System and a method for manufacturing substrates for coated fabrics

Abstract

A system and a method are disclosed for weaving SC fabrics using multiple weft insertion. The system and method may be used to increase the thread count of the SC fabric while reducing fabric costs.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 470,248, filed Mar. 31, 2011, and titled “SYSTEM AND A METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SUBSTRATES FOR COATED FABRICS,” the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE[0002]The present disclosure relates to a system and a method for manufacturing substrates for coated fabrics.BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE[0003]Substrates for coated (SC) fabrics are used in a wide variety of applications, including, for example, medical substrates, adhesive backings, industrial fabrics, geotextiles, to name only a few. Substrates for coated (SC) fabrics can be made using one of a number of processes. For example, SC fabrics may be made by coating and laminating a fabric with a synthetic material such as, for example, a film of polyester (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), or t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]According to one non-limiting example of the disclosure, a system and a method are disclosed for weaving substrates for coated (SC) fabrics using multiple weft insertion. The system and method may be used to increase the threadcount of SC fabrics while reducing fabric costs. The system and method may be used to manufacture products such as, for example, backing substrates for various forms of tapes, abrasives or adhesives.

[0006]The disclosed system and method offer numerous advantages that are not available from existing manufacturing processes. For example, the system and method include multiple weft insertion in the production of substrates for coated fabrics, thereby lowering cost by reducing the amount of time required to weave the SC fabric. Multiple weft insertion allows the manufacture of a multitude of fabrics to be produced with customer specific properties while using weaving machines that use a common warp construction. This allows for enormous flexibility in manufacturing and tailoring of fabric characteristics to specific customer requirements with minimal style change cost.

[0007]Some of the properties that are important to coating operations that can easily be altered by multiple weft insertion techniques include, for example, opacity, air permeability, warp direction tear strength, weft direction tear strength, fabric thickness, dimensional stability, fabric tensile strength, bursting strength, rate of wetting out, wicking, weight, shrinkage, and the like.

Problems solved by technology

Current manufacturing processes make it difficult and costly to manufacture multiple styles and to fine tune properties for substrates for coated fabrics.

That is, existing manufacturing processes lack a flexibility to tailor fabric characteristics to specific customer requirements while keeping costs low.

Thus, an unfulfilled need exists for a flexible manufacturing process that tailors fabric characteristics to specific customer requirements with minimal style change cost.

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