WOVEN FABRIC AND GARMENT USING SAME

Abstract

A lightweight and thin woven fabric has a soft texture and excellent wind-breaking properties and is therefore suitable for wind breakers, down jackets, and the like. The woven fabric has a plain-weave structure including a warp polyamide multifilament and a weft polyamide multifilament, wherein each of the warp polyamide multifilament and the weft polyamide multifilament has a total fineness of 17 dtex or less, and at least one of the warp polyamide multifilament and the weft polyamide multifilament has a single-filament fineness of 0.7 dtex or less and a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN/dtex or more, and the woven fabric has a cover factor of 1700 or more.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a US national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/JP2023/001280, filed Jan. 18, 2023, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-011569, filed Jan. 28, 2022, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to a woven fabric.

BACKGROUND

Nylon-based fibers are widely used for lightweight and thin woven fabrics used for industrial materials, sports garments, and the like. The reason why nylon-based fibers are often used is because nylon generally has higher breaking strength per decitex than polyester. Particularly, fabrics for windbreakers and down jackets are required to be lightweight, thin, and excellent in wind-breaking properties. Fabrics having high fabric strength and low air permeability are required to achieve excellent wind-breaking properties and prevent leakage of filling or down while preventing fabric rupture. Particularly, recent down jackets are often produced by directly filling down between an outer cloth and a liner without using down packs for the reason that a product weight can be reduced and a quilted part can be made very fluffy. Therefore, inner and outer down-proof cloths are required to have further improved down proofness.

Further, fabrics are recently required which have not only low air permeability but also a lighter weight, a soft texture, and high designability and fashionability. However, to reduce the weight of a fabric, the thickness of the fabric needs to be reduced or the fineness of a multifilament constituting the woven fabric needs to be reduced, which makes it difficult to maintain the tear strength of the fabric.

To satisfy the requirements, high-density woven fabrics using nylon fibers in a 11 to 33 dtex class are often used, and to increase tear strength, a ripstop structure is often used as a weave structure. A ripstop structure is a structure in which two or more warp and weft are arranged separately from a base structure. The use of a ripstop structure makes it possible to reduce stress concentration during tearing of a woven fabric, thereby improving the tear strength of the fabric. A conventional weave structure that can satisfy such a requirement is limited to a ripstop structure, but a ripstop structure has the following problems.

A ripstop structure is formed by arranging yarns having a larger fineness than those of a base structure in a woven fabric, and therefore causes a problem that the fabric has a texture resulting from large bending rigidity and a problem that wind-breaking properties are reduced and down or filling is leaked out because gaps are generated in the weave structure. When a sewn product using a fabric having such a ripstop structure is washed so that the fabric is rubbed, there is also a case where gaps in the weave structure are expanded so that wind-breaking properties are more significantly reduced and leakage of down or filling more significantly occurs.

Further, sewn products using woven fabrics having a ripstop structure are limited in their intended use and design because grids or lines of reinforcing yarns appear and therefore their aesthetic appearance may be poor.

Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-48298 discloses a lightweight and thin woven fabric having excellent tear strength, but woven fabrics of Examples and Comparative Examples are all required to have a ripstop structure as a weave structure. Further, all the fabrics according to claims and Examples are fabrics with large bending rigidity, and therefore have a problem in flexibility (bending rigidity based on KES).

Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2013-245423 discloses, in Example 2, a woven fabric having a plain-weave structure using nylon 22 dtex as warp and weft, but the woven fabric is a low-density woven fabric having a cover factor of less than 1600. That is, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2013-245423 does not disclose a woven fabric having low air permeability after laundry, that is, a woven fabric having adequate wind-breaking performance and down proofness.

It could therefore be helpful to provide a lightweight and thin woven fabric that has a soft texture and excellent wind-breaking properties and is therefore suitable for windbreakers, down jackets, and the like by adopting a plain weave high-density design using a multifilament having a specific fineness and a small single-filament fineness.

