Patent Application
20180237961
The present invention relates to a warping device using retroreflective yarns and a method for weaving a raw fabric using the same and, more particularly, to a warping device using a retroreflective yarn and a method for weaving a raw fabric using the same, wherein the retroreflective yarn is applied as a warp thread to prevent a twisting phenomenon during weaving, thereby acquiring a raw fabric with excellent quality.
Recently, a reflective material having a reflective function is mostly applied to safety-associated products for preventing accidents and providing safety at night, and therefore, demand for reflective materials is rapidly increasing.
For instance, when a traffic officer or street cleaner works at night, or an aged person or child is exposed to automobiles or other driving vehicles, a driver may not recognize the existence of obstacles and cause loss of life and/or major accidents. Such reflective materials have been utilized in a variety of applications including daily necessities such as traffic signs, sportswear, sporting goods and bags, military identification tags, and the like.
Further, a retroreflective yarn applied as the reflective material is generally used as a weft thread while using a synthetic fiber yarn as a warp thread in a weaving process. This technique could also be understood in the patent invention entitled “Functional multilayered film with excellent anti-scratching property (Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0590425)”.
However, as described in the above patent document, if the retroreflective yarn is applied only as a weft thread, this often causes a limitation of application range or inevitable defects in appearance of the raw fabric.
First, the limitation of application range means that, when the retroreflective yarn is used as a weft thread, a dot pattern only is expressed on an exposed face of the raw fabric, thus limiting implementation of different figures or designs, and therefore,due to lots of technical limitations, it is difficult to achieve improvement in quality and application to diverse fields (bags, hats, clothes, etc.).
Second, the inevitable defect in appearance means that a weaving device may encounter a twisting phenomenon in a natural state if the retroreflective yarn is used as a weft thread, thus easily causing marks in the raw fabric.
For instance,
As such, based on the observation that a twisting phenomenon occurs when a retroreflective yarn is used as a weft thread, there is now a demand for studies and development of novel technology that adopts a retroreflective yarn as a warp thread to prevent a twisting phenomenon of the retroreflective yarn, thereby making it possible to weave a raw fabric with excellent quality.
The present invention has been developed to solve the problems mentioned above. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a warping device using a retroreflective yarn, which includes applying a retroreflective yarn as a warp thread to prevent a twisting phenomenon during weaving, thereby acquiring a raw fabric with excellent quality, as well as a method for weaving a raw fabric using the above device.
In order to accomplish the above object, a technical concept of the present invention is to provide a warping device using a retroreflective yarn,including: a creel unit having multiple bobbins, around which a yarn is wound, cradled thereon such that the yarn is unwound; an aligning unit to align the yarn, which was unwound from the creel unit, at a predetermined interval; and a winding unit to wind the yarn, which was aligned by the aligning unit, around a beam, wherein the creel unit includes: a main frame consisting of horizontal bars installed vertically at a predetermined interval and vertical bars installed between the horizontal bars at a predetermined interval; and a cradle frame consisting of first cradle bars formed to protrude from inner sides of the vertical bars and second cradle bars formed to protrude from outer sides of the vertical bars, so that first bobbins having a synthetic fiber yarn wound thereon are cradled on the first cradle bars while second bobbins having the retroreflective yarn wound thereon are cradled to be perpendicular to the first bobbins.
Preferably, the second bobbin includes:a cylindrical body which has the retroreflective yarn wound around an outer circumference of the body; a support plate formed to protrude from both ends of the body, in order to support and prevent the retroreflective yarn from leaving the body; a tubular connector installed to pass through the inside of the body in a length direction; and a hook-coupling pin which is installed to pass through the inside of the tubular connector and includes circular rings at both ends thereof to be hook-coupled to the second cradle bars.
Preferably, the second cradle bars are installed at an angle ranging from 60 to 120° to the vertical length direction of the vertical bar.
