Fabric with pigmented and dyeable yarns

Abstract

A novel knitted or woven fabric manufactured using at least one solution dyed or pigmented yarn, preferably polypropylene, which will not accept any type dye normally used to dye knitted or woven fabrics, and at least one yarn that will accept at least one dye normally used to dye knitted or woven fabrics. The fabric with this combination of yarns is dyed, and only the last mentioned yarn accepts the dye. Novel and pleasing effects can be achieved.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based upon, and claims the priority of, provisional application Ser. No. 60/683,881, filed May 24, 2005.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to knitted or woven fabrics manufactured for use predominantly in the apparel and home furnishings industry.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,511 to Bersted et al. clearly outlines the benefits and drawbacks of polypropylene fibers and yarn. While the Bersted et al disclosure is directed mostly toward the carpet industry, the features of polypropylene or poly-olefins are well described.

Poly-olefin yarns are well known and widely used. The poly-olefin yarn used most is polypropylene, but this invention encompasses all types of poly-olefin yarn or fibers and will use the term poly-olefin to describe the yarns and fibers.

The one major disadvantage of using poly-olefin yarn to try to create a dyeable greige goods fabric is the fact that poly-olefin will not accept any dye normally used to dye fabrics. When a knitted or woven fabric is manufactured using poly-olefin yarn, usually only a pigmented or solution-dyed poly-olefin yarn is used. This fact makes it impossible to create greige goods that can be dyed to a desirable shade. Since the yarn is pigment colored and will not accept any dye, the fabric must be manufactured already having color. This fact greatly limits the variety of styles and colors available to the designer. It is very desirable to make a fabric that could be colored to any desirable shade after it was woven or knitted. This would make one fabric style usable by many end users without sacrificing the ability to create stylish colors.

Most knitted or woven fabrics are made using yarns that will accept color applied at a conventional dye house. Cotton, polyester, nylon and rayon are the most commonly used yarns in apparel and home furnishing fabrics. Most fabrics are first made into greige goods and held at the dye house for last minute dyeing to customer's specifications. This greatly reduces inventory requirements and enables the stylist to create pleasing seasonal styles to satisfy their customers from the greige knitted or woven fabric held in inventory.

It is very desirable to create a dyeable greige fabric that can also take advantage of the attributes of poly-olefin or polypropylene. Since poly-olefin yarn has the lowest specific gravity of all synthetic yarn it can be used to make very desirable lightweight fabrics.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, this invention provides a greige knitted or woven fabric containing a least one end (i.e., one yarn) of a pigment or solution-dyed yarn and at least one end of a dyeable yarn. It is preferable to have more than one end of each yarn and one skilled in the art will see the benefits when a further explanation is provided.

The object is to create greige goods that can be dyed at any conventional dye house but to use the pigmented yarn as a styling tool. The effect will create styled greige goods that can be dyed at the last minute but will use the advantages of the pigmented yarn.

I have found that using a dark colored or black-pigmented poly-olefin yarn knitted or woven together with a dyeable yarn into a greige fabric creates acceptable dark shades when the fabric is piece dyed or printed using deep color dyes. The yarn that accepts dye is dyed and the pigmented yarn will not accept the dye. Poly-olefin yarn is preferred, but the same effect can be achieved by one skilled in the art using any pigmented yarn that would not accept dye in a normal dye bath.

I have found that a fabric using a light colored or white-pigmented poly-olefin yarn manufactured by weaving or knitting with a yarn that will accept color, will dye to pleasing pastel shades when subjected to a dye bath using light colored dyes. Poly-olefin yarn is preferred, but the same effect can be achieved by one skilled in the art using any pigmented yarn that would not accept dye in a normal dye bath.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention provides the manufacturer of apparel or home furnishings with a knitted or woven fabric that can be either solid-dyed or cross-dyed using conventional equipment into many desirable shades. Both light and dark shades are possible when fabric according to the invention is dyed by one skilled in the art.

Fabrics can be manufactured using spun yarn or filament yarn and even combinations of the two. Below are some examples of how to use this invention, but it will be understood that these serve merely as guideposts to one skilled in the art of making fabrics. One skilled in the art would choose any pigmented yarn that will not accept a dye using normal dye bath or print techniques.

EXAMPLE 1

A 30″ tubular knitted fabric is manufactured using 32 ends of 150/72/1 pigmented black polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 32 ends of 150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn. The pigmented and dyeable yarns are knitted together and the result looks like a salt and pepper tweed 1×1 ribbed tubular knit fabric.

The tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in a pressure dye jig using disperse black high-energy dye. The fabric is subjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperature reaches 265 F. and the full dye cycle is run including an after clear and hydrophilic finish.

The thus dyed fabric tube is a pleasing black shade that matches the shade of the pigmented poly-olefin. Only the polyester portion of the fabric, however, accepts the disperse black dye. The pigmented poly-olefin does not accept any dye. The result is a solid black colored fabric. It is hardly noticeable that one yarn is poly olefin and one is polyester.

