Patent ID: 6546965
Filing Date: 2003-04-15
Classification: D02G,D03D

Abstract:
A process for manufacturing institutional toweling products having improved colour fastness and durability comprising the steps of:1. providing natural cotton fibres; 2. providing pre-dyed polyester fibres; 3. orienting the fibres of the cotton in substantially a uniform parallel direction by carding; 4. orienting the pre-dyed polyester fibres in substantially parallel direction by a carding process; 5. draw blending the natural cotton and pre-dyed polyester fibres in a slivering process; 6. following the intimate draw blending of the pre-dyed polyester and natural cotton fibres spinning the slivered fibres into twisted yarns having a pre-determined colour which will be imparted to the toweling product; 7. accumulating the yarns on a loom beam following warping/slashing the yarns in preparation for the weaving process; 8. weaving said coloured yarn into the ground warp, the ground fill and the pile warp yarns in the toweling product in a continuous process; 9. bleaching and subsequently washing and drying said toweling product prior to finishing; wherein the colour imparted to the institutional toweling product is obtained by the weaving of said draw blended yarn only with no subsequent dying process being necessary and wherein the resulting towel products have 1. a minimum colour variation from batch to batch, 2. improved colour fastness, the colour being imparted to the toweling product by the pre-dyed polyester fibre allowing all institutional towels resulting from this process to be washed and handled together, 3. a significantly longer life expectancy of the towel product imparted by the pre-dyed polyester fibre, and 4. the ability of the toweling product to be manufactured into a matching set of toweling products having minimum colour variation from product to product.