Hospital textile

Abstract: A hospital textile suitable for operating gowns comprising a low air permeable fabric woven from continuous polyester filaments together with continuous conductive polyester filaments arranged at appropriate intervals in a warp and/or weft direction thereof, a surface of the fabric being composed of fine-denier filaments having a monofilament denier of 1.2 or less, and a water repellent finish being applied to the fabric, which is low in lint or dust generation and excellent in antistatic properties, having resistivity against degradation due to repeated uses and due to steam treatment for disinfection and sterilization, and against degradation due to γ-ray irradiation, can prevent the adhesion and penetration of the body fluid or blood as well as the outward filtration of lint or dust emitted from underwears, and has desirable soft hand.

Description: The present invention relates to hospital textiles having low lint or dust generation, excellent in antistatic properties and water repellency, and having low air permeability. More particularly, the invention relates to hospital textiles suitable for operating gowns, nursing gowns, covering cloths, wrapping cloths, hamper bags and the like to prevent adhesion and penetration of the body fluid or blood. Previously, cotton products have been used as operating gowns, nursing gowns, covering cloths, wrapping cloths and the like, and water repellent finishes have been applied thereto as so desired. However, the hospital textile products made of cotton generate a large amount of lint or dust, due to falling off of cotton fibers, and wear and degradation thereof. On the other hand, with the development of medical techniques, difficult operations have recently been performed one after another. In such circumstances, a problem caused by the above-described lint or dust is encountered. For example, it is pointed out that bacteria are scattered by floating dust. U.S. Patent No. 4,822,667 proposes fabrics tightly woven from continuous polyester filaments to prevent trouble caused by floating dust. Recently, however, various high technology instruments are used in operating rooms and the like. When synthetic fiber fabrics are used, therefore, trouble such as malfunction of the instruments resulting from static electricity inherent in synthetic fibers also arises. In terms of this, U.S. Patent No. 4,822,667 mentioned above discloses that a polyester woven fabric is finished with a pad bath containing an antistatic compound to dissipate static electricity. It is, however, difficult to obtain a hospital textile having durable antistatic properties by finishing treatment as describe above. In addition, some compounds used for the finishing treatment also contribute to the dust generation. EP-A-153 155 discloses a dust-proof fabric useful for preparing dust-proof clothing to be used in so-called clean rooms. In order to improve wearing comfort the air permeability is set from 0.3 to 10 ml/cm 2 /sec and an integrated volume of the pores having a size of 43 µm or more corresponding to 40 % or less of the entire integrated volume of all the pores is provided. This reference is taken as the basis for the introductory portion of claim 1. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a hospital textile suitable for applications such as operating gowns, nursing gowns, covering cloths, wrapping cloths and hamper bags, which has no fear of the lint or dust generation which subsequently causes the bacteria scattering mentioned above and of the generation of static electricity, and which can prevent the adhesion and penetration of the body fluid or blood. According to the present invention, there is provided a hospital textile suitable for applications such as operating gowns, nursing gowns, covering cloths, wrapping cloths and hamper bags, which comprises a low air permeable fabric woven from continuous polyester filaments, said fabric containing continuous conductive polyester filaments arranged at appropriate intervals in a warp and/or weft direction thereof, a surface of the fabric being composed of fine-denier filaments having a monofilament denier of 1.2 or less, and a water repellent finish being applied to the fabric. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will hereinafter be described in detail. Hospital textiles of the present invention are fundamentally required to show high resistivity against degradation due to repeated uses and due to steam treatment for disinfection and sterilization, and against degradation due to γ-ray irradiation. From this viewpoint, the hospital textiles of the present invention are required to be composed of polyester yarn, and, still, said yarn has to be continuous filaments from the viewpoint of the prevention of dust generation. Further, continuous conductive polyester filaments are arranged at appropriate intervals in a warp and/or weft direction of said fabric. Namely, the same material as that of the continuous