US2757437A - Puffed fabrics - Google Patents

Description

H. P, FARHS ET PUF'FED FABRICS ,mmw

Filed March 3.1, .1955

2 Sheets-Sheet l JNVENTORS 00061.43 D. Mc Germ HAROLD P. FARl-fi M" BEIJQNARB R- ZEN H. W. FAWHE ET PUFFED FABRICS Film March 33.. 1955 P. Shee'ts-Shaet P United States Patent PUFFED FABRICS Harold P. Faris, Philadelphia, PZL, and Bernard R. Koenig,

Oswego, Oreg., assignors to Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation, Chicopee Falls, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 31, 1955, Serial No. 498,306

5 Claims. (Ci. 28--78) The present invention relates to woven fabrics having puffed portions to provide patterns thereon of a highly attractive three-dimensional appearance. The fabrics of the present invention are advantageously useful as upholstery fabrics, particularly, automobile upholstery.

Objects and advantages of the invention will beset forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the combinations and improvements pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention consists in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.

An object of our invention is to provide a woven fabric having puffed portions to provide patterns hav ng an aesthetically superior appearance, particularly with respect to three-dimensional effect, to the presently known puifed fabrics.

Another object of my invention is to provide a predominantly thermoplastic fabric having puffed portions wherein the puffs are sharp and accentuated and wherein the puffs retain these desirable characteristics after a long period of use.

Woven fabrics having puffed or puckered portions are known. The heretofore produced puffed fabrics have not been entirely satisfactory, due to the difficulty in producing puffs which are sharp and accentuated. Also, difiiculties have arisen in retaining the puffed port on when the fabric was in use through shrinkage, wearing, tearing, etc.

In order to overcome the foregoing difiicultres confronting the user of the prior puffed fabrics, we have d 1scovered the present invention. Our novel puffed fabrics possess sharp and accentuated puifs and the patterns produced by said puffs have a highly attractive three-dimensional appearance. Advantageousl the puffs of our fabrics are permanently retained so that the desired pattern design is preserved after a long period of use.

Our novel pulfed fabrics, having the above-described advantages, are produced by the utilization of thermoplastic and heat shrinkable shrinkers or floats made of suitable thermoplastic filaments in con unction w th a woven fabric body consisting of filaments of a suitable material, preferably thermoplastic. The aforesaid nlaments, whether used as shrinkers or in the main body of the fabric, may be in the form of monofilaments, twisted multifilament strands, yarn spun from filament staple, 'etc. The shrinkers are incorporated on the main body of the fabric in such a manner, as will be described n detail hereinbelow, that pulfs are formed on the main body when the shrinkers are subjected to a heat shrinking treatment.

Accordingly, the shrinkers are attached to the main body of the fabric so that a predominant portion of the shrinkers are floated at the back of the body and are brought to intersect the main body so as to define the borders of the puffs formed after the fabric body with 2 ,757,437 Patented Aug. 7, 1956 attached shrinkers has been subjected to a shrinking step. Hence, the pulfed portions are defined where the shrinkers intersect the main body of the fabric. Moreover, in order that the puffs formed be sharp and accentuated, it is preferred that at least about of the total lengths of the shrinkers are floated at the back of the main body of the fabric. By the term floated, as used herein, is meant that the shrinkers are not interwoven with the fibers of the main body but instead pass over or under a p1urality of threads of the main body.

After the shrinkers have been secured to the main body of the fabric in the foregoing manner, the fabric with attached shrinkers is subjected to a suitable shrinking treatment which varies depending upon whether or not the main body of the fabric and the shrinkers have the same shrinkage characteristics. Regardless of the particular heat treatment that is employed, the treatment is such that the portion of the shrinkers floated on the back of the fabric shrinks at a faster rate than the main body of the fabric so as to cause the portion of the body of the fabric adjacent thereto to rise, thus forming the desired puffs on the front of said fabric body. The body portion of the main body adjacent the shrinkers is caused to rise on shrinkage of the shrinkers, due to the grip exerted by the shrinkers on the fibers of the main body portion.

As mentioned hereinabove, the particular method of shrinking the floats or shrinkers depends upon the chemical compositions of the main body and the shrinkers. For example, if the compositions of the main body and shrinkers or floats have identical shrinkage rates, then the heating treatment is such that the temperature on the back side of the fabric having the predominant portions of exposed floats is higher than the temperature at the face of the fabric wherein the only exposed portions of the shrinkers are those which define the borders of the puffs. Thus, by providing such a heat differential, the exposed portions of the shrinkers on the back of the fabric body will shrink to a greater extent than the balance of the filaments, that is, the filaments forming the main body of the fabric and the portions of the shrinkers exposed at the front of the main body, thereby causing the puffed eifect. This heat treatment can be carried out in a number of different ways, such as by passing the fabric around a plurality of internally heated dry cans, so that the back side of the fabric always contacts the hot surface as disclosed in detail in co-pending applicatron Serial No. 498,286, filed March 31, 1955 by Douglas D. McCord, Thomas R. Holbrook, and Charles A. Rudolph.

