THE LEATHER FIBER FOR THE LEATHER SPUN YARN HAVING IMPROVED PROPERTY

Abstract

Provided is a leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of the leather spun yarn by containing leather fibers with more improved length, thickness, fineness, and the like than conventional leather fibers, in which the leather fiber has an average length of 15 mm or more and 40% or more of the content of fibers of more than 15 mm, in the leather fibers for the leather spun yarn contained in the leather spun yarn formed by containing the leather fibers and natural fibers or/and regenerated fibers.

Claims

1. A leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties, wherein the leather fiber has an average length of 15 mm or more and 40% or more of a content of fibers of more than 15 mm, in the leather fibers for the leather spun yarn contained in the leather spun yarn formed by containing the leather fibers and natural fibers or/and regenerated fibers.

2. The leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of claim 1, wherein the leather fiber has an average thickness of 0.05 to 0.15 mm.

3. The leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of claim 1, wherein the leather fiber has a length/thickness ratio of average 130 or more.

4. The leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of claim 1, wherein the leather fiber has 15% or more of the content of fibers having a length/thickness ratio of more than 200.

5. The leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of claim 1, wherein the leather spun yarn contains 10 wt % or more of the leather fibers.

6. The leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of claim 1, wherein the natural fibers are any one or two or more of cotton fibers, wool fibers, and silk fibers, and the regenerated fibers are rayon fibers or acetate fibers.

7. The leather fiber for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of claim 1, wherein the leather spun yarn contains 10 wt % or more of the leather fibers.

8. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 1.

9. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 2.

10. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 3.

11. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 4.

12. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 5.

13. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 6.

14. A leather product comprising the leather fibers for leather spun yarn of claim 7.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0021] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a length distribution of leather fibers according to the present invention.

[0022] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a thickness distribution of leather fibers according to the present invention.

[0023] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a length/thickness ratio distribution of leather fibers according to the present invention.

BEST MODE

[0024] Hereinafter, a preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, among drawings, it should be noted that like constituent elements or components are represented by like reference numerals. In describing the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated will be omitted so as to avoid obscuring the gist of the present invention.

[0025] The terms about, substantially, and the like used herein are used as a numerical value or a value close to the numerical value when inherent manufacturing and material tolerances are presented in the stated meaning, and used to prevent an unscrupulous infringer from unfairly using disclosed contents in which precise or absolute numerical values are mentioned to help in the understanding of the present invention.

[0026] The leather fiber in the leather fiber for leather spun yarn of the present invention means a set of leather fibers contained in the leather spun yarn.

[0027] In the present invention, when the numerical range is described in the range of X to Y(Y>X), unless the limited words such as less than, or less, or more, more than, and the like after X and Y are disclosed, it is defined as more than X and Y or less.

[0028] In addition, in the present invention, when the content of fibers is shown as %, unless the limited words such as weight, volume, and the like are disclosed, it means a content ratio according to the total number of fibers.

[0029] The present invention relates to leather spun yarn containing natural fibers or/and regenerated fibers, in which the leather fiber contained in the leather spun yarn has an average length of 15 mm or more and 40% or more of the content of fibers of more than 15 mm.

[0030] Generally, in the spun yarn, it is prevented threads from being released with frictional force between the fibers to maintain a state of the threads, and as the length of the fibers contained is increased, the frictional force is increased, and the strength is improved.

[0031] The average length of the leather fibers contained in the leather spun yarn of the present invention is 15 mm or more to improve the frictional force between the leather fibers contained in the leather spun yarn.

[0032] Further, since the leather fiber contained in the leather spun yarn of the present invention has 40% or more of the content of leather fibers of more than 15 mm, a large amount of longer leather fibers is contained to further improve the frictional force between the fibers.

[0033] Further, the leather fiber contained in the leather spun yarn of the present invention has an average thickness of 0.05 to 0.15 mm and a length/thickness ratio is average 130 or more.

[0034] When the thickness of the leather fiber is too thick, it is difficult to adjust the thickness of the leather spun yarn and the texture of the leather spun yarn may deteriorate, and when the thickness of the leather fiber is too thin, the processibility may deteriorate. Accordingly, it is preferred that the leather fiber contained in the leather spun yarn has the average thickness of 0.05 to 0.15 mm.

