Suede-like product and process therefor
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorDonald O. Niederhauser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A suede-like fabric is produced by impinging a sheet-like structure of discrete fibrillatable fibers with needle-like columnar streams of liquid whereby the fibers are fibrillated to form a close spacing of subdenier fibril ends that extend from the sheet structure at randomly spaced intervals to form one surface of the suede-like fabric with a majority of the fibril ends being tapered.
Claims18
A suede-like fabric structure including a ground fabric comprising discrete fibrils, said fibrils extending as fibril ends from said ground fabric at randomly spaced points of attachment to form one surface of the suede-like fabric having a density of from about 5000 to about 100,000 fibril ends per square centimeter, the majority of said fibril ends being tapered and having an average tip width of less than 10.mu. when measured a distance of about 2.mu. from the terminal point of said fibril ends, said fibril ends tapering to said tip width from a greater trunk width, the average trunk width being about 1.5 to 10.times. greater than said average tip width when measured a distance of about 100.mu. from the terminal point of said fibril ends.
A method for producing a suede-like fabric structure in which fibril ends extend from a ground fabric at randomly spaced points of attachment and form one surface of the suede-like fabric, the method comprising:
- forming a sheet-like structure of discrete fibers fibrillatable to tapered ends;
- supporting the sheet-like structure on a foraminous support;
- and
- impinging the sheet-like structure on the foraminous support with needle like columnar streams of liquid at a pressure of at least 5000 kPa whereby said fibers are fibrillated to form a close spacing of fibril ends that extend from the sheet structure at randomly spaced intervals to form one surface of the suede-like fabric with the majority of said fibril ends being tapered.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.