WO2016126224A1

WO2016126224A1 - Fabric finishing/dye application method and mechanism

Info

Publication number: WO2016126224A1
Application number: PCT/TR2016/050025
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ali KIRECCI; Halil Ibrahim ICOGLU
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2015-02-06
Filing date: 2016-02-04
Publication date: 2016-08-11
Anticipated expiration: 2017-08-06

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and mechanism for use in finishing processes comprising application of aqueous chemical substances on yarns, woven fabric, knitted fabric, spunlace, carpet, paper, plastic, or leather etc. surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function(s) to these surfaces.

Description

FABRIC FINISHING/DYE APPLICATION METHOD AND MECHANISM

Subject of the Invention

The invention relates to a method and mechanism for use in application of aqueous chemical substances on yarns, woven fabric, knitted fabric, spunlace, carpet, paper, plastic, or leather etc. surfaces or dyeing these kinds of materials.

State of the Art

Nowadays, it is a frequently applied technique to provide material surfaces with one or few of hydrophobic, hydrophilic, anti-bacterial, dirt repellent, wrinkle recovery, UV protection, inflammability resistance, soft touching etc. additional characteristics via application of chemical substances. These applications aiming to improve product characteristics by means of applying chemical substances on yarn, fabric, spunlace, carpet, paper, plastic, or leather etc. material surfaces through various methods are known as finishing (chemical finish) in textile field. Shrinking, impregnating, transferring, spreading, and spraying are methods used in classical finishing processes.

In fabric finishing processes performed with classical methods, for a transfer, the finishing material is first highly diluted (40-200 folds) and the obtained solution is then transferred to the fabric in 60-70% ratio of its own weight. Following application, first of all, the water in the fabric is evaporated, and then the fabric is exposed to high temperatures (120 - 150 degrees) for 1 or 2 minutes in order to fix the finishing material onto the fabric. Stenter machines are used for the purpose of evaporating the fabric-transferred water in short time and fixing the finishing material onto fabric. The most significant drawback of this method is the need for consuming high amount of energy in order to evaporate the water found in the solution that is transferred to the fabric.

In recent years, the most commonly used methods for finishing are spraying and the newly developed electrospray method. In the spraying method, the solution is turned into small droplets with the help of the applied pressure and nozzles, and the surfaces of fabrics or similar products are coated with these droplets with the kinetic energy provided to the droplets. The most significant advantage provided with the method is the finishing material being applicable to the fabric at high concentration and thus lower energy is required for fixing of the finishing material compared to classical methods (impregnating or shrinking) . However, in this method, the distance between the surface to be coated and the nozzles is of critical importance. While keeping this distance too short causes problems like nonhomogeneity, keeping the distance too long causes the droplets leaving the nozzle rapidly to have friction with the air and lose their kinetic energies before reaching their targets and spread around the medium. Therefore, the finishing material losses encountered and inefficient energy consumption due to continuous use of compressed air are the significant drawbacks of the method.

On the other hand, in electrospray method, while a solution found in a nozzle is charged with a positive ( + ) charge, the metal piece found just behind the surface to be coated with chemicals is charged with a negative (-) charge. The electrostatic attraction force occurring between the positive and negative charges causes the solution to be attracted via acceleration from the positive towards the negative charge. The significant parameter affecting the attraction force is the DC-voltage value applied. Therefore, the solution that is turned into small droplets via attraction of electrostatic forces is guided towards the fabric surface and thus the surface is coated. The main purpose is to minimize the droplet size and thus provide homogeneous application on a wider area by using fewer amounts of chemicals. The finishing material can be used in concentrated form or by diluting a little in order to achieve energy saving. Therefore, since the amount of solution to be applied on the fabric is low (around 5% to 10% of fabric weight) , a lower amount of water is required to be evaporated compared to classical methods (impregnating or shrinking) and thus significant amount of energy is saved. On the other hand, the method also has some drawbacks. In the finishing application made with the electrospray method, several parameters (such as solution viscosity, surface tension, conductivity, electrical constant, applied voltage, and the distance between the jet and the collector) are required to be brought to convenient values. Obtaining the optimum values of each of the above given parameters for each different finishing or dyeing material requires a long, troublesome, and costly work. If the finishing or dye solution is not suitable for electrospray method, adequately small droplets cannot be formed and thus making a homogeneous application may not be possible. Therefore, sometimes additional additive substances are required to be added to the solution (acid or salt is added to the solution for increasing conductivity or water is added for increasing the electrical constant) in order to render the finishing material suitable for electrospray process. However, these additives may cause undesired chemical reactions. Therefore, some finishing and dyeing materials may not be suitable for electrospray method or application at optimum conditions may not be available. In addition, since increase of the fabric width and/or high fabric movement rates would require higher electrostatic attraction fields (therefore higher voltage values), arc jumps and related irregular electrospray formation may occur.

