that dissolves component A as substance B has the following disadvantages. That is, many of these solvents easily evaporate, are harmful to the human body, and are easily flammable and explosive. Further, when such a solvent is applied to the fiber structure, the component A is dissolved and becomes easy to flow, but it quickly solidifies again due to evaporation of the solvent and tends to form a film-like substance. Therefore, it is necessary to perform fluid flow treatment before solidification, but this is not a practical method because it is difficult to control the amount of solvent evaporated. The plasticizer or swelling agent that can be used in the present invention has low volatility and varies depending on the type of polymeric substance used for component A. For example, when component A is a polyamide resin, N-ethyl O ₁ p-toluenesulfonamide, O ₁ p-toluenesulfonamide, N-ethyl-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-methylbenzenesulfonamide , N-butylbenzenesulfonamide, N-cyclohexyl-p-toluenesulfonamide, 2-ethylhexyl-
p-oxybenzoate and the like can be used. When component A is a polyester resin, butylbenzyl phthalate, diphenyl chloride, triphenyl chloride, etc. can be used. When component A is a polystyrene resin, dibutyl phthalate, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, dioctyl sebacate,
Dibutyl sebacate, diphenyl chloride, paraffin chloride, dimethyl phthalate, polyvinyl methyl ether, etc. can be used. When component A is an acrylic resin, dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, diisooctyl phthalate, butylbenzyl phthalate, dicyclohexyl phthalate, polypropylene adipate, etc. can be used. When component A is vinyl acetate resin, dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate,
Dibutyl phthalate, tricresyl phosphate, butyl benzyl phthalate, paraffin chloride, diphenyl chloride, etc. can be used. When component A is a polyvinyl alcohol resin, glycerin, triethanolamine, ethylene glycol, water, etc. can be used. Furthermore, when a polystyrene polymer is used as the component A, a polyalkylene oxide nonionic surfactant is more preferably used. The polyalkylene oxide nonionic surfactant herein refers to one in which an alkylene oxide is added to a compound having a hydroxyl group, a carboxyl group, or an amino group (amide group), and in particular, one in which ethylene oxide is added as the alkylene oxide. is preferred. Such surfactants include higher alcohol ethylene oxide adducts, alkylphenol ethylene oxide adducts, fatty acid ethylene oxide adducts, polyhydric alcohol fatty acid ester ethylene oxide adducts, higher alkylamine ethylene oxide adducts, and fatty acid amide ethylene oxide adducts. , ethylene oxide adducts of fats and oils, and polypropylene glycol ethylene oxide adducts.

Among these, polyalkylene oxide alkyl ether surfactants such as higher alcohol ethylene oxide adducts and polyalkylene oxide alkyl ester surfactants such as fatty acid ethylene oxide adducts are particularly preferred. Since fibrillation and entanglement of multicomponent fibers using polystyrene polymers is often carried out as such fatty acids or higher alcohols, those having 5 to
50 preferably has 7 to 30 alkyl groups, and the number of moles of ethylene oxide added is 1 to 50, preferably 2 to 50
30 is appropriate.

In the present invention, the method of applying substance B to the multicomponent fiber structure is to apply a stock solution, solution, or dispersion of substance B by methods such as impregnation, spraying, coating, transfer, and brushing. dry. It is also possible to apply substance B only to the surface layer portion of at least one side of the fibrous sheet, and selectively fibrillate the multicomponent fibers in the surface layer portion and entangle them at the same time. Here, the same substance B may be applied several times, or several application methods may be combined. Moreover, several types of different B substances may be added. Alternatively, high-speed fluid flow treatment may be performed immediately after applying substance B, but
If the plasticization or swelling of component A by substance B occurs slowly, leave it for a while after applying substance B, or apply heat to accelerate the plasticization or swelling, and then wait until the plasticization or swelling has sufficiently occurred. High velocity fluid flow processing is preferred.

