~™ mi mi ii imiii mi i iii i ii i ii (19) J European Patent Office Office europeen des brevets (11) EP 0 763 61 6 A1 (12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION (43) Date of publication:ation: (51) int. CI.6: D04H 11/00 19.03.1997 Bulletin 1997/12 (21) Application number: 95306396.3 (22) Date of filing : 1 3.09.1 995 (84) Designated Contracting States: • Sumimoto, Kazushi AT BE CH FR GB IT LI NL Suita-shi, Osaka-fu (JP) • Taguchi, Junji (71 ) Applicant: DUSKIN COMPANY LIMITED Suita-shi, Osaka-fu (JP) Suita-shi, Osaka-fu (JP) (74) Representative: Senior, Alan Murray (72) Inventors: J.A. KEMP & CO., • Nagahama, Yuji 14 South Square, Suita-shi, Osaka-fu (JP) Gray's Inn London WC1 R 5LX (GB) (54) Dust-control mat having excellent dimensional stability and method of producing the same (57) A dust-control mat having excellent dimen- coupled to the base, wherein the floss-like nonwoven sional stability during the processing, good pile-erecting fiber layer contains low-melting fibers and is thermally property and excellent pattern expression, and a fixed after pile yarns are implanted thereon. The inven- method of producing the same. The dust-control mat tion further provides a method of producing the dust- having excellent dimensional stability comprises a base control mat. in which a base fabric is composed of a woven fabric or a nonwoven fabric and a floss-like nonwoven fiber layer F I G. I ■A \l \l U 1/ » \l uu-u 4 < CO CO CO CO o Q_ LU Printed by Rank Xerox (UK) Business Services 2.13.17/3.4 1 EP 0 763 616 A1 2 Description fabric obtained by implanting piles on the base fabric is better long as much as possible from the standpoint of BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION working efficiency, and a long starting fabric has been used in practice. Here, the long starting fabric must be (Field of the Invention) 5 rolled up or must be stacked being folded on a pallet. In this case, however, the starting fabric is distorted or is The present invention relates to a dust-control mat permanently folded. and to a method of producing the same. More specifi- When the starting fabric is to be coated with latex, cally, the invention relates to a dust-control mat having in general, tension is given to the starting fabric in the excellent dimensional stability during the processing, 10 direction of width by using pin-like tenter, the starting favorable pile-erecting property and excellent pattern fabric is continuously coated with latex using a coating expression, and to a method of producing the same. In roll, followed by drying to diffuse the water in the latex. this specification, the dust-control mats refer to those In this case, however, the distortion of about 5 cm/m in mats that are laid in porches and entrances of shops, the direction of width could not be avoided due to exter- hotels, hospitals, offices and houses through where 15 nal force that is applied, small amounts of deviation in people go in and out, in order to remove dust and dirt the speed and tension on the right and left sides in the adhered to the bottoms of the shoes so that dust and direction of width, deviation in the starting fabric-starting dirt are prevented from entering into indoors. fabric junction, and error. (Description of the Prior Art) 20 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The dust-control mats are mostly taffeting mats The object of the present invention therefore is to having a front surface made of a fibrous material and a provide a dust-control mat free from the above-men- back surface made of a rubber or a resin. tioned defects inherent in the conventional dust-control There has heretofore been employed a method of 25 mats, and having dimensional stability during the producing mats by implanting piles on a base fabric, processing, favorable pile-erecting property and excel- applying, as required, a latex onto the non-pile surface, lent pattern expression, as well as to provide a method and adhering a solid rubber to the non-pile surface by of producing the same. the application of heat and pressure. According to the present invention, there is pro- The base fabric may generally be either a woven 30 vided a dust-control mat having excellent dimensional fabric or a nonwoven fabric, which is used as carpet. stability comprising a base fabric, piles implanted on The latex of any type can be used such as SBR, one surface of the base fabric, and an elastomer back- NBR or the like. However, it has been known that NBR ing applied to the non-pile surface of the base fabric, is particularly favorable from the standpoint of resist- wherein the base fabric comprises a base of a woven ance against oils and resistance against washing. 