U.S. patent application number 11/035507 was filed with the patent office on 2005-06-16 for nonwoven abrasive material.
Invention is credited to Lees, Richard, Rawson, Neill.
Application Number | 20050130569 11/035507 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 27447808 |
Filed Date | 2005-06-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050130569 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Rawson, Neill ; et
al. |
June 16, 2005 |
Nonwoven abrasive material
Abstract
An abrasive material comprises an integral mass of discrete
lengths, not bonded to each other, of abrasive-coated non-woven
synthetic fibres. In particular, the entanglement force between the
said lengths is great enough to maintain a wad of the material when
in use but small enough to allow the product to be shaped in the
hand of a user.
Inventors: |
Rawson, Neill; (Halifax,
GB) ; Lees, Richard; (Halifax, GB) |
Correspondence
Address: |
SALIWANCHIK LLOYD & SALIWANCHIK
A PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION
PO BOX 142950
GAINESVILLE
FL
32614-2950
US
|
Family ID: |
27447808 |
Appl. No.: |
11/035507 |
Filed: |
January 14, 2005 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11035507 |
Jan 14, 2005 |
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10089873 |
Apr 3, 2002 |
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6860959 |
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10089873 |
Apr 3, 2002 |
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PCT/GB00/03799 |
Oct 4, 2000 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
451/59 ; 156/270;
156/279; 442/74; 451/532; 51/295 |
Current CPC
Class: |
D04H 1/74 20130101; B24D
11/001 20130101; D04H 1/02 20130101; B24D 15/00 20130101; Y10T
442/2123 20150401; D04H 1/64 20130101; D04H 1/587 20130101; D04H
1/4334 20130101; Y10T 156/1052 20150115; Y10T 156/1085 20150115;
B24D 3/28 20130101; B24D 3/008 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
451/059 ;
156/270; 156/279; 442/074; 051/295; 451/532 |
International
Class: |
B24D 011/00; B24D
003/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Oct 4, 1999 |
GB |
9923424.7 |
Mar 6, 2000 |
GB |
0005355.3 |
Apr 14, 2000 |
GB |
0009332.8 |
May 18, 2000 |
GB |
0012085.7 |
Claims
We claim:
1. An abrasive material comprising an integral mass of discrete
lengths, substantially held together solely by entanglement forces,
of abrasive-coated nonwoven synthetic fibres.
2. The abrasive material according to claim 1, wherein the lengths
are each of individual fibres, a number of fibres bound together or
strips of nonwoven fleeces, wherein each strip has a width of
between 2 and 10 mm.
3. The abrasive material according to claim 1, wherein the
entanglement force between the said lengths is great enough to
maintain a wad of the material when in use but small enough to
allow the product to be shaped in the hand of a user.
4. The abrasive material according to claim 1, which is deformable,
and which able to maintain its shape when deformed.
5. The abrasive material according to claim 1, having a strength
sufficiently low enough to allow separation into user-defined
quantities.
6. The abrasive material according to claim 1, which has
substantially the same tear strength in all directions.
7. The abrasive material according to claim 1, wherein the abrasive
is in the form of grains which are held in or on the fibers by a
binder.
8. A method of abrading a surface, which comprises contacting the
surface with a wad of an abrasive material comprising an integral
mass of discrete lengths, substantially held together solely by
entanglement forces, of abrasive-coated non-woven synthetic fibres,
wherein the wad is obtainable from a larger mass of the material
having a sufficiently low strength to allow it to be separated into
the wad, of a desired quantity, and a sufficiently high strength to
maintain the wad of material when in use.
9. A method of manufacturing an abrasive material, comprising the
steps of: (i) spraying a nonwoven synthetic fibre fleece with resin
and binder; (ii) spreading the sprayed fleece with absrasive; (iii)
curing the binder; and (iv) shredding the resultant material to
produce thin strips of material.
