Textile and method of making same

The method of making a heat dissipating fabric which comprises

• applying a continuous metallic foil over a web of a fabric base,
• applying a non-woven batt of fibers over said foil and
• needle punching the resulting composite with barbed needles from one direction only by successively penetrating first the batt, then the foil and finally the base to form fiber masses on the free side of the fabric base and to force fibers from said batt back and forth through spaced apart needle punched apertures in said foil and through said fabric base,
• said needle punching operating to densify said composite and forming plural mechanical interlocks to securely interlock said fabric base, said foil and said batt together, while maintaining said foil in a sheet-form condition,
• whereby said foil forms continuous conductive paths in the fabric to conduct heat away from a point of application to said composition for dissipation throughout the composition.

A flame retardant fabric composition comprising a composite article having,

• a primary base layer composed of fabric and being in the order of about 0.005 to 0.050 inches, in thickness,
• a sheet-form metallic foil forming a thermally conductive continuous thermal foil layer having one side completely overlying an adjoining side of said base layer and being in the order of about 0.0001 to 0.005 inches in thickness,
• a fiber batt corresponding in size to the article and having one side overlying the other side of said thermal foil layer,
• said batt having fibers of a length in the order of from about one-half inch to six inches,
• a plurality of mechanical interlocks constituting the sole means of interconnecting the base layer, the foil and the batt and more specifically comprising
• selected fibers from said batt extending in one direction through spaced apart needle punched apertures in said foil layer and through said base layer and forming fiber masses at the opposite side of said base layer,
• a number of fiber strands from said fiber masses extending back through said needle punched apertures in said foil in an opposite direction to the exposed side of said batt,
• said selected fibers at said fiber strands forming interlocks for the layers and being disposed in a uniform array of the article at spaced discreet locations to leave unbroken thermal conductivity paths in the foil which extend throughout the entire article between the interlocks,
• whereby the base layer and the foil layer and the batt are mechanically interlocked by said selected fibers and said fiber strands to form a densified laminate having a thermally conductive intermediate layer forming unbroken conductive paths to conduct heat away from any point of application to said article for dissipation throughout the composite article.

The method of making a composite fire retardant fabric article which includes the steps of

• interposing a foil part made of a thin initially continuous sheet-form conductive material between a base part made of fabric and a batt part made of loose fibers to form a sandwich laminate initially of many times the thickness of the finished fabric article,
• mechanically interlocking the laminate by needling the sandwich with successive punching strokes from only one direction,
• during each said punching stroke successively penetrating first the batt to displace and draw fibers from the batt,
• then penetrating the foil,
• and then penetrating the fabric base,
• throughout said needle punching stroke and during each such successive penetrations continuing to draw the fibers displaced from the batt through a plurality of spaced apart needle punched apertures in the foil to thereby form and leave fiber masses at the fabric base,
• pulling back a portion of the thus formed fiber masses by retracting a number of fiber strands during a return needle stroke in an opposite direction through said same apertures in the foil to thereby pull some of the displaced fiber strands back through the fabric base, the foil and the loose fiber batt,
• and spacing the punching strokes sufficiently to leave unbroken thermal conductivity paths extending throughout the composite article,
• whereby there is formed a mechanically interlocked densified unitary fabric article of conductive foil, fabric base and fiber batt.