Meanwhile, in order to the accomplish the above object, another technical concept of the present invention is to provide a method for weaving a raw fabric by means of a warping device using a retroreflective yarn, including: slitting a retroreflective film to form a retroreflective yarn; a warping process that includes aligning first yarns including the retroreflective yarn and then winding the same around a beam; and a weaving process that includes using the first yarns wound on the beam as a warp thread and leading second yarns between the first yarns to be perpendicular to the same, so as to weave a raw fabric,wherein the warping process is carried out by means of a warping device that includes a creel unit to unwind the first yarns, an aligning unit to align the first yarns unwound from the creel unit at a predetermined interval, and a winding unit to wind the yarns aligned by the aligning unit around the beam, and wherein the first yarns unwound from the creel unit include a synthetic yarn unwound from a first bobbin cradled on the creel unit, as well as the retroreflective yarn unwound from a second bobbin which is cradled on the creel unit to be perpendicular to the first bobbin.
Preferably, the creel unit consists of a main frame consisting of horizontal bars installed vertically at a predetermined interval and vertical bars installed between the horizontal bars at a predetermined interval, and a cradle frame consisting of first cradle bars installed to protrude from inner sides of the vertical bars and second cradle bars installed to protrude from outer sides of the vertical bars, wherein the first bobbin is cradled on the first cradle bar while the second bobbin is cradled on the second cradle bar.
Preferably, the weaving process includes a finishing process of feeding typical fiber yarns from both sides of a weaving device in order to form a finished part at both ends of the raw fabric.
By the means to solve the above problem, the warping device using a retroreflective yarn and a method for weaving a raw fabric using the same according to the present invention may prevent a twisting phenomenon by applying the retroreflective yarn as a warp thread during weaving, and therefore, may facilitate application to diverse fields such as bags, clothes, etc., which had difficulty in reaching market with existing raw fabrics.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be more concretely described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The creel unit 100 of the present invention has a configuration such that multiple bobbins are cradled therein and a yarn wound on each of the bobbins is unwound from the same.
That is, the creel unit 100 may include: a main frame consisting of horizontal bars 112 installed vertically at a predetermined interval and vertical bars 114 installed between the horizontal bars 112 at a predetermined interval; and a cradle frame 120 consisting of first cradle bars 122 installed to protrude from inner sides of the vertical bars 114 and second cradle bars 124 installed to protrude from outer sides of the vertical bars 114.
Herein, it could be seen that a first bobbin 140 is cradled on the first cradle bar 122 formed to protrude from the inner side of the vertical bar 114.
The creel unit 100 configured as above may supply the yarns unwound from multiple bobbins, which are cradled on the first cradle bars 122 and the second cradle bars 124 installed on the vertical bars 114, to the aligning unit 200.
Unlike the first bobbin 140 having a synthetic yarn wound thereon, since the second bobbin 150 having the retroreflective yarn wound thereon is cradled to be perpendicular to the first bobbin 140, a twisting phenomenon possibly encountered when the retroreflective yarn is unwound could be fundamentally prevented to thus accomplish desired production efficiency.
The body 152 is cylindrical and may be configured to wind the retroreflective yarn around an outer circumference of the body. The body 152 may further include a thru-hole in a length direction inside the center portion of the body.
The support plate 154 may be configured to protrude from both ends of the body 152, in order to support and prevent the retroreflective yarn, which is wound around the outer circumference of the body 152, from leaving the body. That is, the support plate 154 is flat and has a circular cross-section, and may further include a thru-hole formed inside the center portion, which is connected with a hole of the body 152.
The connector 156 is cylindrical and configured to pass through the inside of the body 152 in a length direction. In other words, the connector 156 is installed in the thru-hole inside the center portion of the body 152 in the length direction in order to protrude from both ends of the body 152. This configuration functions to join the hook-coupling pin 158 to the body 152 to thus stably support the hook-coupling pin 158 cradled on the second cradle bar 124 when the retroreflective yarn is unwound while rotating the body 152.
The hook-coupling pin 158 is installed to pass through the inside of the connector 156 in the length direction and includes circular rings 158a at both ends thereof to be hook-coupled to the second cradle bars 124. That is, the hook-coupling pin 158 is provided for stably cradling the second bobbin 150 on the second cradle bar 124.
Furthermore, the second cradle bars are installed at an angle ranging from 60 to 120° to a vertical length direction of the vertical bar 114. That is, the second cradle bar 124 causes the retroreflective yarn to be unwound at an angle in a range of upward 30° to downward 30° on the basis of a virtual vertical line which is perpendicular to the vertical bar 114. In other words, the retroreflective yarn is cradled at an angle in the range of −30° to 30° on the basis of a virtual vertical line which is perpendicular to the vertical bar 114, so as to prevent faulty warping caused by displacement of the retroreflective yarn to one side.
