Anti-microbial fiber and fibrous products
a fiber and antifungal technology, applied in the field of fibers, can solve the problems of compromising cell wall processes including basic transport processes, adverse environmental consequences, washing or wearing off, etc., and achieve the effect of resisting washing or wearing o
Inactive Publication Date: 2005-01-27
FOSS MFG CO LLC
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- Summary
- Abstract
- Description
- Claims
- Application Information
AI Technical Summary
Benefits of technology
The fibers maintain significant anti-microbial efficacy throughout their lifespan, resisting wash-off and bacterial resistance, providing durable protection against bacterial and fungal growth in various applications, including incontinent garments, wound care dressings, and medical wipes.
Problems solved by technology
However, many do not have such properties, or the properties do not remain for the life of the product, or they have adverse environmental consequences.
Use of zeolite preventing bacterial infections and rashes in mammals may compromise cell wall processes including basic transport processes.
One of the disadvantages of some of the prior art is that the anti-microbial additives are organic and many organic materials either act as antibiotics and the bacteria “learns” to go around the compound, or many of them give off dioxins in use.
Also, many such additives are applied topically to the fibers or fabrics and tend to wash off or wear off over time and become ineffective.
However, there is the danger of infection due to bacterial and fungal growth in urine-soaked fabrics and the overall discomfort caused by wet clothing.
This is the problem caused by microbes which attach to the outer layer which touches the skin even when the fluids move into the absorbent layer.
These microbes cause a variety of problems.
One of the problems is rashes and skin irritation.
Prolonged contact with urine and stool is a major cause of diaper rash.
There are environmental problems associated with the large use of disposable products of this type.
While disposables are placed into landfills together with other trash, it appears that many people do not empty the contents of disposables into the toilet, and a study has shown that diaper wastes represent a significant health hazard in landfills.
While many such products claim to be biodegradable, this is not always correct and there is some difficulty in making the moisture impervious layers of the plastics used in such products, biodegradable.
Wound care dressings can introduce pathogens that increase the danger of infection due to bacterial and fungal growth into the wound tissue because it is necessary to changing these dressings frequently.
However, most prior art approaches of coating such fibers or fabrics with anti-microbial or anti-fungal agents have had limited success.
Burn dressings are used to prevent infection due to high potential for introducing bacteria and other pathogens into the burn tissue due to the fact that the normal protective barrier of the skin has been grossly disrupted.
The possibility of bacterial and fungal growth in the burn tissue during healing is one of the major dangers to recovery.
However, there is only brief mention of the use of anti-microbial agents, and there is no discussion of providing such agents onto the surface of the fibers contacting the wound to provide the best efficacy of anti-microbial agents.
The solution dyed polyester has a disadvantage in that the product can no longer be labeled 100% cotton.
The stock dyed cotton has the disadvantage in that it is not color fast, especially to bleach, and that it needs to be passed through a dye bath.
However, these materials have two inherent commercial disadvantages.
First, while the anti-microbial agents incorporated into them do show some resistance to repeated washings, these agents do leach out of the materials, primarily because they are not physically incorporated into them.
In fact, in many cases, the anti-microbial agents are only loosely bound into the material and are relatively easily washed away or naturally abraded away over time.
On the other hand if the agents are buried too deeply in the material or homogeneously distributed they will not contact microbes at all and the economics of usage will be adversely affected.
Second, the anti-microbial agents used in these applications are generally organic substances.
The disadvantage of these agents when used as anti-microbial agents is that bacteria can develop a resistance to their action.
But the surfactant is incompatible at melt-extrusion temperatures.
However, the process described has not been very usable with anti-microbial agents.
For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,167 which describes the '914 patent discussed above and states that previous attempts to apply the teachings thereof to the preparation of non-woven webs having anti-microbial activity were not successful.
While these anti-microbial agents are designed to prevent the development of resistant bacterial strains, the use of metal-containing materials presents the added difficulty of being able to successfully disperse the anti-microbial agents throughout the material.