SUMMARY

We thus provide:

• • (1) A woven fabric having a plain-weave structure including a warp polyamide multifilament and a weft polyamide multifilament, wherein each of the warp polyamide multifilament and the weft polyamide multifilament has a fineness of 17 dtex or less, and at least one of the warp polyamide multifilament and the weft polyamide multifilament has a single-filament fineness of 0.7 dtex or less and a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN/dtex or more, and the woven fabric has a cover factor of 1700 or more.
  • (2) The woven fabric according to (1), which has a tear strength of 6 N or more in both warp and weft directions.
  • (3) The woven fabric according to (1) or (2), whose initial air permeability and air permeability after laundry are 1 cm³/cm²/s or less.
  • (4) The woven fabric according to any one of (1) to (3), whose bending rigidity based on KES is 0.008 gf·cm²/cm or less.
  • (5) A garment using the woven fabric according to any one of (1) to (4).

We thus provide a woven fabric having a soft texture, excellent wind-breaking properties, and excellent tear strength.

The woven fabric can prevent leakage of down and/or filling when down and/or filling are/is filled between the woven fabrics while having a soft texture and a light weight, and is therefore particularly suitable for use as a down-proof cloth for down jackets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Weave Structure

Fabrics having low air permeability are required to achieve excellent wind-breaking properties and prevent leakage of filling or down, and therefore a plain-weave structure is used as a weave structure. Weave structures other than a plain-weave structure, such as a twill structure and a satin structure, are not preferred from the viewpoint of wind-breaking properties and down proofness because the frequency of warp float is high and the number of yarn intersections is small, which makes it difficult to achieve low air permeability. A ripstop structure that is a variation of a plain-weave structure is effective at improving tear strength, but yarns having a larger fineness than those of a base structure are arranged in a woven fabric, and therefore the fabric has large bending rigidity, and wind-breaking properties are likely to reduce and leakage of down or filling is likely to occur due to generation of gaps in the weave structure. Further, a ripstop structure is not preferred because when a sewn product using a fabric having a ripstop structure is washed so that the fabric is rubbed, gaps in the weave structure are expanded so that wind-breaking properties are more significantly reduced and leakage of down or filling more significantly occurs.

Fineness and Number of Filaments

A warp polyamide multifilament and a weft polyamide multifilament both in a woven fabric each have a total fineness of 17 dtex or less. A total fineness exceeding 17 dtex is not preferred because the woven fabric is likely to have large bending rigidity. The total fineness is preferably 5 dtex or more to maintain the tear strength of the woven fabric.

Further, either or both of the warp and weft multifilament has a single-filament fineness of 0.7 dtex or less. A single-filament fineness exceeding 0.7 dtex is not preferred because the woven fabric has large bending rigidity as well as it is difficult to achieve low air permeability and low air permeability after laundry. The single-filament fineness is preferably 0.3 dtex or more from the viewpoint of dyeing affinity and process stability during spinning.

Gray Yarn Tenacity

The multifilament having a total fineness of 17 dtex or less and a single-filament fineness of 0.7 dtex or less in the woven fabric preferably has a strength of 6 cN or more in a gray fabric after spinning.

The tenacity of a thread obtained by breaking down the woven fabric produced by scouring and dyeing a gray fabric, that is, a fabric breakdown thread tenacity is as follows. The multifilament having a single-filament fineness of 0.7 dtex or less used as warp and/or weft also has a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN/dtex or more, but both warp and weft preferably have a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN/dtex or more.

When the fineness and single-filament fineness of a multifilament used for a woven fabric are reduced, the tenacity of the multifilament (hereinafter also referred to as “gray yarn”) tends to reduce and the tear strength of the woven fabric also trends to reduce. Therefore, to increase gray yarn tenacity, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-48298 and Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2013-245423 mainly use a technique in which a pigment such as titanium oxide is not contained and a technique in which the polymerization degree (viscosity) of a polyamide chip is increased by solid phase polymerization or the like. However, those conventional techniques cannot achieve an adequate gray yarn tenacity. For example, a production process that will be described later is used for yarn-making to finely control a fiber structure to achieve a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN/dtex or more, which makes it possible to obtain a high-tenacity gay yarn having a gray yarn tenacity of 6 cN/dtex or more and a polyamide multifilament having a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN//dtex or more and being less likely to reduce in its tenacity.