35 fabric or a nonwoven fabric and a floss-like nonwoven Piles are implanted by a customary method such as fiber layer bonded to the base, said floss-like nonwoven taffeting, hooking, etc. fiber layer contains low-melting fibers, and the floss-like The piles to be implanted may be of any type such nonwoven fiber layer after the pile yarns are implanted as filaments of nylon, acryl, polyester, cotton, rayon or is thermally fixed. vinylon, or may be of the spun type. 40 According to the present invention, furthermore, The solid rubber (unitary type) is often adhered there is provided a process for producing a dust-control depending upon the type of the mat; i.e., the solid rub- mat having excellent dimensional stability comprising; a ber is cut into a regular size, and the uncured solid rub- step for preparing a base fabric by bonding a floss-like ber is adhered to the non-pile surface under the nonwoven fiber layer comprising staple fibers or fila- application of heat and pressure to effect the curing. 45 ment fibers in which low-melting fibers uniformly dis- In producing the mats, so far, a problem arises in persed to a base of a woven fabric or a nonwoven fabric that when a rolled starting fabric obtained by implanting by such means as needle punching or dot-like heat piles on the base fabric is treated with latex, is cut, or is adhesion; a step for preparing a starting fabric by adhered with a solid rubber, the mat is distorted, bent, implanting piles onto the base fabric by taffeting or and is permanently folded due to the external force so hooking; a step for partly melt-adhering the piles and applied to the starting fabric. In the dust-control mats the base fabric, and the fibers in the base fabric by heat- that have characters or straight patterns, such a distor- treating the starting fabric so as to melt or soften the tion or deformation that remains deteriorates the low-melting fibers; and a step for forming an elastomer appearance and quality of the goods. The thus distorted backing on the non-pile surface of the starting fabric. mat produces force that works to assume the original 55 According to the present invention, a distinguished straight form after it is repetitively used, washed and feature resides in that the floss-like nonwoven layer of dried. As a result, the whole mat is undulated and is the staple type or the filament type in which low-melting warped, causing the life (rental life) to be shortened. fibers are uniformly dispersed is bonded to the base of This will be described in further detail. The starting a woven fabric or a nonwoven fabric, and the thermoset- 2 3 EP 0 763 616 A1 4 ting is effected after the piles are implanted, making it more, partly low-melting fibers exist at a low concentra- possible to greatly improve dimensional stability, pile- tion, and it is difficult to obtain an adhesive force which erecting property and pattern expression. is so large as to adhere the piles and the base fabric First, the floss-like nonwoven fiber layer formed on together. If it is attempted to increase the adhesive force the base does not at all impair the implantation of piles s by increasing the ratio of the melt-adhering compo- on the base fabric but rather works to improve the pile- nents, the life of the starting fabric tends to be short- erecting property of the piles that are implanted. After ened due to an increase in the rigidity of the base fabric. the piles are implanted onto the base fabric, the floss- As will be described later, however, the present inven- like nonwoven fiber layer is thermally fixed, so that the tion makes it possible to obtain excellent adhering force low-melting fibers contained in the floss-like nonwoven 10 despite the melt-adhering components are contained at fiber layer are melted or softened so as to be thermally a low concentration. adhered, whereby the implanted structure is fixed and is According to the present invention, the base fabric stabilized contributing to improving dimensional stabil- can be favorably used either when it is composed of a ity, pile-erecting property and pattern expression of the nonwoven fabric or when it is composed of a woven fab- mat irrespective of the subsequent processing. 15 ric. When the melt-adhering components are added to That is, according to the present invention, the the woven fabric, in particular, loose components in the floss-like nonwoven layer of the staple type or the fila- outer periphery of the base fabric (base fabric compo- ment type in which low-melting fibers (hereinafter often nents in parallel with the outer peripheral sides of the referred to as melt-adhering components) are uniformly base fabric) are melt-adhered, too, preventing the fray- dispersed, is bonded to the base of a woven fabric or a 20 ing even after the mat is washed repetitively.