Flannel sheeting fabric for use in home textiles

Abstract

Polyester yarns are knit on a warp knitting machine to make a base greige fabric. In a subsequent step, mechanical napping or brushing applied to both sides of the greige fabric.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates generally to development of an alternative to traditional cotton flannel used in home textiles; specifically to the development of a warp knit fabric of various polyester fiber deniers and the special unexpected and useful properties that this fabric demonstrates in comparison to cotton flannel used in the same home textiles products.BACKGROUND[0002]The standard and traditional cotton flannel is created by weaving a tightly spun cotton yarn in yarn sizes of NE 16-24 in the warp position with a soft twist cotton yarn in yarn sizes of NE 8-12 placed in the weft position. When woven, this allows soft twist yarns placed in the weft of the fabric to be held in place by tightly spun warp yarns. This is done to allow the softly twisted weft yarns to be napped or torn on the surface by a raising / brushing machine. The resultant napped, or brushed, surface is the ‘flannel’ effect. This conventional flannel product has always suffered f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]The polyester greige cloth can be dyed and finished prior to being napped on two sides. The fabric has the following useful advantages over cotton flannel: it does not appreciably shrink, it does not appreciably pill, and it does not appreciably wrinkle under standard industry testing conditions and in comparison to cotton flannel. Further, under these same testing conditions, the fabric demonstrates unexpected useful benefits of being stain resistant to acids and alkalis as well as fade resistant to light.

Problems solved by technology

This conventional flannel product has always suffered from the following cotton and manufacturing related issues: it shrinks, as the yarns are not stable; it wrinkles, as the yarns are delicate, and it pills, as the surface is composed of broken cotton fibers which are loosely held together in a traditional or slightly modified version of a 1×1 woven design of 1 warp yarn over 1 weft yarn.

However, these have all fallen short of the goal of creating a stable flannel product.

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