Kuraray Co., Ltd.

Kuraray Europe Gmbh

Kuraray Specialities Europe Gmbh

Tomoaki Kimura

Sumito Kiyooka

Toru Ochiai

Yasuro Araida

Naoki Fujiwara

Takashi Katayama

Satoshi Koizumi

Kazuhiko Tanaka

Masao Kawamoto

Martin Steuer

Hitoshi Nakatsuka

Hideo Hayashi

Nobuhiro Koga

Yasurou Araida

Akihiro Hokimoto

Junyo Nakagawa

Toshimitsu Harada

Soichi Obata

Masaru Koike

Hiroshi Kanehira

Kazuhiro Muraki

Yoshimi Umemura

Masato Iizumi

Steuer Martin

To prepare a shaped product comprising a thermal adhesive fiber under moisture and having a fiber aggregate nonwoven structure. In the shaped product, the thermal adhesive fibers under moisture are melted to bond to fibers constituting the fiber aggregate nonwoven structure and the bonded fiber ratio is not more than 85%. The shaped product has an apparent density of 0.05 to 0.7 g/cm, a maximum bending stress of not less than 0.05 MPa in at least one direction, and a bending stress of not less than &#x2155; of the maximum bending stress at 1.5 times as large as the bending deflection at the maximum bending stress. The moistenable-thermal adhesive fiber may be a sheath-core form conjugated fiber comprising a sheath part comprising an ethylene-vinyl alcohol-series copolymer and a core part comprising a polyester-series resin. Such a shaped product can be used for a building board or the like since the shaped product has a high bending stress although the product is light and has a low density.

Molded object having nonwoven fibrous structure

In a nonwoven fiber assembly which comprises a fiber comprising a thermal adhesive fiber under moisture and in which the fiber are entangled with each other, the fibers are bonded at contacting points of the fibers by melting the thermal adhesive fiber under moisture to distribute the bonded points approximately uniformly, thereby obtaining a buffer substrate. The buffer substrate may further comprises a conjugated fiber comprising a plurality of resins which are different in thermal shrinkage and form a phase separation structure, and the conjugated fibers may have an approximately uniform crimps having an average curvature radius of 20 to 200 &#x3bc;m and are entangled with the fibers constituting the nonwoven fiber assembly. The buffer substrate can be obtained by a method comprising the steps of: forming a web from the fiber comprising the thermal adhesive fiber under moisture; and subjecting the obtained fiber web to a heat and moisture treatment with a high-temperature water vapor to melt the thermal adhesive fiber under moisture for bonding the fibers. The buffer substrate has a high air-permeability, an excellent cushion property and softness.

Buffer substrate and use thereof

To produce a nonwoven fabric comprising a conjugated fiber comprising a plurality of resins which are different in thermal shrinkage and form a phase separation structure. In the nonwoven fabric, the conjugated fibers are arranged in a direction approximately parallel to a surface direction of the nonwoven fabric and crimped. In addition, the conjugated fibers have an average curvature radius of fiber crimp of 20 to 200 &#x3bc;m and the crimps are distributed approximately uniformly in a thickness direction of the nonwoven fabric. The nonwoven fabric is substantially free from an adhesive agent. In the nonwoven fabric, each fiber is substantially not melt-bonded to another. The conjugated fiber may comprise a polyalkylene arylate-series resin and a modified polyalkylene arylate-series resin and have a side-by-side or eccentric sheath-core form. Since the bimetal form conjugated fibers having specific crimps are appropriately entangled with each other, the nonwoven fabric has a high stretchability and is easily torn by hand, without using scissors. The nonwoven fabric is suitable for a tape such as a bandage or a supporter.

Stretchable nonwoven fabric and tape

A soundproof panel comprising a nonwoven structural member and a board member is prepared. The nonwoven structural member comprises a thermal adhesive fiber under moisture which is melt-bonded to a fiber of the structural member to fix the fibers. The soundproof panel may be a soundproof panelcomprising a nonwoven structural memberand a honeycomb memberstacked thereto. Moreover, the soundproof panel may be a soundproof panel comprising a board-like nonwoven structural member and first and second surface members stacked to first and second sides of the board-like nonwoven structural member, respectively. Further, the soundproof panel may be a soundproof panel having first and second surface members stacked through a square-pole rail member comprising a nonwoven structural member. The soundproof panel of the present invention has toughness for the lightweight design and has excellent sound absorption and sound insulation properties.

Soundproof panel and soundproof structure

A nonwoven fabric containing a polyvinyl butyral fiber is provided. In particular, continuous fiber nonwoven fabrics, such as a melt-blown nonwoven fabric and a spunbonded nonwoven fabric, are preferred. By laminating a plurality of layers via an adhering layer made of such a nonwoven fabric and then heating, a laminate is obtained by a simple process. In particular, an interior material in which an inorganic fiber layer, a foam layer and a surface material layer are adhered together via the aforementioned type of adhering layers is a desirable embodiment. Such an interior material is excellent in rigidity, sound absorbency and thermal deformation resistance, and therefore is useful as an interior material to be used for cars, railway vehicles, vessels, and the like.

Nonwoven fabrics and laminates made by using the same

Provided are melt-spun fibers comprising, as at least one component, a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol, and a method for producing fibrous structures comprising the fibers. The thermoplastic polyvinyl alcohol fibers comprise, as at least one component, a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol containing from 0.1 to 25 mol % of C1-4 &agr;-olefin units and/or vinyl ether units, having a molar fraction, based on vinyl alcohol units, of a hydroxyl group of vinyl alcohol unit located at the center of 3 successive vinyl alcohol unit chain in terms of triad expression of being from 70 to 99.9 mol %, having a carboxylic acid and lactone ring content of from 0.02 to 0.15 mol %, and having a melting point falling between 160&deg; C. and 230&deg; C., and contain from 0.0003 to 1 part by weight, relative to 100 parts by weight of the polyvinyl alcohol therein and in terms of sodium ion, of an alkali metal ion.

Thermoplastic polyvinyl alcohol fibers and method for producing them

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Osaka, Japan

Tomoaki Kimura