Unitika Ltd.

Nippon Unicar Company Limited

Yoshiki Miyahara

Takashi Inoue

Koichi Nagaoka

Eiichi Kubo

Shigetaka Nishimura

Satoshi Kasetani

Yasunobu Mishima

Kouji Esaki

Syunichi Kiriyama

Hiroshi Tanaka

Yoshihiro Kammuri

Takeshi Kitahara

Shigemitsu Murase

Kunihiro Hirsoe

Takashi Nogi

The present invention provides a nonwoven fabric made of fine denier filaments of superior bulkiness, heat insulation property and tensile strength, and a production method thereof. This nonwoven fabric is made of fine denier filaments produced by first preparing. First a thermoplastic polymer component 'A', then another thermoplastic polymer component 'B' which is insoluble in the component 'A' and of which the melting point is higher than that of the component 'A' by 30.degree. to 180.degree. C. Adopting a bicomponent melt spinning method employing the component 'A' and the component 'B', the bicomponent conjugate filaments, on which surface at least component 'A' is exposed, are obtained. By accumulating these bicomponent conjugate filaments, a web is formed. Then heat is applied to the predetermined areas on the web throughout its entire thickness, whereby only the component A is softened or molten, and the bicomponent conjugate filaments are heat bonded to one another, thus a fleece is obtained. The predetermined areas are shaped like dots or lattices and distributed with a certain space between them. After obtaining the fleece, a wrinkling action is applied to the fleece.

Nonwoven fabric made of fine denier filaments and a production method

A nonwoven fabric having biodegradability which can be advantageously used as a biodegradable material for general disposable-type household supplies represented by such items as sanitary materials, wiping cloths, and packaging materials. The nonwoven fabric is formed of a fiber material made of poly-.epsilon.-caprolactone and/or poly-.beta.-propiolactone. The nonwoven fabric contains not less than 20% by weight of such a fiber material having a filament fineness of 0.8 to 6 denier. This provides sufficient tensile strength and soft hand which enable the nonwoven fabric to be advantageously used in practical applications. Where the nonwoven fabric is formed of a superfine fiber of the above noted type having a filament fineness of less than 0.8 denier, it has particularly remarkable soft hand.

Biodegradable nonwoven fabrics and method of manufacturing same

A method of making a nonwoven fabric having biodegradability which can be advantageously used as a biodegradable material for general disposable-type household supplies represented by such items as sanitary materials, wiping cloths, and packaging materials. The nonwoven fabric is formed of a fiber material made of poly-.epsilon.-caprolactone and/or poly-.beta.-propiolactone. The nonwoven fabric contains not less than 20% by weight of such a fiber material having a filament fineness of 0.8 to 6 denier. This provides sufficient tensile strength and soft hand which enable the nonwoven fabric to be advantageously used in practical applications. Where the nonwoven fabric is formed of a superfine fiber of the above noted type having a filament fineness of less than 0.8 denier, it has particularly remarkable soft hand.

Method of manufacturing biodegradable nonwoven fabrics

Biodegradable nonwoven fabrics

A non-woven fabric, the fibers of which are comprised of:

Non-woven fabric

A nonwoven fabric formed of highly spinnable heat bonded continuous filaments which is strong and soft and is superior in hand. The nonwoven fabric is formed by heat-bonding filaments of linear low density polyethylene so that the number of defects is not more than 0.01/kg, the weight is 10-100 g/m.sup.2, the percentage bond area is 7-20% and the total hand value is 4-300 g. The nonwoven fabric is produced by melt-extruding the above-mentioned linear low density polyethylene to form filaments which are drawn by air guns at a high speed so that they are deposited on a moving collection belt to form a web which is then heat treated at a temperature 15.degree.-30.degree. C. lower than the melting point of the filaments. The nonwoven fabric an be formed of filaments of hollow or flat cross section. It is also possible to utilize bicomponent filaments having a sheath component made of linear low density polyethylene and a core component made of polyethylene terephthalate.

Polyolefin-type nonwoven fabric and method of producing the same

A nonwoven fabric formed of highly spinnable heat bonded continuous filaments which is strong and soft and is superior in hand. The nonwoven fabric is formed by heat-bonding filaments of linear low density polyethylene so that the number of defects is not more than 0.01/kg, the weight is 10-100 g/m.sup.2, the percentage bond area is 7-20% and the total hand value is 4-300 g. The nonwoven fabric is produced by melt-extruding the above-mentioned linear low density polyethylene to form filaments which are drawn by air guns at a high speed so that they are deposited on a moving collection belt to form a web which is then heat treated at a temperature 15.degree.-30.degree. l C. lower than the melting point of the filaments. The nonwoven fabric an be formed of filaments of hollow or flat cross section. It is also possible to utilize bicomponent filaments having a sheath component made of linear low density polyethylene and a core component made of polyethylene terephalate.

A biconstituent fiber having good spinnability, a binder fiber made thereof, and a nonwoven fabric produced therefrom and which has high tensile strength and comfortable soft touch are provided. The biconstituent fiber is composed of linear low-density polyethylene and crystalline polypropylene and may be hollow or flat in cross section. A binder fiber may be produced from a bicomponent structure in which the biconstituent fiber serves as a sheath component and polyethylene terephthalate as a core component.

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Uji, Japan

Yoshiki Miyahara