Next, a high-speed fluid stream is caused to impinge on the fiber structure thus obtained, thereby simultaneously fibrillating and entangling the multicomponent fibers. The fluid mentioned here is preferably a liquid, and in special cases it may contain extremely fine solids, but from the viewpoint of ease of handling, cost, and amount of collision energy as a fluid, water is preferred. Most preferably used. A solution prepared by dissolving at least one type of water-soluble polymeric substance such as polyethylene oxide or polyacrylamide with a molecular weight of 5,000 to 5 million in water at a concentration of 0.05% to 3% by weight is applied to the nozzle. It is preferably used because the turbulent friction loss in internal flow is greatly reduced and a columnar flow of fluid without turbulence can be obtained. Furthermore, depending on the purpose, various organic solvents capable of dissolving component A or substance B of the multicomponent fiber, or aqueous solutions of alkali or acids such as sodium hydroxide can be used. These fluids are pressurized and injected through a nozzle with one or more small holes with a hole diameter of 0.05 mmφ to 1.0 mmφ or through narrowly spaced slits to form a high-speed columnar flow that collides with the fiber structure to form multicomponent fibers. Perform fibrillation and entanglement. The pressure applied to the liquid varies depending on the ease of fibrillation of the multicomponent fiber, that is, the type of polymer, the type of B substance, the amount of B substance applied, and the structure of the fiber structure. It is 10Kg/cm ² to 200Kg/cm ² . 100
Even multi-component fibers that are difficult to fibrillate even when high pressures of Kg/cm ² to 300 Kg/cm ² are applied can now be fibrillated at low pressures of 100 Kg/cm ² or less using the method of the present invention. . It is also possible to increase the degree of fibrillation and entanglement by increasing the number of treatments, and the pressure may be changed each time the treatment is performed. In addition, rocking the nozzle or finely rotating the nozzle in a plane can make it difficult to see impact streaks caused by fluid flow on the surface of the fiber structure when it is in the form of a sheet of woven or knitted fabric or non-woven fabric. , is preferably employed to eliminate collision unevenness of fluid flow. In addition, it is also possible to apply the substance B only to the surface layer of at least one side of the fiber sheet and selectively fibrillate and entangle that portion, and it is preferably used as a base material for artificial leather.

In the treatment of component A, substance B, and high-speed fluid flow, by carefully selecting the combinations and conditions thereof, it is possible to remove most of the component A and the applied substance B simply by performing high-speed fluid flow treatment. In other words, fibrillation, entanglement, de-A component, and de-B substance can be performed all at once by high-speed fluid flow treatment. Of course, it is also possible to skip this step and perform fibrillation and entanglement by high-speed fluid flow treatment, and then remove component A and substance B.

When a fiber sheet such as a knitted fabric, a nonwoven fabric, or a fabric in which a woven or knitted fabric is intertwined with single fibers is used as the fiber structure, the fiber entangled sheet obtained by the method of the present invention has a suede-like or bag-like texture. It is preferably used to produce artificial leather and silver-finished artificial leather. In particular, when producing silver-finished artificial leather, the surface layer of the resulting interwoven fiber sheet is finely fibrillated and tightly intertwined, which results in smoothness, flexibility, comfort in the hand, and durability. This is extremely convenient for forming a high grain surface layer.

When producing silver-covered artificial leather using the fiber-entangled sheet obtained by the method of the present invention, the ultrafine fibers in the grain layer preferably have a fineness of 0.2 denier or less. If the fiber is thicker than 0.2 denier, the rigidity of the fiber is too high, which not only impairs the flexibility of the grain layer and the form of wrinkles on the surface, but also makes it more likely to crack when rubbed, causing unevenness on the surface and making it less dense. It is difficult to form a supple silver surface layer. By using ultrafine fibers of 0.2 denier or less, preferably 0.05 denier or less, and more preferably 0.005 denier or less, the fibers can be intertwined very densely, and the fibers are smooth and flexible, and are resistant to cracking and fit comfortably in the hand. A leather-like sheet material having a good grain layer is obtained. In addition, the fiber entangled sheet obtained by the method of the present invention is processed into an extremely smooth and extremely dense fiber entangled sheet by drying after high-speed fluid flow treatment and then hot pressing with a flat roll or flat plate. be done. For this reason,
When a resin liquid for a silver surface layer is applied to this surface layer,
An extremely thin and uniform epidermal layer is formed.

