A PROCESS AND PLANT FOR MAKING WADDING FLOKS STARTING FROM A PADDED TEXTILE PRODUCT

Abstract

A process and plant for making wadding or fiber flocks starting from a padded textile product, either recycled or resulting from surplus production, wherein processing is carried out together and simultaneously of all the textile materials forming the same starting padded product. Compared with the known embodiments of the sector, the process and plant of the invention, in an economical, rapid and entirely mechanized way, allow wadding or fiber flocks to be produced that can be used as insulating padding in the clothing and furnishing sectors.

Claims

1. Process for making wadding starting from a padded textile product, either recycled or resulting from surplus production, characterized in that it provides the defibering and tearing, together and simultaneously, of the fabric and wadding fibers forming said padded product, with the formation of a single wadding layer, subsequently transformed into wadding flocks.

2. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that it provides, on garments devoid of any metal or plastic part, a step of defibering, tearing of the remaining materials of fabric and padding, together and simultaneously, in a defibering and tearing station (6), a step of forming a wadding layer in a station (13) and a final step of forming wadding flocks in an air circulation station (21).

3. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that said padded textile product consists of an insulated jacket, a sleeping bag, a bed quilt, production scraps of padded material and the like, surplus productions, padded clothing in general.

4. Plant for making wadding starting from a padded textile product with the process according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises stations (6,13), respectively provided with pairs (7,8) of rotating plates (9,10) and pairs (14,15) of cylinders (16,17) for the defibering and tearing, together and simultaneously, of all the fabric and wadding materials that form said padded product (1).

5. Plant according to claim 4, characterized in that said defibering and tearing station (6) is a station for defibering and tearing the fabric and wadding materials forming said padded product (1), said station (6) comprising at least one pair of rotating plates (9,10) provided with needles (11,12), respectively, having different length and different density, in a staggered arrangement between the needles (11) of the plate (9) and the needles (12) of the plate (10).

6. Plant according to claim 5, characterized in that said defibering and tearing station (6) comprises two pairs (7,8) of rotating plates (9,10) and that the density of the needles (11,12) of the first pair of rotating plates (7) is lower than that of the second pair of plates (8), arranged downstream of the previous one.

7. Plant according to claim 4, characterized in that said station (13) is a station for transforming the fibrous material obtained in the previous defibering and tearing station (6) into a single wadding layer, said station (13) having at least one pair of cylinders (16,17) provided with needles (18,19) having different length and density, in a staggered arrangement between the needles (18) of the cylinder (16) and the needles (19) of the cylinder (17).

8. Plant according to claim 7, characterized in that said station (13) comprises two pairs (14,15) of cylinders (16,17), in which the needles (18,19) of the first pair (14) of cylinders have larger dimensions than the needles (18,19) present on the second pair (15) of cylinders arranged downstream of said pair (14) of cylinders.

9. Plant according to claim 4, characterized in that it also has a station (21) arranged downstream of said station (13) and provided with an aspirator (20) for the transformation of the layer obtained in the previous station (13) into wadding flocks.

10. Plant according to claim 4, characterized in that it further comprises a chamber (2) with UV rays, ozone current or the like for decontamination of said product (1).

11. Plant according to claim 4, characterized in that it also provides a station (4) provided with rollers (5) for compressing and crushing said product (1) upstream of said station (6) with rotating plates.

12. Plant according to claim 4, characterized in that it also provides a metal detector for detecting the presence of metal parts to be eliminated.

13. Wadding flock made with the process and plant according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a bulkiness of at least 350-400 Cuin.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] These and other objects, advantages and features will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the process and plant according to the invention illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the figures in the attached drawing sheets.

[0016] In these:

[0017] FIG. 1 is a plan view of a schematic embodiment of the plant of the invention;

[0018] FIGS. 2 and 3 show, in side view, a pair of the rotating plates and a pair of the double cylinders, respectively, used on the plant of FIG. 1;

[0019] FIG. 4 is a side view of a carding willow used on the plates of FIG. 2; and

[0020] FIG. 5 shows a section of the cylinders of the station 13 of the plant of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0021] In the process of the invention, the padded product 1 to be recycled, such as an insulated jacket, a sleeping bag, a bed quilt, production scraps of padded material and the like, surplus productions, padded clothing in general, preliminarily washed and with metal or plastic parts removed, is placed in a decontamination chamber 2, which allows a bactericidal action to be performed thereon, for example through contact with UV radiation, with an ozone current and the like.

[0022] The product 1 thus processed in the decontamination chamber 2 is then transferred, by means of a conveyor belt 3, to a compression station 4, equipped with a pair of rollers 5 between which the product 1 is crushed and compressed, so as to make it more workable in the subsequent stations.

[0023] Preferably, a metal detector is also provided, capable of detecting the presence of any metal parts to be eliminated.

