CA1043088A - Textile product conducting electricity and a method for making same - Google Patents
Textile product conducting electricity and a method for making sameInfo
- Publication number
- CA1043088A CA1043088A CA238,845A CA238845A CA1043088A CA 1043088 A CA1043088 A CA 1043088A CA 238845 A CA238845 A CA 238845A CA 1043088 A CA1043088 A CA 1043088A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- fibres
- conductive
- metallic
- yarn
- textile
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
Classifications
-
- D—TEXTILES; PAPER
- D02—YARNS; MECHANICAL FINISHING OF YARNS OR ROPES; WARPING OR BEAMING
- D02G—CRIMPING OR CURLING FIBRES, FILAMENTS, THREADS, OR YARNS; YARNS OR THREADS
- D02G3/00—Yarns or threads, e.g. fancy yarns; Processes or apparatus for the production thereof, not otherwise provided for
- D02G3/44—Yarns or threads characterised by the purpose for which they are designed
- D02G3/441—Yarns or threads with antistatic, conductive or radiation-shielding properties
-
- D—TEXTILES; PAPER
- D02—YARNS; MECHANICAL FINISHING OF YARNS OR ROPES; WARPING OR BEAMING
- D02G—CRIMPING OR CURLING FIBRES, FILAMENTS, THREADS, OR YARNS; YARNS OR THREADS
- D02G3/00—Yarns or threads, e.g. fancy yarns; Processes or apparatus for the production thereof, not otherwise provided for
- D02G3/02—Yarns or threads characterised by the material or by the materials from which they are made
- D02G3/12—Threads containing metallic filaments or strips
Abstract
A B S T R A C T
A textile product conducting electricity, and containing non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and 0.025% to 0.050%
by weight of metallic fibres. The metallic fibres are staples having an average cross-section of less than 10 microns. prefer-ably less than 1 micron. The process comprises: drawing and continuously supporting the drawable metallic fibres, laying the metallic fibres on top of drawable nonconductive or poorly conductive fibres so as to support the former, and further drawing together the non conductive or poorly conductive fibres and the metallic fibres to blend them and to further reduce their cross-section .
A textile product conducting electricity, and containing non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and 0.025% to 0.050%
by weight of metallic fibres. The metallic fibres are staples having an average cross-section of less than 10 microns. prefer-ably less than 1 micron. The process comprises: drawing and continuously supporting the drawable metallic fibres, laying the metallic fibres on top of drawable nonconductive or poorly conductive fibres so as to support the former, and further drawing together the non conductive or poorly conductive fibres and the metallic fibres to blend them and to further reduce their cross-section .
Description
43~
This invention relates to tex~ile products conducting elec~rici~y and to a method of making the same. This invention aims parti-cularly at making slivers that conduct electricity from non-conductive or poorly conductive fi~res with the purpose oE minimizing the amount of conducting staple fibres necessary for rendering the sliver conductive, by reducing as much as possible the cross-section area of the conduct;ng staple fibres and thereby increasing their surface area. From now on the expression "non-conductive" will be used to include both non-conductive or poorly conductive fi~res unless indicated otherwise.
THE PRIOR ART
A large portion of textiles are non-conductive and-ac-cumulate electrical charges. These charges produce electrical sparks which are unpleasant to anyone, especially if one happens to be the ground. These sparks may also cause fires. In order to reduce static charges in textiles, particularly yarn products, metallic fibres are blended with non-conductive fibres, for instance as disclosed in United States Patent 3,288,175 dated November 29, 1966 as invented by Valko. The conductive metallic fibres ~-hlch are generally available in staple form, are expensive.
The conductive metallic staple fibres may be obtainecl by drawing a plurality of rods contained in a sheath by means of pairs of drafting rillers driven at progressively higher speeds and then removing the sheat. The prior art claims that the filaments thus obtained may have an extremely small diameter as low as 12 microns or thereabout~ It is also - claimed that such filaments have a very low tenacity and that -they cannot be drawn substantially further, that drawing requires a sheath because they do not have sufficient adhesion and they tend to come apart quite easily.
For all these reasons, the conductive yarns that do exist contain at least 0.050/~ of conducting filaments in the form of metallic filaments. Other problems are also discussed in Canadian Patent c~3,610 dated 3une 22, 1971 as invented by Okuhashi, namely that it is necessary to use a metallic fibre having a minimum fineness oE denier and that problems exist during mixing and processing as well as in the end produc~. The manufacture oE
7~
~43~88 metallic fibres of fine denier is not simple and metallic fibres are ex-pensive, it is said.
THE INVENTION
Broadly stated the applicant has now made possible the production of conductive textile from non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres in using less than 0.050% by weight oE metallic fibres, and even as little as 0.025%, said metallic fibres being staples having an average cross-section in diameter which can be much lower than 10 microns, and preferably l micron and even 1/3 micron. As compared to the prior art, this implies up to 100% reduction of the consumption of metallic fibres.`
This invention is particularly appllcable to man-made fibres.