In addition, in order to apply tension to the synthetic fiber yarn and the retroreflective yarn unwound from the first bobbin 140 and the second bobbin 150, respectively, a sub-frame 130 may be installed in the front of the main frame 110.
Like as the main frame 110, the sub-frame 130 may also include horizontal bars 132 installed vertically at a predetermined interval and vertical bars 134 installed between the horizontal bars 132 at a predetermined interval.
In this regard, the vertical bar 134 may include a weight 134a to accept the tension while passing the synthetic fiber yarn and the retroreflective yarn through the same, wherein the number of the weights 134a provided may be diversely alterable depending upon tension.
The aligning unit 200 of the present invention is configured to align the yarns unwound from the creel unit 100 at a predetermined interval.
In particular, the aligning unit 200 functions to align the synthetic fiber yarn and the retroreflective yarn unwound from the creel unit 100 at a predetermined interval and to lead the same to the winding unit 300.
More particularly, after aligning the synthetic fiber yarn and the retroreflective yarn unwound from the creel unit 100 and applying a predetermined tension to the yarns, these yarns are finally aligned at a predetermined interval then guided to the winding unit 300 having a rotational beam 310.
However, since the aligning unit 200 is obviously known by a person having ordinary knowledge and skill in the art (‘the person skilled in the art’), further description thereof will be omitted.
The winding unit 300 of the present invention is configured to wind the yarns aligned by the aligning unit 200 around the beam 310.
That is, the winding unit 300 may include a cylindrical beam 310, around which the synthetic fiber yarn and the retroreflective yarn guided from the aligning unit 200 are wound, and a motor (not shown) for rotating the beam 310.
However, since the winding unit 300 is obviously known by the person skilled in the art, further description thereof will be omitted.
Hereinafter, a method for weaving a raw fabric by means of the above weaving device using a retroreflective yarn, which includes slitting, warping and weaving, will be described below.
First, the slitting is a process of slitting a retroreflective film to form retroreflective yarns.
That is, the slitting is a process of slitting a double-faced retroreflective film as a raw material for retroreflective yarns so as to prepare the retroreflective yarns, and therefore, may refer to a preliminary step for applying the yarns obtained by slitting the double-faced retroreflective film to the weaving process.
In this case, it is difficult to slit the double-faced retroreflective film to a size of less than 0.01 mm and, upon slitting the film to a size of more than 0.9 mm, the finally completed raw fabric may have a large thickness, causing difficulty in weaving. Therefore, the retroreflective yarn preferably has a slitting width of 0.01 to 0.9 mm. For reference, a winding length of the retroreflective yarn preferably ranges from 300 to 10,000 m.
Next, the warping is a process of aligning first yarns including the retroreflective yarn then winding the same around the beam 310.
In other words, the warping refers to a process of preparing a warp thread for weaving a raw fabric using the retroreflective yarn, wherein the first yarns may include a synthetic fiber yarn unwound from the first bobbin 140 cradled on the creel unit 100, as well as the retroreflective yarn unwound from the second bobbin 150, which is cradled on the creel unit 100 to be perpendicular to the first bobbin 140.
More particularly, the warping process may use a warping device, including: a creel unit 100 which has a plurality of first bobbins 140 having a synthetic fiber yarn wound thereon and second bobbins 150 having a retroreflective yarn wound thereon, wherein these bobbins are cradled on the creel unit such that the synthetic fiber yarn and retroreflective yarn are unwound; an aligning unit 200 for aligning the yarns, which have been unwound from the creel unit 100, at a predetermined interval; and a winding unit 300 for winding the yarns, which have been aligned by the aligning unit 200, around a beam 310.
In this regard, the creel unit 100 includes: a main frame 100 consisting of horizontal bars 112 installed vertically at a predetermined interval and vertical bars 114 installed between the horizontal bars 112 at a predetermined interval; and a cradle frame 120 consisting of first cradle bars 122 formed to protrude from inner sides of the vertical bars 114 and second cradle bars 124 formed to protrude from outer sides of the vertical bars 114.
