LOW WEIGHT TERRY FABRIC AND A METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME

Abstract

A towel is provided comprising a ground cloth having warp yarns and weft yarns in a flat weave and having first and second sides. Stripes are provided on the first and second sides of the ground cloth that are defined by alternating areas of pile loops and flat weave, the pile loops on the first side being opposed by flat weave on the second side and the flat weave on the first side being opposed by pile loops on the second side. The pile loops have a density of 60 loops per cm2. A method for manufacturing a terry towel is also provided in which the towel has a weight of less than 240 gsm using a combination of open structured 100% cotton pile yarn of finer counts with ground and weft yarns that have a proportion of synthetic fiber of from 10% to 100%; comprising: weaving a striped pattern of 100% of pile yarn on one side alternated with 100% of pile yarn on other side to create double density loop stripes, the stripes having width in the range of 2 mm to 25 mm.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to terry fabric having open structured pile yarn of finer counts with a cotton/synthetic blend in ground warp and weft yarns. Particularly, the present invention relates to terry towel preferably having 100% cotton yarn in the pile, with cotton preferably blended to 100% synthetic ground warp and weft yarns.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Terry fabrics belong to a group of pile fabrics in which an additional yarn is introduced or inserted in such a manner that forms loops, called “piles,” to give a distinct appearance. These fabrics can be produced either by weaving or by knitting.

Most conventional terry towels are woven from all cotton or a combination of cotton and polycotton yarns, primarily because cotton is inexpensive and has the property of high absorbency. Using cotton for the manufacture of terry towels has been found to be advantageous in many respects, such as good moisture absorption durability, and easy availability. However, it also presents several drawbacks, one being slow release of absorbed moisture, resulting in the drying time for cotton towels being relatively longer. When thicker and heavier yarns are used to make towels, the time required for drying increases. Slow drying is disadvantageous because it results in increase in time between the instances when the towels can be used, and promotes the souring of towels and mildew formation. It also results in increased energy consumption to dry the towels. Further, in the case of conventionally heavier towels, there is a limitation on the number of towels that can be loaded in a washing machine.

Cotton, before being spun into a yarn, can absorb about 25 times its weight and is exceptionally soft. The conventional terry toweling process reduces the absorbency and the inherent soft nature of cotton. Most conventional terry towels woven from cotton or blended fibres can absorb only about 3-5 times its weight. They are made in the weight ranges of 300 gsm to 450 gsm to get high absorbency.

The pile loops in the conventional towels, which constitute around 60% of the weight of the towel, absorb water and dry due to capillary action. Each of the pile loops acts as a capillary to draw the water from the surface of the skin. Moreover, in conventional towels, the yarn diameter of each pile loop is 0.3958 mm, resulting in less absorbency, lower bulkiness and low wet compressibility.

Conventionally, terry towels with weight below 300 gsm are not produced, since low weight does not result in sufficient absorbency and further does not provide sufficient strength or durability. Terry towels are usually woven with 10.5 to 12 ends per cm of yarn in the pile warp and 10.5 to 12 ends per cm yarn in the ground warp interwoven with 13 to 20 picks per cm of weft yarn. When yarns of counts finer than 16 s Ne are used for all the warps and weft to reduce the weight, the fabric does not have sufficient strength to withstand vigorous laundering especially in institutional use.

Thus, there exists a need to produce lightweight terry towel having high bulkiness and high wet compressibility, yet maintaining same absorbency and tensile strength characteristics as that of a conventional terry towel. Various other features of the method and apparatus of the present invention will become obvious to those skilled in the art upon reading the disclosure set forth hereinafter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one or more of the problems of the conventional prior art may be overcome by various embodiments of the present invention.

A primary aspect of the present invention is to provide a terry fabric having open structured pile yarn of finer counts with a cotton/synthetic blended yarn in ground warp and weft.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a terry towel having 100% cotton yarn in the pile with cotton blended to 100% synthetic ground warp and weft yarns.

It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the weft yarn has high tensile strength, with a tensile strength greater than 700 gf/tex.

It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the pile warp yarns has counts finer than 16 s Ne and a pile ratio of from 1:3 to 1:4.