Broadly stated the invention also comprises a process for making substantially conductive, a yarn of non-conductive fib~es, the step comprising:
a) drawing and continuously supporting drawable metallic fibres until said metallic fibres have an average cross-section smaller than 10 microns.
b) laying said metallic fibres on top of drawable non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres so as to support said metallic fibres, and c) further drawing together said metallic fibres and the ~ supporting non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres, - thereby simultaneously blending said metallic fibres with said non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and further reducing the cross-section of substan-tially all filaments, the metallic fibres being thus supported by the apparatus during the first drawing in step (a) and until they reach the non-conductive or poorly con-ductive fibres, and thereafter being continuously supported by said non conductive or poorly conductive fibres.
The expression "textile" whenever referred to throughout disclosure and claims, is meant to include woven fabrics, yarn products, ~43~
~;1 a;nentary products, slivers, carpets, safety clothing, other fabric pro~ucts, webs and the like, particularly where static build-up could be disastrous.
The expression "conductive" whenever referred to through-out the disclosure claims, means able to conduct electricityD
By the expression "drawabLe metallic fibres" is meant conducting metallic fibres that have sufficient cohesion to be drawn without falling apartO As is kno~,m, cohesion depends on:
a) ~ or weaviness that determine the capacity to cohere, b) the inter-fibre friction, which is a function of the pressure normal on the fibre surface of the coeffi-cient of friction be~ween the fibre surEaces and the fibre specific surface which depends on the denier of filaments. Finer filaments increase the cohesion, as long as the shape of the fibre surface remains unchanged, and c) the len~th of the filaments, as longer filaments increase the overlap among the fibres over which they can be made to cohere.
E~a~ples of drawable metallic fibres include drawable copper, nickel, aluminium, stainless steel fibres and the like and prefer-ably stainless steel but are not limited thereto.
Although this invention is applicable in general tQ
poorly conductive fibres, the invention is particularly useful for substan-tially non-conductive man-made staple fibres, such as staple nylon and polyester.
Referring now to the drawings which illustrate a pre-ferred way of carrying out the invention.
Figure 1 is a schematic flow diagram of the steps of one of the ways of forming conductive yarn and carpet from non-conductive sliver.
Figure 2 is a schematic side view of an apparatus which may be employed for maXing conducting slivers.
- ~J43~
Figure 3 i5 a cross-sectional view, taken along lone 3-3 of Figure 4, of the draw-box for metall-ic staple fibres.
Figure 4 is a cross-section vie~, taken along line 4-4 for Figure 3, of the draw-box for metallic staple fibres.
Figure 5 is a side view of the draw-box for metallic staple fibres with cover partly removed, to bring out clearly the construction of the gearing arrangement~
Figure 6 is a front view illustrating the arrangements for Eeeding drawn metallic fibres unto non-conducting slivers.
Referring to Figure 1, a source 8 of metallic staple filament 32 is pulled by draw-frame 30, to be stretched as will be discussed herein below. At the end of the drawing operation in draw-frame 30~ the filaments are laid upon slivers 12 to go to the drawing operation 10. The drawing operation is done by conventional machines and includes t~o operatlons of drawing: for instance, a draw-frame followed by a second draw frame also called a finisher or apron draft. The product resulting from the drawing operation may be spun into a conducting staple fibre yarn, and then com-bined with a non-conducting staple fibre yarn as by twisting. The resulting twisted yarn may then be heat set and tufted into a carpet, as is known in the art.
Referring to Figure 1 and 2, a conventional draw-frame 10 for drawing poorly conductive or non-conductive slivers 12, is provided with sliver guides 16 and 18 held by guide supports 17 themselves mounted on a supporting frame 19. The feed rate of the slivers 12 unrolled from sliver cans 14, is controlled by the measuring roller 20 cooperating with the drawing mechanism of the draw~-frame 10 by endless chain 21 and a sprocket axially mounted on the axis of roller 20. Contained inside cover 31R, and mounted on said supporting frame 19, a second draw-frame 30 for pulling frcm its package 8, drawing, supporting and conducting metallic staple fibres 32 onto slivers 12 moving to inlet 28 of dra~-fr~le 10.
14~
~ sho~l in Fig~re 3, the draw fr.~e 30 havin~ side covers 31R and 31I comprises a pair oE drivenly mounted rollers 34, 36 and idler roller 33 on top of the pair oE rollers 34, 36, for feeding said metallic staple fibres, and take up rollers 40, 42 drivenly mounted and idler 44 on top, said take up rollers being geared to rotate at a speed such as to obtain the desired drawing ratio. In between said take up and feeding rollers, drivenly mounted, intermediate rollers 46, 48 rotate at an interme-diate speed wi~h idler roller 50. The pairs of rollers 3~-36, 40-42 and 46-~8 are interconnected by gearing systems, as will be explained further on, 10 so that they all move in the same direction, and so that each pair rotates at same speed. The idler rollers 33, 44 and 50 are not held by any means but merely sit in between the pairs of driven rollers In this manner, the idler roliers 33, 44 and 50 exert a very constant tension which it is believed tends to eliminate a portion of breaks. Conveniently the roller 44 is provided with a scrubber 51 ~
As shown in Figure 3 and 4, in between and during all t stages,the metallic staple fibres are supported, whether during ~he drawing between the rollers as well as after they leave the take up rollers. The supporting means are conveniently trays 52~ 54 and converging tray 56 ending .
