Patent GB-1047946-A (GB)
Title: A process for manufacturing pile and other fabrics
IPC: D04H11/00
Filed: 1963-09-10
Abstract: 1,047,946. Pile fabrics. E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO. Sept. 10, 1963 [Sept. 10, 1962], No. 35726/63. Heading D1K. A tufted fabric is made by projecting filaments or yarns at high speed against an apertured structure so that they penetrate the apertures and form loops on the opposite side. The apertures may be in scrim which remains permanently in the fabric, or may be in a wire mesh, a perforated plate, or an array of wires or blades, from which the fabric is stripped when completed. The filaments or yarn may be propelled by nip rollers or by a jet of fluid; they may come from bobbins, or filaments may come straight from the spinnerets or from a bulking or crimping device. After penetrating the apertures, the filaments or yarn may impinge on a stopper screen which limits the height of loop and to which suction may be applied to improve uniformity of tufting. The stopper screen may have depressions to vary the height of loop for patterning; or the height may be varied by altering the speed of the filaments or the speed at which the nozzles are traversed. The filaments or the apertured structure or the stopper screen may be electrically charged to spread the filaments apart. The tufting density may be increased by employing a stretchable or shrinkable apertured structure or by using shrinkable or crimpable filaments. The apertured structure may consist of parallel blades along which tufts are moved closer together or farther apart by means of a comb. The filaments may be bonded to the apertured structure by heating them during tufting or subsequently, or by heating the apertured structure, or by applying adhesive. A backing of randomly disposed filaments may be formed by continuing to deposit filaments after the apertures are full. A further backing of sheet material may also be applied. The tufts may be sheared to produce cut pile. Patterns may be produced by traversing different yarns on different paths along the apertured structure. Tufting may be effected from both sides, some apertures being filled from one side and some from the other. During tufting, the apertured structure may be flat and stationary, or may be mounted round a rotating drum; or a continuous roll of scrim may be run under a succession of transverse rows of jets. Fig. 5 shows a backing of filaments 60 applied after the apertures have been filled with tufts 62. Fig. 11 shows initial tufts 94 of heated filaments which buckle and are set to shape on encountering a cool stopper screen, their interior then being filled with filaments 93. In an example, a brown polytetra fluoroethylene yarn is plied with a white crimpable nylon yarn and tufted into terylene scrim mounted on a drum, a stopper screen being arranged 1/2 inch inside the scrim. In another example, tufting is effected with a two-component filament, one component being nylon 6 and the other a copolymer of nylons 6 and 610. The apertured structures in one example is a sheet of foamed polypropylene lanced and stretched so that the slits open into apertures. The jets may be traversed so that filaments in each aperture pass into every adjacent aperture.