OPTIMISED COMPONENT MADE OF TEXTILE FIBRES WITH A NON-WOVEN NATURAL BASE AND RELATIVE MACHINE

Technical field

This invention relates to an optimised component made of textile fibres with non-woven natural-base and relative machine for making it.

Background art

In general, textile fibres are divided into two major categories: natural fibres and "technofibres" .

Since the object of the invention relates only to the natural fibres described below, a brief summary of the latter is provided.

Natural fibres are divided into fibres of the following origins: vegetable (for example, flax, hemp, jute, coconut, cotton... ) or animal (for example, silk, and wool of various animals such as sheep, camel . . ) or mineral (for example, asbestos, glass, .. ) which in some ways are natural, since they derive from minerals found in nature, but which require thermal and/or chemical processes to be obtained.

Textile fibre products are used in various technical sectors as well as, of course, in the textile industry; for example, as heat insulating and/or sound-absorbing components; in the building industry, as padding components, in the furniture industry and in the automotive industry, as filtering components for various applications, and in geotechnics. In the textile industry in particular, the fibres are usually woven ; in this way, the product acquires consistency and strength .

Textile fibres can also be securely j oined together in other ways .

The technology for j oining textile fibres is undoubtedly that of traditional weaving .

In addition to this technology, for example , the technology of "non-woven fabric" was conceived in the 1950 s ; this technology uses " synthetic" fibres ( often dif ferent and mixed together ) , is more economical than weaving and allows very high production rates .

There are prior art component s made of textile fibres designed to perform the functions of thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, padding and filtering . However, these textile fibre component s for use in the above-mentioned industries are either made using nonnatural "technofibres" or, if they are natural , they do not have adequate technical characteristics to perform the various uses in the industrial sector in an optimised manner .

Aim of the invention

The aim of the invention is to provide an opt imised component made of non-woven natural-based textile fibres which is able to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art .

A further important aim of the invention is to provide an optimised component made of non-woven natural-based textile fibres with a function of thermal insulation and/or acoustic insulation and/or padding and/or filtering which does not require high temperature thermal treatment s for it s production .

A further aim is to provide an optimised component made of non-woven natural-based textile fibres with the function of thermal insulation and/or acoustic insulation and/or padding and/or filtering which can be produced in a manner and in line with the eco-friendly "environmental sustainability" and " circular economy" .

A further aim is to provide a machine which is able to make in a practical and inexpensive manner an optimised component made of textile fibres .

These and other aims are achieved by an optimised component made of non-woven natural-based textile fibres having the technical features described in the appended claims which form an integral part of this description .

Brief description of the drawings

The technical features of the invention and it s advantages are apparent from the description which follows to be considered together with the accompanying drawings in which :

- Figure 1 schematically shows a web of textile fibres ,

- Figure 2 schematically shows the web of Figure 1 after it has been pleated,

- Figure 3 schematically shows the web of Figure 2 after it has been needle punched,

- Figure 4 schematically shows a machine designed for making a component according to the invention, and

- Figure 5 schematically shows the needle punching head of the machine of Figure 4 whilst it needle punches a small stretch of a web of textile fibres Detailed description

The idea which forms the basis of the invention is to make the component starting from a web of natural textile fibres (both animal and/or vegetable mixed with each other ) which is first "pleated" and then "needle punched" in the direction corresponding to the length of the web ; in particular, the needle punching is performed in a direction transversal , advantageously, perpendicular, to the thicknes s of the pleated web ; in that way, the component has a certain consistency and structure , but also has a considerable elasticity, softnes s and lightnes s .

It should be noted that the term "web" means a series of textile fibre s which are not firmly j oined together and which is therefore soft , lightweight and also transparent .

In general , the component made of non-woven textile fibres according to the invention comprises a web of carded textile fibres which is pleated in the direction of the length and/or width of the component and which is needle punched in the direction of the length and/or width of the component .

An example of an embodiment of a component 1 made of non-woven textile fibres according to the invention is shown in Figure 3 .

It derives from a web 2 of carded textile fibres , in particular of carded wool shown in Figure 1 when it is in a horizontal condition before the proces sing according to the invention .

The web 2 is pleated, as shown in Figure 2 , in a horizontal direction . Subsequently, the web 2 is needle punched, as shown in Figure 3 , along a horizontal direction .

The needle punching operation, carried out with a limited number of needles ( in particular from 1 to 9 per square centimetre ) , binds the web 2 in a horizontal direction without any additional material , in particular without the use of thread, and compact s the web in a horizontal direction ; in this way, the component 1 has a certain consistency and structure ; however, since the number of needles is limited, the component 1 maintains a considerable elasticity, softnes s and lightnes s similar to that of the web 2 from which it derives .

As shown in Figures 1 to 3 , the needle punching direction corresponds advantageously to the pleating direction .

The component 1 constitutes a sort of soft and foldable mattres s with a constant thicknes s S corresponding to the size of the pleating; the pleating size is 20 millimetres , alternatively the pleating size may have a value of between 4 millimetres and 240 millimetres . Advantageously, the thicknes s is constant for the entire length of the component 1 but , it is also pos sible that , again according to the invention, the component 1 has variable thicknes s ( derived from a variable pleating size ) .