Where the filaments forming the main body of the fabric are thermoplastic and of a different chemical composition than the shrinking filaments so as to have different shrinkage characteristics, any conventional heating step may be used to take advantage of the shrinkage differential.

The thermoplastic, heat shrinkable floats, on heating, deform where they intersect the main body of the fabric, which helps to retain the puffs in their desired form. The retention of the puffs is further enhanced wherein the main body is also thermoplastic, due to the setting or hardening of the main body of the fabric on cooling.

in order to further accentuate and increase the sharpness of the puifs, it is preferred that the shrinkers be floated slightly over the face of the fabric. Accordingly, in the preferred construction, a small portion of the shrinkers is floated slightly over the face of the fabric, said floated portions defining the borders of the puffs, Wilhihfi remaining predominant floated portion of the shrinkers being exposed at the back of the fabric. By

sharp characteristics are formed, compared to the puffs that are formed when the balance of the shrinkers, outside of the portion floated at the back, is merely interwoven with the fabric body. Also, the appearance of the puffed fabric is enhanced since the only portion of the shrinkers that is seen at the face of the main body is that which defines the borders of the puffs which imparts a most attractive appearance to the fabric, particularly where the filaments forming the main body and those forming the shrinkers are of a different color, resulting in an aesthetic two-tone effect.

It should be realized that the shrinkers, floated predominantly on the back of the fabric body, may be secured thereto in a variety of directions, depending upon the particular pattern design that is desired. Thus, the shrinkers may be floated in the warp direction, fill or weft direction, both directions, etc., to produce square, diamond, rectangular, and various other types of patterns.

Typical examples of filaments that may be used in forming the floats or shrinkers of our fabrics include Vinyon, and oriented copolymer of vinyl chloride (88 to 90% with vinyl acetate to 12%); oriented polymerized ethylene (polyethylene) and saran copolyrners of vinylidene chloride and vinyl chloride, wherein the vinyl chloride is present in an amount of about 18 to 30%. Suitable filaments for forming the main body of the fabric include the saran family of vinylidene chloridevinyl chloride copolymers, having about 4 to preferably 8 to 12%, vinyl chloride, and Dacron, an oriented polyester of tcrcphthalic acid with. ethylene glycol.

A particularly preferred combination of thermoplastic filaments in producing our novel puffed fabrics is that disclosed in co-pending application Serial No. 498,199, filed March 31, 1955 by I. Ferrell Nicholl, utilizing Saran filaments. In this application there is disclosed a puffed fabric wherein the main body of the fabric is woven from filaments of a saran copolymer, and the shrinking floats are of a slightly different saran copolymer, in which the floats have appreciably higher initial shrinking characteristics than the main body, but wherein, after the initial shrinking, the floats or shrinkers have the same shrinkage characteristics as the main body of the fabric. An example of such a combination is where the saran copolymer of the floats contains about vinyl chloride and the saran copolymer of the main body contains about 11% vinyl chloride. By using such a combination of Saran filaments, the puffed fabrics produced maintain their pattern design in spite of shrinkage, wear, etc., while in use, since all of the filaments of said fabrics have the same physical properties after the formation of the puffs.

In order to described the invention more specifically, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings, referred to herein and constituting a part hereof, illustrate three embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a view of the face of one embodiment of our fabrics, with a minimum of structural detail shown.

Fig. 2 is a View of the back of the fabric of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a greatly enlarged schematic view of the area enclosed by dot and dash lines, as shown in Fig. 1, but before the fabric has been subjected to the heat shrinking operation.

Fig. 4 is a section along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is similar to Fig. 4 but indicating the configuration of the fabric after the shrinking operation has taken place.

Figs. 67 are similar to Figs. 1 and 2, but showing a different design pattern.

Figs. 8-9 are similar to Figs. 1 and 2, but showing a still different design pattern.

Referring now to Figs. 1-5, there is illustrated therein one embodiment of our fabrics having puffs 1 forming a diamond pattern which is seen pictorially in Fig. 1. The puffs 1 are produced by incorporating heat shrinkable shrinkers 2 on the main body 3 of a fabric woven predominantly from thermoplastic materials, and subsequently subjecting the fabric to a heating shrinking operation causing the portions 2a of shrinkers floated on back of the main body to shrink from a position shown in Fig. 4 to that shown in Fig. 5 to form the desired puffs. The main body of the fabric may include yarns or filaments of such conventional textile materials as cotton, viscose or acetate rayon, etc., and may include other materials such as glass or metal.

As seen in Fig. 3, the main body 3 of the fabric is of a wellknown woven structure, wherein, looking at the face of the fabric as in Fig. 3, the filler or weft threads 4 are alternately woven under two and over one of the warp threads 5.

