METHOD FOR PRODUCTION OF A HYDROENTANGLED AIRLAID WEB AND PRODUCTS OBTAINED THEREFROM

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/736837, filed December 13, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention is directed to a continuous method for preparing disposable nonwoven webs which employs a minimal number of operations and provides an economical product which is useful as a flushable or disposable article such as a disposable wipe or wipers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Disposable nonwoven substrates are employed for the production of a wide variety of consumer products which are generally used once and discarded. Such products include disposable cleansing wipes, disposable diapers, disposable adult incontinence products, disposable pads typically employed in hospitals for absorption of body fluids and cosmetic applicators or cosmetic pads for removal of make-up and other materials from a keratinous substrate.

Such commercial products constitute an industry having ever increasing growth potential and expansion of utility. However, as virtually all such products potentially enter the environment through landfill or sewage systems, there is a need for a disposable nonwoven material that is simple to produce, contains a minimal or no amount of chemical components that have poor biodegradeability such as binders, adhesives or thermoplastic polymers and yet has good wet tensile strength as required for performance. In addition, a product is sought which is constructed to have minimal lint content and meets codes for categorizing as a flushable article acceptable for municipal and private sewage systems, while being economical to produce. Conventionally, nonwoven disposable wipe products can be produced via one of two basic technologies known in the industry as "airlace" and "hydraspun" processes. Different producers may conduct these technologies with variation based on intended end use and available production equipment but the basic principles of operation are retained.

Airlace methods combine the operations of depositing an airlaid web of staple length fibers and wood pulp fibers onto a nonwoven carrier layer or precursor base nonwoven web and hydroentangling the airlaid layer with the nonwoven carrier. This technology is described in U.S. 8,250,719 to Ouellette and the references described therein. In addition to employing a carrier web, Ouellette describes bonding the airlaid fibers with hot air or a spray adhesive.

According to the "hydraspun" method as described in U.S. 4,755,421 to Manning et al. a wetlaid web of pulp and manmade fibers is hydroentangled and dried. However, U.S. 5,292,581 to Viazmensky et al. indicates that such products suffer from poor wet strength and describe that the addition of binders substantially improves the strength. More recently, U.S. 7,732,357 to Annis et al. describes the use of binder fibers to the nonwoven sheet that upon heating become activated by at least partial melting and form fiber to fiber bonds. The binder fibers contain polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate and mixtures thereof.

Therefore, there remains a need for a method to prepare a nonwoven web that contains no adhesive, binder or binder fibers, is convenient and economical to conduct and provides a dispersible nonwoven web having good performance strength, yet being acceptable as a flushable product for municipal sewer and private septic systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus, an objective of the present invention is to provide a method to produce a nonwoven web that includes minimal processing operations, does not use adhesives, binders or binding fibers and provides a nonwoven web having sufficient wet tensile strength for use as a wipe. Another objective of this invention is to provide a nonwoven web having sufficient wet strength to be employed as a wipe that is acceptable for disposal in sewer and septic systems.

These and other objectives have been achieved according to the present invention, the first embodiment of which includes a method for production of a nonwoven web, comprising: preparing a mixture of natural cellulose fibers and staple fibers; airforming the mixture to obtain at least one homogeneous airlaid web; hydroentangling the airlaid web to consolidate the web on at least one side; and drying the hydroentangled web to obtain the nonwoven web; wherein the airforming and hydroentangling are conducted in a continuous operation, a content of the natural cellulose fibers in the mixture of fibers is no less than 50 % by weight and a content of the staple fibers is no more than 50 % by weight, no binder, adhesive or thermal bonding fibers are utilized, a fiber length of the natural cellulose fibers is no more than 3.5 mm, a fiber length of the staple fibers is no less than 8.0 mm, a basis weight of the nonwoven web is from 20 g/m ² to 100 g/m ² , and a thickness of the nonwoven web is from 0.25 mm to 2 mm.

In a preferred embodiment of the first embodiment, the airlaid web is directly formed on a carrier of the air former without preforming a precursor web or incorporating a continuous filament web.

In a further highly preferred embodiment no adhesive, binder or binder fiber is applied to the nonwoven web and a ratio of tensile strength in a machine direction to tensile strength in a direction perpendicular to the machine direction (MD/CD) is less than 3.