20 short of the path traced out by the non-conductive slivers 12 moving and merging to an inlet 28 of the draw-frame 10 .
As shown in Figure 5, an endless chain 21 driven by a sprocket wheel (not shown) of the driving mechanism of the draw-frame 10 of Figure 1, actuates a step wheel 60 having a set of cogwheels and the measuring roller 20 via sprocket wheel 23 sho~n in Figure 6. One of the cogwheels of the step wheel 60 carries an endless belt 62 to drive the sprockets of step wheel 64 mounted on axis 65 of roller 40. The step wheel 64 deEines an outside sprocket wheel and an inside cogwheel, said cogwheel intermeshing with a counter-rotating cogwheel 66 itself intermeshing w;th a cogwheel 68 30 mounted on the axis of roller 42, Cogwheel 68 is of the same size as the inside cogwheel of step wheel 64 so that the rollers 40 and 42 rotate at the same velocity. The cogs of wheel 64 also engage the set of reducing gears .
~3~
70, 72, v-ia gear 70. Gear 72 is mounted on the shaEt oE roller 48.
On the other side, as shown on Figure 4, the other end of the shaEt roller 48 carries a cogwheel 74, such as 64, intermeshing with a counter-rotating cogwheel 76, such as 66, and itself intermeshing with another cogwheel 78 similar to 68 and 74 but positioned onto shaft of roller 46.
Likel~ise cogwheel 78 engages the gear 80 forming with gear 82 a set of reducing gears, gear 82 being mounted on the shaft of roller 36. On the other side and better shown in Figure 5, the cogwheel 84 intermeshes with a counter-rotating cogwheel 86 which in turn engages a cogwheel 880 Figure 6 illustrates the arrangemer.t of the rollers 44, 42 in association with converging tray 56 used in spaced relationship to slivers delivered by measuring roll 20 so that the metallic fibres be rather gently.
layed on said sliver.
TENTATIVE EXPLANATIO~
As a tentative explanation, for which the applicant does not want to be limited since it is not fully understood why the process of this invention accomplish results so strinkingly different from the prior art, it does appear that such a performance is obtained because the metallic staple fibres are supported during the drawing operation and beca~se also the pressure or tension exerted by the-idlers is more constant than with conventional spring loaded pairs of feeding and take up rollers, and the fact that the extremely weak metallic staple fibre after the Eirst drawing operation is fully supported until it reaches the drawing operation with the non-conductive staple fibres.
LL .~ ~.
~3~8~
OPERATION
As can be seen for making conductive sliver, substan-tially non-conductive slivers 12 are unrolled from sliver cans 14 and move via sliver guides 16 at a speed detenmined by the measuring rollers 20 to guides 18 and to inlet 28 of the draw-frame lO. Simultaneously metallic staple fibres 32 unwrapped from package 8 move via porcelain guide by the pulling action of feed rollers 34 and 36 and idler roller 33,(as shown in Figure 3), are drawn by a nip being defined between roller 50 and rollers 46 and 48, while said rollers 46 and 48 and tray 52 continuously support the metallic staple fibres during the drawing operation. ~hereafter, ~said metallic staple fibres are further drawn as they move up to roller 40, 42 by the nip action of roller 44 while being supported by rollers 40, 42 and tray 54 until they reach the converging tray 56 to be layed upon the slivers 12 and move to the inlet 28 of the draw-frame where they are drawn in a first s~ep by a draw-frame and in a second step by a finisher, Product is then spun, twisted, heat set and tufted, as desired.
EXAMPLE I
This example ~Jill illustrate the making of a conductive carpet nylon yarn.
A stainless steel yarn sold under the trade mark "Brunsmet"
and having 15 grains per yard, (about 250 filaments, 12 microns per filament, 20 staples of 6 to 10 inches long) is fed to a draw-frame 30~ as shown on Figure 2 and 3 to obtain a draw ratio of 2 between rollers 34 and 46 and another draw ratio of 2 between 46 and 42 . The idler rollers 33, 50 and - ~4 have a weight of 5 pounds each. lhe velocity o-E the roller 34 is 3.1 yards per minute and that of the roller 42, 13.5 yards per minute.
The resulting stainless steel yarn is fed over 8 slivers of 500 grains per yard each to the inlet 28 of a draw-frame sold ~mder the trade mark "Servo"-drafter M 3730. (Each of said slivers had been previously made by feeding nylon 66 staples of 18 dpf and being 6 inches long,to a carding apparatus, and collecting the resulting product in sliver cans.~ Tlle draw-frame has a draw ratio of 9 and yields a product which has 500 grains per yard.