10. An abrasive material obtainable by a method comprising the
steps of: (i) spraying a nonwoven synthetic fibre fleece with resin
and binder; (ii) spreading the sprayed fleece with abrasive; (iii)
curing the binder; and (iv) shredding the resultant material to
produce thin strips of material.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to nonwoven abrasive materials.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
[0002] Nonwoven abrasive materials are well known in the art. Many
of these articles are manufactured from polyamide fibres, and
include a binder such as phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin. There are
currently a large number of non woven abrasive products in the
market place. Most of these articles are made from polyamide fibres
(generally Nylon 6 or Nylon 66) and the binder usually employed is
phenol-formaldehyde resin (PF). For less aggressive products,
polyester fibres and acrylic binders are often used. Current
nonwoven abrasives are used in sheets, pads or discs, or are
converted into flap wheels or bias mops etc., all of which require
sheet strength and integrity. All have sufficient integrity to
exist in the form of a sheet having defined surfaces that retains
its shape when used for surface-finishing and cleaning.
[0003] Products that do not have such integrity and that may be
used for surface cleaning and preparation are typically made of
cotton wool or steel wool. These materials differ from nonwoven
abrasives in that they contain no mineral abrasive particles and in
that the fibres are wholly or substantially natural in the case of
cotton wool or metallic in the case of wire wool. In both cases,
surface cleaning and preparation are effected by the fibres
themselves. In the case of nonwoven abrasives, the surface cleaning
and preparation is mostly or entirely a result of the abrasive
action of the abrasive mineral grains and/or the binder system
contained within the structure. The synthetic fibres are used
largely as carriers for these abrasive grains and binders.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] According to a first aspect of the present invention, an
abrasive material comprises nonwoven synthetic fibres obtained by
breaking down a larger mass of fibres into small individual
sections with no bonding between them. These sections may be
individual fibres, a number of fibres bound together or thin strips
of nonwoven fleece.
[0005] According to a second aspect of the present invention, an
abrasive material comprises nonwoven, synthetic fibres, wherein the
entanglement force between the fibres is great enough to maintain a
wad of material when in use but small enough to allow the product
to be shaped in the hand of a user.
[0006] According to further aspects of the present invention, an
abrasive material comprises nonwoven, synthetic fibres, and can be
separated in user-defined quantities and/or does not have a planar
surface.
[0007] According to another aspect of the present invention, a
method of manufacturing an abrasive material comprises the steps
of:
[0008] (i) spraying a nonwoven synthetic fibre fleece with resin
and binder;
[0009] (ii) spreading the sprayed fleece with abrasive;
[0010] (iii) curing the resin; and
[0011] (iv) passing the resultant material to a fibre-opening
machine to wholly or substantially separate the individual fibres
from one another.
[0012] An alternative to step (iv) comprises shredding the material
produced in step (iii).
[0013] A material of the present invention is useful in a number of
applications, for example, where a highly deformable abrasive
material is required.
[0014] Advantageously, by contrast to known nonwoven and coated
abrasive materials, the novel abrasive material has a low enough
tear strength to allow it to be separated into a smaller wad and a
high enough tear strength to maintain its integrity as a wad or
deformed wad when in use.
[0015] By contrast to steel wool, a material of the invention is
highly abrasive but much less aggressive to the hand. Another
advantage is that it is non-rusting. Another advantage is that it
is not as highly flammable as steel wool.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0016] A nonwoven abrasive material of the present invention may be
manufactured from components typically found in conventional
nonwoven materials. Nevertheless, it has a number of physical
characteristics and properties that differ from known
materials.
[0017] In particular, the novel material comprises synthetic fibres
coated with binder and abrasive grain, that are wholly or
substantially not bonded to one another. The entanglement force
between these fibres is great enough to maintain a wad of material
when in use but small enough to allow the product to be shaped in
the hand of the user.
[0018] The material may be tom apart, in wads, and also shaped, or
"crumpled", into a desired form. The product typically does not
have a planar surface and, unlike conventional products, cannot
easily be converted back to its original form.
[0019] The ease with which the material may be tom apart and, in
particular, that there is no "directional influence" on the
tearing, means that the material may be separated in user-defined
quantities. By "no directional influence" is meant that there is no
difference in the force required to tear one part of the product
from that required to tear any other part. This is a significant
improvement, as conventional materials are typically provided in
manufacturer-defined quantities.
[0020] It will be appreciated that criteria given for the integral
strength of a product of the invention may depend on the particular
user. It will nevertheless be understood that these criteria are
meaningful, for example since the ability to separate a part of the
larger mass, to form a wad, without destroying the remainder, is a
characteristic of, say, cotton wool. Similarly, it will be evident
whether or not a product can or cannot maintain its shape when
crumpled.