[0035] Further, as the length/thickness ratio of the leather fiber contained in the leather spun yarn is increased, the fiber refers to a long and thin leather fiber, the processibility is improved, and it is easy to adjust the thickness of the leather spun yarn. Accordingly, it is preferred that the length/thickness ratio of the leather fiber is average 130 or more.

[0036] In the leather fiber contained in the leather spun yarn of the present invention, in order to improve the facilitation of adjusting the thickness of the leather spun yarn and the physical properties, it is preferred that the content of fibers having the length/thickness ratio of more than 200 is 15% or more.

[0037] As the content of leather fibers having the length/thickness ratio of more than 200 is increased, it is meant that a large amount of long and thin leather fibers is contained, the processibility is improved, and the physical properties are improved.

[0038] The leather fibers used in the present invention are obtained from the leather, and the leather has a constant length as a flaked/flat scrap to enable the extraction of fiber form.

[0039] In the method of obtaining the leather fiber, the leather is crushed by a leather waste treating apparatus of Korean Patent Registration No. 1804099 to break the binding force between the fibers and then the crushed leather may be separated and obtained into leather fibers through a separation process.

[0040] In the leather fibers of the present invention, in order to obtain the long leather fibers, it is preferred to obtain leather fibers using a scrap having a length of one surface of about 100 mm or more and an area of 50 to 250 cm.sup.2.

[0041] The separation process separates the leather fibers and separates uniform leather fibers to improve the physical properties of the leather spun yarn and the uniformity ratio in a leather product including the leather spun yarn.

[0042] Since in the micronized leather formed by the leather waste treating apparatus, powder-like leather and irregular leather fibers having the thickness of several um to hundreds um are mixed, they need to separate leather fibers having uniform length and thickness through the separation process.

[0043] The separation process is a process of separating leather fibers through air pressure to apply the air pressure to the leather fibers and separate the leather fibers through a moving distance of the leather fiber due to the air pressure.

[0044] The separation process may be performed by separating the leather fibers by moving the leather fibers vertically or horizontally to the ground through the air pressure and obtaining the leather fibers lifted at a constant height by moving the leather fibers vertically.

[0045] The air pressure of the separation process is preferably 4 to 10 bar, more preferably 5 to 8 bar.

[0046] As the number of times of the separation process is increased, it is possible to classify the uniform thickness and length of the fibers, but the separation process is performed preferably 2 to 8 times, more preferably 3 to 5 times for process efficiency.

[0047] As an example of the separation process, the separation process may be performed by lifting leather fibers at air pressure of 4 to 10 bar on a pipe formed vertically to the ground and then obtaining the leather fibers lifted to 1 to 4 m.

[0048] In the present invention, the leather fibers may be obtained by a method of suctioning the lifted and separated leather fibers by a suction device of 2 to 8 bar to obtain thin and long leather fibers.

[0049] The leather that may be used in the present invention may use various leather such as cow leather, sheep leather, pig leather, and the like, but the sheep leather or the pig leather is thinner than the cow leather and has low strength to form too short leather fibers, and thus, it is difficult to be manufactured as spun yarn. Accordingly, it is preferred to extract the leather fibers from the cow leather.

[0050] The natural fibers contained in the leather spun yarn together with the leather fibers may use cotton fibers, wool fibers, silk fibers, and the like, and may use various natural fibers according to the usage and the purpose, and may be used with one or two or more natural fibers.

[0051] Further, the regenerated fibers may use rayon fibers, acetate fibers, and the like, and may be various natural fibers according to the usage and the purpose, and may be used with one or two or more regenerated fibers.

[0052] The leather fibers contained in the leather spun yarn are preferably contained in 10 wt % or more, and when the leather fibers are contained in less than 10 wt %, sensibility such as leather-specific texture may deteriorate.

[0053] The leather spun yarn of the present invention may be manufactured using leather fibers and natural fibers or/and regenerated fibers by using a carding machine, a drawing frame, a fly frame, and a spinning machine, and may be manufactured by a general spun yarn manufacturing process.