Further in one embodiment, the present invention provides a nonwoven web obtained by the method of any of the above method embodiments; wherein the nonwoven web comprises: 75 % by weight of wood pulp; and 25 % by weight of lyocell. The basis weight

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of the nonwoven web according to this embodiment is from 40 g/m to 60 g/m , a MD/CD ratio is less than 3, a CD wet tensile strength is at least 5 N/5 cm, and the nonwoven web is a flushable product in accordance with the July 2009 edition of ED ANA' s Guidance

Document for Assessing the Flushability of Nonwoven Consumer Products.

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a nonwoven web obtained by the method of any of the above method embodiments; wherein the nonwoven web comprises: about 50 % by weight of wood pulp; and about 50 % by weight of viscose; wherein the basis weight of the nonwoven web is from 40 g/m ² to 60 g/m ² , a MD/CD ratio is less than 3, and a CD wet tensile strength is at least 12 N/5 cm.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 shows a schematic drawing of an arrangement of water jets in a

hydroentanglement unit according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 shows comparative data for dispersible and non-dispersible nonwoven webs according to the invention in comparison to commercially available wipes. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to the following description, all numerical ranges described include all sub- ranges and all values therebetween unless other wise specified. All weight content values are based on total weight. The following description provides a general description of the present invention and specific preferred embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill will recognize that many variations of the invention may be possible without departing from the gist of the invention. This description and the following Claims are intended to include all such variation.

In a first embodiment, the present invention provides a method for production of a nonwoven web, comprising: preparing a mixture of natural cellulose fibers and staple fibers; airforming the mixture to obtain at least one homogeneous airlaid web; hydroentangling the airlaid web to consolidate the web on at least one side; and drying the hydroentangled web to obtain the nonwoven web; wherein the airforming and hydroentangling is conducted in continuous operation, a content of the natural cellulose fibers in the mixture of fibers is no less than 50 % by weight, preferably no less than 60 % and most preferably at least 75 % by weight. A content of the staple fibers is no more than 50 % by weight, preferably no more than 40 % and most preferably, no more than 25%. No binder, adhesive or thermal bonding fibers are utilized in the airforming and hydroentangling operations according to the present invention.

The length of the natural cellulose fibers is no more than 3.5 mm, preferably 1.5 mm to 3.5 mm, most preferably 2.5 to 3.5mm. Any natural cellulose fiber may be employed as the short fiber of the mixture. In one embodiment a wood pulp of the described length may be the short fiber and in a preferred embodiment, a southern pine Kraft may be the natural cellulose fiber. Wood pulp obtained from a sulfite pulping process may additionally be the source of the natural cellulose fibers. Mixtures of natural cellulose fibers may be used. The natural cellulose fibers may be defibrated in hammermills to form a mixture of individual loose fibers.

The staple fibers may be any non-thermoplastic man-made fiber which is no less than 8.0 mm in length, preferably 8.0 to 100mm, most preferably 8mm to 25mm. Preferably the staple fiber is viscose or lyocell. Mixtures of non-thermoplastic fibers may be employed.

The method of forming an air laid web is generally described in U.S. 4,640,810 to Laursen et al. The staple and defibrated natural cellulose fibers are blended to a

homogeneous mixture and while supported in an air stream transported to a distributor unit. The distributor unit contains a rotating cylinder or drum that is perforated with holes, slots or other appropriately shaped apertures designed to allow passage of the fibers onto a foraminous carrier. The construction of the drum and configuration and size of the apertures may be varied according to the characteristics of the fiber mixture to be employed and to obtain unique web construction. Under the influence of a combination of any of air flow, mechanical agitation within the drum and suction from beneath the carrier, the fibers are directed through the openings of the perforated drum and form a homogeneous web on the surface of the carrier. The height and degree of matting of the dry web may be varied via control of process variables including fiber content and size, drum aperture size and shape, rate of air flow, degree of suction applied from the bottom of the carrier and carrier speed. Other equipment controls may also be varied to provide unique matting construction.

The width of the web depends upon the type of air former equipment employed and may vary from 1 m to 6 m. Conventional commercial units such as supplied by Dan- Web, Oerlikon and Anpap Oy range from 2 to 5 m in width.

According to the present invention the formed air laid web is directly and

continuously transported to a hydroentanglement unit or spunlacing unit, where the airlaid mat is struck with a series of high pressure water jets to mechanically entangle or consolidate the fibers and form the nonwoven web. The jets may be oriented perpendicular to the surface of the carrier or angled to provide unique properties to the web. Jets may be placed to consolidate the web from one side, preferably, the top side or from both the top and bottom side. The pressure of the jets may be from 0.04 bars/kg/h/m to 15 bars/kg/h/m, preferably, 0.1 bars/kg/h/m to 10 bars/kg/h m, and most preferably 0.3 bars/kg/h/m to 4 bars/kg/h/m.