Degree of Elongation of Gray Yarn

The multifilament preferably has a degree of elongation of 30 to 50% as both warp and weft. In the case of industrial polyamide fibers, gray yarn tenacity is increased mainly by reducing the degree of elongation to less than 30%. However, in the case of polyamide fibers for garments, bending rigidity increases as the degree of elongation reduces. Therefore, the degree of elongation is preferably 30% or more, which makes it possible to further reduce the bending rigidity of the woven fabric.

Polyamide

A polyamide constituting the polyamide multifilament is a so-called resin composed of a polymer in which hydrocarbon groups are linked to a main chain via amide bonds. Such a polyamide is excellent in yarn productivity and mechanical properties. Specific preferred examples of such a polyamide include polycaproamide (nylon 6) and polyhexamethylene adipamide (nylon 66).

To achieve an increase in tenacity, it is preferred that various additives such as a delustrant typified by titanium oxide are not contained. However, if necessary, a heat resistant agent may be contained to prevent a reduction in tenacity due to heat history during a dyeing step. From the viewpoint of gray yarn tenacity, the polymerization degree of a polyamide chip is preferably 2.5 to 4.0 in terms of 98% sulfuric acid relative viscosity.

Yarn-Making Process

The polyamide multifilament can be produced by a publicly-known melt spinning apparatus as long as a filament satisfying the scope of the appended claims can be produced, but is preferably produced by a production process based on a direct spin draw process to achieve an increase in tenacity. An example of a basic process flow is as follows. A polyamide resin is melted, the polyamide polymer is weighed and transported with a gear pump and finally extruded through ejection holes provided in a spinneret to form respective filaments. The respective filaments extruded from the spinneret are cooled to room temperature and solidified by blowing quenching air thereonto with a quenching device. Then, oil is applied by an oiling device, the respective filaments are bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced by a fluid interlacing nozzle device, and passed through a take-up roller and a draw roller. At this time, drawing is performed in accordance with a peripheral speed ratio between the take-up roller and the draw roller. Further, the yarn is subjected to heat treatment by heating the draw roller and wound up by a winding device. In this way, a polyamide multifilament can be produced.

Ambient Temperature

In the production process based on a direct spin draw process, it is preferred that an ambient temperature directly below the surface of the spinneret is increased to 250 to 300° C. by active heating. This makes it possible to relax the orientation of the polyamide polymer extruded during spinning with little thermal degradation. As a result of the orientation relaxation due to gradual cooling from the surface of the spinneret to cooling, an increase in tenacity can be achieved. More preferably, the ambient temperature is 285 to 300° C.

Uniform Cooling: Cyclic Quenching Chamber

In the above process, the quenching device to be used is preferably a cyclic quenching chamber that blows out quenching/rectifying air from the outer peripheral side toward the center side or a cyclic quenching chamber that blows out quenching/rectifying air from the center side toward the outer periphery. From the viewpoint of increasing the tenacity of the yarn, the wind velocity of quenching air blown out from a quenching air blowing surface is preferably 20.0 to 40.0 (m/min) on average in the section from the upper end surface to the lower end surface of a quenching air blowing part.

Heat Setting Temperature

In the above process, heat treatment is preferably performed using the draw roller as a heating roller, and the temperature of the heat treatment is preferably 150 to 190° C. Increasing the heat treatment temperature promotes the crystallization of fibers, which makes it possible to achieve an increase in tenacity. Further, a reduction in tenacity due to heat history during a dyeing step can be prevented. The heat treatment temperature is more preferably 165 to 180° C.

Cover Factor

The woven fabric has a cover factor of 1700 or more. The upper limit of the cover factor is preferably 2000. When the cover factor is less than 1700, the woven fabric is softer and thinner, but it is difficult to achieve low air permeability, which does not satisfy the desired effects. The cover factor is preferably 2000 or less because low air permeability is achieved and the woven fabric is thin and does not have too large bending rigidity. When a woven fabric is produced using yarns of 17 dtex or less as warp and weft to have a cover factor of 2000 or less, productivity is also excellent because the densities of reed and healds as weaving machine parts are not too high, troubles such as warp fluffing and warp falling during weaving are very few, the woven fabric is excellent in quality, and a weft density is within a reasonable range.

