Method of treating nonwoven fabrics with non-ionic fluoropolymers
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsHue Snowden, Michael Powers, Phillip Schorr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a method of treating a nonwoven fabric to improve alcohol repellency that includes contacting a nonwoven fabric with an aqueous treatment solution that includes a non-ionic fluoropolymer and essentially no antistatic agent or less than 0.05 weight percent by weight of an antistatic agent. The present invention also provides a nonwoven fabric with improved alcohol repellency.
Claims27
A method of treating a nonwoven fabric to improve the alcohol repellency of the nonwoven fabric while minimizing any negative effect of the treatment on the water repellency of the nonwoven fabric, the method comprising contacting a nonwoven fabric with an aqueous treatment solution that comprises from about 0.1 weight percent to about 0.9 weight percent of a non-ionic fluoropolymer and essentially no antistatic agent or less than 0.05 weight percent of an antistatic agent, wherein the hydrostatic head value of the treated nonwoven fabric drops by no more than 45 percent relative to the hydrostatic head value of the untreated nonwoven fabric.
A nonwoven fabric comprising a first surface and a second, opposing surface wherein the first surface comprises a non-ionic fluoropolymer and the second surface that comprises an antistatic agent.
The nonwoven fabric of claim 24 wherein the nonwoven fabric is a laminate or a portion of a laminate.
A method of improving the alcohol repellency of a nonwoven laminate by applying a topical treatment to a nonwoven laminate while minimizing any negative effect of the topical treatment on the water repellency of the nonwoven laminate, the method comprising:
- providing a nonwoven laminate;
- contacting an aqueous treatment solution that includes from about 0.20 weight percent to about 5 weight percent of a non-ionic fluoropolymer or a mixture of non-ionic fluoropolymers with the nonwoven laminate or a portion of the nonwoven laminate;
- the non-ionic fluoropolymers are selected from the group consisting of non-ionic fluoroalkyl acrylate homopolymers, fluoroalkyl acrylate copolymers, fluorinated siloxanes, fluorinated silicones, fluorinated urethanes, and mixtures thereof;
- and
- then contacting a surface of the topically treated nonwoven laminate with an antistatic agent selected from the group consisting of organic phosphate esters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.