Since these metal-containing compounds exists as fairly large size particles (10 microns and greater), the ability to evenly mix or distribute them is limited.
In addition, because of this size problem, these substances must necessarily be applied to the surfaces of materials instead of being incorporated into them.
The latter causes the additional disadvantage of making the applied anti-microbial agents relatively labile to washings or abrasion.
While there are known anti-microbial agents which are said to be designed to prevent the development of resistant bacterial strains, the use of metal-containing materials presents the added difficulty of being able to successfully disperse the anti-microbial agents throughout the fibers.
Since these metal-containing compounds exist as fairly large size particles (10 microns and greater), the ability to evenly mix or distribute them is limited.
In addition, because of this size problem, these substances must necessarily be applied to the fibers instead of being incorporated into them.
The latter causes the additional disadvantage of making the applied anti-microbial agents relatively labile to washings.
Even though most current materials of this kind are disposable, their use increases the potential of moving pathogens from surface to surface.
Any spreading of these pathogens increases the possibility of bacterial and fungal growth on a variety of surfaces, which can lead to the transmission of infectious materials, particularly in institutional settings.
However, most prior art approaches of coating fibers or fabrics with anti-microbial or anti-fungal agents have had limited success.
While these anti-microbial agents are designed to prevent the development of resistant bacterial strains, the use of metal-containing materials presents the added difficulty of being able to successfully disperse the anti-microbial agents throughout the fibers.
Since these metal-containing compounds exists as fairly large size particles (10 microns and greater), the ability to evenly mix or distribute them is limited.
In addition, because of this size problem, these substances must necessarily be applied to the fibers instead of being incorporated into them.
The latter causes the additional disadvantage of making the applied anti-microbial agents relatively labile to washings.
Method used
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example 1
[0177] The anti-microbial fiber of the present invention was used in the making of a mattress pad. In this example, 15% of a 6.7 denier 76 mm cut length natural white fiber was used as a homofilament with zeolite of silver as the anti-microbial agent and 15% of a bi-component fiber was used together with 70% PET 6×3 T295 in a blend in which the zeolite of silver comprised 0.9% of the fiber. The blend of this fiber was made into a batt of about 1-1½″ thickness of nonwoven material which was then placed between two layers of woven fabric to form a mattress pad. When tested using the shake flask test this provided a 99.99% microbial kill ratio.
[0178] There are other examples in which all of the parameters of Example 1 were used and in each of which there was 15% of a bi-component fiber used. Again the zeolite of silver comprised 0.9% of the fiber. The percentage of the anti-microbial fiber ranged from 20% to 40% and the PET ranged from 45% to 65%. In all examples the microbial kill ra...
example 1a
[0179] In this example, 35% of a 6.7 denier 51 mm cut length natural white fiber was used in a sheath / core bi-component configuration with zeolite of silver as the anti-microbial agent and 15% of another bi-component fiber was used together with 50% PET 6×3 T295 in a blend in which the zeolite of silver comprised 1.8% of the fiber. The blend was then prepared as in Example 1 and when tested using the shake flask test, there was a 99.9% microbial kill ratio.
[0180] A second group similar to the first one was prepared in which the sheath / core bi-component fiber with zeolite of silver as the anti-microbial agent comprised from 10 to 35% of the fiber blend, 15% of another bi-component fiber was used and from 50 to 75% of PET 6×3 T295 was used. The zeolite of silver comprised 0.75% of the fiber. In the shake flask test, there was a 99.99% microbial kill ratio.
example 2
[0181] In this example, 15% of a 3.5 denier 38 mm cut length PETG fiber was used as a homofilament with zeolite of silver as the anti-microbial agent. 85% PET fiber was blended with the PETG anti-microbial fiber to form a blend in which the zeolite of silver comprised 1.8% of the fiber. The fiber was made into a wall covering and was tested by the shake flask test, which provided a microbial kill rate of 99.99%
[0182] A modified version was prepared the same way except that there was only 10% fiber with zeolite of silver in the blend and 90% PET fiber was used. After the fiber was made into a wall covering, this too provided a 99.99% microbial kill rate using the shake flask method of testing.