Tear Strength

The tear strength of the woven fabric as measured by a pendulum method is preferably 6 N or more, more preferably 6 to 15 N in both warp and weft directions. A tear strength of 6 N or more is preferred because, during wearing a sewn product, tearing due to piercing with a protruding object is less likely to occur or tearing due to load concentration on a sewn part or snagging is less likely to occur. The woven fabric is a plain-weave woven fabric using a warp and weft polyamide multifilament each having a total fineness of 17 dtex or less, and therefore has a tear strength of about 15 N at most.

Air Permeability

The initial air permeability of the woven fabric is preferably 1 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, more preferably 0.8 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, even more preferably 0.5 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less. When the air permeability is 1 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, leakage of filling or down is more highly prevented. Particularly, recent down jackets are often produced by directly filling down between an outer cloth and a liner without using down packs, and therefore down proofness is preferably improved by reducing the air permeability of the fabrics.

From the viewpoint of practical use of a product, we believe that it is also preferred to design a fabric so that the air permeability of the fabric when a new sewn product is sold, that is, the initial air permeability of the fabric is low, and in addition, low air permeability is achieved even after the sewn product is rubbed during laundry at home or a laundry so that intersections in the woven fabric are moved and unevenly distributed, that is, air permeability after laundry is also low. There are many practical situations where a folding force is applied to a fabric, such as a situation where the fabric repeatedly follows the movement of a person who wears a product and a situation where a down jacket for climbing is carried by being compressed and folded compactly. Therefore, a down proofness index of a fabric in consideration of such situations is also a preferred viewpoint.

Under the assumption that a down product is washed once per year and the product life thereof is 5 years, we have used, as an index, fabric air permeability after 5 times laundry and have defined it as “air permeability after laundry”. Similarly to the initial air permeability, the air permeability after 5 times laundry of the woven fabric is preferably 1 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, more preferably 0.8 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, even more preferably 0.5 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less. As described above, when the air permeability is 1 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, the occurrence of leakage of filling or down is highly prevented.

Number of Down Fibers Leaked Out

The number of down fibers leaked out is preferably 50 or less, more preferably 15 or less. When the number of down fibers leaked out is 50 or less, leakage of down from an actual product filled with down is prevented during laundry/wearing/storage, which makes it possible to prevent a reduction in the heat retention performance of the product and attachment of down to other clothes during wearing and taking off. The number of down fibers leaked out is an evaluation value measured by a method that will be described later.

Bending Rigidity Based on KES

The bending rigidity based on KES of the woven fabric is preferably 0.008 gf·cm²/cm or less (1 gf=0.0098N=9.8 mN), more preferably 0.006 gf·cm²/cm (0.0558 mN·cm²/cm) or less. When the bending rigidity based on KES is 0.008 gf·cm²/cm (0.0784 mN·cm²/cm) or less, the bending rigidity of the woven fabric is smaller, and therefore a quilted part of a product filled with down is very fluffy.

Balance Among Tear Strength, Bending Rigidity, and Air Permeability

It is generally known that to reduce air permeability of a woven fabric while keeping a soft texture, the single-filament fineness of a yarn used is reduced. However, a reduction in single-filament fineness leads to a reduction in gray yarn strength, which often reduces the tear strength of a woven fabric. It is known that tear strength can be improved by increasing the single-filament fineness of a yarn used or reducing a weave density. However, an increase in single-filament fineness increases the bending rigidity of a fabric, and a reduction in a weave density increases air permeability. In both cases, a resulting woven fabric is not suitable for down jackets. Particularly, in the case of the thin woven fabric using a gray yarn of 17 dtex or less, it is difficult to balance three properties: soft texture, air permeability, and tear strength. To simultaneously achieve three properties: soft texture, low air permeability, and high tear strength, the above-described high-strength gray yarn is used to enhance the yarn strength of the woven fabric, and the number of filaments (single-filament fineness) and the cover factor are set to fall within the above-described ranges. This makes it possible to obtain a woven fabric whose tear strength is 6.0 N or more, initial air permeability and air permeability after laundry are both as low as 1.0 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s) or less, and bending rigidity is 0.0080 gf·cm²/cm or less. Such a woven fabric can offer the above-described excellent performance when a product using the woven fabric is actually worn.

