Technical Field

The invention relates to fully biodegradable fusible apparel interlining for use in production of environment friendly biodegradable clothes in textile apparel industry, and production method. With the developed method interlining base fabrics made from natural and synthetic fibers of biodegradable feature are coated with thermoplastic polymers selected of biodegradable feature again and thus fusible interlining of fully (100%) biodegradable is obtained. In addition, the fabrics of the clothes onto which the developed interlining will be applied is selected of biodegradable feature and thus fully biodegradable environmentfriendly clothes are obtained.

Background of the Invention

Interlining is one of important materials used in production of clothing in textile apparel industry. Interlining used in some parts of clothes such as collar, cuff, skirt etc. provides a certain degree of stiffness and fabric gains a form together with stiffness and creases less during use and keeps desired form. Interlining can be applied onto fabrics by adhesive bonding or sewing as well as fusible interlining can be adhered by pressure and temperature effect is used in today’s modern apparel industry.

Fusible interlining comprises a polymer of thermoplastic feature coated with fabric made from natural or synthetic fibers on base. Woven, knitted or non-woven surface fabrics are preferred depending on thickness and type of fabric to be used as base fabric. Conventional polymers or copolymers of petroleum basis such as polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE), polyester and polyamide polymers or copolymers are used in conventional fusible interlining used in the market. The interlining produced by use of such materials does not support production of environment-friendly sustainable clothes. Because even if cloths and interlining fabrics degrade over time in nature, fusible interlining polymers remains in nature without degrading for hundreds of years and causes environmental pollution. On the other hand, some existing interlining called biodegradable are produced with fabrics made from natural/regenerated fibers but by use of non-biodegradable polymers. Although the fibers (fabrics) used in such interlining degrade in nature by time, as interlining polymer is not degradable, said interlining does not have a fully biodegradable feature (100%). For instance, patent applications numbered JP2005264385A and EP2618687A1 among the documents discovered during literature search are relate to fusible interlining production method. Although both documents describe fusible interlining production methods, they do not contain any information about production method for interlining of biodegradable structure or for a material use of biodegradable feature.

The document numbered US5688558A discloses a production process for fusible biologically degradable textile interlining. From content of the invention, it is clearly understood that “biodegradable interlining” term as cellulose base biodegradable fibers particularly viscose are used in interlining ground. Actual novelty aspect of the invention is the gaining of required dimensional stability to interlining by subjecting felt to calendar before and if required after application of adhesive polymer to interlining fabric. In this document the invention states that it is not related to type of adhesive polymer used in interlining production and application way and does not contain term of "biodegradable polymer". As polymer particularly thermoplastic copolyamides, copolyester and mixture of their derivatives can be used as samples. Therefore, adhesive polymers used for interlining produced according to the method disclosed under the document numbered US5688558A available in the related art is not biodegradable and the fusible interlining is not of 100% biodegradable as only used fabrics are of biodegradable.

Today as sustainable production gets more important in textile and apparel industries just like all sectors, concept of biodegradability becomes popular in all textile materials. Biodegradability means conversion of a material discharged into the nature into agents such as CO2, CH4, N2, H2O, saline and minerals upon partition by micro-organisms. In this context, partition and fully disappearance of a textile product discarded into nature requires main fabric as well as other materials and accessories of the clothing being biodegradable. So, the fusible interlinings used in the clothes that requiring interlining also be completely biodegradable; for this reason, it is of great importance that the adhesive layer applied alongside the base fabric consists of biodegradable polymers.

As a result, it was necessary to make a new development in the related technical field due to the environmental problems described above and the inadequacy of the existing techniques for their solution. Purpose of the Invention

Present invention relates to fully biodegradable fusible apparel interlining of biodegradable meeting above mentioned requirements, eliminating all disadvantages of the related art and supporting production of environment-friendly biodegradable clothes, and a method for production of it.