polyester filaments composing the fabrics is used as the matrix-forming conductive filaments, thereby giving the whole fabrics the characteristics of resistivity against the degradation due to repeated uses and due to treatment for disinfection and sterilization, and of low dust generation. Furthermore, the fabrics are tightly woven to give low air permeability. The reason for this is that not only the fabrics so woven prevent the penetration of the body fluid or blood, but also they resist the repeated uses by virtue of their tight structure. However, even if fabrics meet the above-described three requirements, namely the use of the continuous polyester filaments, the use of the continuous conductive polyester filaments, and the adoption of the low air permeability on the fabric attained by virtue of the tight structure thereof, they can not prevent the penetration of the body fluid or blood satisfactorily for hospital textiles yet. Accordingly, a water repellent finish is applied to the fabrics to make the prevention of the penetration of the body fluid or blood more perfect. Furthermore, this finish treatment contributes to the prevention of filtration of lint or dust emitted from underwears. In the present invention, the term "polyester" means an aromatic polyester obtained by polycondensation of an aromatic dicarboxylic acid, preferably terephthalic acid, or its ester-forming derivative, preferably dimethyl terephthalate, and an alkylene glycol, preferably ethylene glycol. The continuous polyester multifilaments comprising fine-denier filaments having a monofilament denier of 1.2 or less, preferably 0.1 to 0.5, and a total denier of about 50 to 300 are used as warps and/or wefts, whereby the penetration of the body fluid or blood and the outward filtration of lint or dust resulting from the underwears can be prevented and the tight fabrics having soft hand can be obtained. The continuous conductive polyester filaments used in combination with the continuous polyester filaments are usually of 1 to 3 filament counts, and they are used alone or in the form of twisted yarn with other multifilaments. Such continuous conductive filaments are arranged at intervals of 0.5 to 3 cm in a warp and/or weft direction of the fabric, Examples of the continuous conductive polyester filaments include coating type filaments coated with conductive materials such as carbon, copper iodide and so on, sheath-core conjugate type filaments in which core portions contain conductive materials, filaments in which conductive materials are dispersed, and surface adsorption type filaments on the surfaces, i.e., peripheral portions, of which conductive materials are adsorbed. When importance is attached to the low dust generation and durability, the sheath-core conjugate type filaments in which the core portions contain the conductive materials such as carbon or tin oxide are particularly preferred. Further, for white fabrics or fabrics dyed in other colors, continuous filaments not colored with carbon are preferably used. For example, the filaments on the surfaces of which the conductive materials such as copper iodide are adsorbed are preferred. In the present invention, as a measure of the low air permeability of the fabrics attained by their tight woven structure, the air permeability measured according to JIS L1096, the fragier process, is adopted. This value is preferably 10 cc/cm 2 /sec or less, and more preferably 5 cc/cm 2 /sec or less. If the air permeability exceeds 10 cc/cm 2 /sec, the fabric structure becomes rather coarse, which causes the difficulty of preventing the outward filtration of lint or dust generated from the underwears and also the penetration of the body fluid or blood. On the other hand, if this value is less than 0.5 cc/cm 2 /sec, the fabrics lack the air permeability, which results in uncomfortableness when used as operating gowns, nursing gowns, covering cloths and the like. In imparting the water repellency to the above-described fabrics, the fabrics are treated with known water repellents such as silicone series agents and fluorine series agents by the use of the padding process, the coating process, the spray process or the like. As another means, filaments which themselves are water repellent may also be used. Further, these may be used in combination. The water repellents are generally used in an amount of 3 to 15% based on the fabric weight. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a combined (intermingled) filament yarn or twisted yarn comprised of continuous low-shrinkage filaments and continuous high-shrinkage filaments is used as the continuous polyester filaments. When fabrics woven using such combined filament yarn or twisted union yarn are subjected to shrinkage treatment, the low-shrinkage filaments appear on the surfaces of the fabrics to form loops. The loops thus formed not only prevent the penetration of the body fluid or blood, and repel the lint or dust inherent of the underwears, but also act so as to repel the body fluid or blood conversely. In this case, fabrics having soft surface touch can be obtained by using fine-denier filaments having a monofilament denier of 1.2 or less as the continuous low-shrinkage filaments. If the denier is less than 0.2, however, the loop holding property becomes unstable to reduce the activity of repelling the body fluid or blood. As the continuous low-shrinkage filaments, filaments low in shrinkage having a shrinkage percentage of 1 to 10% as measured by boiling water treatment are preferably used. Such continuous filaments low in shrinkage can be produced, for example, by sufficiently heat treating filaments in an usual filament manufacturing stage or in another stage. Further, as the continuous high-shrinkage filaments, filaments having a monofilament denier of 1.0 to 4.5 are preferred in order to give the fabrics anti-drape tightness or resilient stiffness and not to make them so harsh. As the continuous high-shrinkage filaments, filaments high in shrinkage having a shrinkage percentage of 10 to 50% as obtained by boiling water treatment are preferably used. Such continuous filaments high in shrinkage can be produced, for example, by omitting heat treatment after drawing or heat treating at a reduced temperature in an usual filament manufacturing stage, or by modifying the polymers of which the filaments are formed. The ratio of the continuous low-shrinkage filaments to the continuous high-shrinkage filaments in the intermingled filament yarn or the twisted union yarn can be, for example, 3:1 to 1:3 by weight. The continuous polyester filament yarn composing the hospital textiles of the present invention may be any of flat (not textured) yarn, false twist textured yarn, and the section of which may be circular or noncircular, as long as it is of a continuous filament type. The intermingled filament yarn can be produced by air texturing processes such as the interlacing process and the Taslan texturing process. When the twisted yarn is produced, the number of twists is 1,500 turns/m or less, and preferably 300 to 600 turns/m with provision that the yarn denier is about 110. The hospital textiles of the present invention acts as follows: (1) The fabrics are made of the continuous polyester filaments and the continuous conductive polyester filaments are arranged therein. Accordingly, the fabrics are low in lint or dust generation and excellent in antistatic properties, and also exhibit resistivity against degradation due to repeated uses and due to steam treatment for disinfection and sterilization, and against degradation due to γ-ray irradiation. (2) In addition to the above-described characteristics of the material and form, the fabrics are low in air permeability due to their tight structure, so that the body liquid or blood are prevented from penetrating the fabrics. In particular, when the loops are allowed to exist on the surface of the fabric, the specific function of repelling the body liquid or blood is exhibited. At the same time, the durability of the fabrics to repeated uses is improved by their tight structure. Coupled with the characteristics of the continuous polyester filaments, this causes a further improvement in durability. (3) Coupled with the tight structure of the fabric and the water repellent finish conducted on the fabric, the water repellency as the whole fabric reveals the effect of preventing the penetration of the body fluid or blood more perfect as well as the outward filtration of lint or dust emitted from the underwears. (4) When the filaments comprising the fine-denier filaments are employed as the continuous polyester filaments, the fabrics having soft hand can be obtained, and ideal products having functions required for the hospital textiles as well as functions required for the general textiles are obtained. The present will hereinafter be illustrated by the following examples in more detail. The effects of the present invention were evaluated by the following processes: Tearing strength: JIS L1096 Water repellency: JIS L1092, spray process Dust generation: JIS B9923, tumbling process Antistatic properties: JIS L1094, frictional charge voltage process Air permeability: JIS L1096, fragile process Liquid repellency: the resistance to wetting by body liquid was evaluated in accordance with JIS L1092 using water instead of urine. o ○: 80 marks or more, ○: less than 80 marks to 70 marks, ▵: less than 70 marks to 60 marks, X: less than 60 marks Blood repellency: Few drops of the horse blood were adhered and shaken off after 3 minutes, and the stained state was visually determined. ○: not adhered or slightly adhered, ▵: adhered to some extent, X: remarkably adhered EXAMPLE 1 A fabric of 121 ends per 2.53 cm (inch)and 70 picks per 2.53cm (inch) was woven using interlaced combined filament yarn comprised of 50-denier, 24-filament polyester multifilament yarn having a shrinkage percentage in boiling water of 14% and 64-denier, 144-filament polyester