Aigle: Best solutions for coating flocking, lamination and coagulation

Aigle: Best solutions for coating flocking,
lamination and coagulation
AIGLE began its activity in 1958 by producing FLOCKING machines for all applications. AIGLE started the construction of COATING
and LAMINATING equipment considered as a natural extension of the former production. AIGLE is designing, manufacturing and
selling its equipment all over the world; machines are manufactured in a factory, located in Borgaro Torinese.
AIGLE offers design and commission of
its plants all over the world, from a turn key
basis down to small single plants for special
equipment. AIGLE organization is consisting
of: engineering department, mechanical
workshop with modern tool machines for
manufacturing the equipment, electric and
electronic department,
department for
technical and technological assistance for
erecting and commissioning the plants.
Flocking machine mod. FR2.
3.
For garments, the coating applications
include water proofing, changes in handle
and feel of garments, flame retardant and
antimicrobial coatings.
Design flocking & blackout flocking
The three basic steps of flocking operation are given as under:
First: coating an adhesive on a support
web.
Second: applying on it a layer of specially treated cut fibres called flock.
Third: drying the adhesive in a hot air
oven.
The range of the final products is very
wide from garment to upholstery. In order
to obtain flocked fabrics a flocking
machine is placed between a coating head
and a stenter frame. For design flocking the adhesive coating is done by rotary
screen or by blade for blackout flocking.
After the fabric has been coated with
adhesive, it is passed through the flocking
machine. In order to obtain drying of the
adhesive and linking flock fibres to fabric
(after the flocking process), the web
passes through a stenter frame oven.
AIGLE FLOCKING SYSTEM mod. FR2
consists of following features:
1.
2.
Two flocking hoppers connected to
the electrostatic generators equipped
with turning brushes.
At the bottom of the hopper there is a
special metallic screen on which the
brush is turning, pushing the flock
through the screen.
4.
5.
Aigle flocking system
guarantees:
1.
2.
3.
Absolutely constant flocking feeding.
Deep penetration of flock into adhesive with high abrasion resistance in
the finished product.
Easy cleaning when colour has to be
changed.
Design Flocking
The basic steps of a flocking operation
are coating an adhesive on a support web,
applying on it a layer of specially treated
cut fibres called flock and lastly drying the
adhesive into a hot air oven.
The range of the final products is very
wide from soft ladies garments to upholstery. In this context, the designing of flock
fabrics entails special flocking machine,
installed in an existing multicolour rotary
screen or flat bed printing machine. This
solution is suitable for flocking on soft and
stretchy fabrics. The fabric is unwounded
on the pre-adhesive belt of the printing
machine. In this way all the tension related
problems during the carrying of the fabric
are solved and wrinkles are avoided during
the flocking process.
In both models, the flocking machine is
equipped with a very efficient aspiration
system, in order to keep clean the environment. Last part of the process consists of
brushing of flocked fabric by a brushing
machine mod. SZ1; in this way the final product is completely cleaned from the excess
flock. At the same time the brushing system is
very smooth and as a result will not damage
the softer fabrics.
Glitters
Glittering is a special king of finishing. It
is used usually in the ladies garments industry. The glittering unit mod TDP is normally
positioned on the conveyor belt shoulders
of a rotary screen printing machine next to
the flocking unit. Normally the glitter
machine operates in conjunction with flocking machine to create a combined flock and
glittering product.
Coating and finishing scope
and applications
Coating and finishing is a key process
for today’s world of textile and non textile
substrates. Fashion designers are aware of
this unique and fashionable look given to
fabric when this additional treatment is
applied. Flame retardant after-treatment
for upholstery industry is also becoming of
great importance. Over the years and
together with chemical suppliers Aigle,
thanks to its experience and know-how in
the fields of web guiding and applications
such as knife technology and screen combined with foam or paste, has developed
the multifunctional Spalmacomb coating
head. This coating and finishing system
offers new possibilities in upgrading textile
and non-textile substrates. Spalmacomb is
suitable to coat shuttle and rectilinear knitted fabrics as well as circular knitted fabrics
using a specifically designed device.
PTJ April 2011 49
Dyeing Printing Finishing
Coating is used in many applications,
such as for apparel and furnishing fabrics.
Sometimes coating is applied on a fabric or
nonwovens material to support a layer of a
chemical paste, those changes or improves
technical features and obtaining a new and
different product. Examples include vertical
blinds, table cloths, shower curtains, flame
retardant or jacquard back coating.
Flocking machine is provided with a
very
sophisticated
Electrostatic
Generator mod. EG100 that creates
an electrostatic field between the
hopper and lower part of flocking
machine (beater bars). Flock is consequently attracted in a vertical position
by means of reverse polarity. In this
way, it is possible to obtain a deep
penetration of each flock particle into
the film of adhesive.
Underneath the fabric a beater bars
system ensures uniform vibration for
obtaining a good penetration of fibres
on the adhesive film.
Flocking machine is equipped with a
very efficient aspiration system, in
order to keep the environment clean.
The flocking machines are differently
designed according to the use of various
coating techniques. When the adhesive coating is done by flat screen, the flocking
machine mod. TCR is mounted on a trolley
that is continuously running backwards and
forwards in order to compensate the standing
and running cycle of the printing blanket. If
adhesive coating is performed by rotary
screen the flocking machine mod. TC2 will be
fixed on the printing machine structure.