It is another aspect of the present invention wherein the pile warp yarns have a span length of 2.5% or longer than 3.5 times the loop length of one pile loop.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a terry towel in which each loop of the pile yarn is open structured using low twist or no twist, and more preferably the pile yarn having a twist multiplier less than 2.4, so as to provide a greater exposed surface and thereby resulting in quick drying of the terry towel.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a terry towel in which yarn diameter of each pile loop is about 0.8 mm, thereby making the towel bulkier.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a terry towel in which the loop diameter of each pile loop is 1.6 mm, thereby making the towel highly absorbent and bulkier.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a terry towel that has an absorbency of from 8-10 times its weight.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a terry towel in which the stripes of high tensile yarns in the warp have a strength higher than 700 gf/tex, woven along stripes in which the yarns have a tensile strength of from 450 gf/tex to 500 gf/tex. Preferably, the stripes are woven in widths of from 2 mm to 25 mm.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a process for manufacturing the terry towel, wherein the weight of terry towel produced is less than 240 gsm. The process uses a combination of open structured 100% cotton pile yarn of finer counts with the ground and weft yarn having a proportion of synthetic fiber greater than 10% and up to 100%, thereby producing a low weight, highly absorbent terry towel. The process involves weaving a stripped pattern of 100% of pile yarn on one side alternated with 100% of pile yarn on other side to create a double density loop stripes, which causes the loops to stand exact and not fall down due to lack of additional space around the loop. These stripes are woven in width in the range of 2 mm to 25 mm.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a process for manufacturing the terry towel, wherein the terry fabric undergoes enzymatic pretreatment to make the loops bulkier during processing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the features, advantages and objects of the invention, as well as others which will become apparent, may be understood in more detail, more particular description or the invention briefly summarized above may be had by reference to the embodiment thereof which is illustrated in the appended drawings, which form a part of this specification. It is to be noted, however, that the drawings illustrate only one preferred embodiment of the invention, and is therefore not to be considered limiting of the invention's scope as it may admit to other equally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a terry towel according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a section of the terry towel of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged end view of the towel of FIG. 2 showing the pattern of alternating pile loops on opposite sides of the towel.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged end views of a top and bottom stripe, respectively.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, certain terms of art may be used. The terms are given their ordinary meaning as known to one skilled in the art, as reflected in, e.g., Yilmaz, et al., “The Technology of Terry Towel Production,” Journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, Vol. 4, Issue 4, Summer 2005; “The Complete Textile Glossary,”© 2001 Celanese Acetate LLC; and “A Glossary of Selected Fiber and Textile Terms,” Bally Ribbon Mills, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

In addition, definitions are provided for the terms that follow.

“Tensile strength” is the usual breaking strength of yarn. Tensile strength of typical cotton yarn is from about 450 gf/tex to about 500 gf/tex.

“Pile ratio” is understood to be the ratio calculated between ground warp and pile warp. Usually it is measured from 10 centimeter of a towel size. Pile warp will be usually in excess length due to loop formation than the ground warp.

The “loop length” of a pile loop is the height of the loop multiplied by two.

“Span length” is the distance spanned by 2.5% of fibers in the specimen being tested when the fibers are parallelized and randomly distributed and where the initial starting point of the scanning in the test is considered as 100%. This length is measured using digital fibrograph. In a towel, span length is the measurement of the cotton fiber length.

“Yarn loop diameter” is the diameter of a strand of yarn measured through an image analyzer (microscopic view), from which the thickness is measured.

A woven towel may consist of five parts: the pile area, fringes, the beginning and end parts, the selvedge, and the border. The present description relates to the pile area. In a typical terry towel, the pile area comprises four groups of yarn: the pile warp, the ground warp, the weft (filling), and the border weft. More specifically, a towel comprises a ground cloth formed of warps and wefts, with loop piles on one or both sides.

With reference to FIG. 1, perspective view of a towel 10 according to the present disclosure is seen, the towel 10 having a plurality of stripes formed by pile loops. By reference to FIG. 2, it is seen that the towel has a series of alternating stripes 12 and flat weave 14 on a first side of the towel and another series of stripes 16 and flat weave 18 on the second side of the towel, the stripes 12 on the first side being backed by flat weave 18 on the second side and the stripes 16 on the second side being backed by flat weave 14 on the first side.

With reference to FIG. 3-5, cross sections through the warp of a towel 10 are seen. The towel 10 comprises a ground cloth made from a plurality of wefts 20, a first ground warp 22, and a second ground warp 24. Interwoven in the ground cloth is a pile warp 26 that alternates between forming loops on the front and back sides of the ground cloth to form the alternating stripes of pile loops and flat weave on the front and back sides. As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pile loops are woven in a three-pick repeating pattern, with two wefts 20 between each pile loop. However, repeating patterns with other pick counts are also contemplated.

Preferably, the stripes are woven in widths of from 2 mm to 25 mm. As shown, the pile loops are double density upright loops, but may alternatively comprise spiral loops without departing from the scope of the invention. Preferably, the pile loops have a density of approximately 60 loops per cm². The pile warp yarn has counts finer than 16 s Ne and a pile ratio of from 1:3 to 1:4, and, preferably, a span length of 2.5% or longer than 3.5 times the loop length of one pile loop.