Herein, since the first bobbin 140 is cradled on the first cradle bar 122 while the second bobbin 150 is cradle on the second cradle bar 124, it could be seen that the first bobbin 140 and the second bobbin 150 are installed to be perpendicular to each other.
In other words, when using the retroreflective yarn as a weft thread, a twisting phenomenon occurs even in natural state to cause marks in a raw fabric, thus having difficulty in manufacturing a raw fabric with excellent quality. On the ground of the above problem, the second bobbin 150 having the retroreflective yarn wound thereon is cradled on the second cradle bar 124, which is formed to protrude from the outer side of the vertical bar 114, so as to be perpendicular to the first bobbin 140. In this case, the second bobbin 150 may have a body 152, a support plate 154, a connector 156 and a hook-coupling pin 158.
The body 152 is cylindrical and is configured to wind the retroreflective yarn around an outer circumference of the body. Inside the center portion of the body 152, a thru-hole may be formed in a length direction. Preferably, the thru-hole has a diameter of 2 cm or less.
The support plate 154 is formed to protrude from both ends of the body 152 and is configured to support and prevent the retroreflective yarn wound around the outer circumference of the body 152 from leaving the body. That is, the support plate 154 may be flat and have a circular cross-section, and may include a thru-hole connecting with the hole of the body 152.
The connector 156 is tubular and is installed to pass through the inside of the body 152 in the length direction. That is, the connector 156 is installed in the thru-hole inside the center portion of the body 152 in a length direction, in order to protrude from both ends of the body 152. This configuration functions to join the hook-coupling pin 158 to the body 152 to thus stably support the hook-coupling pin 158 cradled on the second cradle bar 124 when the retroreflective yarn is unwound while rotating the body 152.
The hook-coupling pin 158 is installed to pass through the inside of the connector 156 in a length direction and includes circular rings 158a at both ends thereof to be hook-coupled to the second cradle bars 124. That is, the hook-coupling pin 158 is provided to stably cradle the second bobbin 150 on the second cradle bar 124. Herein, the hook-coupling pin 158 may be made of any material, provided that this pin 158 has a diameter of 1 to 18 mm.
In addition, application of the retroreflective yarn as a warp thread will be more concretely described below. First, in the thru-hole formed in a length direction inside the body 152 having the retroreflective yarn wound around the outer circumference of the body, the tubular connector 156 may be installed to pass through the thru-hole. Further, inside the connector 156, the hook-coupling pin 158 having a longer length than that of the connector 156 and including circular rings 158a formed at both ends of the pin is installed to pass through the connector.
Thereafter, each of the rings 158a is cradled and fixed on the second cradle bar 124, and the retroreflective yarn is preferably located at an angle of 60° to 120° to a vertical length direction of the vertical bar 114. This means that the retroreflective yarn should be cradled at an angle in a range of upward 30° to downward 30° on the basis of a virtual vertical line which is perpendicular to the vertical bar 114.If cradled at an angle outside the above defined range, faulty warping due to displacement of the yarn may occur.
Further, with regard to a direction of unwinding the retroreflective yarn, the retroreflective yarn wound around the outer circumference of the body 152 is preferably unwound while going down from the top. On the contrary, if the retroreflective yarn is unwound while moving the second bobbin 150 up from the bottom, a difference between top and bottom tensions of the retroreflective yarn may cause faulty warping and faulty weaving.
Additionally, the synthetic fiber yarn used herein may be selected from products of polypropylene, nylon, etc. According to textures of the raw fabric, arrangement of retroreflective yarns and synthetic fiber yarns may be controlled. However, a ratio of arrangement of retroreflective yarns to synthetic fiber yarns is alterable on the basis of raw fabric design. Further, the retroreflective yarns may be arranged in a blending ratio of 1/80 to 1/2 on the basis of the number of warping strands.
Moreover, when the tensions of the synthetic fiber yarn and retroreflective yarn cradled on the creel unit 100 are controlled, a tensile strength of the retroreflective yarn is preferably controlled within the range of tensile strength of the synthetic fiber yarn.
Thereafter, based on the blending ratio, temperature/humidity and width of the retroreflective yarn, a bundle of yarns (separate strands)typically arranged and cradled on the creel unit 100 is warped at controlled warping speed (running speed of the yarn) of 1 to 14 m/s.