The woven fabric can suitably be used for garments, especially sports garments such as wind breakers and down jackets and materials such as tents, sleeping bags, and canvas.

EXAMPLES

Our fabrics and garments will more specifically be described with reference to examples. However, this disclosure is not limited to these examples.

Evaluation and measurement methods used in Examples are as follows.

(1) Total Fineness and Single-Filament Fineness

Fineness

Fineness of Gray Yarn

A fiber sample was wound around a sizing reel with a circumference of 1.125 m 400 times at a tension of 1/30 cN× displayed decitex to prepare a skein. The skein was dried at 105° C. for 60 minutes, transferred into a desiccator, and cooled in an environment of 20° C. and 55 RH for 30 minutes. The mass of the skein was measured, and a mass per 10000 m was calculated from the measured mass. In the case of nylon 6, the total fineness of the fiber was calculated using an official moisture regain of 4.5%. The measurement was performed four times, and the average was defined as a total fineness. Further, a value obtained by dividing the obtained total fineness by the number of filaments was defined as a single-filament fineness.

Fineness of Fabric Breakdown Thread

Two lines were drawn on a woven fabric in a warp or weft direction at an interval of 100 cm, and the woven fabric between the lines was broken down into warp or weft. Then, a provisional total fineness was calculated to determine a measuring load. A load of 2 g was applied to the obtained breakdown thread, a length (L cm) between two points was measured, and the thread was cut at the two points (L cm) to measure its weight (W g). A provisional total fineness was calculated by the following formula. Then, unlike the provisional total fineness, a load of 1/10 g/dtex (0.098 cN/dtex) was applied, a length between two points and weight were measured in the same manner as above, and a total fineness was calculated by the following formula.

$\mathrm{Total}\mathrm{fineness}\left(\mathrm{woven}\mathrm{fabric}\mathrm{breakdown}\mathrm{thread}\right)=W/L\times 100000\left(\mathrm{dtex}\right)$

Further, a value obtained by dividing the obtained total fineness by the number of filaments was defined as a single-filament fineness (dtex).

An average obtained by repeating the measurement five times in the same manner is shown as a result.

(2) Tenacity and Degree of Elongation of Yarn

The tensile strength-elongation curve of a gray yarn or a fabric breakdown thread was drawn in accordance with tensile strength and elongation percentage specified in JIS L1013 (2010). As for test conditions, the type of a tester was a constant-rate specimen extension tester, a clamp interval was 50 cm, and a tensile speed was 50 cm/min. When the tensile strength at break was smaller than the maximum strength, the maximum tensile strength and the elongation at that time were measured.

The tenacity and elongation were determined by the following formulas.

$\mathrm{Tenacity}\left(\mathrm{cN}/\mathrm{dtex}\right)=\mathrm{tensile}\mathrm{strength}\mathrm{at}\mathrm{break}\left(\mathrm{cN}\right)/\mathrm{fineness}\left(\mathrm{detex}\right)$ $\mathrm{Elongation}\left(\%\right)=\mathrm{elongation}\mathrm{at}\mathrm{break}\left(\mathrm{cm}\right)/\mathrm{clamp}\mathrm{interval}\left(\mathrm{cm}\right)\times 100$

(3) Weave Density

The density of a woven fabric was measured in accordance with a density measuring method A (JIS method) specified in JIS L 1096 (2010) 8.6.1.

(4) Cover Factor (CF)

The CF of a woven fabric was determined by the following formula.

$\mathrm{CF}=\mathrm{Dwp}\times {\left(\mathrm{Fwp}\right)}^{1/2}+\mathrm{Dwt}\times {\left(\mathrm{Fwt}\right)}^{1/2}$

wherein Dwp is a warp density (yarns/2.54 cm) of the woven fabric, Dwt is a weft density (yarns/2.54 cm) of the woven fabric, Fwp and Fwt are thicknesses (dtex) of warp and weft constituting the woven fabric.

