April 20, 1971 L. R. MZELL 3,575,751. by 4.6% F 44
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April 20, 1971 L. R. MZELL 3,575,751. METHOD OF MAKING SEMARTIFICIAL PILE FABRICS Original Filled Sept. 1, 1966 . 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 als. Sass Eckettsatistassists assass n N N NS 2 S.SS SSSSSSSSSSG21 is Y2 SnS 5 8 Arata. INVENTOR LOUS R. MZE BY 4.6% f 44 ATTORNEYs April 20, 97. L. R. M. ZE 3,575,751 METHOD of MAKING SEMI ARTIFICIAL FILE FABRICS Original Filed Sept. l. 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 caseat 27. as N S 2šSSSSSSSSS;&SAS % 7 III)}. 2. s 33.5 SS 3 AŠ. in f (s & S 3 14 - 15 S. S. & : Šs C &%Š 3.d $ Aca 1. EEDan SNsO R S R SS f S.CN SESS 5 6 7 INVENTOR LOUIS R. MIZELL by 4-4 A 4-26 ATTORNEYS 3,575,751 United States Patent Office Patented Apr. 20, 1971 2 While the following discussion will apply primarily 3,575,751. to woolled animal skins typified by woolled sheep and METHOD OF MAKNG SEMARTIFICIAL PLE FABRICS amb skins, it pertains to haired or furred animal skins in Louis R. Mizell, Montgomery County, Md., assignor to general, such as the haired skins or hides or goats, llamas, I.W.S. Nominee Company Limited, London, England 5 vicunas, alpacas, and the like, and to the furred skins of Continuation of application Ser. No. 484,240, Sept. 1, mink, muskrat, rabbit, chinchilla, bear, and the like. As 1966. This application Jan. 15, 1969, Ser. No. 796,276 used herein the term "woolled' is intended to be inclusive Int. C. C14b 1/02, 15/00, B32b.5/24 of the terms "haired' and "furred.' And, while it would U.S. C. 156-68 18 Claims not ordinarily be economically advantageous, certain of O the methods of the present invention are applicable to synthetic pile fabrics. ABSTRACT OF THE DESCLOSURE My invention will be more particularly described in the discussion which follows and by means of the specific Pile fabrics or porous artificial leather is made utilizing embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying draw woolled or furred animal skins without detaching the wool ings wherein: or fur from the skins prior to attaching the free ends of FIG. 1 is a semi-schematic top view of woolled animal the wool or fur to a second base thus resulting in a skins laid out so as to form a continuous pile fabric; and thicker, fuller more natural appearing product. FIGS. 2-4 are schematic views showing the adhering of a fabric as shown in FIG. 1 to a second base material. 20 Much of the cost of finished sheep and lamb skins is This application is a continuation of application Ser. due to processing, i.e., defleshing the hide, scouring the No. 484,240, filed Sept. 1, 1966, now abandoned. fur, tanning the hide, dyeing the fur, straightening the fur, This invention relates to methods for making fabrics and shearing the pile, and to wastage during shearing and and to the novel fabrics produced thereby. In its more more particularly when trimming the unevenly shaped specific aspects, the invention relates to methods for mak 25 skins. The average total size, not all of which is useable, ing fabrics utilizing woolled or furred animal skins and of a lamb skin is 6 square feet; that of a sheep is 8 square to the making of pile fabrics. feet. In one specific aspect, the present invention reduces Woolled or furred animal skins are superior in many the cost of processing by avoiding batch operation and ways to conventional man-made pile fabrics. The pile by minimizing wastage due to the cutting of uneven skins fibers of an animal skin are firmly anchored in the 30 into end use products. animal's hide, and there is substantially no shedding of The first step in preparing a composite natural pile fibers during use or in cleaning as is the case with almost fabric according to the process of the present invention all artificial pile fabrics. The fibers in an animal's hide is to adhere or attach the defleshed woolled hides to a are naturally uniformly distributed throughout the hide in carrier material which may be a porous plastic film, a a manner difficult to achieve in synthetic pile fabrics, 35 perforated foil or a woven or non-woven textile fabric especially those having longer pile heights. Wool has the pervious to the pickling, tanning and other chemical solu best resiliency of any fiber known, and woolled or furred tions used in subsequent treatment of the skins. For animal skins have a soft luxurious feel and appearance. economic reasons, a relatively inexpensive stiffened resin There is, however, a certain amount of wastage in con 40 coated cotton scrim, woven jute fabric or a pervious plas