Two said slivers of 500 grains per yard and containing the stainless steel fibres are then fed to a finisher,known tmder the trade mark "Ingalstadt",to be further drafted under a draw ratio in the order of 8.3-8.5 and thereby converted to a product having 90 grains per yard.
The 90-grains-per-yard product is spun at size 2.5 cotton countsO It is then twisted at 2.5 Z, 2 ply, forming one ply containing 0.05% stainless steel fibre with another ply of nylon yarn which does not contain steel fibres.
The resulting twisted yarn is heat set and used as a nylon carpet yarn having 2.5 Z, 2 ply, 6.66 grains per yard cotton count and containing 00025% of stainless steel in the Eorm of 200-300 metallic fibres along the cross-section of the resulting twisted yarn.
The carpet yarn is then tufted in the form oE a carpet~
~ he same was repeated under essentially same c~nditions except that stainless steel yarn sold under the trade mark "Bekinox" was used instead of stainless steel yarn having the trade mark ~'Brunsmet"
QTHER WAYS OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
The applicant has disclosed above his preferred way of carrying out his invention, but there are many other ways of carrying out said invention. It may be applied to non-staple fibres, for instance after -the metallic staple fibres are drawn in an apparatus such as illustrated at 30, they may be layed upon melt extruded continuous filaments before drawing.
Although the invention has been disclosed with parti-cular reference to man-made fibres, it must be borne in mind that the same also applies to natural fibres such as wool as well as other non~conductive fibres that are drawable but excluding fibres such as spandex cmd the like.
.~ .
~3~
~ t must b~ born~ in mind that the ~pparatus ma~1 be modified in various ways without departing Erom the invent;on, for example the tandem of gears may be replaced with a tandem of continuous belts or the number of rollers may vary.
It is believed that the trays, particularly the conveying tray 56, may be replaced with a conveyor such as a continuous belt, but the preferred way of carrying out the invention still eliminates these moving elements as much as possible as they tend to wear too rapidly.
It should be borne in mind that although stainless steel is the preferred metallic staple fibre, as it is the most common, other drawable conducting metallic fibres may be used instead. Although the-invention has been described primarily with the aid of the cotton system~
it may also be used with the wool system and other systems. Similarly a preferred way of carrying out the invention has been recited and it should be borne in mind that after drawing of the sliver with a draw-frame represented by 10, the sliver may be used like any ordinary sliver, showing thereby the plethora of choices opened. The yarn instead of being used for tufting, may be knitted or woven or used with non-wovenO
This invention relates to tex~ile products conducting elec~rici~y and to a method of making the same. This invention aims parti-cularly at making slivers that conduct electricity from non-conductive or poorly conductive fi~res with the purpose oE minimizing the amount of conducting staple fibres necessary for rendering the sliver conductive, by reducing as much as possible the cross-section area of the conduct;ng staple fibres and thereby increasing their surface area. From now on the expression "non-conductive" will be used to include both non-conductive or poorly conductive fi~res unless indicated otherwise.
THE PRIOR ART
A large portion of textiles are non-conductive and-ac-cumulate electrical charges. These charges produce electrical sparks which are unpleasant to anyone, especially if one happens to be the ground. These sparks may also cause fires. In order to reduce static charges in textiles, particularly yarn products, metallic fibres are blended with non-conductive fibres, for instance as disclosed in United States Patent 3,288,175 dated November 29, 1966 as invented by Valko. The conductive metallic fibres ~-hlch are generally available in staple form, are expensive.
The conductive metallic staple fibres may be obtainecl by drawing a plurality of rods contained in a sheath by means of pairs of drafting rillers driven at progressively higher speeds and then removing the sheat. The prior art claims that the filaments thus obtained may have an extremely small diameter as low as 12 microns or thereabout~ It is also - claimed that such filaments have a very low tenacity and that -they cannot be drawn substantially further, that drawing requires a sheath because they do not have sufficient adhesion and they tend to come apart quite easily.
For all these reasons, the conductive yarns that do exist contain at least 0.050/~ of conducting filaments in the form of metallic filaments. Other problems are also discussed in Canadian Patent c~3,610 dated 3une 22, 1971 as invented by Okuhashi, namely that it is necessary to use a metallic fibre having a minimum fineness oE denier and that problems exist during mixing and processing as well as in the end produc~. The manufacture oE
7~
~43~88 metallic fibres of fine denier is not simple and metallic fibres are ex-pensive, it is said.
THE INVENTION
Broadly stated the applicant has now made possible the production of conductive textile from non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres in using less than 0.050% by weight oE metallic fibres, and even as little as 0.025%, said metallic fibres being staples having an average cross-section in diameter which can be much lower than 10 microns, and preferably l micron and even 1/3 micron. As compared to the prior art, this implies up to 100% reduction of the consumption of metallic fibres.`
This invention is particularly appllcable to man-made fibres.