An embodiment showing an arrangement of jets to consolidate a web from both sides is shown schematically in Fig. 1. As indicated by Fig. 1, the air laid web taken directly from the airformer is passed along a series of carrier belts and exposed to high pressure jets indicated in numerical order. Jets 1 1, 12 and 13 impinge the top of the web while jets 21 and 22 strike the opposite or bottom side. The schematic jets represent banks of jets across the width of the web and the jet banks may be positioned and arranged to impart varying completeness of entanglement across the web. Thus the entanglement may be patterned or random depending on the intended end use of the nonwoven web.

The drape, softness and comfortable hand of the nonwoven web may be controlled by the energy delivered by the high pressure jets and by the speed of travel of the web through the equipment. According to the present invention by control of both water pressure and speed of web travel through the spunlacing equipment as well as the absence of adhesives, binders or bonding fibers, a nonwoven web having varying degrees of strength, absorbency, softness and thickness may be obtained.

Spunlacing or hydroentanglement units are available from Fleissner GmbH

(Germany) and Andritz Perfojet (France).

In one variation of the above basic embodiment, multiple airlaid webs may be prepared and stacked prior to spunlacing so that thicker nonwoven webs may be produced. The respective stacked layers may be of the same fiber composition or may have differing compositions selected for the intended end use of the nonwoven web. In each such possible embodiment, entanglement may be achieved by variation of water jet pressure and speed of travel of the web through the spunlacing unit. No binders, adhesives or bonding fibers are utilized.

Following the spunlacing the wet nonwoven web may be dried and wound for transport and storage. In a further embodiment, prior to drying, the entangled web may be embossed either by a hydroembossing process or by thermal embossing.

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The basis weight of the nonwoven web may be from 20 g/m to 100 g/m , preferably, 40 g/m ² to 80 g/m ² for a nonwoven web of from 0.25 mm to 2 mm in thickness. However, when multiple airlaid webs are stacked, the basis weight and thickness may not be in these ranges. Basis weight may be varied by control of the process variables described for both the airlaying and spunlacing operations and by other process variables conventionally known to one of skill in the present technology.

The nonwoven webs according to the present invention have strength profiles which are more omnidirectional than some conventionally available nonwoven webs. The ratio of the wet tensile strength in the machine direction (MD) to the cross machine direction (CD) is less than 3. As shown in the Table of Fig. 2, the JHI products according to the invention with no adhesive, binder or bonding fibers, have significantly lower basis weights than

comparative commercially available wipes, yet have MD and CD tensile strengths of similar value. Such property is especially surprising because a CD wet tensile strength is known to be difficult to obtain in products that meet standard guidelines for flushablity.

In a special preferred embodiment, a flushable product is made according to the present invention with a composition of about 75 % by weight defibrated wood pulp fibers having a length of 3.5 mm or less and 25 % by weight lyocell having fibers of 8 mm or greater. The airlaid web is hydroentangled at a jet pressure of from 0.35 bars/kg/h/m to 2.1 bars/kg/h/m. The CD wet tensile strength of the nonwoven web is at least 5.0 N/5 cm and the MD/CD ratio is less than 3. This nonwoven web meets the testing standards for flushability as set forth in the July, 2009, edition of EDANA's Guidance Document for Assessing the Flushability of Non woven Consumer Products. Importantly, this product passes the municipal sewage pump test, wherein less than 10 % of all data points measured over 5 total runs of 60 wipes each can have a power increase of more than 10 %, and preferably less than 10 % provokes an increase in power of 10%.

In another special embodiment having higher strength, a nonwoven web is prepared according to the method of the present invention with a mixture of about 50 % by weight of defibrated wood pulp fibers having a length of 3.5 mm or less and about 50 % by weight viscose having fibers of 8 mm or greater. The airlaid web is hydroentangled at a jet pressure of from 0.3 bars/kg/h/m to 15 bars/kg h/m, preferably 0.4 bars/kg/h m to 6 bars/kg/h/m. The CD wet tensile strength of the nonwoven web is at least 12 N/5 cm and the MD/CD ratio is less than 3. Significantly, the linting property of this product is significantly lower than commercial products current used as baby wipes or hard surface cleaning wipes.