[0021] A preferred process for the production of a nonwoven,
synthetic, abrasive material comprises the steps of:
[0022] (i) separating and blending fibres;
[0023] (ii) carding and cross laying the fibres to form a
fleece;
[0024] (iii) spraying the resulting fleece with a slurry containing
abrasive grain and binder;
[0025] (iv) optionally spreading the sprayed fleece with abrasive
grain;
[0026] (v) drying and curing the binder in an oven; and
[0027] (vi) passing the resultant material to a fibre-opening
machine to wholly or substantially separate individual fibres (or
groups of fibres) from one another.
[0028] A preferred fibre-opening machine is a willying machine.
Other machines having essentially the same effect will be known to
those in the art.
[0029] An alternative to step (vi) is shredding the cured material,
to produce thin strips of material, e.g. between 2 and 10 mm
wide.
[0030] It will be evident to one of ordinary skill in the art that
alternative methods of preparing nonwoven abrasive material are
known. For example, air laying may be used, instead of carding.
[0031] The abrasive material is typically constructed from three
elements, e.g. using the above described process. The fibres are
suitably Nylon 66 or polyester. It will be understood that any
synthetic fibres may be used, dependent upon the desired use of the
product and the binder system employed. Preferably, the fibre
density is between 5 and 200 dtex. Combinations thereof may be
used, dependent upon process and product performance requirements.
The fibres typically have a staple length of 60 mm. It will be
understood that this may vary dependent on product performance and
process requirements.
[0032] The binder is typically an aqueous PF resin in combination
with PA66 fibres, or an acrylic binder in combination with
polyester fibres. Again dependent upon product application and
process requirements, any binder system may be employed, for
example epoxy resins, styrene-butadiene resins or polyurethane.
[0033] The abrasive grains are preferably of aluminium oxide or
silicon carbide. It understood that other abrasives could be used
such as Emery, dependent upon the desired performance
characteristics of the product. The size of abrasive grains used is
typically between #30 and #1800 grit.
[0034] Mineral fillers such as fused alumina silicate may also be
used. The size and also the chosen type depending on the process
and performance characteristics of the product.
[0035] The following Examples illustrate the invention.
EXAMPLE 1
[0036] Staple fibres of 17 dtex Nylon 66 of staple length of 60 mm
are opened using a willying machine and 2 disc openers and
transported by air to a card. The fibres are then processed through
the card to produce a unidirectional fleece. The fleece is then
passed to a cross-lapper, to build up layers of fleece to form a
batt of fibre weight 30 g/m.sup.2.
[0037] The fibre batt is sprayed with an aqueous phenol
formaldehyde (PF) resin and mineral filler slurry. The components
making up the slurry are added together to give a total mix weight
of about 800 kg. This is continuously agitated to prevent the
contents from settling. The weight ratio of dried resin to filler
is 1:3. The slurry also includes a small percentage (<1% wt) of
a pigment. Prior to spraying, the slurry solids content is
approximately 65% wt. A total of 92 g/m.sup.2 is sprayed onto the
batt.
[0038] #180 Aluminium oxide is then spread on the surface of the
batt to a density of 80-g/m.sup.2, to produce an abrasive fleece.
The resulting fleece is then passed through a forced air drier to
dry and cure the resin. The finished weight is 170 g/m.sup.2. At
this point, the fibres contained within the fleece are bound
together with PF resin.
[0039] The fleece is then passed through a fibre opening (willying)
machine where the bonds between the fibres are wholly or
substantially broken. The resulting resin and abrasive coated
fibres are then air-transported to a fibre collection bin.
EXAMPLES 2 AND 3
[0040] Two further abrasive products were made, using the same
fibres, binder and procedure as Example 1. The other
characteristics of the Examples are tabulated below.
1 Fibre:1st 1st Abrasive Mineral Fibre:Binder abrasive
Fibre:Mineral grain type size Filler Ratio grain ratio filler ratio
Aluminium oxide Fused 2:1 1:2.7 1:0.7 #180 Alumina silicate
Aluminium oxide Fused 2:1 1:1.3 1:0.7 #320 Alumina silicate
Aluminium oxide None 1.9:1 1:1.5 0 #600
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