US1787680A - Process for the manufacture of a textile product, etc. - Google Patents

Description

- terials used for upholstery in the covering 20 Patented Jan. 6, 1931 I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROBERT CLIFFORD HABTONG, OF AKRON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO SEIBERLING RUBBER COMPANY, OF BARBEBTON, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF A TEXTILE PRODUCT, ETC.

No Drawing. Continuation of application Serial No. 579,289, filed August 2, 1922. This application filed Kay 9, 1930. Serial No. 451,190.

This invention relates to a new and useful process for the manufactureofa textile product applicable for use as a substitute for leather as well as for other purposes where a fabric of great wear-resisting qualities is required, of which the following is a full, clear and exact description, the present application being a continuation of my application Serial No. 579,289, filed 'August 2, 1922.

Suede-finish leather is costly and moreover is very detrimentally affected by water. The leather does not clean to good advantage with soap and water nor by means of any of the so-called dry-cleaning compounds, while continued and repeated wetting causes it to become stiff and hard and promotes shrinking. Felt, as well as many other maof various articles, is also detrimentally affected by water and soap and moreover it does not have very great resistance to conditions of wearing or tearing. Altho many leather substitutes having a fabric base are on the market, as wellas fabrics or tapestries used for furniture upholstery, most of these are rather easily soiled and cannot be cleaned to good advantage by means of soap and Water, and since most of these substitutes are prepared by the use of various coating compositions, the compositions being more or less brittle, crack and peel off from the foundation fabric when subjected to a little wear.

The object of my invention is the manufacture of a material which is superior to suede leather, felt or tapestry or cloth for' upholstering use in automobiles, railway and street cars, for covering furniture or other articles where the material is subjected to continued and hard service requirements, and a material which can be used as a substitute for leather or like materials in the manufacture of coats, shoe uppers, slippers, gloves, travelling bags, sporting goods, and in fact for any purpose where a fabric or leather material subjected to hard service conditions must have great resistance to wear and must be able to be cleansed without detrimentally affecting the material.

base or foundation fabric in order to obtain a product which posesses a high tensile strength and resistance to tearing, andcoating this woven fabric with a plastic material, such as rubber or nitrocellulose compound containing a little oil. The coating compounds used contain from 5 to 60% or more of their Weight of a filler composed of fibers which may be dyed if desired, as hereinafter set forth. It is important that the fibers used in the preparation of the coating compound should be long enough so that a satisfactory nap shall be produced on my finished material without loading the coating compound too heavily with fibers. This I accomplish by using fibers approximating from one to two tenths inches in length and although I may use fibers of shorter or longer lengths than those indicated, I have found it desirable to avoid the use of very short fibers. In general, the shorter the fiber, the greater the quantity of them I must use in order to produce a product having the qualities desired. The fibers are incorporated into the coating compound in such a manner as to protrude to a certain extent from the surface of the compound applied, thereby pro ducing the effect of a heavy continuous nap over the entire surface of the finished material. In order to raise the fibers still more int-o the form of a surface nap, the surface of the material may be buffed or ruptured in any other manner in order to free one end of the incorporated fibers. When wool, animal hair or other relatively stiff fibers are used in the compositions applied to the foundation fabric, bufiing is not absolutely necessary but with cotton or other soft, flexible fibers, the bufling operation isessential if a napp'ed surface is desired. If rubber is used as the binding ingredient iinthe coating com- 7 r a rubber composition.

product. Ordinary cotton or other fabric or.

sheeting of any desired texture but preferably weighing about four ounces to the square yard, is surfaced on one or both sides with a compound containing rubber, nitrocellulose mixed with oil, or with any other like plastic material as the principal binding ingredient and which contains not less than 5% its weight of fibers. The fibers which are usedare preferably cotton, although silk, wool, linen, jute, sisal, artificial silk, asbestos fibers, animal hair, leather trimmings or any animal, vegetable or mineral fiber may be used in place of cotton.

These fibers may be dyed any color not affected by the later steps in the process, while, if desired, the foundation fabric or the coating composition used, may be dyed. In case rubber be used as the binding composition, the dye used is preferably of the class known assulphur dyes which can Withstand the temperature of vulcanization without suffering any detrimental change in color. The fibers are introduced into the rubber com pound by means of an ordinary rubber refiner or differential speed mixing mill. The method of making this compound is by the usual process followed in the manufacture of The rubber, preferably of the grade known as first latex rubber,

or any other similar high quality rubber together with any other rubber or rubber composition, such as refined uncured tire friction trimmings, is first broken down or plasticized on the rubber mills and the fibers and other compounding and vulcanizing ingredients added in order to impart suflicient strength and ageing properties to the rubber compo sition. For this purpose, I add the necessary proportion of sulphur (about 3% of the weight of the rubber used), zinc oxide or other filler, a small amount of some softener such as cottonseed oil and paraflin, a color ingredient such as ultramarine blue,if desired, and preferably an accelerator of vulcanization. The entire product is then mixed into an homogeneous compound. In case the fibers are to be dyed before incorporation into the composition, a portion of the refined uncured tire friction is replaced by an equiva- P lent weight of colored fibers and the ultramarine blue or other colored compounding ingredient may be replaced by a colorless filler or by one having the desired color, A solid color effect is produced by dyeing the fibers the same color as the rubber composition used or a variegated or mottled effect may be produced in the finished product by coloring the fibers a different shade than the rubber or the composition used.