The dyed fabric is opened on a slitter and is dried in a conventional oven at 285 degrees F. It is stretched to a full 60″ width. The solid black fabric is rolled, packaged and tagged and is ready for shipment to the apparel customer. The fabric weighs 6 ounces per square yard and is suitable for slinky apparel wear but not limited to any particular use.

EXAMPLE 2

A 30″ tubular knitted fabric is manufactured using 32 ends of 150/72/1 white-pigmented polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 32 ends of 150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn. The tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in a pressure dye jig using a disperse dye formula that will create a white color on the polyester. The fabric is subjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperature reaches 265 degrees F., and the full dye cycle is run including an after clear and hydrophilic finish.

The dyed fabric tube has a pleasing white shade that matches the shade of the pigmented poly-olefin. Only the polyester portion of the fabric, however, accepts the disperse white dye formula. The pigmented poly-olefin does not accept any dye. The result is a fabric that is colored a solid white.

The dyed fabric is opened on a slitter and is dried in a conventional oven at 285 degrees F. It is then stretched to a full 60″ width. The solid white fabric is rolled, packaged and tagged and is ready for shipment to the apparel customer. The fabric weighs 6 ounces per square yard and is suitable slinky apparel wear but not limited to such use. One skilled in the art will be able to make many different type apparel garments using this fabric.

EXAMPLE 3 Unique Stretch Fabric

A 30″ tubular 1×1 rib knitted fabric is manufactured using 32 ends of 150/72/1 pigmented black polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 32 ends of 150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn and 40/1 (5%) elastomeric yarn such as spandex. The pigmented and dyeable yarns are knitted together using the same set up as the knitted fabric in example one. However, instead of a salt and pepper, even look, a surprising fabric results. The spandex causes the one of the yarns, in this case the undyed yarn, to appear mostly on the back of the fabric and the other yarn, in this case the black-pigmented yarn, to appear on the front.

The resulting tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in a pressure dye jig using disperse red high-energy dye. The fabric is subjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperature reaches 265 degrees F., and the full dye cycle is run including an after clear and hydrophilic finish. Surprisingly, the resultant fabric appears solid red on one side and a pigmented rib, interspersed with red, appears on the other side. The fabric appears to be very sophisticated and expensive.

The dyed tube is split on a slitter machine, and the fabric is stretched to 60 inches in width and processed through a fabric-drying oven at 285 degrees F. The fabric is gummed on the edges to avoid curling. After drying, the fabric shrinks to 55 inches in width due to the spandex. The finished weight is 7.1 ounces per square yard. The fabric is suitable for medium to better apparel. Also the fabric appears wrinkle resistant due to the spandex. The two tone effect is very surprising and pleasing. One skilled in the art would know how to make many variations utilizing this aspect of the invention.

EXAMPLE 4 Stripe Fabric

A 30″ tubular knitted fabric is manufactured using a stripe knitting machine. 45 ends of 150/72/1 White-pigmented polypropylene continuous filament yarn and 45 ends of 150/68/1 dyeable polyester continuous filament yarn are set up on the knitting machine. A pigmented white stripe is alternately knit with a dyeable polyester stripe. The pigmented and dyeable yarns are knitted and the fabric looks like a white stripe with an alternate white stripe. The pigmented white polypropylene is almost identical in shade to the dyeable white polyester.

The tubular fabric is sent to a dye house. A dye bath is prepared in a pressure dye jig using disperse black high-energy dye. The fabric is subjected to the dye cycle for polyester. Dye temperature reaches 265 degrees F., and the full dye cycle is run including an after clear and hydrophilic finish. The thus dyed fabric tube has a pleasing black and light gray stripe as only the polyester portion of the fabric accepts the full strength disperse high-energy black dye. The pigmented poly-olefin will accept only a slight tone of the black dye. The resulting fabric is a striped fabric having black and light gray stripes.

The dyed fabric is opened on a slitter and is dried in a conventional oven at 285 degrees F. It is then stretched to a full 60″ width. The solid black and gray striped fabric is rolled, packaged and tagged and is ready for shipment to the apparel customer. The fabric weighs 6 ounces per square yard and is suitable for active or sports wear but not limited to this use. It should be understood that using this invention, one skilled in the art will vary the width of the stripe and dye any pleasing shade stripe on the polyester portion of the fabric. The white poly-olefin portion will pick up a pleasing very light tone of the dye used to create the colored stripe.

EXAMPLE 5 Stripe Stretch Fabric

A fabric is knitted as above in Example 4. A 40-denier spandex yarn is placed in the proper feeders to create a 5% addition of the spandex. The spandex chosen is chlorine safe as the fabric has to be dyed into a colored stripe and be subjected to an after wash containing bleach. Only the polyester yarns dye to a black shade. The fabric is finished as above for shipment to the customer. The stretch fabric is suitable for use as active sports wear.

In the above examples I mention dyeing the polyester stripe to a black shade but one skilled in the art would be able to make any color stripe desired by the customer.

