Elastic woven or knitted fabric, and cushioning material and seat using the same

Abstract

The present invention relates to an elastic woven or knitted fabric that has an elastic yarn comprising an organic synthetic macromolecule disposed in at least part thereof, and has the following physical properties: (1) a stress at 10% elongation in a range of 100 to 600N per 5 cm width in at least one of a warp direction and a weft direction, and an elongation recovery factor at 15% elongation of at least 75% in the same direction; (2) a ratio ST1/ST2 of not more than 5, wherein ST1 is the stress at 10% elongation in one of the warp and weft directions, and ST2 is the stress at 10% elongation in the other one of the warp and weft directions, with the proviso that ST1>=ST2; and (3) a dry heat shrinkage factor at 180° C. in a range of 1.0% to 15% in each of the warp direction and the weft direction.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a woven or knitted fabric having excellent strength and elastic recoverability or a pleasant air permeability, and to a cushioning material, a chair-covering fabric and various types of seat using the woven or knitted fabric.DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART[0002] Urethane foam, polyester fiber wadding, resin cotton or solid cotton having polyester fibers bonded thereto, and so on have conventionally been used as cushioning materials for furniture such as chairs, beds, seats for transportation machinery such as automobiles and trains, and so on. To obtain pleasant properties as a cushion, many materials used are devised in various ways, for example by combining materials having different cushioning abilities to one another, or by adopting a duplex structure when forming the cushion. However, all of these cushioning materials have had problems such as being bulky or it being impossible to obtain a material having a good cushioning ability with a s...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, all of these cushioning materials have had problems such as being bulky or it being impossible to obtain a material having a good cushioning ability with a small volume.

Moreover, the air permeability greatly influences the comfort when seated, but with conventional cushioning materials such as urethane foam, polyester fiber wadding, and resin cotton or hard cotton having polyester fibers bonded thereto, there has been a limit to how much the air permeability can be increased.

There will be no problems with the mechanical properties such as the ability to recover after elongation even if the elastic yarn is a multifilament yarn, but the durability may be poor due to the resistance to friction being low.

At below 100 dtex, the resistance to friction will be low and it may not being possible to obtain sufficient durability, whereas at above 6000 dtex, handling during manufacture of the woven or knitted fabric will become difficult.

If the sliding resistance is less than 2N, then yarn slippage and fraying will occur, which is undesirable.

If the breaking strength is less than 250N per 5 cm width, then the woven or knitted fabric may break through the load to which the surface is subjected during use as a cushioning material, which is undesirable.

At less than 100N per 5 cm width, the sinking amount during use as a cushioning material will be large, and during use as a seat in particular there will be discomfort when seated.

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