As seen in Figs. 2 and 3, the shrinkers 2 are floated, in a weft direction, predominantly on the back side 6 of the main body 2. The shrinker portions 2a floated on the back side of the main body are woven in a predetermined manner for the purpose of forming diamond-like puffs 1 on the front 7 of the main body when the shrinkers are subjected to the heating shrinking operation. Moreover, as seen in Figs. 1 and 3, the shrinkers 2 are floated slightly over the front face 7 in a predetermined manner whereby the borders of the puffs .l are defined by the portions 2b of the shrinkers floated on the front face of the main body. In order to produce puffs which are accentuated and sharp, the portions 2a of the shrinkers floated at the back constitute at least about 75% of the total shrinkage area. As seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the ratio of the shrinker area floated at the back (Fig. 2) is predominantly greater than that floated at the front (Fig. 1). 1

The effect of the shrinking of the shrinker portions 211 on the fabric body 3 is seen in Figs. 4 and 5. Before shrinkage, the warp threads 5a, under which the shrinker portions 2a pass, form a smooth surface (Fig. 4). When the shrinker portions 2a are caused to shrink, however, the warp threads 50: are pulled together, causing the body portion of the fabric adjacent the shrinker portions 2:: to rise above the front face 7 of the'fabric to form the desired puffs 1 (Fig. 5). Also, by floating the shrinkers over a number of warp threads 5b, the warp threads So do not rise tangentially from the front face but at an angle, which contributes to the formation of sharp and accentuated puffs.

The puffs 1 are retained in the fabric body in use, due to the setting of the main body '7, including the puffed portions after the shrinking operations, by the formation of crimps 8 in the floats or shrinkers where they intersect the main body and by the adhesion of the floats to the main body where they intersect said body at points 9. (See Fig. 5.)

In Figs. 67, there is illustrated another embodiment of our invention wherein the shrinkers have been incorporated in such a manner to produce puffs 2(1) of a polygonal configuration. As in the embodiment of Figs. 1-5, the shrinkers are floated predominantly at the back of the fabric, shrinker portions 2.1a being floated at the back 22 of the main body and shrinker portions 211) being floated slightly over the face 23 of the main body.

A still different embodiment is illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9, wherein the shrinkers have been incorporated on the main body in such a manner to produce puffs 30 of a rectangular configuration. As in the foregoing embodiments, the shrinkers are floated predominantly at the back of the fabric, shrinker portions 31a being floated at the back 32 of the main body and shrinker portions 31b being floated slightly over the face 33 of the main body.

Our novel puffed fabrics as illustrated by the foregoing embodiments are particularly adapted for use in upholstery, especially automobile upholstery, not only because of their highly attractive three-dimensional appearance, but also because they possess adequate breathing properties. By breathing properties is meant that the fabrics are sulficiently porous to permit the passage of air therethrough to provide adequate ventilation. Thus, they may readily be used as seat covers without causing discomfort to anyone coming in contact therewith.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific combinations and improvements described, but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

We claim:

1. A woven fabric comprising a main body consisting predominantly of interwoven thermoplastic Warp and Weft filaments and having sharp and accentuated puffs which are retained during use of said fabric, and filaments heatshrunken from thermoplastic heat-shrinkable filaments having higher shrinkage characteristics on the application of heat than the filaments forming the main body of the fabric, said heat-shrunken filaments being floated predominantly on the back of the main body of said fabric and across the puifs.

2. A woven fabric in accordance with claim 1, wherein at least about of the total lengths of said heat shrunken filaments are floated on the back of the main body of said fabric.

3. A woven fabric in accordance With claim 1, wherein the heat-shrunken filaments intersect said main body to define borders of said puflfs.

4. A woven fabric in accordance with claim 3, wherein short lengths of the heat-shrunken filaments are floated over the face of the main body of the fabric.

5. A Woven fabric in accordance with claim 1, wherein the main body is heat set.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,332,485 Hanson Oct. 19, 1943 2,401,829 Kahil June 11, 1946 2,401,830 Kahil June 11, 1946 2,539,301 Foster June 23, 1951 2,607,104 Foster Aug. 19, 1952 2,632,230 Neisler, Jr. Mar. 24, 1953 2,635,648 Foster Apr. 21, 1953

Claims (1)

1. A WOVEN FABRIC COMPRISING A MAIN BODY CONSISTING PREDOMINANTLY OF INTERWOVEN THERMOPLASTIC WARP AND WEFT FILAMENTS AND HAVING SHARP AND ACCENTUATED PUFFS WHICH ARE RETAINED DURING USE OF SAID FABRIC, AND FILAMENTS HEATSHRUNKEN FROM THERMOPLASTIC HEAT-SHRINKABLE FILAMENTS HAVING HIGHER SHRINKAGE CHARACTERISTICS ON THE APPLICATION OF HEAT THAN THE FILAMENTS FORMING THE MAIN BODY OF THE FABRIC, SAID HEAT-SHRUNKEN FILAMENTS BEING FLOATED PREDOMINANTLY ON THE BACK OF THE MAIN BODY OF SAID FABRIC AND ACROSS THE PUFFS.

Images