Bonded Insulation Product Batt From Spent Carpet And Waste

Abstract

A thermal insulation batt is created from recycled carpet fibers and fire resistant cotton shoddy bonded by staples of bi-component fiber having a polyester core and low melting polymeric sheath. The low melting polymeric sheath melts at a temperature well below the melting or degradation temperature of any of the carpet fibers from the recycled carpets. Since the sheath has a small thickness, the amount of melt created is small and bonding occurs only between the bi-component staple fiber and adjacent carpet fiber or fire resistant cotton shoddy without melt overflow. The rigidized thermal insulation batt can be used in a building between studs and may be used in an automobile door for sound proofing. This product is particularly well suited for use as acoustic and thermal insulation in buildings as “non-load bearing” partitions in interior offices of commercial buildings. This bonded low density composite fibrous structure has fire retarding constituents incorporated within the batt to retard propagation of building fire. These stated uses are non-limiting; and other uses are contemplated, including automobile interior structures.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates fire retardant thermal and acoustic insulation materials; and, more particularly, to a bonded fire retardant insulation batt product produced from spent carpet waste.DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART[0002]A number of prior art patents relate to extracting carpet fibers from spent carpets. Since carpets are made from variety of materials including cotton, wool, polyester, nylon, olefins and others, their extraction methods may need to be different to maintain the integrity of the fibers.[0003]U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,338 to Ejima et al. discloses a method for forming autogenously bonded non-woven fabric comprising bi-component fibers. A porous non-woven fabric having good dimensional stability and uniformity is prepared from a web obtained by arranging side-by-side composite fibers alone or blending them with another fibrous material into a web end heat-treating the resulting web at a specified temperature. These composite fibers have f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0030]whereby the insulting batt is cut to a required size for insulation in b

Problems solved by technology

The resultant product of the '338 patent does not contain a bi-component polyester fiber and does not produce a bond between fibers forming a low density insulative bonded composite.

Since the batt delaminates when subject to mechanical action, it is not an integral batt and cannot be reliably used for insulation in beddings.

The batt formed is not a bonded readily handled insolation.

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