(5) Tear Strength

The tear strength of a woven fabric was measured in accordance with a tear strength D method (pendulum method) specified in JIS L 1096 (2010) 8.17.4.

(6) Initial Air Permeability/Air Permeability after Laundry

The initial air permeability of a woven fabric was measured in accordance with an air permeability A method (Frazier method) specified in JIS L 1096 (2010) 8.26.1.

The air permeability after laundry was measured in the same manner after the woven fabric was washed five times in accordance with C4M method specified as a washing method in JIS L 1930 (2014) Appendix and then line-dried.

(7) Bending Rigidity Based on KES (KES Bending Rigidity)

The bending rigidity of a woven fabric was measured using a KES-FB2 bending property tester manufactured by KATO TECH CO., LTD. At least two test pieces of 20 cm×20 cm were sampled in the width direction, and each of the samples was held by a chuck with an interval of 1 cm and subjected to a pure bending test at a constant velocity curvature in a curvature K range of −2.5 to +2.5. The direction in which the warp was bent was defined as a warp direction, and the direction in which the weft was bent was defined as a weft direction. The test was performed three times for each direction, and the average was defined as a KES bending rigidity value of each direction. Further, the average of these values was defined as a KES bending rigidity value.

(8) Number of Down Fibers Leaked Out

To evaluate the down proofness of a woven fabric when the woven fabric is used for actual products, the number of down fibers leaked out was counted in accordance with the evaluation of down leakage of woven fabric specified in GB/T 14272 (2011). An evaluation sample used for evaluation of down leakage was prepared in accordance with Method B in the above evaluation method. Specifically, the sample had a size of 120×170 mm (size of test bag after sewing, thread for sewing: home thread #13) and the amount of filling was 30 g. The mixing ratio of down and feathers of the filling was 90% (down): 10% (feathers), and down having a fill power of 600 or more was used.

The down proofness after laundry was evaluated by counting the number of down fibers leaked out in the same manner after the woven fabric was washed five times in accordance with C4M method specified as a washing method in JIS L1930 (2014) Appendix and then line-dried, and then a sample for down leakage evaluation was prepared from the woven fabric.

Example 1

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 282° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam at 285° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 285° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 155° C. at a take-up roller speed of 1700 m/min and a draw ratio of 2.4 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 8 filaments).

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 3.3 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 295° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 290° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 290° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 15 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2700 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.52 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 24 filaments).

A plain weave fabric was woven using the obtained nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 8 filaments) as warp and the obtained nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 24 filaments) as weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 280 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 240 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was scoured, pre-set, and then dyed by a jet dyeing machine and dried. Then, water-repellent finishing using a fluorine-free resin and calendering were performed. The obtained fabric had a soft texture and physical properties suitable for down jackets. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Example 2

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 295° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 295° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 295° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2500 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.82 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (15 dtex, 24 filaments).

A plain weave fabric was woven using the nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 8 filaments) obtained in Example 1 as warp and the nylon 6 multifilament (15 dtex, 24 filaments) as weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 288 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 220 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the obtained fabric were measured. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Example 3

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 275° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 275° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 275° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2400 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.80 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (17 dtex, 24 filaments).

A plain weave fabric was woven using the nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 8 filaments) obtained in Example 1 as warp and the nylon 6 multifilament (17 dtex, 24 filaments) as weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 296 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 226 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the obtained fabric were measured. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Example 4

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 282° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 285° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 285° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2400 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.82 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (13 dtex, 24 filaments).