EXAMPLE 6 Woven Fabric

A warp is made up of yarns spun to a 28/2 cc. There are 45 ends of yarn to the inch. The yarns in the warp alternate. One of the yarns is a pigmented black yarn spun using 100% polypropylene and one yarn is a 28/2 dyeable polyester. The warp is set up on a box-loom weaving machine. Two fill yarns alternate between a 28/2 pigmented black polypropylene and a 28/2 dyeable polyester. A fabric is woven using 35 picks per inch. The fabric looks like white with black stripes or lines. The resulting fabric is sent to the dye house where it is dyed using the polyester dye method and high energy dyes. A tan dye combination is used to dye the polyester portion of the fabric. The fabric is dyed scoured and finished in an oven at 285 degrees F. The fabric is a pleasing cross-dyed tan and black check tone and weighs 8 ounces per square yard. The fabric is suitable for apparel.

In this example, a tan dye was chosen but one skilled in the art could use various pigmented colors with dyeable yarns to create pleasing colored fabrics. The fabrics are not shipped to the customer until they are dyed to the customer's specifications. Also a variation on the above would be to feed a fill of spandex equal to 5% of the weight of the goods. This would add a stretch feature to the fabric.

EXAMPLE 7 Printed Fabrics

Use Examples 1-5 to create greige goods having at least one end of pigmented polypropylene knitted or woven with dyeable polyester. The greige cloth is sent to a printer to create printed fabrics. The printer would use polyester dyes to dye that portion of the fabric which will accept the dye. The printed fabric is scoured or washed leaving only the dyeable yarn printed, as the pigmented yarn will not accept any of the print. One skilled in the art could substitute dyeable yarns of nylon, rayon, cotton or acetate instead of using polyester. The combinations of pigmented and dyeable yarns would only be limited by the imagination of one skilled in the art.

EXAMPLE 8 Multi-Tones

In yet another embodiment of the invention, pigmented polypropylene is knitted or woven with multiple ends of dyeable yarn that accept different dyes. Cotton will accept vat dye and polyester will accept disperse dye. By way of example, if successive dye baths contained a red disperse dye, and a blue vat dye, a fabric manufactured with a pigmented white polypropylene, a cotton yarn and a polyester yarn would be dyed red, white and blue.

One skilled in the art would know how to vary the pigmented colors and the various yarns with different dye affinity to create many novel dyeable fabrics using this invention.

It should be understood, of course, that the several embodiments of the invention herein described are representative only, as many variations may be made therein without departing from the clear teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, reference should be made to the following appended claims in determining the full scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A greige knitted or woven fabric which comprises

a) at least one end of a yarn of a first type, which is pigment-dyed or solution-dyed, and

b) at least one end of a yarn of a second type, which is dyeable by conventional dyeing procedures.

2. A fabric according to claim 1, in which

a) the yarn of said first type is formed of a poly-olefin.

3. A fabric according to claim 1, in which

a) said yarns are spun yarns, filament yarns, or combinations thereof.

4. A dyed fabric comprising the greige fabric of claim 1, wherein

a) the fabric is knitted or woven fabric manufactured using a plurality of ends of pigmented yarns of said first type and a plurality of ends of yarns of said second type dyed by convention dyes.

5. A dyed fabric according to claim 4, wherein

a) said fabric and said yarns of said second type are dyed a color contrasting with the color of said pigmented yarns of said first type.

6. A dyed fabric according to claim 5, in which

a) said yarns of said second type include a fractional portion of elastomeric yarns.

7. A dyed fabric according to claim 6, in which

a) the fabric and said yarns of said second type comprise about 5% of elastomeric yarn and are predominantly visible on one side of the fabric.

8. A dyed fabric according to claim 4, wherein

a) said fabric and said yarns of said second type are dyed a color consistent with the color of said pigmented yarns of said first type.

9. A dyed fabric according to claim 4, wherein

a) said fabric is manufactured as a tubular knitted fabric.

10. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein

a) said yarns of said second type are comprised of one or more polyester, nylon, rayon, cotton or acetate yarns.

11. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein

a) the fabric is tubular knitted using a stripe knitting machine,

b) alternating stripe sections of said fabric are comprised alternately of yarns of said first type and yarns of said second type.

12. A fabric according to claim 11, wherein

a) the greige fabric is dyed, whereby said yarns of said second type are dyed to a color that may be consistent with or contrasting to the color of said yarns of said first type.

13. A woven fabric according to claim 1, wherein

a) warp yarns of said fabric comprise yarns of said first type interspersed with yarns of said second type.

14. A woven fabric according to claim 13, wherein

a) fill yarns of said fabric comprise yarns of said first type interspersed with yarns of said second type.

15. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein

a) a printed pattern is applied to a surface thereof, with a dye acceptable by said yarns of said second type.

16. A fabric according to claim 1, wherein

a) said yarns of said second type comprise a plurality of different yarns, each dyeable with a dye of a different type,

b) said fabric having been subjected to a plurality of dyeing operations using dyes acceptable differentially by said different yarns, whereby said fabric has a plurality of at least two dyed colors.

17. A fabric according to claim 16, wherein

a) said yarns of said first type are of a color different from said at least two dyed colors.