Primary purpose of the present invention is to provide production of one hundred per cent biodegradable interlining by use of environment friendly bio-based or synthetic based biodegradable polymers instead of non-biodegradable polymers in production of interlining in the market.

Another purpose of the invention is to disclose a biodegradable fusible apparel interlining by use of fabrics made from biodegradable synthetic fibers (for instance polylactic acid (PLA) fibers) in addition to fabrics made from biodegradable natural/regenerated fibers as interlining fabric.

A further purpose of the invention is to produce environment friendly clothes of biodegradable feature by use of developed biodegradable fusible interlining with clothing fabrics made from natural and synthetic fibers of biodegradable feature.

In order to achieve above mentioned purposes, the invention is a (100%) biodegradable fusible apparel interlining and comprises biodegradable base fabric and biodegradable thermoplastic polymer, copolymer or mixtures thereof.

In order to achieve above mentioned purposes, the invention is a method for production of fully biodegradable fusible apparel interlining comprising following process steps.

- Preparation of biodegradable base fabric for coating,

- Preparation of biodegradable polymers or polymer mixture with auxiliary agents,

- Application of polymer or polymer mixture onto biodegradable base fabric by coating methods

The structural and characteristics features of the invention and all advantages will be understood better in figures and detailed descriptions and figures given below and therefore, the assessment should be made taking into account the detailed explanations and the figures. Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a view of biodegradable interlining structures obtained by spot coating techniques (top) and flat coating methods

Figure 2 is a schematic view of adhesive bonding process of fusible interlining to clothing fabric (top) and interlining bonded clothing fabric (bottom)

Figure 3 is a view of biodegradability test results of HDPE fusible interlining sample (a: after 7 days, b: after 14 days, c: after 21 days)

Figure 4 is a view of biodegradability test results of PCL fusible interlining sample (a: after 7 days, b: after 14 days, c: after 21 days)

Figure 5 is a view of biodegradability test results of PLA fusible interlining sample (a: after 7 days, b: after 14 days, c: after 21 days)

Description of Part References

1. Biodegradable polymer

2. Biodegradable base fabric

3. Clothing fabric

Detailed Description of the Invention

In this detailed description, the subject of the invention is described in a manner not forming any restrictive effect and only for purpose of better understanding of the matter.

The invention is a fully (100%) biodegradable fusible apparel interlining and comprises biodegradable base fabric and biodegradable thermoplastic polymer, copolymer or mixtures thereof. As biodegradable base fabric, non-woven surface, woven and knitted fabrics made from natural fibers such as cotton, linen, hemp, jute, wool-hair etc. and regenerated fibers such as viscose, floss, lyocell, bamboo, soya bean protein fiber etc. as well as biobased synthetic fibers such as polylactic acid etc. and other synthetic fibers of 100% biodegradable feature can be used. As fusible biodegradable polymer, all thermoplastic polymers, copolymers and mixtures thereof in biodegradable feature can be used. The polymers and copolymers can be bio-based or petrol origin (synthetic). Examples for polymers that can be used for this purpose are polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA), thermoplastic starch (TPS), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly hydroxyalkanoate (PHA), polyhydroxybutirate (PHB), polyglycolic acid (PGA), polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), polybutylene succinate(PBS). In addition to base fabric used in production of interlining of our invention polymers providing adhesiveness feature are of fully biodegradable structure and so if they are discarded into nature, they are separated into fully harmless agents by effect of bacteria, fungi, yeast and other microorganism in the nature and may mix into soil and air. Thus, if the fabrics used in production of clothing are made of biodegradable fibers, 100% biodegradable clothes are produced and if discard of them into nature after user, they fully degrade and disappear in the nature.

Production method for biodegradable fusible apparel interlining of the invention comprises following process steps:

- Preparation of biodegradable base fabric for coating,

- Preparation of biodegradable polymers or polymer mixture with auxiliary agents and

- Application of polymer or polymer mixture onto biodegradable base fabric by coating methods.