A plain weave fabric was woven using the obtained nylon 6 multifilament (13 dtex, 24 filaments) as warp and weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 266 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 230 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 1

A plain weave fabric was woven using the same warp and weft as used in Example 1 so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 280 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 220 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The obtained fabric had a soft texture, but the air permeability after laundry exceeded 1.0 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s), and the number of down fibers leaked out after laundry also exceeded an acceptance criterion of 50, which was inadequate for down jackets. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 2

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 265° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 265° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 265° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 15 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 155° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2800 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.60 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 24 filaments). A plain weave fabric was woven using the same warp as used in Example 1 and the nylon 6 multifilament (11 dtex, 24 filaments) obtained here as weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 280 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 240 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The weft-direction tear strength of the fabric was less than 6.0 N, which was inadequate for down jackets. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 3

A ripstop fabric was woven using the same warp and weft as used in Example 1 so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 291 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 236 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The obtained fabric had a texture resulting from large bending rigidity. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 4

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 282° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 285° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 285° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2300 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.95 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (22 dtex, 20 filaments).

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 282° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Steam set at 285° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 285° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then drawn by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2300 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.95 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (22 dtex, 24 filaments).

A ripstop fabric was woven using the obtained nylon 6 multifilament (22 dtex, 20 filaments) as warp and the obtained nylon 6 multifilament (22 dtex, 24 filaments) as weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 205 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 153 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The obtained fabric had a texture resulting from large bending rigidity, the initial air permeability and the air permeability after laundry both exceeded 1.0 cc/cm²/s, and the initial number of down fibers leaked out and the number of down fibers leaked out after laundry both exceeded an acceptance criterion of 50, which was inadequate for down jackets. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 5

A plain weave fabric was woven using the same warp and weft as used in Comparative Example 4 so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 204 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 160 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The obtained fabric had a texture resulting from large bending rigidity. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 6

As a polyamide, nylon 6 chips having a sulfuric acid relative viscosity of 2.8 and containing no titanium oxide were melted at 282° C. and extruded through a spinneret (round holes). Directly below the surface of the spinneret, steam set at 285° C. was blown onto respective filaments extruded through the spinneret to achieve an ambient temperature of 285° C., and the respective filaments were cooled to room temperature and solidified by passing through a cyclic quenching chamber that blew out quenching air at 18° C. at a wind velocity of 20 m/min from the outside toward the inside. Then, spinning oil was applied, and the respective filaments were bundled to form a multifilament, interlaced, and then draw by a draw roller heated to 170° C. at a take-up roller speed of 2400 m/min and a draw ratio of 1.82 and wound up to obtain a nylon 6 multifilament (15 dtex, 20 filaments).