Broadly stated the invention also comprises a process for making substantially conductive, a yarn of non-conductive fib~es, the step comprising:
a) drawing and continuously supporting drawable metallic fibres until said metallic fibres have an average cross-section smaller than 10 microns.
b) laying said metallic fibres on top of drawable non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres so as to support said metallic fibres, and c) further drawing together said metallic fibres and the ~ supporting non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres, - thereby simultaneously blending said metallic fibres with said non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and further reducing the cross-section of substan-tially all filaments, the metallic fibres being thus supported by the apparatus during the first drawing in step (a) and until they reach the non-conductive or poorly con-ductive fibres, and thereafter being continuously supported by said non conductive or poorly conductive fibres.
The expression "textile" whenever referred to throughout disclosure and claims, is meant to include woven fabrics, yarn products, ~43~
~;1 a;nentary products, slivers, carpets, safety clothing, other fabric pro~ucts, webs and the like, particularly where static build-up could be disastrous.
The expression "conductive" whenever referred to through-out the disclosure claims, means able to conduct electricityD
By the expression "drawabLe metallic fibres" is meant conducting metallic fibres that have sufficient cohesion to be drawn without falling apartO As is kno~,m, cohesion depends on:
a) ~ or weaviness that determine the capacity to cohere, b) the inter-fibre friction, which is a function of the pressure normal on the fibre surface of the coeffi-cient of friction be~ween the fibre surEaces and the fibre specific surface which depends on the denier of filaments. Finer filaments increase the cohesion, as long as the shape of the fibre surface remains unchanged, and c) the len~th of the filaments, as longer filaments increase the overlap among the fibres over which they can be made to cohere.
E~a~ples of drawable metallic fibres include drawable copper, nickel, aluminium, stainless steel fibres and the like and prefer-ably stainless steel but are not limited thereto.
Although this invention is applicable in general tQ
poorly conductive fibres, the invention is particularly useful for substan-tially non-conductive man-made staple fibres, such as staple nylon and polyester.
Referring now to the drawings which illustrate a pre-ferred way of carrying out the invention.
Figure 1 is a schematic flow diagram of the steps of one of the ways of forming conductive yarn and carpet from non-conductive sliver.
Figure 2 is a schematic side view of an apparatus which may be employed for maXing conducting slivers.
- ~J43~
Figure 3 i5 a cross-sectional view, taken along lone 3-3 of Figure 4, of the draw-box for metall-ic staple fibres.
Figure 4 is a cross-section vie~, taken along line 4-4 for Figure 3, of the draw-box for metallic staple fibres.
Figure 5 is a side view of the draw-box for metallic staple fibres with cover partly removed, to bring out clearly the construction of the gearing arrangement~
Figure 6 is a front view illustrating the arrangements for Eeeding drawn metallic fibres unto non-conducting slivers.
Referring to Figure 1, a source 8 of metallic staple filament 32 is pulled by draw-frame 30, to be stretched as will be discussed herein below. At the end of the drawing operation in draw-frame 30~ the filaments are laid upon slivers 12 to go to the drawing operation 10. The drawing operation is done by conventional machines and includes t~o operatlons of drawing: for instance, a draw-frame followed by a second draw frame also called a finisher or apron draft. The product resulting from the drawing operation may be spun into a conducting staple fibre yarn, and then com-bined with a non-conducting staple fibre yarn as by twisting. The resulting twisted yarn may then be heat set and tufted into a carpet, as is known in the art.
Referring to Figure 1 and 2, a conventional draw-frame 10 for drawing poorly conductive or non-conductive slivers 12, is provided with sliver guides 16 and 18 held by guide supports 17 themselves mounted on a supporting frame 19. The feed rate of the slivers 12 unrolled from sliver cans 14, is controlled by the measuring roller 20 cooperating with the drawing mechanism of the draw~-frame 10 by endless chain 21 and a sprocket axially mounted on the axis of roller 20. Contained inside cover 31R, and mounted on said supporting frame 19, a second draw-frame 30 for pulling frcm its package 8, drawing, supporting and conducting metallic staple fibres 32 onto slivers 12 moving to inlet 28 of dra~-fr~le 10.
14~
~ sho~l in Fig~re 3, the draw fr.~e 30 havin~ side covers 31R and 31I comprises a pair oE drivenly mounted rollers 34, 36 and idler roller 33 on top of the pair oE rollers 34, 36, for feeding said metallic staple fibres, and take up rollers 40, 42 drivenly mounted and idler 44 on top, said take up rollers being geared to rotate at a speed such as to obtain the desired drawing ratio. In between said take up and feeding rollers, drivenly mounted, intermediate rollers 46, 48 rotate at an interme-diate speed wi~h idler roller 50. The pairs of rollers 3~-36, 40-42 and 46-~8 are interconnected by gearing systems, as will be explained further on, 10 so that they all move in the same direction, and so that each pair rotates at same speed. The idler rollers 33, 44 and 50 are not held by any means but merely sit in between the pairs of driven rollers In this manner, the idler roliers 33, 44 and 50 exert a very constant tension which it is believed tends to eliminate a portion of breaks. Conveniently the roller 44 is provided with a scrubber 51 ~
As shown in Figure 3 and 4, in between and during all t stages,the metallic staple fibres are supported, whether during ~he drawing between the rollers as well as after they leave the take up rollers. The supporting means are conveniently trays 52~ 54 and converging tray 56 ending .