multifilament yarn having a shrinkage percentage in boiling water of 6% as warps and wefts, and twisted union yarn comprising the above-described interlaced filament yarn and a 27-denier conductive polyester monofilament containing copper iodide is arranged therein at a rate of one yarn per 26 ends. The fabric thus obtained was scoured and relaxed by a conventional method, followed by dying with a disperse dye of green color. After drying, a water repellent finish was conducted by the padding method using a solution supplemented with 5% by weight of a commercial repellent (Asahiguard LS317, Asahi Glass Co, Ltd.) and 3% by weight of isopropyl alcohol. After drying, finish setting was carried out, followed by calender treatment with paper rolls at a temperature of 160°C. For the water repellent fabric thus treated, the properties shown in Table 1 were evaluated. Results thereof are shown in Table 1. EXAMPLE 2 A water repellent fabric was obtained in the same manner as with Example 1 with the exception that soaping was conducted with a solution containing 1 g/litre of a nonionic surface active agent (Sunmole SX10, Nikka Kagaku Kogyo) at 70°C for 10 minutes before the calender treatment with the paper rolls, and the soaped fabric was washed with hot water and then with water and dried, followed by the above-described calender treatment. For the resulting water repellent fabric, the properties shown in Table 1 were evaluated. Results thereof are shown in Table 1. COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1 A fabric whose weaving standards are the same as with Example 1 was finished in the same manner as with Example 1 with the exception that no conductive polyester filament was used. For this fabric, the properties shown in Table 1 were evaluated. Results thereof are shown in Table 1. COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 2 A operating gown made of drill of 1/3 twill weave (single yarn having a cotton count of 14 is used as both warps and wefts) was produced from 100% cotton yarn commercially available for use as the same purpose. Also for this gown, the properties were evaluated similarly with Example 1. Results thereof are shown in Table 1. EXAMPLE 3 A fabric of 125 ends per inch and 94 picks per inch was woven using 75-denier, 72-filament fine-denier false twist textured polyester multifilament yarn as warps and wefts, and a 27-denier conductive polyester monofilament containing copper iodide is arranged therein at a rate of one filament per 26 ends. The fabric thus obtained was scoured and relaxed by a conventional method, followed by dying with a disperse dye of green color. After drying, a water repellent finish was conducted by the padding method using a solution supplemented with 10% by weight of a commercial repellent (Asahiguard LS317, Asahi Glass Co, Ltd.) and 3% by weight of isopropyl alcohol. After drying, finish setting was carried out, followed by calender treatment with paper rolls at a temperature of 160°C. For the water repellent fabric thus treated, the properties shown in Table 1 were evaluated. Results thereof are shown in Table 1.

Claims: A textile fabric comprising a low air permeable fabric woven from continuous polyester filaments, said fabric containing continuous conductive polyester filaments arranged at appropriate intervals in a warp and/or weft direction thereof, a surface of said fabric being composed of fine-denier filaments, and a water repellent finish being applied to said fabric, characterized in that said fabric is usable as a hospital textile said continuous polyester filaments are intermingled or twisted filaments comprised of continuous low-shrinkage filaments having a monofilament denier of 0.1 to 1.2 and continuous high-shrinkage filaments having a monofilament denier of 1.0 to 4.5, and loops mainly composed of the low-shrinkage filaments are formed on the surface of said fabric which has been scoured and relaxed. A hospital textile claimed in claim 1, in which said continuous conductive polyester filaments are arranged at intervals of 0.5 to 3 cm in a warp and/or weft direction of the fabric. A hospital textile claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which said continuous conductive polyester filaments are such filaments in which a conductive material is adsorbed on the peripheral portion of each filament. A hospital textile claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which said continuous conductive polyester filaments are sheath-core conjugate type filaments in which a core portion of each filament contains a conductive material. A hospital textile claimed in claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 in which said fabric has an air permeability of 10 cc/cm 2 /sec or less.

Inventors: KAWASAKI SHUNZO, SHIBATA FUMIO, TEDORI TAKECHI, KAWASAKI, SHUNZO, SHIBATA, FUMIO, TEDORI, TAKECHI
Applicants: TEIJIN LTD, TEIJIN LIMITED
Application year: 1992
Main classification: A41D31
IPC codes: D06M101, D02G3, D03D15, D06M15, A41D31