In the state of the art, some of the patent applications that are considered to be relevant to these methods are given as examples below. For example, the document No. TR2009/07669 relates to the methods of preparing hydrophobic surface components and electrospinning or electrospray method is used for this purpose. Another example for the known status of the art is the patent application No. EP1660704B1, which relates to formation of a super hydrophobic surface via electrospray or electrospinning method. In said method, finishing is applied by only using electrospinning or electrospray method and thus hydrophobic surfaces are obtained. Another example is the patent application No. US0141936, which relates to the method of a novel electrospray mechanism and finishing application. It is related to the application of the electrospray mechanism via application of various materials including biological materials made into a solution on various surfaces. However, the application is only based on electrospray method.

However, these applications of the known status of the art also have some additional drawbacks. For instance, the size of the droplets formed as a result of the applied pressure would be bigger than the droplet size obtained in the present invention, so that more material needs to be used. Also, since the application is in the direction of gravity, potential of abrage errors due to dripping is quite high. In addition, continuous use of compressed air is another factor increasing the costs. Another significant problem is the risk of occurrence of unwanted chemical reactions between the dyeing substance or the finishing material and air. Energy consumption is lower in the present invention compared to the other methods, since compressed air is not used for carrying the solution. Moreover, above said unwanted reactions would not occur, since air is not provided in the medium of the process. The novel finishing method according to the invention would make contribution to the field by eliminating these drawbacks, and increasing the efficiency and reducing the costs of finishing process performed in the textile field. Detailed Description of the Invention

The invention relates to a method and mechanism for use in finishing processes comprising application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces.

In the broadest sense, the finishing/dye application mechanism according to the invention is a finishing/dye mechanism for making finishing/dye applications on material surfaces and comprising a fabric releasing unit (1), a fabric rewinding unit (3), drying/ fixing oven (4), finishing/dye application unit (5), DC-high voltage power source (6) , a high voltage connection cable (11), and a collector metal plate (12) positioned at the rear surface of the fabric (2), and it comprises a high-pressure finishing/dye solution tank (7) containing the solution, a finishing/dye solution washing liquid tank (8) , a high pressure compressor (10), an air tank (9) that increases the pressure of the finishing/dye solution tank (7) by being filled by the high pressure compressor (10), a non-conductor air hose (13) preventing/blocking the high DC voltage from affecting the other units by means of providing insulation between the air tank (9) or the high pressure compressor (10) and the finishing/dye solution tank (7), high pressure nozzles (17), and at least one solution pipe (16) on which the high pressure nozzles (17) are positioned.

In addition, the finishing/dye mechanism also comprises at least one valve (14) controlling the flow of solution between the solution pipe (16) on which high pressure nozzles (17) are arranged and the finishing/dye solution tank (7) . The finishing/dye mechanism also comprises solution guide impellers (15) that guide the possible undesired movements of droplets towards the surface of the material to be coated. Moreover, at least one regulator is found between the air tank (9) and the finishing/dye solution tank (7) in order to control the solution pressure .

5 kVolts to 75 kVolts of voltage is applied by means of connecting the positive magnetic pole of the DC-high voltage power source (6) found in the finishing/dye mechanism structure to the solution pipe (16) and thus charging the solution with positive charge. -5 kVolts to -75 kVolts of voltage is applied by means of connecting the negative magnetic pole of the DC-high voltage power source (6) found in the finishing/dye mechanism structure to the collector metal plate (12) and thus charging the collector metal plate (12) with negative charge. In other words, the DC-high voltage power source (6) found in the structure of the finishing/dye mechanism has a voltage value of +/- 5 kVolts to +/- 75 kVolts, and comprises at least one positive magnetic pole charging the solution with positive charge and at least one negative magnetic pole charging the collector metal plate with negative charge. Also, in the mechanism, said collector metal plate (12) is connected to the ground. The high pressure compressor (10) forming the structure of the mechanism is chosen to be a high pressure compressor (10) preferably having a pressure strength capacity of 10 to 70 atmospheric pressure in a preferred embodiment of the product. The air tank (9) found in the structure of the product should be made of materials durable against high pressure so that it would conserve and store the pressure it receives from the high pressure compressor (10) . Moreover, the hole diameters of the high pressure nozzles (17) that will transform the solution to be applied onto fabric (2) into micro droplets should be between 50 micrometers to 1000 micrometers.