verting animal skins into garment parts and other end use tic film is preferred. The carrier should be at least about items which tends to increase the cost of the natural ma 60 inches wide by about 20 to 50 yards long or in other terial as compared with synthetic fiber pile fabrics and convenient dimensions to accommodate 2 to 4 full width other artificial materials. skins when laid side by side and a large number of full It is an object of the present invention to provide an 45 lengths of skins laid end to end on the carrier. The result improved method for producing finished woolled skins. ant composite natural pile fabric should be of such dimen It is a further object of the invention to provide a sions that will permit it to be processed using conventional method for processing woolled skins as pile fabrics, rather pile fabric equipment. than as individual furs, thereby minimizing handling and If an adhesive material is used to bond the skins to wastage of material. 50 the carrier material, the adhesive may be either water or It is yet another object of the present invention to pro organic solvent solutions or dispersions of resins, rubbers, vide for producing two or more pile fabrics from one copolymers and the like. The polymeric or elastomeric woolled animal skin or set of woolled animal skins. adhesive can be either natural or synthetic, thermoplastic It is still another object of the invention to provide or thermosetting, or mixtures of these. It is preferable a novel method for making artificial leather materials 55 to employ a relatively inexpensive adhesive which does utilizing woolled animal skins. not require a heat treatment to fix it on the material but I have discovered that certain objectives and advantages which will withstand subsequent wet processing of the of the present invention are obtained when woolled or composite natural pile fabric. The adhesive is either knife furred animal skins are put in a form so that they may be coated or sprayed onto one side of the carrier material processed as pile fabrics in continuous or semi-continuous 60 or brush coated on sprayed onto the back or hide side operations using conventional or modified textile pile of the animal skins. One possible advantage of applying fabric equipment. Moreover, since the animal pile fibers the adhesive to the hide of the woolled skins is that, in are already ideally distributed on their ends with respect certain cases, the hide may not then have to be tanned to to pile density and fiber spacing, a portion of the length of prevent it from shrinking in subsequent hot treatments. this natural pile, as well as that of single skins or another 65 On the other hand, a pressure-sensitive adhesive should set of woolled animal skins, may be adhered to a second be used on the carrier material when it is desired that the base material to make at least one other pile fabric from carrier be peeled off the hide component at a later stage. a single skin or set of woolled or furred animal skins. In this latter connection, one of the simplest and easiest And, utilizing the fiber spacing present, one or more ways of forming a composite natural pile fabric for proc artificial leather fabrics can be made from a single skin 70 essing, and to permit the chemical treating solutions to or set of woolled or furred skins leaving the single skin pass freely through the carrier, is to attach the woolled or set intact for further use. skins to a woven stainless-steel wire belt by means of 3,575,751 3 4. toggles or clamps in much the same way the sheep shear fabric. To do this, the natural pile fabric is first carded lings are now stretched and attached to individual metal on a machine of the same type as, but wider than, that Screen racks for drying, except that the wool skins should used to remove entanglements from the pile of individual be fitted close together to permit a semi-artificial pile wooled sheep skins. Then, either a so-called electrifying fabric to be made from the composite natural pile fabric. machine or vibrating comb may be employed to perma After the skins are processed on the belt and the semi 5 nently straighten the pile fibers. The electrifying machine artificial pile fabric is made, the animal skins are removed is designed to operate continuously to remove fiber crimp from the metal screen conveyor belt and used in the and to straighten the fibers by the rubbing and heating normal way. action of a heated, rotating, slotted metal cylinder which In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the woolled is brought to bear against the pile surface.