[0183] A further modified version was used in which there was only 5% fiber having zeolite of silver in the blend and 95% PET fiber in the blend. The testing, after the fiber was used in a wall covering, again provided a 99.99% microbial kill rate for bacteria.
[0184] The fibers described abov...
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Abstract
An anti-microbial and / or anti-fungal synthetic fiber and various products made partially or wholly therefrom. The fiber comprises various thermoplastic polymers and additives in a mono-component form or a bi-component form in either a core-sheath or side-by-side configurations. The anti-microbial synthetic fibers comprise inorganic anti-microbial additives, distributed in certain areas to reduce the amount of the anti-microbial agents being used, and therefore the cost of such fibers. The fibers can incorporate anti-microbial additives so that they are not removed by repeated washing in boiling water and in dry clean cycles and become ineffective and conversely enhance access to the additives by washing or the like. The fibers comprise high tenacity polymers (e.g. PET) in one portion and hydrolysis resistance polymers (e.g. PCT) in another portion with the additives. The fibers can further be blended with non-anti-microbial fibers such as cotton, wool, polyester, acrylic, nylon etc. to provide anti-microbial finished fabrics. In one embodiment, binder fibers are used which are mixed with other fibers.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a divisional application of Ser. No. 09 / 565,138 filed May 5, 2000 which claims the priority of the following provisional applications: Ser. No. 60 / 136,261, filed May 27, 1999; Ser. No. 60 / 173,207, filed Dec. 27, 1999; Ser. No. 60 / 172,285, filed Dec. 17, 1999; Ser. No. 60 / 172,533, filed Dec. 17, 1999; Ser. No. 60 / 180,536, filed Feb. 7, 2000; Ser. No. 60 / 181,251, filed Feb. 9, 2000; and Ser. No. 60 / 180,240, filed Feb. 4, 2000.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to fiber, and, more particularly to a fiber having anti-microbial (and / or anti-fungal) properties which remain with the fiber when used in a fabric product after repeated launderings / uses. More specifically it provides a wholly or partly synthetic fiber and multi- or mono-component anti-microbial and / or anti-fungal synthetic fibers, alone or integrated with other synthetic or natural fibers, using various thermoplastic po...
Claims
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IPC IPC(8): A01N57/16A41B17/00A41D31/00A61F13/15A61L2/238A61L15/46B01D39/16B01D46/00B32B27/12D01F1/10D01F8/12D01F8/14D02G3/36D02G3/44
CPCA01N57/16Y10T428/26A41B2400/60A41D31/00A41D31/0077A41D2400/60A61F2013/8414A61L2/238A61L15/46A61L2300/104A61L2300/404B01D39/1615B01D39/1623B01D46/00B01D46/0028B01D46/521B01D2275/10B32B27/12D01F1/103D01F8/12D01F8/14D02G3/449A41B17/00Y10T428/2907Y10T428/2924Y10T428/251Y10T428/2929Y10T428/2933Y10T428/298Y10T428/25Y10T428/2915Y10T428/2904Y10T428/2931Y10T428/2913A01N59/16A01N25/34A01N2300/00A61F13/8405A41D31/12Y10T428/249924Y10T442/30Y10T442/3073Y10T442/3146Y10T442/3154Y10T442/444Y10T442/637Y10T442/638Y10T442/64Y10T442/641Y10T442/659Y10T442/674Y10T442/69Y10T442/692Y10T442/697Y10T442/699B32B5/02B32B5/26B32B27/18B32B27/302B32B27/306B32B2262/0276B32B2262/0284B32B2264/10B32B2305/20B32B2305/70B32B2307/558B32B2307/7145B32B2367/00B32B2437/02
InventorFOSS, STEPHEN W.SAWVELL, ROBERT V.
OwnerFOSS MFG CO LLC