A plain weave fabric was woven using the same warp as used in Example 1 and the nylon 6 multifilament (15 dtex, 20 filaments) obtained here as weft so that a finished fabric had a warp density of 280 yarns/2.54 cm and a weft density of 220 yarns/2.54 cm. The obtained gray fabric was dyed in the same manner as in Example 1, and the physical properties of the fabric were measured. The obtained fabric had a texture resulting from large bending rigidity, the initial air permeability and the air permeability after laundry exceeded 1.0 cc/cm²/s (cm³/cm²/s), which was inadequate for down jackets, and the number of down fibers leaked out after laundry also exceeded an acceptance criterion of 50, which was inadequate for down jackets. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1
		Example	Example	Example	Example	Comparative	Comparative
		1	2	3	4	Example 1	Example 2
Fineness	Warp	11	11	11	13	11	11
[dtex]	Weft	11	15	17	13	11	11
Fineness ratio		1	0.7	0.6	1	1	1
Single-filament fineness	Warp	1.4	1.4	1.4	0.5	1.4	1.4
[dtex]	Weft	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.5
Gray yarn strength	Warp	71	71	71	85	71	71
[cN]	Weft	78	103	105	85	78	62
Gray yarn tenacity	Warp	6.5	6.5	6.5	6.5	6.5	6.5
[cN/dtex]	Weft	7.1	6.9	6.2	6.5	7.1	5.6
Degree of elongation of	Warp	44.7	44.7	44.7	38.9	44.7	44.7
gray yarn [%]	Weft	39.4	45.1	45.1	38.9	39.4	47.5
Weave structure		Plain	Plain	Plain	Plain	Plain	Plain
		weave	weave	weave	weave	weave	weave
Density	Warp	280	288	296	266	280	280
[yarns/2.54 cm]	Weft	240	220	226	230	220	240
CF	Warp	929	955	982	959	929	929
	Weft	796	852	932	829	730	796
	Total	1725	1807	1914	1788	1658	1725
Tear strength	Warp	7.8	8.7	8.5	9.2	7.8	7.9
[N]	Weft	7.2	10.5	9.6	9.0	6.7	5.8
Air permeability	Initial stage	0.5	0.2	0.5	0.2	0.7	0.5
[cc/cm2/s]	5HL	0.6	0.5	0.9	0.2	1.2	0.6
Bending rigidity based	Warp	0.0082	0.0071	0.0071	0.0037	0.0082	0.008
on KES [gf · cm2/cm]	Weft	0.0036	0.0029	0.0035	0.0022	0.0036	0.0035
		0.0059	0.0050	0.0053	0.0030	0.0059	0.0058
Fabric breakdown thread	Warp	56	57	56	60	56	56
strength [cN]	Weft	51	78	79	62	51	48
Fabric breakdown thread	Warp	5.1	5.2	5.1	4.6	5.1	5.1
tenacity [cN/dtex]	Weft	4.6	5.2	4.6	4.8	4.7	4.3
Number of down fibers	Initial stage	12	8	14	3	31	20
leaked out [fibers]	5HL	15	24	30	5	52	29
		Comparative	Comparative	Comparative	Comparative
		Example 3	Example 4	Example 5	Example 6
Fineness	Warp	11	22	22	11
[dtex]	Weft	11	22	22	15
Fineness ratio		1	1	1	0.7
Single-filament fineness	Warp	1.4	1.1	1.1	1.4
[dtex]	Weft	0.5	0.9	0.9	0.8
Gray yarn strength	Warp	71	147	147	71
[cN]	Weft	78	144	144	99
Gray yarn tenacity	Warp	6.5	6.7	6.7	6.5
[cN/dtex]	Weft	7.1	6.5	6.5	6.6
Degree of elongation of	Warp	44.7	42.6	42.6	44.7
gray yarn [%]	Weft	46.3	39.4	39.4	38.3
Weave structure		Ripstop	Ripstop	Plain weave	Plain weave
Density	Warp	291	205	204	280
[yarns/2.54 cm]	Weft	236	153	160	220
CF	Warp	965	962	957	929
	Weft	881	807	750	852
	Total	1846	1769	1707	1781
Tear strength	Warp	10.6	19.5	13.5	7.8
[N]	Weft	8.1	15.4	8.5	9.5
Air permeability	Initial stage	0.7	1.4	0.4	0.7
[cc/cm2/s]	5HL	0.8	1.7	0.7	1.3
Bending rigidity based	Warp	0.012	0.017	0.0128	0.0087
on KES [gf · cm2/cm]	Weft	0.0085	0.011	0.006	0.0108
		0.0103	0.0140	0.0094	0.0098
Fabric breakdown thread	Warp	56	101	101	57
strength [cN]	Weft	56	105	105	71
Fabric breakdown thread	Warp	5.1	4.6	4.6	5.2
tenacity [cN/dtex]	Weft	5.1	4.8	4.8	4.7
Number of down fibers	Initial stage	33	54	18	38
leaked out [fibers]	5HL	42	67	27	55

Claims

1. A woven fabric having a plain-weave structure comprising:

a warp polyamide multifilament and a weft polyamide multifilament, wherein

each of the warp polyamide multifilament and the weft polyamide multifilament has a total fineness of 17 dtex or less; and

at least one of the warp polyamide multifilament and the weft polyamide multifilament has a single-filament fineness of 0.7 dtex or less and a fabric breakdown thread tenacity of 4.5 cN/dtex or more; and

the woven fabric has a cover factor of 1700 or more.

2. The woven fabric according to claim 1, having a tear strength of 6 N or more in both warp and weft directions.

3. The woven fabric according to claim 1, whose initial air permeability and air permeability after laundry are 1 cm3/cm2/s or less.

4. The woven fabric according to claim 1, whose bending rigidity based on KES is 0.008 gf·cm2/cm or less.

5. A garment using the woven fabric according to claim 1.