Investigation On A Special Type Of Electrostatic Flocking Fabric

A special type of electrostatic flocking fabric with a new kind of flock materials was investigated in this paper. The charge and motion characteristics of the superfine fiber flocks were theoretically analyzed and relative equations were established. The flocking process and parameters using superfine fiber to flocks were also experimentally discussed in this paper.Based on the theoretical research, the method of the superfine fiber getting access charge in the electric field is mainly through the electrodes contact and the corona discharge in electric field. The theoretical analysis show that, with constant electric field intensity, fiber type, fiber fineness and room dielectric constant, the excess charge on the fiber are decreasing with the increase of the ratio of fiber fineness (dtex) to length (mm). The flocks are planted into the bond on fabrics after equation motion, rotation motion, and blending motion with equation and rotation. The flocking fastness could be enhanced by improving the velocity of flocks in electric field, that is, increasing excess charge and electric field intensity, decreasing friction resistance in air, and so on.The superfine fiber flocks are got through cutting the sea-island fiber firstly, and then flocking. In this process, the sea-island fibers are cut firstly, then opening, and then following with dying and electric disposal, to form available flocks.The effects of three separate parameters, voltage, electrode distance and flocking time, on flocks quantity on unit area of fabric were discussed using two methods of flocks moving up and down respectively. The experimental results show that, the flock quantity on unit area of fabric increase when voltage increases, or electrode distance decreases. With the increase of flocking time, the flock quantity greatly increases firstly, the increase degree slowly reduces, and finally reach to constant. The effective flocking time for superfine fiber is 10s. And most of flocks will float on the surface if flocking time is more than 10s, which have no significant effects on increasing flocks quantity.The effects of three parameters together, voltage, electrode distance and flocking time, on flocks quantity on unit area of fabric were also discussed using methods of orthogonal design and variance analysis. The results show that the three parameters all have obvious effects on flock quantity, among which electrode distance is the most important parameter. A regression equation on the relation between the three parameters and flocks quantity is established and analyzed to verify its significance. As for the three parameters, electrode distance and flocking time are more significant, and voltage is less. Regression analysis on the flock quantity on unit area of fabric using the method of flocks moving up is verified to be more precise than that using the method of flocks moving down according to the analysis results.The surface and cross-section of flocking fabric are analyzed using microscope. And the following conclusions can be got from the results. Firstly, the bond should have certain bleb rate to get high-quality products; secondly, the flocks quantity on unite area of fabric are increasing with the increase of voltage and flocking time and the decrease of electrode distance; thirdly, the quantity of perpendicular flocks are reducing with the decrease of planted flocks. The microscope results also show that flocks are broken down on the surface of bond when gritted, with no flocks pulled out from the bond, and no bond break off from the fabric.