TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is related to production method of PES (Polyester) thread with wool-like appearance that enables creation of an alternative product by imitating wool thread due to properties of PES (Polyester) thread such as strength, water repellency, convenience of cost and easy accessibility.

PRIOR ART

Nowadays, use of wool thread is being preferred in many fields such as fashion, upholstery, curtains and automotive. However, the investment cost for the equipment and the finishing processes for wool thread production are very high.

In the current system, while most of the companies obtain the wool thread with very high investments and costs, they have difficulty in obtaining the desired construction, color and tenacity values. This situation is reflected back to the companies as high production costs and long lead times

It is hard to procure the wool fiber, the cost is high, the manufacturing line is long, it is affected by the moths and pests, it hardens and pales by the effect of heat and light, it exhibits low endurance against acid, base and bleaches, its abrasion resistance is low, it exhibits felting, its washing temperature is low, it tends to shrink in high temperatures. These are the factors that reduce use of wool threads and that reduce the quality of the final obtained product.

Moreover, the easy flammability of the wool thread and the products derived from the wool thread and the springiness problem experienced in wool are the other shortcomings of the wool thread.

The EPO document No.EP2633108 mentions an elastic thread, a method to obtain said thread and a fabric produced by said thread. The elastic thread according to the invention provides a fabric that has a better surface smoothness than the linen-containing elasticized fabrics and that has a smoothness comparable to smoothness of the elasticized fabrics that contain natural and synthetic fibers such as cotton, wool etc. In the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office document No.201 1/07137; titanium dioxide is added into the masterbatch as the dulling agent since the thread obtained by the continuous filament polypropylene thread production has a brighter and more synthetic look when compared to the natural raw material based threads such as cotton and a duller, soft-to-touch natural thread look is obtained.

In both mentioned documents, no solution is provided to the technical problems experienced in wool threads and the products obtained from wool thread.

Consequently, all the above-mentioned problems made it necessary to bring a novelty to the related field.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention requires to solve the abovementioned problems and to bring a technical novelty to the related field.

The main object of the invention is to provide a production method for PES (Polyester) threads with wool-like appearance that enables creation of an alternative product by imitating the wool thread due to the properties of the PES (Polyester) thread such as strength, water repellence, cost convenience and easy accessibility.

Another object of the invention is to produce the PES (Polyester) thread with wool-like appearance that is cost-effective, easy to access, easy to produce, stronger than the wool and that has a wide range of color.

Another object of the invention is to enable giving preference to PES (Polyester) thread in fashion besides home textiles such as upholstery and curtains.

Another object of the invention is to minimize to equipment investment that is required for production when compared to production of wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to enable shortening the processes during production when compared to production of wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to obtain a thread that is durable against sun light and heat when compared to the wool thread. Another object of the invention is to obtain a thread that does not exhibit felting properties as in the wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to obtain a thread that is more durable against abrasion when compared to the wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to obtain a thread that is more durable against acids, bases and bleaches when compared to the wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to obtain a thread that is not affected by the moths and the pests when compared to the wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to obtain a thread that exhibits a higher flexibility and springiness properties when compared to the wool thread.

Another object of the invention is to obtain thread that is more dirt-repellent than the wool thread.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to achieve all the objects that are mentioned above and that will be apparent by the detailed description provided below, the present invention is related to production of PES (Polyester) threads with wool-like appearance that comprises the steps of FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn), air texturing, folding, twisting and heat-setting after the chips (raw material of Polyester) are melted and the masterbatch (the mixture that contains the colorant and the auxiliary additives which is added to the melt polyester to be colored) is added.

The chips that are the raw material of the polyester thread are melted and then the masterbatch which contains the colorant and the auxiliary additives is added to the polyester to be colored in the melt condition. A colored thread is obtained by subjecting this obtained colored mixture to FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn) process. By this process, two threads with the same structure and technical properties are produced to be used as the CORE threads (base thread, central thread) and the EFFECT thread (the thread to be wound about the core thread).

Said two obtained threads (the threads to be used as the CORE thread and the EFFECT thread which were obtained by FDY) are then subjected to air texturing process. Both of the threads exiting the air texturing process are wound up on a spool side by side where both threads are wound up in parallel by folding process. The threads exiting the folding process are subjected to twisting process to provide strength to the thread. The threads exiting the twisting process are subjected to heat-setting process where the permanent form of the thread is provided by applying steam or dry heat in order to fix the twist, to provide strength, to prevent static electric and to enable easy working of the thread. Thus, the PES (Polyester) thread with a wool-like appearance is obtained.

