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AssigneeEngineered Yarns, Inc.
InventorsJames D. Worrall, Suzanne M. Auger
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A woven fabric having a textured, multicolor appearance is disclosed. The fabric is formed from a weave of expansible threads, wherein each thread comprises a core yarn, a first plastisol coating surrounding the core yarn, and a second plastisol coating surrounding the first coating and eccentric thereto. The first and second coatings are of different colors. The expansible threads are woven into a substantially planar fabric and then fused by heat activation. At the fusion temperature, the melt viscosity of the second coating is sufficiently high so that the first coating emerges through the second coating at the thin areas of the second coating. Preferably, the first coating has a substantially greater amount of blowing, or foaming, agent than the second coating so that the first coating expands to a greater degree than does the second coating.
An expansible thread, comprising a core yarn of a material selected from the group consisting of nylon, rayon, polyester, and glass, a first plastisol coating surrounding said core yarn, a second plastisol coating, of different color than said first plastisol coating, surrounding said first plastisol coating and eccentric thereto, said second plastisol coating having a melt viscosity sufficiently high so as to ensure that the second plastisol coating does not concentrically surround said first plastisol coating when said thread is fused by heat, said first and second plastisol coatings applied as a viscous liquid, said first and second plastisol coatings being less than fully cured but cured to the point where they can withstand the stresses of subsequent processing.
A method of producing an expansible thread comprising the steps of forming a first plastisol coating around a filament yarn by applying a first viscous liquid plastisol compound to said yarn to encapsulate said yarn, partially curing said first plastisol coating, forming a second plastisol coating of different color than said first plastisol coating around said first coating by applying a second viscous liquid plastisol compound to said first plastisol coating, eccentric with said first plastisol coating, and partially curing said said second plastisol coating, wherein said step of forming a second plastisol coating comprises drawing said yarn encapsulated in said first plastisol coating, after said second plastisol compound is applied thereon, though a sizing die wherein the longitudinal axis of said yarn is closer to one side of the sizing die than to the other side of the sizing die to form an eccentric second plastisol coating over said first plastisol coating, and wherein the room temperature viscosity of said second viscous liquid plastisol compound, when applied to said first partially cured first coating, is sufficiently high so that said second coating does not flow concentrically around said first coating, but sufficiently low so that the shear forces between the sizing die and the second plastisol coating do not cause the longitudinal axis of the thread to center itself between each side of the sizing die.
A substantially planar fabric having a textured multicolor appearance comprising a plurality of woven threads, each thread comprising a multifilament core yarn, a first plastisol coating surrounding said core yarn, a second plastisol coating, having a different color than said first plastisol coating, around said first plastisol coating and eccentric therewith so as to form relatively thick and thin regions around the first plastisol coating, said first plastisol coating expanding through the thin regions of said second plastisol coating during heat activated foaming of said woven threads to form a textured, multicolor fabric.
A method of producing a substantially planar fabric having a textured, multicolor appearance, comprising producing an expansible thread by the steps of forming a first plastisol coating around a filament yarn by applying a first viscous liquid plastisol compound to said yarn to encapsulate said yarn, partially curing said first plastisol coating at a temperature below the foaming temperature, forming a second plastisol coating around said first coating by applying a second viscous liquid plastisol compound to said first plastisol coating, eccentric with said first plastisol coating, said second plastisol coating being a different color than said first plastisol coating, and partially curing said second plastisol coating at a temperature below the foaming temperature, weaving a plurality of said expansible threads into a fabric, and heating said fabric to a foaming temperature to permit the first plastisol coating to expand through the second plastisol coating at the thin regions of said second plastisol coating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.