In order to reach a thicknes s S greater than the average length of the fibres ( 60-70 mm) it is neces sary, in order to make the component resistant , to provide a proces sing step designed for stabilising the fibres . This stabilising operation is performed, for example , by adding a heat setting material to the fibres .

In this way, the individual fibres are held together, not only by the needle punching operation but also by the heat setting material spread .

More in detail , during the various proces sing steps , the web 4 before undergoing the pleating operation is sub j ected to the heating unit 9 for activating the heat setting material .

The heating unit 9 comprises , for example , a heated and heat-adjustable cylinder (therefore adjustable at dif ferent temperatures to be chosen by the user as a function of the material of the component 1 ) .

The web 4 pas ses into contact with the cylinder in such a way as to activate the heat setting material .

In this way, the web 4 is much more robust and immune from any tears even with very high thicknes ses and greater than the length of the fibres .

Figures 4 and 5 also show an example of a machine according to the invention designed for the production of a component 1 made of non-woven textile fibre s such as that according to the invention .

A description is given below, with reference to Figures 4 and 5 , of an embodiment of a machine designed to make the component 1 .

With reference to Figure 4 , the machine comprises :

- means 3 designed to continuously feed a web 4 of textile fibres towards a proces sing zone 5 of the machine - a pleating head 6 located in the processing zone 5 and designed to repeatedly perform pleating operations on the web 4,

- a needle punching head 7 located in the processing zone 5 and designed to perform repeatedly needle punching operations on the web 4 after it has been pleated, and

- means 8 for continuously feeding the web 4 after it has been pleated and needle punched away from the processing zone 5.

As mentioned, the machine according to the invention also comprises a heating unit 9, designed for the thermal fusion of the heat setting material, which advantageously comprises a heated and heat-adjustable cylinder .

Advantageously, the heating unit 9 is positioned before the pleating head 6 and of the needle punching head 7. In Figure 4, the web 4 is continuous, extends longitudinally from left to right, and moves progressively from left to right, passing through the processing zone 5, whilst working.

After the processing shown schematically in Figure 4, the pleated and needle punched web 4 may be, for example, rolled up, thus forming a roll, or cut, thus forming a plurality of squares.

The means 3 and 8 may be formed, for example, by conveyor belts.

The pleating head 6 is schematically illustrated, in Figure 4, like a straight bar designed to fold the web 4. The needle punching head 7 is schematically illustrated, in Figures 4 and 5 , as a rectilinear bar 71 equipped with a plurality of needles 72 of length such as to pas s through a plurality of layers of web 4 . According to the invention, the material to be needle punched is not squeezed between plates as occurs in the case of non-woven fabrics .

According to the example embodiment of Figure 4 , the conveyor belt 3 feeds the web 4 longitudinally towards the proces sing zone 5 from left to right ; the proces sing zone 5 is lower ( for example , 5-20 cm lower ) than the feed zone of the web 4 defined by the conveyor belt 3 .

According to the embodiment of Figure 4 , the pleating head 6 moving first from the top downwards from a predetermined upper position to a predetermined lower position and then from the bottom upwards from the predetermined lower position to the predetermined upper position first creates a fold of the web 4 downwards and then a fold of the web upwards ; in that way, a pleating operation is performed on the web 4 along a direction corresponding to the length of the web it self (that is to say, the folds are transversal to the length of the web ) .

According to the example embodiment of Figure 4 , the needle punching head 7 moving first from left to right from a predetermined position far from the web (Figure 4 ) to a predetermined position adj acent to the web (Figure 5 ) and then from right to left from the predetermined position adj acent to the web to the predetermined position far from the web, performing a needle punching operation on the pleated web along a direction corresponding to the length of the web .

According to the example embodiment of Figure 4 , the conveyor belt 8 feeds the web 4 from left to right continuously after it has been pleated and needle punched, moving it away from the proces sing zone 5 .

As may be inferred from Figure 4 , the pleating and needle punching operations are repeated; in particular, the pleating operations are alternated with the needle punching operations ; more specifically and advantageously, each pleating operation immediately follows a needle punching operation .

According to the example embodiment of Figure 4 , the pleating head 6 performs an alternating translational movement in a direction perpendicular to the web 4 , the needle punching head 7 performs an alternating translational movement in a direction longitudinal to the web 4 as it moves ( direction DI ) in the machine towards the proces sing zone and to that of the finished component 1 as it moves in the machine away from the proces sing zone (to be precise , the head 7 with it s needles 72 works on the web 4 in a direction perpendicular to the web 4 , but after the web 4 has been pleated, that is to say, folded several times ) ; specifically, the needle punching head 7 is shaped and moves in such a way as to complete previous pleating operations , that is to say, when the bar 71 of the head 7 moves towards the predetermined position adj acent to the web (Figure 5 ) , it pres ses it a little , and marks the folds of the pleating . According to the example embodiment of Figures 4 and 5 , the needle punching head 7 comprises a plurality of needle 72 with a preferred density of needles per square centimetre ranging from 1 to 9 and with a preferred length ranging from 4 to 8 centimetres .