Patent GB-521723-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in laminated elastic fabrics and method of making the same
IPC: D06M15/693
Filed: 1938-11-25
Abstract: 521,723. Elastic fabrics; compound fabrics. INTERNATIONAL LATEX PROCESSES, Ltd. Nov. 25, 1938, Nos 34282 and 34283. Convention dates, Nov. 30, 1937 and Dec. 1, 1937. [Class 140] Laminated elastic fabric panels 75, Fig. 12, having spaced, transversely-extending bands some of which, 71, are more stretchable than others, 72, in the direction F of the distance between the bands, are made by stretching a sheet 70 having transversely-extending bands 71 and 72 alternately elastic and less or non-elastic in the direction F, securing a web of knitted or woven fabric 58, Fig. 14, to the surface of the stretched sheet, releasing the stretch, elastically securing the fabric in 'the resultant condensed condition, Fig. 12, by a rubber coating, and cutting alternate bands in the formed laminated fabric along lines 76. The rubber coating may be an adhesive layer 74 used to secure the fabric to the stretched sheet 70, and may be removed with the fabric from the sheet after setting or partial vulcanization to retain the fabric in its condensed condition, the vulcanization being then completed, and the fabric web cut along lines 76 to form the panels. Alternatively, the rubber adhesive may be completely vulcanized to unite permanently the fabric and the stretchable backing sheet, the panels being formed by cutting along lines 76 and trimming off the backing sheet along the edges 64. Corsets or girdles may be formed by sewing together the edges 64 of two superimposed panels, or the two edges 64 of a single panel. One or both edges 64 may be cut to a desired shape before sewing. The fabric may be secured to the stretched backing sheet by a temporary adhesive such as starch or glue, or by closely-spaced points or small pins projecting from the sheet, the rubber coating being applied to the other fabric surface before or after releasing the tension, dried or set before removing the fabric, and vulcanized. The temporary adhesive may then be washed out. When pins are employed, these may penetrate and perforate the rubber coating, if desired. Two webs of fabric may be simultaneously condensed between two stretched sheets superposed with the - extensible and non-extensible bands matching. The fabric webs may be united to one another or to the outer sheets by a rubber adhesive. Two ply panels may also be made by stretching an uncut series of connected elastic panels to the condition of the fabric when first secured to the stretched sheet, Fig. 14, securing with a rubber adhesive an untreated fabric web or a second series of connected panels to the rubber-coated side, vulcanizing the adhesive, and cutting into separate panels. The stretchable sheet may be of rubber, and the non-elastic or less elastic transverse bands may be thicker portions of the sheet, portions which have been frozen by contact with a refrigerating surface or by coating with acetone or alcohol containing or cooled by solidified carbon dioxide, or portions strengthened by non- elastic inserts such as thin metal, flexible hard rubber, wood, or fabric. The inserts, while non- elastic in the direction F may be stretchable at right angles to this direction, so that a fabric panel may be produced which is condensed in the band 71 in the direction F, and in bands 72, at right angles to this direction. Alternate bands 72 may be stretched, and thereafter condensed, to different extents, giving a panel or garment having different widths top and bottom. The stretchable sheet may be one that contracts in width, Fig. 14, as and where it stretches, and therefore produces panels with curved edges 64, Fig. 12, or may be made so as to retain a constant width while stretching and relaxing, and so produce straight-edged panels. The rubber adhesive may be a latex composition.