The fiber structure processed by the method of the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to various uses. That is, the method of the present invention provides silver-finished artificial leather,
In addition to suede-like artificial leather, diapers, bandages,
Wet towels, underwear fabrics, feminine hygiene products, tissue paper, dishcloths, towels, various filters,
Chemical cloths, handle parts such as grips, various covers, polishing cloths for furniture, automobiles, and glass, polishing cloths, cassette pads, artificial chamois, fuel adjustment valves for lighters, various gloves, slit yarn, substitutes for leather laces, shoe laces, artificial It is preferably applied to manufacturing skin, artificial eardrums, artificial blood vessels, etc.

According to the method of the present invention, a high-speed water jet is sprayed onto a conventionally known fiber sheet made of loosely entangled fibers, a fiber sheet made by a papermaking method or a melt blowing method, or a fiber sheet made by using fibers with a special cross-sectional shape. Compared to the method of manufacturing a fiber-entangled sheet by applying fibers, it is not necessary to strictly control the manufacturing conditions, and it is not necessary to use a high-speed fluid flow generating device with a particularly high pressure. Very easily and selectively and effectively destroys one component (component A) of the multicomponent fibers without requiring a large amount of fluid,
Furthermore, there is provided a novel fibrillation and entanglement process for multicomponent fibers, in which fibrillation and dense entanglement are simultaneously and easily carried out for the remaining components of the multicomponent fibers other than the components to be destroyed. It is.

According to the method of the present invention, especially when producing silver-finished artificial leather, the surface layer of the resulting interwoven fiber sheet is finely fibrillated and densely intertwined, so it has good smoothness and flexibility, and is soft to the touch. A fiber sheet suitable for forming a highly durable grain layer with good conformability can be obtained.

The examples shown below are for the purpose of clarifying the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto. In the examples, parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified.

Example 1 A vinyl polymer (hereinafter referred to as AS resin) copolymerized with 80 parts of styrene and 20 parts of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate was used as the A component, and 40 parts of nylon 6 was used as the ultrafine fiber component. Forming a web through a random web bar using a staple of polymeric mutually arranged fibers having 7 island components in the filament, each of which contains approximately 100 ultrafine fibers. Then, needle punching was performed to entangle the polymeric mutually arranged fibers to produce a nonwoven fabric (a). The resulting nonwoven fabric (a) was impregnated with a well-stirred solution of polyoxyethylene lauryl ester (6 mole adduct of ethylene oxide) added to water as substance B, squeezed with a mangle, dried, and left overnight. The amount of polyoxyethylene lauryl ester applied to the obtained nonwoven fabric (b) was 20% by weight based on the weight of component A.
It was hot. In addition, AS resin is plasticized,
It was more flexible than nonwoven fabric (a).

From a nozzle in which holes with a hole diameter of 0.2 mmφ are arranged in a row with a pitch of 1 mm between the centers of the holes, water under a pressure of 60 kg/cm ² is jetted at high speed in a columnar flow while rocking the nozzle. The nonwoven fabric (a) and nonwoven fabric (b) placed on a stainless steel wire mesh support were collided with each other and treated from the back side under the same conditions. The obtained nonwoven fabric (a) had almost no fibrillation of the polymer interlayer array fibers, and had an appearance that was not much different from that before the high-speed fluid flow treatment. On the other hand, the nonwoven fabric (b) had a structure in which the polymer mutually arranged fibers were highly fibrillated and tightly intertwined. This is non-woven fabric (a)
On the other hand, in nonwoven fabric (b), the A component is plasticized and the A component is selectively destroyed, resulting in a structure in which the polymer mutual array fibers are highly fibrillated and tightly intertwined. It is. This also applies to other embodiments described later.

Next, the obtained nonwoven fabric (b) was heated and smoothed with a smoothing roll, a polyurethane solution was applied to the surface layer on the smoothed side, and after drying, it was pressed with a heated embossing roll to give it a grain shape. The remaining AS resin and polyoxyethylene lauryl ester were removed with a solvent. Thereafter, it was dyed with a metal-containing dye using a wince dyeing machine at normal pressure of 85°C, followed by the usual finishing treatment and light rolling. The resulting silvered artificial leather had an extremely smooth and uniform surface that conformed to the unevenness of the grain, had excellent flexibility and shape retention, and had excellent durability of the silver surface.