The invention is a finishing/dye method for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, and in the broadest sense, it comprises the steps of dividing the finishing/dye solution into micro particles and spraying through the high pressure nozzles (17) by means of increasing the pressure of the finishing/dye solution tank (7) by the air tank (9) that is filled by the high pressure compressor (10), accelerating the finishing/dye solution droplets (18) towards the metal plate (and therefore towards the fabric (2) found at the front surface of the metal plate) via the attraction force formed between the high pressure nozzles (17) and the collector metal plate (12) due to the voltage applied on the high pressure nozzles (17), coating the fabric (2) surface with the finishing/dye solution after the finishing/dye solution droplets (18) are crushed onto the fabric (2) surface found on the front surface of the metal plate due to the pressure provided by the high pressure nozzles (17) and the electrostatic attraction force formed between the high pressure nozzles (17) and the collector metal plate (12), and fixing of the finishing/dye solution onto the fabric (2) by means of passing the fabric (2) through a drying/ fixing oven (4) . Moreover, the method comprises the operation step of drawing/rewinding the fabric (2) at a constant speed by the fabric rewinding unit (3) while the finishing/dye solution is applied on the fabric (2), which is important for providing homogeneous distribution of the finishing/dye solution onto the fabric (2) .

In a preferred embodiment of the method, the increased pressure of the finishing/dye solution tank (7) is preferably between 10 to 70 atmospheric pressure according to the application. While increasing the pressure applied to the finishing/dye solution tank (7) would reduce the particle size, it would increase the flowrate. Therefore, appropriate atmospheric pressure should be selected in accordance with the application. Moreover, in a preferred embodiment of the method, the voltage applied to the high pressure nozzles (17) is between + 5 kVolts to + 75 kVolts. In addition, in a preferred embodiment of the method, the voltage applied to the collector metal plate (12) is between - 5 kVolts to - 75 kVolts. By means of the electrostatic attraction field formed due to the high voltage applied, the finishing/dye solution droplets (18) can reach the target surface by preserving their kinetic energy. Moreover, since the droplets are all charged with a positive (+) charge, they are prevented from coming together and forming bigger droplets due to possible contacts during their movement (if the droplets come together, this would cause an increase in the use of finishing materials) . Even more, the finishing/dye solution droplets (18) found in the electrical field divided into smaller pieces due to repulsive Coulomb forces and the homogeneity and thus the effectiveness of the application is improved. During the application, only finishing/dye material is released and no air is released from the high pressure nozzles (17) and these particles are guided towards the fabric (2) with the kinetic energy gained depending on the amount of pressure. An important reason for not using air as the carrier material is because some gases found in the air cause undesired chemical reactions in some applications.

The finishing method disclosed is a method that can be applied on yarns, woven fabric, knitted fabric, spunlace, carpet, paper, plastic, or leather materials. As a result, a finishing operation that is more homogeneous and has lower cost than the prior art is achieved thanks to the mechanism and method according to the invention. This will provide great contribution for the textile field and significantly increase the efficiency of finishing/dye application frequently made on various material surfaces of different kinds for the users of the field.

Description of the Figures

Figure 1: is the perspective view of the fabric finishing/dye application machine. Figure 2: shows the fabric finishing/dye application unit. Figure 3: shows the compressed electrospray application.

Figure 4: shows the solution droplets formed by pressure and electrostatic force.

Re erences :

1- Fabric releasing unit

2- Fabric

3- Fabric rewinding unit

4- Drying/ fixing oven

5- Finishing/dye application unit

6- DC-high voltage power source

7- Finishing/dye solution tank

8- Finishing/dye solution washing liquid tank

9- Air tank

10- High pressure compressor

11- High voltage connection cable

12- Collector metal plate

13- Non-conductor air hose

14- Valve

15- Solution guide impellers

16- Solution pipe

17- High pressure nozzles

18- Finishing/dye solution droplets

Claims

1. A finishing/dye mechanism for making finishing/dye applications on material surfaces and comprising a fabric releasing unit (1), a fabric rewinding unit (3), drying/ fixing oven (4), finishing/dye application unit (5), DC-high voltage power source (6), a high voltage connection cable (11), and a collector metal plate (12) positioned at the rear surface of the fabric (2), characterized in further comprising:

a high-pressure finishing/dye solution tank (7) containing the finishing/dye solution,

a finishing/dye solution washing liquid tank (8), a high pressure compressor (10),

an air tank (9) that increases the pressure of the finishing/dye solution tank (7) by being filled by the high pressure compressor (10),

a non-conductor air hose (13) preventing/blocking the high DC voltage from affecting the other units by means of providing insulation between the air tank (9) or the high pressure compressor (10) and the finishing/dye solution tank (7),

high pressure nozzles (17), and

at least one solution pipe (16) on which the high pressure nozzles (17) are positioned.

2. The finishing/dye mechanism according to Claim 1; wherein, it comprises at least one valve (14) between the solution pipe (16) on which high pressure nozzles (17) are arranged and the finishing/dye solution tank (7) for controlling the flow of solution .

3 . The finishing/dye mechanism according to Claim 1 or 2 ; wherein, it comprises solution guide impellers (15) that guide the possible undesired movements of droplets towards the surface of the material to be coated.

4. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein; it comprises at least one regulator between the air tank (9) and the finishing/dye solution tank (7) in order to control the solution pressure.

5. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, wherein; it comprises a high voltage DC-high voltage power source (6), which has at least one positive magnetic pole that can be connected to the solution pipe (16) in order to charge the finishing/dye solution with a positive charge, and which can apply a voltage of between 5 kVolts to 75 kVolts.

6. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, wherein; it comprises a high voltage DC-high voltage power source (6), which has at least one negative magnetic pole that can be connected to the collector metal plate (12) in order to charge the collector metal plate (12) with a negative charge, and which can apply a voltage of between -5 kVolts to -75 kVolts.

7. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, wherein; the collector metal plate (12) found in its structure is connected to the ground.

8. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 7, wherein; the pressure capacity of the high pressure compressor (10) found in its structure is preferably between 10-70 atmospheric pressure.

9. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 8, wherein; the air tank (9) found in its structure is made of a material that is durable against high pressure.

10. The finishing/dye mechanism according to any one of Claims 1 to 9, wherein; the hole diameters of the high pressure nozzles (17) found in its structure that will transform the solution to be applied onto fabric (2) into micro droplets are between 50 micrometers to 1000 micrometers.

11. A finishing/dye method for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, characterized in that; the method comprises the steps of: dividing the finishing/dye solution into micro particles and spraying through the high pressure nozzles (17) by means of increasing the pressure of the finishing/dye solution tank (7) by the air tank (9) that is filled by the high pressure compressor (10) ,

accelerating the finishing/dye solution droplets (18) towards the metal plate via the electrostatic attraction force formed between the high pressure nozzles (17) and the collector metal plate (12) due to the voltage applied on the high pressure nozzles ( 17 ) ,

coating the fabric (2) surface with the finishing/dye solution after the finishing/dye solution droplets (18) are crushed onto the fabric (2) surface found on the front surface of the metal plate due to the pressure provided by the high pressure nozzles (17) and the electrostatic attraction force formed between the high pressure nozzles (17) and the collector metal plate (12), and

fixing the finishing/dye solution onto the fabric (2) by means of passing the fabric (2) through a drying/ fixing oven (4) .

12. The finishing method according to Claim 11 for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, characterized in drawing/rewinding the fabric (2) at a constant speed by the fabric rewinding unit (3) while the finishing/dye solution is applied on the fabric (2) .

13. The finishing method according to Claim 11 or 12 for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, wherein; in a preferred embodiment of the method, the increased pressure of the finishing/dye solution tank (7) is preferably between 10 to 70 atmospheric pressure according to the application.

14. The finishing method according to any one of Claims 11 to

13 for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, wherein; in a preferred embodiment of the method, the voltage applied to the high pressure nozzles (17) is between +/- 5 kVolts to +/- 75 kVolts.

15. The finishing method according to any one of Claims 11 to

14 for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, wherein; in a preferred embodiment of the method, the voltage applied to the collector metal plate (12) is between - 5 kVolts to - 75 kVolts.

16. The finishing method according to any one of Claims 11 to 15 for application of aqueous chemical substances on various kinds of material surfaces for the purpose of providing dye(s) or function (s) to these surfaces, wherein; the method is applied on yarns, woven fabric, knitted fabric, spunlace, carpet, paper, plastic, or leather materials.