Patent Application
20130129979
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing fabrics and particularly to a method for manufacturing fabrics with artificial leather textile feeling.
Leather is mainly applied to various types of commodities such as footwear, garments, furniture, sport facilities and the like. Depending on sources, the leather can be categorized into natural leather and synthetic leather. The former generally is gotten from the hide of animals that becomes leather after being processed. The latter generally is formed by laying polymer material with leather textile feeling on a nonwoven fabric. In view of increasing environmental protection awareness, usage of natural leather gradually decreases and synthetic leather is commonly used instead.
Many methods of manufacturing synthetic leather have been proposed in prior arts, such as U.S. publication Nos. 2003/0162453, 2004/0237221 and 2006/0234589, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,896,997, 4,465,730 and 5,484,646. They mostly disclose synthetic leather comprising polymer material, a bonding layer and a nonwoven fabric base. The polymer material usually is formed in a sheet or lump, and mostly adopts polyurethane (PU) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). During production, the polymer material is directly laid on the nonwoven fabric base through the bonding layer. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,602 and U.S. publication Nos. 2011/0039055 and 2009/0047476 also disclose a method of manufacturing synthetic leather that soaking a nonwoven fabric into an aqueous solution with viscoelastic polymer that fills with the crevices of the nonwoven fabric and also fully covers the surface of the nonwoven fabric. The viscoelastic polymer usually adopts PU. As the polymer or viscoelastic polymer has characteristics of elasticity, smoothness and compactness, it provides artificial leather textile feeling.
The synthetic leather fabricated via the aforesaid conventional techniques mostly has the surface of the nonwoven fabric fully covered by the polymer at a selected thickness to generate a leather-like effect. Although the polymer material such as PU or PVC can provide leather-like textile feeling, appearance and compactness, its air permeability is poor. When it is applied to garments, furniture, sport facilities or the like, user's skin often feels muggy and uncomfortable.
The primary object of the present invention is to solve the problem of the conventional synthetic leather that is formed by adopting the viscoelastic polymer for the surface thereof to result in undesirable air permeability.
To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing fabrics with artificial leather textile feeling. The method includes steps of: first, knitting a high shrinkage fiber and a first superfine fiber to form a plurality of warp knitted terries arranged in a warp knitted structure to get an upper fabric which has a surface and a back surface opposite to the surface; next, spraying mists containing a plurality of liquid particles formed by a setting resin onto the surface of the upper fabric so that the liquid particles adhere to the warp knitted terries on the surface of the upper fabric; then heating the upper fabric to a processing temperature lower than the melting point of the setting resin and rolling the upper fabric through a rolling equipment to set the setting resin to prevent the warp knitted terries from warping against the surface thereof and also form a preset pattern on the surface; and finally, after the upper fabric being cooled, bonding the back surface of the upper fabric to a bonding surface of a lower fabric via an adhesive to form an artificial leather fabric.
The method for manufacturing fabrics with artificial leather textile feeling of the invention set forth above provides many advantages over the conventional techniques, notably:
1. The first superfine fiber adopted in the invention is formed in a smaller diameter, hence the crevices between the fibers in the upper fabric during knitting can be minimized.
Moreover, as the high shrinkage fiber has a characteristic of great shrinkage after being heated, the dimension of the crevices can be further shrunk so that users almost do not feel the loose structure presented by general fabric when touching, but feel a fine and compact structure like natural leather. In addition, by using the setting resin to prevent the warp knitted terries from warping, the surface of the artificial leather fabric is smoother and can present the textile feeling and appearance like natural leather.
2. The invention adopts a knitting method to incorporate with a small amount of mists formed by the setting resin to allow the liquid particles of the mists to adhere to the surfaces of the warp knitted terries, and uses a hot rolling process to prevent the warp knitted terries from warping, thus smoother textile feeing can be achieved. As the setting resin does not cover the surface of the upper fabric by stacking but adhere to the warp knitted terries via liquid particles, the fabric provided by the invention not only has artificial leather textile feeling, but also has improved air permeability without causing mugginess and discomfort to users.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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This embodiment coats the adhesive onto the bonding surface 41 of the lower fabric 40 to form the bonding layer 50 as an example. However, other approaches may also be adopted, such as coating the adhesive first on the back surface 12 of the upper fabric 10 to form the bonding layer 50, and then connecting the bonding surface 41 of the lower fabric 40 to the bonding layer 50. In addition, in this embodiment, the lower fabric 40 is formed by knitting a second superfine fiber 43 to form a plurality of weft knitted terries 44 arranged in a weft knitted structure. The second superfine fiber 43 may be Spandex, Nylon 6 or Nylon 6-6, or may be made of PET, PU, PE or PP. The second superfine fiber 43 is formed at a linear density between 0.6 dtex and 1.2 dtex. Refer to
Before bonding the upper fabric 10 to the lower fabric 40 via the adhesive, the lower fabric 40 may be treated through a raising process by using a raising brush to generate a plurality of pile yarns on the bonding surface 41 and a contacting surface 42 opposing the bonding surface 41 of the lower fabric 40. Furthermore, the pile yarns may further be cut off to form a plurality of piles on the bonding surface 41 and contacting surface 42 opposing the bonding surface 41 of the lower fabric 40. The raising treatment is a technique known in the art, hence details are omitted herein. Thus, more bonding areas can be formed between the bonding surface 41 and bonding layer 50. In addition, the bonding surface 41 may also mechanically bond to the warp knitted terries 15 on the back surface 12 of the upper fabric 10 through the pile yarns or piles so that the upper fabric 10 and the lower fabric 40 can be boned firmer. As the contacting surface 42 is treated through the raising process, when the invention is applied to the products such as footwear and garments, not only the textile feeling thereof is close to natural leather, but also provides more comfort for users' skin when contacting.
Aside from spraying the mists 20 onto the upper fabric 10 as shown in
The method provided by the invention selects the first superfine fiber with a smaller diameter, hence can shrink the crevices between the fibers in the upper fabric. Besides, as the high shrinkage fiber has a characteristic of great shrinkage when being heated, the crevices can be further reduced after being hot rolled, thus can form a compact structure like natural leather. Moreover, the setting resin incorporating with the hot rolling is used to prevent the warp knitted terries from warping so that the surface of the upper fabric is smoother. In short, the artificial leather fabric manufactured according to the method of the invention provides textile feeling and appearance like natural leather. In addition, the artificial leather fabric of the invention is fabricated by knitting and using merely a small amount of setting resin to prevent warping of the warp knitted terries. As the setting resin does not cover the surface of the upper fabric in a flat manner but adhere to the warp knitted terries via the particles, the artificial leather fabric thus formed provides excellent air permeability without causing mugginess and discomfort to users. It provides a significant improvement over the conventional techniques.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure and are not the limitations of the invention, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art: Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention set forth in the claims.