Example 2 In Example 1, filaments of polymeric interlayer array fibers in which polyethylene terephthalate was used as the ultrafine fiber component were used for the front wefts, and buleria processed yarn of polyethylene terephthalate 50 denier-24 filaments was used for the back wefts and warps. I created a double-layered fabric with 5 layers of satin and a 2/3 twill backing. The weight proportion of the polymer interlayer fibers was 32% by weight. The same polyoxyethylene lauryl ester as in Example 1 was added to the resulting double-structured fabric as substance B based on the weight of the fabric in the same manner as in Example 1.
It was applied by impregnation and drying to a concentration of 10% by weight. After leaving the fabric for a while to fully plasticize the AS resin, the fabric was subjected to high-speed fluid flow treatment from the front side under the same conditions using the same nozzle as in Example 1. In the obtained woven fabric, the polymeric mutual array fibers were highly fibrillated and tightly intertwined, and were also pushed into the fiber bundles and between the fibers of the Buleria processed yarn, making them intricately entwined. Furthermore, under the same conditions, 5
When the material was subjected to high-speed fluid flow treatment, most of the AS resin and polyoxyethylene lauryl ester were removed, and a new fibrous structure with a good texture and soft texture that could not be called a woven or nonwoven fabric was obtained.

Example 3 A vinyl polymer copolymerized with 90 parts of styrene and 10 parts of stearyl acrylate (hereinafter referred to as
A nonwoven fabric was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 using a staple of mixed spun fibers having a sea-island structure, consisting of 50 parts of SAS resin (A component) and 50 parts of nylon 6 as an ultrafine fiber component. The obtained nonwoven fabric was coated with B substances such as (1) polyoxyethylene tribenzyl phenol ether, (6 moles of ethylene oxide adduct), (2) polyoxyethylene oleate monoester (5 moles of ethylene oxide adduct), (3) ) polyoxyethylene octyl phenol ether (5 mole ethylene oxide adduct),
(4) Polyoxyethylene lauric acid monoether (4 mole adduct of ethylene oxide) was applied in an amount of 12% by weight based on the weight of the nonwoven fabric. In all of the obtained nonwoven fabrics, the SAS resin was plasticized. Next, high-speed fluid flow treatment was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1, and it was found that in all of the nonwoven fabrics to which substance B was added, a considerable portion of the mixed spun fibers were finely fibrillated and mutually densely bonded. It was a combination of things. On the other hand, the nonwoven fabric to which Substance B was not applied showed almost no change in the fiber structure before and after the high-speed fluid flow treatment. After that, the SAS resin or substance B was removed from each nonwoven fabric using a solvent, and the nonwoven fabrics to which substance B had been added had a much softer feel and did not deform significantly when pulled by hand. On the other hand, the nonwoven fabric to which the substance B was not applied was already greatly deformed at the stage of removing the SAS resin, and its shape retention was poor.

Example 4 43 parts of a mixture of 95 parts of polystyrene and 5 parts of polyethylene glycol with a molecular weight of 20,000 as component A;
Polyethylene terephthalate as ultrafine fiber component
A nonwoven fabric was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 using a staple of polymeric interlayer array fibers in such a form that each filament contained 16 ultrafine fibers at a ratio of 57 parts. Sorbitan lauric acid monoester was added to the obtained nonwoven fabric in an amount of 10% by weight based on the weight of the nonwoven fabric. After heating at 60℃ for 30 minutes to fully plasticize component A, the nozzle was heated at a width of 5mm and a frequency of 6Hz using a nozzle in which holes with a diameter of 0.25mmφ were arranged in a row with a pitch of 2mm between the centers of the holes. Water under a pressure of 50 Kg/cm ² was jetted in a columnar flow at high speed while reciprocating with the nonwoven fabric placed on the moving wire mesh support, and the treatment was carried out twice under the same conditions in total. In the obtained nonwoven fabric, the polymeric mutually arranged fibers were fibrillated almost separately and were further intertwined with each other in a dense manner. In particular, the degree of fibrillation and the density of entanglement were higher closer to the surface on which the high-speed fluid flow collided.
Thereafter, the residual A component of the obtained nonwoven fabric was removed with a solvent, and a nonwoven fabric with good shape retention, excellent flexibility, and smooth feel was obtained.