In case the ingredients mentioned above are used in the preparation of the rubber composition, they are preferably used in the proportions indicated below, although it will e understood that I do not limit the scope of my invention to the exact quantities or solely to the ingredients as given. The quantities are: 34 parts first latex rubber, 44 parts refined, uncured tire friction trimmings, 18 parts zinc oxide, 1 part sulphur, 5 parts Ultramarine blue, part accelerator (preferably ethylidene aniline, although any other accelerator of similar properties may be used), A part cottonseed oil and part paraffin. Substitutions of other ingredients for those given or the use of other'materials are possible'and are readily apparent tothose skilled in the art of rubber compounding. In the example as set forth, the tire friction trimmings contain about 50% rubber' compound and about 50% cotton fibers having a mean average length'of approximately twotenths inches. The use of shorter fibers will require a modification in the formula as given. The percentage of fibers em loyed in the manner and proportions ,as described is equivalent to a maximum quantity -of approximately 125% by weight of the rubber taken in manufacturing the composition.

The coating composition employed and calendered on the fabric base as hereinafter described can be manufactured by other processes as is shown by the following example wherein the composition is prepared by a two-stage mixing process. About 12 ounds of a high grade plantation rubber is roken down in the usual manner on an ordinary rubber mixing mill to a semi-plastic condition. It is then transferred from the slow roll of the mill to a faster revolving. roll, and 25 pounds of fibers, having an average length of from to' inches, are added to the rubber. When the fibers have been mixed with the rubber, approximately pound of an oil, preferably a vegetable oil, such as palm oil, is added to the mix, and the batch is allowed to mix on the fast revolving roll until the fiber is all uniformly dispersed. The mixed fiber stock is then transferred to a refiner having the differential speed rolls thereof set tight, and the mixture is passed between the rolls until it is evenly refined.

A second composition comprising 7.5 arts of rubber, 0.56 parts of sulphur, 0.18 parts of ethylidene aniline, 1.30 parts of zinc oxide, 4 parts of lithopone, 0.5 parts of ultramarine blue, and 0.125 parts of parafiine is then mixedin the usual manner.

Approximately 38 pounds of the first rubber composition, (containing fibers) and 14.9 pounds of the second rubber composition, are blended homogeneously together by first placing the second mixture on a mill and softening it until it is sufliciently plastic to cling to the slow moving roll. The fiberconta-ining composition in a hot plastic conthe sheetin or foundation fabric by means used for'this purpose.

of any of t e ordinary pieces of machinery The coating maybe of any desired thickness but in practice I have found that a layer of about 1/128 inches inthickness yields a product having the desired qualities. The coated sheet of fabric is then rolled upon a drum with a ply ofpaper, holland .or any smooth sheet of any kind of material to separate the respective layers and using sufficient pressure to obtain a good union between the fibers and the foundation fabric and which will produce a smooth surface on the'vulcanized article so that in the bufiing operation the nap can be raised evenly over the entire surface without destroying a large percentage of the fibrousmaterial. After the sheeting compound is wound about the drum, it is covered with an apron to prevent steam from discoloring the fabric during the vulcanizing' process. The vulcanization is carried out in the usual mann! at 40 pounds pressure of steam in an open steam heater for a eriod of time and at a temperature depen ing on the rubber compound used. In the example given, about one hour and forty minutes heating at 40pounds of steam in an open'steam heater is needed for a drum carrying about 100 yards of treated fabric. Although I have indicated the open steam heater as the preferred method of vulcanizing my material, other methods well known in the art may also be used'for vulcanization, such for example as the so-called cold-cure process using sulphur chloride or the Peachey process in which."

face color which adds greatly to the pleasing appearance and saleability of the product, especially when the fibers are colored the same as the base stock. If the fibers were not dyed before incorporation into the plastic com ound, or if a richer color is desired, the com ination sheet may be dyed with any dyes available which are suitable for the type of sheeting and fibers used.

In case a non-fibrous undercoating is desired to be placed between the foundation fabric and the fibrous coating, the same rubber composition may be used with the exception that no fibers are included in its composition. This compound is calendered on the foundation fabric in the usual manner and a second coating which contains fibers in its composition is then calendered on. The advantage in using an undercoating containing no fibers or a smaller proportion of fibers than is used, in the coating composition as shown, is that it makes it possibleto obtain a product of more pliability, increases the waterproof'qualities, lessens abrasion in the buffing operation and makes it possible to obtain special characteristics or properties which might otherwise require a greater proportion of fibers than I indicated in the formula in the example given. I