For instance, the warping speed is preferably increased if the temperature/humidity is high. On the contrary, the warping speed is preferably decreased if the blending ratio of the retroreflective yarns is high. Further, with a large width of the retroreflective yarn, the warping speed is also preferably increased.
In this regard, the number of yarns (separate strands) in the bundle of yarns for warping preferably ranges from 6 to 40 strands. If yarns in the bundle of yarns are too small in number, the bundle of yarns may cause defects in a raw fabric to be woven. If yarns in the bundle of yarns are too large in number, faulty breakage of yarns may occur in a further beaming process.
Next, a beaming process for winding the yarns around a beam is conducted. Herein, a beaming speed may be controlled in a range of 1 to 30 m/s depending upon a width of the retroreflective yarn, a blending ratio and/or denier of a synthetic fiber to be blended.
For instance, if the retroreflective yarn has a large width, the beaming speed is preferably increased. On the contrary, if the blending ratio of the retroreflective yarns is high, the beaming speed is preferably decreased. Further, when the denier of the synthetic fiber is high, the beaming speed is also preferably increased.
However, it is preferable that a use width of the beam does not have an allowable error of ±30% or more to a final width of the finally completed raw fabric. If the error exceeds the above defined range, this may cause not only tear defects due to tension deviation between left, center and right sides of the raw fabric, but also yarn breakage defects during weaving.
Lastly, the weaving is a process of using the first yarns wound on the beam 310 as a warp thread and leading the second yarns between the first yarns to be perpendicular to the first yarns to weave a raw fabric.
More particularly, the weaving process is conducted by, after winding the first yarns typically fabricated in the warping process, passing the first yarns through a heald and a reed in the weaving device according to a weaving design, wherein the weaving device is operated to open the first yarns used as the warp thread by the heald, then, leading the second yarns consisting of synthetic fiber yarns between the open first yarns, thereby completing weaving.
For reference, the heald used herein is preferably selected from surface-coated stainless or heat-treated silicone products. If using a heald without surface coating, the retroreflective yarn may entail a defect of unbalanced luminance (brightness) due to surface scratches during weaving.
Like the heald, the reed used herein is also preferably a surface-coated or heat-treated stainless product. If using a reed without surface coating,the yarn may sometimes be scratched by working the reed (up and down motion).
Forming the finished part A using the typical fiber yarn is a means of cost reduction. In particular, if an expensive retroreflective yarn is used for finishing instead of the typical fiber yarn, the cost could not be reduced and raw fabric waste may also be increased, thus decreasing productivity. Therefore, this problem may be prevented using the typical fiber yarn.
As such, according to the slitting, warping and weaving processes, a raw fabric having excellent quality without occurrence of twisting can be acquired.
As described above, the present invention has developed a raw fabric applicable to a variety of applications such as bags, clothes, etc. which have involved difficulties in development and reaching market with existing raw fabrics, thereby ensuring freedom of design of applicable raw fabrics.
Further, using the retroreflective yarn as a warp yarn for weaving can solve a problem of twisting, thereby perfectly improving inevitable failure of raw fabrics.
In other words, when using the retroreflective yarn as a weft thread, high speed weaving is difficult due to a tension problem of the yarn. On the other hand, the present invention has excluded the retroreflective yarn applied as a weft thread to thus increase weaving efficiency. Therefore, it is expected that development of new products and exploitation of new markets would have great prospects.
The above description has been provided only to illustratively explain the technical spirit of the present invention. A variety of modifications and variations may be possible without departing from fundamental features of the present invention by the person skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Accordingly, the examples described in the present invention do not particularly limit the technical scope of the present invention but serve to explain the same. Further, the technical spirit and scope of the present invention are not limited by the above examples. A protective scope of the present invention should be construed by the appended claims, and all technical features within the range of equivalents to the present invention are duly construed as being within the scope of the present invention.
The present invention relates to a warping device using retroreflective yarns and a method for weaving a raw fabric using the same and, more particularly, to a warping device using a retroreflective yarn and a method for weaving a raw fabric using the same, which apply a retroreflective yarn as a warp thread to prevent a twisting phenomenon during weaving, thereby making it possible to acquire raw fabrics with excellent quality.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2015-0115102 | Aug 2015 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2016/006561 | 6/21/2016 | WO | 00 |