The towel 10 preferably comprises an open structured pile yarn of finer counts, with a cotton/synthetic blended yarn in ground warp and weft. Preferably, the towel comprises 100% cotton open structured yarn in the pile, with cotton/synthetic blended yarn for the ground warp and weft yarns, the blend comprising up to 100% synthetic. More preferably, the warp and weft yarns comprise from 10% to less than 100% synthetic fibers.

The weft yarn has high tensile strength, with a tensile strength greater than 700 gf/tex. Preferably, the warp yarns comprise a combination of fibers having a tensile strength of from 450 gf/tex to 500 gf/tex.

Preferably, each loop of the pile yarn is open structured, using low twist or no twist yarn, so as to provide a greater exposed surface and thereby resulting in quick drying of the terry towel. More preferably the pile yarn has a twist multiplier less than 2.4. The yarn diameter of each pile loop is preferably about 0.8 mm, thereby making the towel bulkier. Additionally, the loop diameter of each pile loop is approximately 1.6 mm, thereby making the towel both highly absorbent and bulkier. As a result, the towel 10 has an absorbency of from 8-10 times its weight.

In another aspect a process is provided for manufacturing a terry towel, wherein the weight of towel produced is less than 240 gsm. The process uses a combination of open structured 100% cotton pile yarn of finer counts with the ground and weft yarn having a proportion of synthetic fiber greater than 10% up to 100%, thereby producing a low weight highly absorbent terry towel. The process involves weaving a stripped pattern of 100% of pile yarn on one side alternated with 100% of pile yarn on other side to create a double density loop stripes, which causes the loops to stand exact and not fall down due to lack of additional space around the loop. These stripes are woven in width in the range of 2 mm to 25 mm. In another aspect, the process includes subjecting the yarns to enzymatic pretreatment to make the loops bulkier during processing.

Thus an improved, low weight towel has been provided in accordance with the foregoing description. While the towel and its method of manufacture have been described in terms of a specific embodiment, there is no intent to limit the invention to the same. Instead, the invention is defined by the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A towel comprising:

a) a ground cloth comprising warp yarns and weft yarns in a flat weave and having first and second sides; and

b) stripes on the first and second sides of the ground cloth defined by alternating areas of pile loops and flat weave, the pile loops on the first side being opposed by flat weave on the second side and the flat weave on the first side being opposed by pile loops on the second side, the pile loops having a density of approximately 60 loops per cm2.

2. The towel of claim 1 wherein the stripes have a width of from 2 mm to 25 mm.

3. The towel of claim 1 wherein the pile loops are formed from open structured 100% cotton yarn.

4. The towel of claim 3 wherein the yarn has a twist multiplier of less than 2.4.

5. The towel of claim 1 wherein the weft yarns comprise fibers having a tensile strength of greater than 700 gf/tex and the warp yarns comprise a combination of fibers having a tensile strength of greater than 700 gf/tex and fibers having a tensile strength of from 450 gf/tex to 500 gf/tex.

6. The towel of claim 1 wherein the warp yarns and weft yarns are 100% synthetic.

7. The towel of claim 1 wherein the warp yarns and the weft yarns are a cotton-synthetic blend.

8. The towel of claim 7 wherein the warp yarns and the weft yarns comprise from 10% to less than 100% synthetic fibers.

9. The towel of claim 1 wherein the towel has a weight of less than 240 g/m2 and an absorbency of from 8 to 10 times its weight.

10. The towel of claim 1 wherein the pile loops are formed from pile warp yarns having a count of finer than 16 s Ne, and a pile ratio of from 1:3 to 1:4.

11. The towel of claim 10 wherein the pile warp yarns comprise cotton fibers having a span length of 2.5% or longer than 3.5 times longer than a loop length of a single pile.

12. The towel of claim 10 wherein the pile loops have a yarn loop diameter of about 0.8 mm and a loop diameter of about 1.6 mm.

13. The towel of claim 10 wherein the pile loops have a yarn loop diameter of from between about 0.5 mm to about 1.6 mm.

14. A method for manufacturing a terry towel having a weight of less than 240 gsm using a combination of open structured 100% cotton pile yarn of finer counts with ground and weft yarns that have a proportion of synthetic fiber of from 10% to 100%, the method comprising: weaving a striped pattern of 100% of pile yarn on one side alternated with 100% of pile yarn on other side to create double density loop stripes, the stripes having width in the range of 2 mm to 25 mm.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the terry towel undergoes enzymatic pretreatment.