It is also possible to. improve the surface material of my product, as well as to produce a finished product having a more copious and stronger nap by applying more free fibers to the freshly coated fibrous stock as it comes from the calender. It 'is desirable to do this in cafe a heavier nap is desired on the finished product and in some cases is more practicable than to use a coating composition too heavily loaded with .fibers. If free fibers are added, it is referred to use a shorter fiber than is used in the rubber composition. These free fibers may be more firmly fixed on the surface of the material by rerunning the finished surfaced material through the calender again. In making my product with nitrocellulorre instead of with rubber, the fibers are dyed and incorporated into the nitrocellulose and oil'eement in a rubber cement mixer of the well-known type or in a mixer containing prongs similar. to the mixer usedfor manu facturing asbestos packing. The fibrous cement or dough is then'applied to the foundation fabric by means'of a rubber spreading machine or an asbestos packing calender. A

solvent of nitrocelluloseis, of courre, needed in the preparation of the nitrocellulose-oil eement and, a large proportion of this solvent will evaporate and be removed from the mass rubberand are then ready for spreading in the \isual manner on the foundation 'fabric. Rubber latex may also be used in place of the rubber solution mentioned.

While I have described in considerable detail a preferred method of obtaining the advantages of my invention, it will be understood that such description is only for the purpose of rendering more clear the nature of the invention and the principles governing the method of employing the same and that my invention is not to be regarded as limited to the details of procedure or the proportions above mentioned, except in so far as suchlimitations are included within the terms of the accompanying claims, in which it is my intention to claim all novelty inherent in my invention as broadly as is permissible in View of the prior art.

I claim:

1. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a base stock, coloring the same, separately coloring a filler, then thoroughly mixing the filler with the base stock.

2. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a base stock, coloring the same to the desired shade, separately coloring a filler to match the color of the base stock, then thoroughly mixing the filler with the base stock.

3. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a base stock until it is reduced to a plastic mass, thoroughly mixing therewith a colored pigment. separately coloring a filler, then thoroughly mixing the filler with the base stock.

4. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material, comprising mixing a base stock until it is reduced to a plastic mass, thoroughly mixing therewith a coloring pigment, coloring a filler to match the color of the base stock, then thoroughly mixing the filler with a base stock.

5. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material, comprising mixing a base compound until it is reduced to a plastic mass, mixing a coloring material therewith, coloring a filler with a difierent coloring material, thenthoroughlv mixing the colored filler'with the base stock.

6. That method of manufacturinga colored composite material comprisin mixing a base stock until 1t is reduced to a p astlc mass,

thoroughly mixing a coloring matterthere-' 7. Thatmethod of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising, mixing a base stock, coloring the same, separately coloring a fibrous material, 'then thoroughly mixing the fibrous material with a base stock.

8. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising, taking a quantity of rubber, reducing it to a plastic mass, coloring the same to the desired shade, separately coloring fibrous material to match the color of the base stock, then thoroughly mixing the fibrous material with the rubber.

9. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising taking a quantity of rubber, milling the same until it is reduced to a plastic mass, thoroughly milling a colored pigment into the mass, separately coloring a filler, then thoroughly milling the filler into the base stock.

10. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material, comprising mixing a rubber base stock until it is reduced to a plastic mass, thoroughly mixing therewith a colorin pigment, dyeing a filler to match the color 0 the base stock, then thoroughly mixing the filler with a base stock.

11. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material, comprising mixing a rubber compound until it is reduced to a plastic mass, mixing a coloring material therewith, dyeing fibers, then thoroughly mixing the dyed fiber with the rubber base stock.

12. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising, taking a quantity of rubber, milling it until it is reduced to a plastic mass, thoroughly mixing a coloring matter therewith, dyeing fibrous material to the exact shade of the colored matter, then thoroughly milling the colored fibrous material into the plastic mass, forming the mass into an article of the desired shape and submittting the same to vulcanization.

13. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a rubber compound until it is reduced to a plastic mass, coloring a filler, then thoroughly mixin the filler with the plastic mass, forming t ie resultant mass into articles of the desired shape and submitting the same to vulcanization.

14. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a base stock, coloring the same, separately coloring a filler, then mixing the colored filler with the colored base stock, forming the resultant mixture into articles of the desired shape, submitting the same to vulcanization then removing the surface of the article thus formed.

15. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a base stock, coloring the same to the desired shade, separately coloring a filler to match the color of the base stock, thoroughly mixing the filler with the base stock, forming the resultant mixture into articles of the desired shade,

curing the article; then abrading the surface of the article to expose the filler.

16. That method of manufacturing a colored composite material comprising mixing a base stock, coloring the same to the desired shade,"separately coloring a filler to match the color of the base stock, thoroughly mixing the filler with the base stock, forming the mixture into an article of the desired shape, submitting the article to vulcanization, then removing the surface of the article thus formed.

17 ."That method of manufacturing a colored composite material, comprising mixing a rubber compound until 'it is reduced to a plastic mass, mixing a coloring material therewith, dyeing fibers, then thoroughly mixing the dyed fiber with the rubber base stock; forming the resultant mixture into-the desired form, submitting the same to vulcanization, then removing the surface of the article to expose a portion of the fiber embedded therein. r

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 30th day of April, 1930. ROBERT CLIFFORD HARTONG.