20 short of the path traced out by the non-conductive slivers 12 moving and merging to an inlet 28 of the draw-frame 10 .
As shown in Figure 5, an endless chain 21 driven by a sprocket wheel (not shown) of the driving mechanism of the draw-frame 10 of Figure 1, actuates a step wheel 60 having a set of cogwheels and the measuring roller 20 via sprocket wheel 23 sho~n in Figure 6. One of the cogwheels of the step wheel 60 carries an endless belt 62 to drive the sprockets of step wheel 64 mounted on axis 65 of roller 40. The step wheel 64 deEines an outside sprocket wheel and an inside cogwheel, said cogwheel intermeshing with a counter-rotating cogwheel 66 itself intermeshing w;th a cogwheel 68 30 mounted on the axis of roller 42, Cogwheel 68 is of the same size as the inside cogwheel of step wheel 64 so that the rollers 40 and 42 rotate at the same velocity. The cogs of wheel 64 also engage the set of reducing gears .
~3~
70, 72, v-ia gear 70. Gear 72 is mounted on the shaEt oE roller 48.
On the other side, as shown on Figure 4, the other end of the shaEt roller 48 carries a cogwheel 74, such as 64, intermeshing with a counter-rotating cogwheel 76, such as 66, and itself intermeshing with another cogwheel 78 similar to 68 and 74 but positioned onto shaft of roller 46.
Likel~ise cogwheel 78 engages the gear 80 forming with gear 82 a set of reducing gears, gear 82 being mounted on the shaft of roller 36. On the other side and better shown in Figure 5, the cogwheel 84 intermeshes with a counter-rotating cogwheel 86 which in turn engages a cogwheel 880 Figure 6 illustrates the arrangemer.t of the rollers 44, 42 in association with converging tray 56 used in spaced relationship to slivers delivered by measuring roll 20 so that the metallic fibres be rather gently.
layed on said sliver.
TENTATIVE EXPLANATIO~
As a tentative explanation, for which the applicant does not want to be limited since it is not fully understood why the process of this invention accomplish results so strinkingly different from the prior art, it does appear that such a performance is obtained because the metallic staple fibres are supported during the drawing operation and beca~se also the pressure or tension exerted by the-idlers is more constant than with conventional spring loaded pairs of feeding and take up rollers, and the fact that the extremely weak metallic staple fibre after the Eirst drawing operation is fully supported until it reaches the drawing operation with the non-conductive staple fibres.
LL .~ ~.
~3~8~
OPERATION
As can be seen for making conductive sliver, substan-tially non-conductive slivers 12 are unrolled from sliver cans 14 and move via sliver guides 16 at a speed detenmined by the measuring rollers 20 to guides 18 and to inlet 28 of the draw-frame lO. Simultaneously metallic staple fibres 32 unwrapped from package 8 move via porcelain guide by the pulling action of feed rollers 34 and 36 and idler roller 33,(as shown in Figure 3), are drawn by a nip being defined between roller 50 and rollers 46 and 48, while said rollers 46 and 48 and tray 52 continuously support the metallic staple fibres during the drawing operation. ~hereafter, ~said metallic staple fibres are further drawn as they move up to roller 40, 42 by the nip action of roller 44 while being supported by rollers 40, 42 and tray 54 until they reach the converging tray 56 to be layed upon the slivers 12 and move to the inlet 28 of the draw-frame where they are drawn in a first s~ep by a draw-frame and in a second step by a finisher, Product is then spun, twisted, heat set and tufted, as desired.
EXAMPLE I
This example ~Jill illustrate the making of a conductive carpet nylon yarn.
A stainless steel yarn sold under the trade mark "Brunsmet"
and having 15 grains per yard, (about 250 filaments, 12 microns per filament, 20 staples of 6 to 10 inches long) is fed to a draw-frame 30~ as shown on Figure 2 and 3 to obtain a draw ratio of 2 between rollers 34 and 46 and another draw ratio of 2 between 46 and 42 . The idler rollers 33, 50 and - ~4 have a weight of 5 pounds each. lhe velocity o-E the roller 34 is 3.1 yards per minute and that of the roller 42, 13.5 yards per minute.
The resulting stainless steel yarn is fed over 8 slivers of 500 grains per yard each to the inlet 28 of a draw-frame sold ~mder the trade mark "Servo"-drafter M 3730. (Each of said slivers had been previously made by feeding nylon 66 staples of 18 dpf and being 6 inches long,to a carding apparatus, and collecting the resulting product in sliver cans.~ Tlle draw-frame has a draw ratio of 9 and yields a product which has 500 grains per yard.
Two said slivers of 500 grains per yard and containing the stainless steel fibres are then fed to a finisher,known tmder the trade mark "Ingalstadt",to be further drafted under a draw ratio in the order of 8.3-8.5 and thereby converted to a product having 90 grains per yard.