[0054] As described above, the leather spun yarn with improved physical properties of the present invention containing the long leather fibers may be used for various leather products due to the improved physical properties.

[0055] Hereinafter, as Exemplary Embodiments according to the present invention, leather fibers for leather spun yarn with improved physical properties and leather spun yarn were manufactured. The present invention is not limited to these Exemplary Embodiments.

Exemplary Embodiment 1

[0056] A cow leather scrap was micronized using a leather waste treating apparatus and then each leather fiber was obtained by a separation process.

[0057] The cow leather scrap used a scrap having one surface of 100 mm or more and an area of about 50 to 200 cm.sup.2.

[0058] The separation process was performed total twice by lifting the leather fibers at air pressure of about 6 bar in a pipe formed vertically to the ground and then suctioning the leather fibers lifted to about 1.8 m or more by a suction device of about 4 bar to obtain the leather fibers to obtain the leather fibers.

[0059] The obtained leather fibers and cotton fibers were blended at a weight ratio of 32:68 to manufacture the leather spun yarn of 600 deniers (Nm 15).

Exemplary Embodiment 2

[0060] Exemplary Embodiment 2 was manufactured in the same manner as Exemplary Embodiment 1, but in the separation process, the leather fibers were lifted at air pressure of about 7 bar and then the leather fibers lifted to about 2 m or more were suctioned by a suction device of about 4.5 bar to obtain the leather spun yarn with the leather fibers and wool fibers.

Exemplary Embodiment 3

[0061] Exemplary Embodiment 3 was manufactured in the same manner as Exemplary Embodiment 1, but in the separation process, the leather fibers were lifted at air pressure of about 8 bar and then the leather fibers lifted to about 2.2 m or more were suctioned by a suction device of about 4.5 bar to obtain the leather spun yarn with the leather fibers and rayon fibers having the fineness of 2 deniers and a fiber length of 38 mm.

Comparative Embodiment 1

[0062] Comparative Embodiment 1 was manufactured in the same manner as Exemplary Embodiment 1, but in the separation process, the leather fibers were lifted at air pressure of about 5 bar and then the leather fibers lifted to about 2 m or more were obtained to manufacture the leather spun yarn.

Comparative Embodiment 2

[0063] Comparative Embodiment 2 was manufactured in the same manner as Comparative Embodiment 1, but leather spun yarn was manufactured with leather fibers and rayon fibers having the fineness of 2 deniers and a fiber length of 38 mm. 1.5 g of the leather fibers obtained in Exemplary Embodiments 1 to 3 and Comparative Embodiment 1 were taken and the number of leather fibers contained in 1.5 g and the length and the thickness of each leather fiber were measured. Table 1 illustrated lengths, Table 2 illustrated thicknesses, and Table 3 illustrated length/thickness ratios.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Comparative Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Length (mm) 1 1 2 3 average 5 or less 469 76 32 39 49 5~10 489 249 237 322 269.33 10~15 221 358 341 402 367 15~20 152 265 305 293 287.67 20~25 86 171 140 221 177.33 25~30 25 59 113 59 77 30~35 23 13 58 51 40.67 35~40 6 51 19 14 28 40~45 3 17 5 3 8.33 45~50 0 1 5 3 3 50~55 1 2 6 0 2.67 More than 55 0 2 2 1 1.67 Total number 1475 1264 1252 1408 1308 of fibers Average 9.52 15.21 15.65 15.36 15.41 Fiber content 20.07 45.97 52.16 45.81 47.89 (%) of more than 15 mm

[0064] FIG. 1 is a graph showing a length distribution of leather fibers according to the present invention. As illustrated in Table 1 and FIG. 1, it can be seen that in the leather fibers according to the present invention, the most leather fibers having the length of 10 to 15 mm are contained and the leather fibers of more than 15 mm are contained in 40% or more. In the leather fibers of Comparative Embodiment 1, it can be seen that the most leather fibers of 5 to 10 mm are contained, many leather fibers of 5 mm or less are also contained, and the leather fibers of more than 15 mm are contained in 20.07%, and thus, there is a large difference from the leather fibers of Exemplary Embodiments.