Example 5 A non-woven fabric was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 using staples of polymer interlayer array fibers in the same form as in Example 1, with a ratio of 60 parts of polystyrene as the A component and 40 parts of polyethylene terephthalate as the ultrafine fiber component. Ivy. 60% by weight of polyoxyethylene octylic acid monoester (3 moles of ethylene oxide adduct) based on the weight of the nonwoven fabric was added to the obtained nonwoven fabric.
It was impregnated so that After the component A was plasticized, high-speed fluid flow treatment was performed on one side a total of three times under the same conditions as in Example 1. The obtained nonwoven fabric was highly fibrillated and densely intertwined with polymeric mutually arranged fibers.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a fiber structure formed of multicomponent fibers made of at least two types of polymeric substances, a part of the component (component A) constituting the multicomponent fibers is plasticized or swollen. After adding an active substance (substance B) to plasticize or swell the component A, the fiber structure is sprayed with a high-speed fluid stream to selectively destroy the component A and produce the multicomponent fiber. A method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers, characterized by simultaneously performing fibrillation and bonding. 2. The multi-component fiber is characterized by using a multi-component ultra-fine fiber-forming fiber having a structure in which a large number of ultra-fine fibers are combined by component A as an intervening component to form one fiber. A method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to claim 1. 3. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to claim 2, wherein the ultrafine fiber-forming fibers are polymeric mutual array fibers and/or mixed spun fibers having a sea-island structure. . 4. Any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fibrous structure is a fibrous sheet made of a woven fabric, a knitted fabric, a non-woven fabric, or a fabric formed by entangling single fibers in a woven or knitted fabric. A method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers as described in . 5. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fiber structure is a string-like material. 6. Claim 4, characterized in that the substance B is applied only to the surface layer portion of at least one side of the fibrous sheet, and the multicomponent fibers in the surface layer portion are selectively fibrillated and entangled at the same time. A method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers as described. 7. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a polystyrene compound is used as component A. 8. The multicomponent fiber according to claim 7, characterized in that a copolymer of styrene and a higher alcohol ester of acrylic acid and/or a higher alcohol ester of methacrylic acid is used as the polystyrene compound. Fibrillation entanglement method. 9. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the plasticizer of component A is used as the substance B. 10. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that a polyalkylene oxide nonionic surfactant is used as the B substance. 11. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to claim 10, wherein a polyoxyethylene-added nonionic surfactant is used as the polyalkylene oxide nonionic surfactant. 12 Claim 1, characterized in that a polyalkylene oxide alkyl ether surfactant and/or a polyalkylene oxide alkyl ester surfactant is used as the polyalkylene oxide nonionic surfactant.
The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to item 0. 13 Claim 1, characterized in that a fiber having a structure in which polyalkylene glycols are mixed in component A is used as the multicomponent fiber.
A method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to any one of items 1 to 12. 14. The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to claim 13, wherein the amount of polyalkylene glycol added in component A is 0.5 to 30% based on the weight of component A. . 15 Polyethylene glycol (polyethylene oxide) as polyalkylene glycols
Fibrillation of the multicomponent fiber according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that a fiber having a structure in which one or both ends of its molecules are blocked with an alkyl group is used. Intertwining method. 16 Claims 1 to 15 characterized in that water is used as the fluid used for high-speed fluid flow.
A method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to any one of paragraphs. 17 As a fluid used for high-speed fluid flow, molecular weight 5
Claim 1, characterized in that water in which 1,000 to 5,000,000 polyalkylene oxides and/or polyacrylamides are dissolved is used.
The method for fibrillating and entangling multicomponent fibers according to any one of items 1 to 15.