The 90-grains-per-yard product is spun at size 2.5 cotton countsO It is then twisted at 2.5 Z, 2 ply, forming one ply containing 0.05% stainless steel fibre with another ply of nylon yarn which does not contain steel fibres.
The resulting twisted yarn is heat set and used as a nylon carpet yarn having 2.5 Z, 2 ply, 6.66 grains per yard cotton count and containing 00025% of stainless steel in the Eorm of 200-300 metallic fibres along the cross-section of the resulting twisted yarn.
The carpet yarn is then tufted in the form oE a carpet~
~ he same was repeated under essentially same c~nditions except that stainless steel yarn sold under the trade mark "Bekinox" was used instead of stainless steel yarn having the trade mark ~'Brunsmet"
QTHER WAYS OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
The applicant has disclosed above his preferred way of carrying out his invention, but there are many other ways of carrying out said invention. It may be applied to non-staple fibres, for instance after -the metallic staple fibres are drawn in an apparatus such as illustrated at 30, they may be layed upon melt extruded continuous filaments before drawing.
Although the invention has been disclosed with parti-cular reference to man-made fibres, it must be borne in mind that the same also applies to natural fibres such as wool as well as other non~conductive fibres that are drawable but excluding fibres such as spandex cmd the like.
.~ .
~3~
~ t must b~ born~ in mind that the ~pparatus ma~1 be modified in various ways without departing Erom the invent;on, for example the tandem of gears may be replaced with a tandem of continuous belts or the number of rollers may vary.
It is believed that the trays, particularly the conveying tray 56, may be replaced with a conveyor such as a continuous belt, but the preferred way of carrying out the invention still eliminates these moving elements as much as possible as they tend to wear too rapidly.
It should be borne in mind that although stainless steel is the preferred metallic staple fibre, as it is the most common, other drawable conducting metallic fibres may be used instead. Although the-invention has been described primarily with the aid of the cotton system~
it may also be used with the wool system and other systems. Similarly a preferred way of carrying out the invention has been recited and it should be borne in mind that after drawing of the sliver with a draw-frame represented by 10, the sliver may be used like any ordinary sliver, showing thereby the plethora of choices opened. The yarn instead of being used for tufting, may be knitted or woven or used with non-wovenO
Claims (23)
1. A textile conducting electricity and which contains non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and at least 00025% and less than 0.50% by weight of metallic fibres, said metallic fibres being staples having an average cross-section of less than 0.025% microns.
2. The textile as defined in Claim 1 wherein the metallic fibres have an average cross-section of less than a micron.
3. The textile as defined in Claim 1 wherein the metallic fibres have an average cross-section of from about 1/3 to about 1 micron.
4. The textile as defined in Claim 1,2 or 3 wherein said non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres are man-made staple fibres.
5. The textile as defined in Claim 2 or 3 in the form of a yarn.
6. The textile as defined in Claim 2 or 3 in the form of a yarn, said yarn consisting of conductive man-made staple fibres and of an average of about 200-300 metallic staples along its cross-section.
7. A textile as defined in Claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres are selected from the class consisting of nylon and polyester.
8. The textile as defined in Claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the metallic fibres are selected from the class consisting of nickel, stainless steel and aluminum.
9. The textile fibre as defined in Claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the metallic fibres are stainless steel fibres.
10. The textile as defined in Claim 1, 2 or 3 in the form of a carpet.
11. A conductive carpet yarn or nylon staple fibres, said yarn containing between 0.025% and 0.030% of conducting stainless steel staple fibres having an average cross-section of less than 1 micron in diameter.
12. The carpet yarn as defined in Claim 11 having from 200 - 300 metallic fibres along its cross-section.
13. In a process for making substantially conductive a textile of non-conductive fibres, the steps comprising:
a) drawing and continuously supporting drawable metallic fibres until said metallic fibres have an average cross-section smaller than 10 microns.
b) laying said metallic fibres on top of drawable non-con-ductive or poorly conductive fibres so as to support said metallic fibres, and c) further drawing together said metallic fibres and the supporting non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres, thereby simultaneously blending said metallic fibres with said non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and further reducing the cross-section of substantially all filaments, the metallic fibres being thus continuously supported during the drawing in step a) and until they reach the non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres, and thereafter being continu-ously supported by said non-conductive or poorly conducting fibres.
a) drawing and continuously supporting drawable metallic fibres until said metallic fibres have an average cross-section smaller than 10 microns.
b) laying said metallic fibres on top of drawable non-con-ductive or poorly conductive fibres so as to support said metallic fibres, and c) further drawing together said metallic fibres and the supporting non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres, thereby simultaneously blending said metallic fibres with said non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres and further reducing the cross-section of substantially all filaments, the metallic fibres being thus continuously supported during the drawing in step a) and until they reach the non-conductive or poorly conductive fibres, and thereafter being continu-ously supported by said non-conductive or poorly conducting fibres.
