Patent Publication Number: US-2006010665-A1

Title: Linen especially bed linen and method for manufacturing bed linen

Description:
Linen such as bed linen is generally made of cotton, linen or other natural absorbent fibres. For this purpose a thread must first be formed from the respective fibres, the woven fabric or knitted fabric produced using the corresponding machinery and the web then manufactured. This manufacturing process is very expensive and costly. This linen can certainly be washed many times, ironed and therefore reused but sometimes this is not at all desirable. In hospitals, for example, the linen must be expensively disinfected. In railway carriages of night trains, a large amount of bed linen accumulates every night which must be collected for reuse at great expense and cost in all possible locations reached by the train, washed using a large amount of water and energy, ironed and transported back into the trains. 
    
    
      It is the object of the invention to find a simpler less expensive solution. However, it is important that the linen can be recycled and is biologically degradable.  
      Assuming that for hygiene and other reasons, linen, especially bed linen, is manufactured of cotton fibres and possibly additional components of other natural and/or synthetic fibres, the invention consists in that said linen consists of a nonwoven containing no binders, which is hydrodynamically needled for compaction. This method of manufacture is so inexpensive that after being used once, such as in trains for example or after being soiled in hospitals, it can be thrown away or possibly recycled. This recycling can consist in biological degradation or in reuse after separating into fibres. If the linen is badly soiled, e.g. from hospitals after an operation, this linen can be easily be discarded. The other waste is not too badly contaminated, this linen is degradable.  
      The nonwoven should have a weight of about 60 to 90 g/m 2  and substantially consist of cotton, as well as raw cotton. However, flax or linen fibres as well as in some cases chemical fibres as well as viscose can also be added. Pilling formation during usage as bed linen can be avoided by solid compaction.