[0065] It can be seen that the leather fibers of the present invention of an average of 15.41 mm are much longer than the leather fibers of Comparative Embodiment of 9.52 mm.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Comparative Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary Thickness Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment (mm) 1 1 2 3 average 0.05 or less 13 2 9 1 4 0.05~0.1 309 273 323 285 293.67 0.10~0.15 902 785 696 889 790 0.15~0.2 222 165 182 221 189.33 0.20.25 28 32 34 9 25 0.25~0.3 1 7 6 2 5 More than 0.3 0 0 2 1 1 Total number 1475 1264 1252 1408 1308 of fibers Average 0.122 0.1154 0.1205 0.124 0.12

[0066] FIG. 2 is a graph showing a thickness distribution of leather fibers according to the present invention. As illustrated in Table 2 and FIG. 2, it can be seen that in both the leather fibers according to the present invention and the leather fibers of Comparative Embodiment 1, the most leather fibers having the thickness of 0.1 to 0.15 mm are contained and in both Exemplary Embodiments and Comparative Embodiment 1, the leather fibers have an average thickness of about 0.115 to 0.125 mm and have similar thicknesses thereto.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Length/ Comparative Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary thickness Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment ratio 1 1 2 3 average 50 or less 205 96 89 102 95.67 50~100 332 325 342 356 351 100~150 435 406 375 401 394 150~200 305 215 223 258 232 200~250 139 99 162 130 120.33 250~300 45 64 35 102 67 300~350 13 29 18 29 25.33 350~400 0 18 2 23 14.33 400~450 1 4 3 4 3.67 450~500 0 6 2 1 3 500~550 0 2 0 1 1 More than 0 0 1 1 0.67 550 Total number 1475 1264 1252 1408 1308 of fibers Average 115.05 140.58 132.47 135.1 136.05 Fiber content (%) 13.42 17.56 17.81 20.67 17.99 of length/thickness ratio of more than 200

[0067] FIG. 3 is a graph showing a length/thickness ratio distribution of leather fibers according to the present invention. As illustrated in Table 3 and FIG. 3, it can be seen that in both the leather fibers according to the present invention and the leather fibers of Comparative Embodiment 1, the most leather fibers having the length/thickness ratio of 150 to 200 are contained. In the leather fibers of Exemplary Embodiments, it can be seen that the number of leather fibers having the length/thickness ratio of 50 or less is small, the number of leather fibers having the large length/thickness ratio is large, and the content of fibers having the average length/thickness ratio of 130 or more and the length/thickness ratio of more than 200 is 15% or more.

[0068] However, in Comparative Embodiment 1, it can be seen that the number of leather fibers having the length/thickness ratio of 50 or less is large, the number of fibers is greatly decreased as the length/thickness ratio is increased, and thus the average length/thickness ratio is 115.05, which are a large difference from Exemplary Embodiments, and the content of fibers having the length/thickness ratio of more than 200 is 13.42%, which is greatly lower than Exemplary Embodiments.

[0069] Then tensile strengths of the leather spun yarn manufactured in Exemplary Embodiments 1 to 3 and Comparative Embodiments 1 and 2 were measured and illustrated in Table 4.

[0070] The tensile strength was measured as the spun yarn strength using a universal testing machine (UTM) of Instron under a measurement temperature of 20? C. and the humidity of 65% according to ASTM D2256 standard.

TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Comparative Comparative Exemplary Exemplary Exemplary Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Embodiment Classification 1 2 1 2 3 Tensile strength 0.5 0.6 1.7 1.7 1.9 (g/d)

[0071] As shown in Table 4, it can be seen that the tensile strength with improved physical properties according to the present invention is 1.7 to 1.9 g/d, which is all 1.0 g/d or more, but in Comparative Embodiments 1 and 2, it can be seen that the tensile strengths are 0.5 g/d and 0.6 g/d, which have a large difference from the leather spun yarn of the present invention. It can be seen that in the leather fibers contained in the leather spun yarn of the present invention, many leather fibers having the long length and the large length/thickness ratio exist to increase the frictional force between the fibers forming the leather spun yarn, thereby greatly improving the tensile strength of the leather spun yarn.