14. The process according to Claim 13 wherein said textile is a yarn.
15. The process according to Claim 13 or 14 wherein said non-conducting fibres and said metallic fibres are staple fibres.
16. In a process for making substantially conductive a yarn of non-conductive fibres, the step comprising:
a) drawing and supporting drawable metallic staple fibres until they reach an average cross-section of the order of 8 to 2 microns, b) while continuously supporting, laying said metallic fibres on top of drawable non-conductive staple fibres so as to further support said metallic fibres, and c) further drawing together said non-conductive fibres, and said metallic filaments supported by said non-conductive fibres thereby simultaneously being said metallic filaments with said non-conducting fibres and further reducing the cross-section of substantially all filaments with the proviso that said metallic filaments have a cross-section below 1 micron after step c).
a) drawing and supporting drawable metallic staple fibres until they reach an average cross-section of the order of 8 to 2 microns, b) while continuously supporting, laying said metallic fibres on top of drawable non-conductive staple fibres so as to further support said metallic fibres, and c) further drawing together said non-conductive fibres, and said metallic filaments supported by said non-conductive fibres thereby simultaneously being said metallic filaments with said non-conducting fibres and further reducing the cross-section of substantially all filaments with the proviso that said metallic filaments have a cross-section below 1 micron after step c).
17. The process according to Claim 13 or 16 wherein drawing in step a) is done under constant pressure, obtained by an idler roller of pre-determined weight sitting between a pair of drivenly mounted rollers, said constant pressure being the weight of said idler roller, and said yarn moves on and is supported by said pair of drivenly mounted rollers and is pressed against them by said idler roller.
18. The process according to Claim 13 or 16 wherein the said non-conductive fibres are staple fibres and said metallic fibres are stainless steel staple fibres having an average cross-section of less than half a micron after step c) .
19. The process according to Claim 13 or 16 wherein said supporting of drawable metallic fibres in step a) is done by means of trays and pairs of drivenly mounted rollers, mounted side by side.
200 The process according to Claim 16 wherein the non-conductive fibres are in the form of a plurality of slivers and wherein the slivers after step c), are spun as a yarn and then twisted with a non-conductive yarn.
21. The process according to Claim 20 wherein the conducting ply contains less then 0.05% by weight metallic fibres.
22. The process according to Claim 16 or 20 wherein the metallic fibres are stainless steel .
23. The process according to Claim 16 or 20 wherein the non-conductive fibres are nylon .
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA238,845A CA1043088A (en) | 1975-11-03 | 1975-11-03 | Textile product conducting electricity and a method for making same |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA238,845A CA1043088A (en) | 1975-11-03 | 1975-11-03 | Textile product conducting electricity and a method for making same |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1043088A true CA1043088A (en) | 1978-11-28 |
Family
ID=4104426
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA238,845A Expired CA1043088A (en) | 1975-11-03 | 1975-11-03 | Textile product conducting electricity and a method for making same |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1043088A (en) |
Cited By (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR2450890A1 (en) * | 1979-03-03 | 1980-10-03 | Akzo Nv | PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ANTISTATIC FIBER FOR CARPETS, FIBER THUS OBTAINED AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING CARPETS THEREWITH |
| US4793130A (en) * | 1986-06-20 | 1988-12-27 | Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. | Thin-metal-wire conjugated yarn |
| US4926570A (en) * | 1987-07-22 | 1990-05-22 | Lohmann Gmbh & Co. Kg | Shoe inner sole, particularly insole or welt |
| FR2689145A1 (en) * | 1992-03-31 | 1993-10-01 | Brochier Sa | Yarn for textile reinforcement with controlled electrical losses, and its manufacturing process. |
| EP0615012A1 (en) * | 1993-03-08 | 1994-09-14 | ZOOM S.r.l. | Method to produce textile threads and textile threads for anti-stress products made with such threads |
-
1975
- 1975-11-03 CA CA238,845A patent/CA1043088A/en not_active Expired
Cited By (6)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR2450890A1 (en) * | 1979-03-03 | 1980-10-03 | Akzo Nv | PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ANTISTATIC FIBER FOR CARPETS, FIBER THUS OBTAINED AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING CARPETS THEREWITH |
| US4793130A (en) * | 1986-06-20 | 1988-12-27 | Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. | Thin-metal-wire conjugated yarn |
| US4926570A (en) * | 1987-07-22 | 1990-05-22 | Lohmann Gmbh & Co. Kg | Shoe inner sole, particularly insole or welt |
| FR2689145A1 (en) * | 1992-03-31 | 1993-10-01 | Brochier Sa | Yarn for textile reinforcement with controlled electrical losses, and its manufacturing process. |
| EP0564331A1 (en) * | 1992-03-31 | 1993-10-06 | Brochier S.A. | Reinforcing yarn with controlled electrical losses and process for manufacturing the same |
| EP0615012A1 (en) * | 1993-03-08 | 1994-09-14 | ZOOM S.r.l. | Method to produce textile threads and textile threads for anti-stress products made with such threads |
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