Said auxiliary agents (for water-based coating processes) are synthetic thickener, binder, dispersant , pH adjuster, wetting individual or combinations thereof. As binder preferably acrylic, styrene, vinyl and polyurethane derivative and copolymers can be used. In order to provide appropriate viscosity acrylic acid based all synthetic thickeners can be user. As other auxiliary agents, any chemicals convenient for use in textile coating can be used.

Coating operation can be applied in a manner to cover entire biodegradable base fabric surface or to cover fabric surface according to a certain pattern or non-pattern (at random). Figure 1 shows biodegradable interlining structures obtained by applying the biodegradable polymer (1) to biodegradable fabric (2) with spot coating techniques at the top and with flat coating techniques at the bottom. In addition to these single-sided fusible interlining samples, double-sided fusible interlinings can also be produced by applying the developed method to both sides of the fabric.

Biodegradable polymer mixture prepared by auxiliary agents under the method of the invention can be directly applied onto biodegradable base fabric in form of water-based paste and foam paste onto biodegradable base fabric surface or as biodegradable polymers in powder or hot melt. As application technique, any kind of coating, printing and transferring methods such as coating with cylinders by various coating methods (knife coating, engraving cylinder coating, rotation print technique coating, coating with sliding (transfer) rollers, hot melt techniques (powder putting, powder spot coating, extrusion, spraying)) can be used. In a preferred application of the invention, biodegradable polymer powder laying and powder spot coating methods by applying onto interlining fabric of biodegradable structure directly, biodegradable polymer powders can be fixed onto fabric by passing them through heating part heated with infrared (IR) lamps. In such applications, fusible interlining is obtained directly without the need for any auxiliary chemicals or special recipes.

In another preferred application of the invention, a polymer mixture (coating paste) is prepared with biodegradable polymer and necessary auxiliary chemicals. The contents of the sample coating paste are given in Table 1. Ammonia is used to adjust the pH of this mixture (paste) to slightly basic (pH 8-9). The viscosity of the coating paste is adjusted in the range of 3,000 - 10,000 cP (centipoise) depending on the application method and the properties of the fabric.

Table 1-The polymer composition used in a preferred application

Chemicals Rates (g/kg)

Water 500-800 g

Binder 2-10 g

Synthetic Thickener 3-8 g

Dispersant 1-3 g

Ammonia (25%) 2-5 g

Wetting agent 1-2 g

Biodegradable polymer 200-500

(powder)

Total 1000 g

The prepared water-based biodegradable polymer paste is coated on the biodegradable interlining fabric with a suitable coating method. After coating, drying process is conducted at temperature ranging from 100 to 150 X? depending on the type of polymer and fiber/fibers that make up the fabric.

The application of the fusible interlinings produced by the method of the invention to the clothing fabrics can be provided in the conventional roller or flat interlining presses used in the apparel industry. Depending on the type of biodegradable polymer used, the bonding process is conducted in the temperature range of 100-180 XJ; at 1-20 N/cm2 pressure values for 5-20 seconds. Figure 2 shows the sticking process of the biodegradable interlining prepared according to the invention to a biodegradable clothing fabric (3) (above) and the resulting interlining-fabric laminated structure (below). According to the preferred water-based paste coating method, conventional and biodegradable interlining samples are produced by making coatings on cotton interlining fabric by using HDPE as non-biodegradable polymer and PI_A and PCL as biodegradable polymer. These interlining samples were adhered to 100% cotton shirting fabric according to the application method described in Figure 2. The obtained samples are subjected to biodegradability tests (burying test) according to ISO 11721-1:2001 and ISO 11721:2003 standards. Biodegradability test results are shown in Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5 for HDPE, PCL and PLA, respectively. In each way, it shows the biodegradability of samples after (a) 7 days, (b) 14 days, and (c) 21 days holding periods. Accordingly, laminated structures prepared with interlinings containing biodegradable PLA and PCL polymers completely degrade in the soil after 21 days, while residues containing HDPE polymer remains largely from the HDPE-containing sample.