[0024] At the exit from station 4, the crushed product 1 is then processed, in a whole comprising padding and fabrics, inside a station 6, which carries out a defibering and tearing treatment of all these materials together and simultaneously. For this purpose, in the station 6 two pairs 7 and 8 of rotating plates are provided, one of which is better illustrated in FIG. 2.

[0025] In particular, each of said pairs of plates is formed by an upper plate 9 and a lower plate 10 with mutually opposing rotation (arrows F1 and F2 in FIG. 2). The facing surfaces of the plates 9 and 10, between which the product 1 coming from the compression station 4 is processed, have needles 11 and 12, with different sizes and density, and in a staggered arrangement between the needles 11 of the plate 9 and the needles 12 of the plate 10.

[0026] Advantageously, according to the invention, the needles 11,12 of the aforementioned pairs 7,8 of plates 9,10 are shaped like an arc or carding willow, as better illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0027] Even more advantageously, the pair 7 of plates which first receives the product 1 from the compression station 4 has large-size needles 11,12, for example with a thickness of 4 mm at the root 11a and of 2 mm at the tip 11b, distributed with a density of, for example, 2 needles/cm.sup.2. The subsequent pair 8 of plates 9,10 instead has needles 11,12 of smaller dimensions than the previous pair, for example 2 mm at the root and 1 mm at the tip, distributed with a higher density, for example 6 needles/cm.sup.2. Preferably the length of the needles of said pairs of plates ranges between 2 and 3 cm.

[0028] In this way, the first pair of plates 7 performs a first coarse tearing of the padded product 1, whereas the second pair of plates 8 performs a finer and more complete tearing of the fibers of the fabric and the wadding. In this way, raw fibers of wadding and fabric come out from the first pair 7 of plates 9,10, whereas from the second pair of plates 8, thinner and shorter fibers are obtained than those coming from the previous pair of plates 9,10.

[0029] The fibrous material obtained in station 6 is then transferred, by means of suitable pneumatic conveying systems not illustrated, to the subsequent station 13 for transforming said fibrous material into a thin layer of parallelized fibers which substantially form a wadding layer.

[0030] In particular, said station 13 is provided with two pairs of cylinders 14 and 15, which transform the fibrous material prepared in the previous station 6 into a layer of parallelized fibers. To this end, each pair of cylinders 14 and 15 is corns posed of an upper cylinder 16 and a lower cylinder 17, with mutually opposite directions of rotation F3 and F4 (FIG. 3). Each cylinder 16 and 17 also bears needles 18 and 19, respectively, with different length and density, fixed on suitable supports in a staggered arrangement between the needles 18 of the cylinder 16 and the needles 19 of the cylinder 17. Advantageously, the needles 18 and 19 of the first pair of cylinders 14 have larger dimensions (length and thickness) than those of the second pair 15 arranged downstream of the previous one. Preferably, the pair 14 of cylinders 16,17 which first receives the fibers from the previous station 6 has a lower density of needles 18,19 than that of the needles present on the subsequent pair 15 of cylinders.

[0031] Thanks to the aforementioned pairs of cylinders present in station 13, the fabric and wadding fibers, which come out from the previous station 6 in bulk and in a disorderly orientation, are stretched and arranged parallel to one another, so as to form a single layer of fibers, suitable for being transformed into wadding flocks in the next station.

[0032] The layer of material that comes out of station 13 is then sucked by an aspirator 20 inside a subsequent air circulation station 21, in which the textile material layer, from which the wadding flocks 22 are obtained, is torn and opened.

[0033] The process and plant described above therefore achieve the opening, together and simultaneously, of the different materials forming the product 1 to be recovered (fabrics, linings, padding of different nature, synthetic, artificial or natural, etc.), transforming them into a noble wadding fiber, usable as a padding material and for the insulation of new productions of easy-to-maintain thermal products.

[0034] The result is flocks 22 composed of a fiber which, even without having to be integrated with additional fibers with respect to those already present in the initial product 1, can have a bulkiness (or Fill Power—FP) of at least 350-400 Cuin (inches.sup.3/ounce). If a higher FP is required, it is sufficient to add x percentage of fiber to the mixing chamber.

[0035] The product bulkiness, FP, significantly affects CLO values. Theoretically, we can consider that with an FP of 400 cuin of recovered material, enclosed in special fabrics, a CLO value of around 1.7-1.8 can be obtained.

[0036] Modifications may be made to the invention as above described and illustrated in the figures in order to produce variants which, nevertheless, fall within the scope of the following claims. Thus, for example, the stations 6 and 13 of the plant of the invention could also have a single pair of rotating plates and a single pair of cylinders, respectively. Furthermore, since the described defibering and tearing station 6 and the station 13 forming the wadding are essential for the invention, the decontamination chamber 2 could be omitted.