In preferred embodiment of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be produced as 300/144 (denier/filament) FDY SD PES (Fully Drawn Yarn - Semi Dull - Polyester) cone dyed.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be produced as 150/72 (denier/filament) FDY SD PES (Fully Drawn Yarn - Semi Dull - Polyester) DOPE DYED (Colored in melt condition - Masterbatch added).

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be produced as ECRU (the colorless raw condition of the thread that is not cone dyed or colored in melt condition).

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be produced as ROUND or TRILOBAL sections.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be produced as 144 filaments ROUND.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be produced as 144, 96, 72, 48 filament TRILOBAL section.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, depending on the denier of the FDY thread, the speed of the air texturing machine operates between 200-600 m/min.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, during air texturing process, the amount of OVERFEED (feeding) varies between 5-15% in the CORE thread (center thread) and between 25-60% in the EFFECT thread (the thread wound about the core thread).

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, air texturing process is performed by jets suitable with the denier and property of the thread. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the threads between 390-760 deniers are subjected directly to twisting process without requiring folding.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, while the number of twists varies depending on the denier of the thread, very thick threads are twisted up to 90 spins and thin threads are twisted up to 400 spins.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, heat-setting process is performed before the twisting process for cone dyed threads. Thus, the threads that are suitable for direct spool coloring can be produced without requiring final transfer or pre-winding processes.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, if the solution dyed threads will be twisted more than 200 spins, post-twisting heat-setting process is performed.

The scope of protection of the invention is defined in the claims and by no means cannot be limited to what is describes as examples in this brief and detailed description. It is apparent that a person skilled in the art can present similar embodiments in the view of descriptions provided above without leaving the main theme of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In Figure 1 , the flowchart of the production method of PES thread with wool-like appearance is given.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE REFERENCE NUMBERS IN THE FIGURES

10. Preparing melt from chips and addition of masterbatch

20. FDY

30. Air texturing

40. Folding

50. Twisting

60. Heat-setting

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the PES THREAD WITH WOOL-LIKE APPEARANCE is described with non-limiting examples for providing a better understanding of the subject. The subject of the invention is related to production of PES (Polyester) threads with wool-like appearance that comprises the steps of FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn) (20), air texturing (30), folding (40), twisting (50) and heat-setting (60) after the chips (raw material of Polyester) are melted and the masterbatch (the mixture that contains the colorant and the auxiliary additives which is added to the melt polyester to be colored) is added (10).

The production flowchart of the PES thread with wool-like appearance is given in Figure 1.

The chips that are the raw material of the polyester thread are melted and then the masterbatch which contains the colorant and the auxiliary additives is added (10) to the polyester to be colored in the melt condition. A colored thread is obtained by subjecting this obtained colored mixture to FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn) process (20). By this process (20), two threads with the same structure and technical properties are produced to be used as the CORE threads (base thread, central thread) and the EFFECT thread (the thread to be wound about the core thread).

Said two obtained threads (the threads to be used as the CORE thread and the EFFECT thread which were obtained by FDY) are then subjected to air texturing process (30). Both of the threads exiting the air texturing (30) process are wound up on a spool side by side where both threads are wound up in parallel by folding process (40). The threads exiting the folding process (40) are subjected to twisting process (50) to provide strength to the thread. The threads exiting the twisting process (50) are subjected to heat-setting process (60) where the permanent form of the thread is provided by applying steam or dry heat in order to fix the twist, to provide strength, to prevent static electric and to enable easy working of the thread. Thus, the PES (Polyester) thread with a wool-like appearance is obtained.

In the alternative embodiments of the invention, the FDY product obtained from the melt can be colored from the melt (masterbatch) or can be produced as cone dyed or ecru. This produced FDY product can be manufactured as 150 and 300 denier, round or trilobal section, 144, 96, 72, 48 filaments.

In alternative embodiments of the invention, depending on the denier of the FDY thread, the velocity of the texturing (30) machine is between 200-600 m/min. During air texturing process (30), the amount of feeding varies between 5-15% for the center thread and between 25-60% for the thread wound about the center thread. Air texturing process (30) is performed by jets suitable with the denier and property of the thread. In alternative embodiments of the invention, the threads between 390-760 deniers are subjected directly to twisting process (50) without requiring folding (40). While the number of twists varies depending on the denier of the thread, very thick threads are twisted up to 90 spins and thin threads are twisted up to 400 spins. If the solution dyed threads will be twisted more than 200 spins, post-twisting (50) heat-setting process (60) is performed.

In alternative embodiments of the invention, heat-setting process (60) is performed before the twisting process (50) for cone dyed threads. Thus, the threads that are suitable for direct spool coloring can be produced without requiring final transfer or pre-winding processes.