Spalmacomb offers the
following advantages:
Dyeing Printing Finishing
Excellent control of the amount of
chemical applied. Different applications are carried out with extreme
accuracy and uniformity.
Guaranteed ability to reproduce the
process.
Great add-on variations in case foam
is unstable, with settings ranging from
high to very low.
Very low tension leading of the substrate through the machine, with
fabric touching only the synchronous
running screen surface during the serigraphic coating process.
Great flexibility due to a wide choice
of chemicals, with the number of substrates increasing every day.
Simple implementation: Spalmacomb
can be placed in front of a common
tenter frame inlet with no special
foundation required.
1000 to 3200 mm working width.
The standard knife coater has a motorized height adjusting system with digital indicators and is suitable for knife-on-air and
knife-on-cylinder coating. Therefore, two
different blade versions are available. The
coater’s firm structure allows for both heavy
duty and low weight precision applications.
Air knife is used for fabrics that need to
combine closed surface with minimum
coating weight. A paste/foam distribution
system grants a balanced paste supply
along the whole width of the knife.
The possibility of finishing with unstable
foam (a foaming generator is needed) allows
even distribution of the chemicals and the
ability of applying very small amounts. The
low amount of moisture required by this technique allows a much higher production speed
with the presence of an existing drier. The
screen system offers total control of application quantity and chemicals penetration. By
using an engraved screen and choosing a colored printing paste, the Spalmacomb can be
used for one-color rotary printing.
The lick-roller system is fundamental for
back-coating. Relevant examples are flameproof material applications for furnishing
and automobile industry as well as mattress
fabric finishing to prevent string shredding.
Unstable foam (foaming generator is
needed) finishing is used mainly in for the
black-out finishing of the curtains (in this
case after the drying a crushing calender is
needed), also in combination with a flame
retardant treatment. This system allows
applying very small amounts of chemical.
Coating Techniques
1.
2.
Air knife is used for fabrics that need to
combine closed surface with minimum
coating weight.
Knife on cylinder coating offers a wide
range of products. The possibility of coat-
50 PTJ April 2011
3.
4.
ing with stable foam (a foaming generator
is needed) allows even distribution of the
chemicals and the ability of applying very
small amounts. The low amount of moisture required by this technique allows a
much higher production speed with the
presence of an existing drier. Add-on
range: Paste coating 25 – 500 g/m2;
Stable foam coating 25 – 300 g/m2.
Rotary screen system offers total control
of application quantity and chemicals
penetration. It allows to coat with lower
tension of the fabric thus being useful
with screechy materials. By using an
engraved screen and choosing a colored
printing paste, the head can be used for
one-colour rotary printing.
Lick-roller system. Relevant uses of this
technique are: flame-proof material
applications for furnishing and automobile industry as well as mattress fabric finishing in order avoiding string shredding.
Flocking
Millions of short textile fibres are electrostatically applied to a substrate with
previously applied adhesive
In the furnishing sector, flock finds its
biggest demand and is mainly used for curtains (black out and decorative), sofa covering and bed covering. For garment related
applications, flocked fabric offer many possibilities: jackets, shirts, trousers, etc…, as
well as internal fabric for jackets and so on.
Possible combinations of fabric and flock are
numerous and flock printing for ladies elegant dresses is one such example.
Main technical features and latest
developments
In order to minimize the problem of balls
and pills during the process, hoppers and
brushes are specially designed, with all
necessary
adjustments:
distance
between the brush and the sieve and
level sensors to assure correct amount of
flock on the dosing brush.
High-tech air conditioning system with
cold and hot heat exchangers for accurate control of temperature and humidity
rate in the flocking chamber. This helps
to avoid different results due to different
weather conditions, depending on
season changes during the year.
Adhesive application
Hot cylinder embossing
Doctor blade coating is the most
common technology used to apply adhesive on fabric. Rotary screen is also used to
obtaining design Flocking.
The hot cylinder embossing system is
used to permanently engrave flocked fabric.
These fabrics are generally used for upholstery and garments. Flocked fabric passes
through a calender with a hot engraved cylinder. Air-Embossing is going to be more and
more popular. This system offers many
advantages compared with the traditional
embossing system by hot cylinder.
While flock is still in the wet adhesive, air
is blown onto the flocked fabric through the
open design areas of a special screen. After
the adhesive is cured, the embossed effect is
permanent. Air embossed flock fabric has
found good acceptance in upholstery and
curtain industries and the trend is growing.
Flocking machine
1.
2.
3.
4.
Flock pre-dosing and dosing unit
Electrostatic generator
Beater bars
Suction and excess flock recovery
system
Fabric transportation along the
flocking machine
No means of transportation; only one
module is foreseen on the flocking
machine Pin chain, which allows to keep a
constant transversal tension. This offers a
great advantage when flocking stretchable
fabrics and in case of wide width plants.
Belt, which is the most economic solution
when compared to the chain, but it is not
as effective when using stretchable fabrics.
Drying, cooling and final cleaning
After flocking, the adhesive with all fibres
on it needs to be dried into an oven. The most
used dryer is a hot air oven with tenter-frame
(with an appropriate filtering system).
Permanence of fabric in order for the adhesive to dry out is 1-1,5 min, with an extra 11,5 min for its polymerization. At the dryer’s
outlet are two cooling cans or a cooling fan
followed by a specially designed brushing
machine, in order to remove all fibres eventually loose from the flocked fabric surface.
Corduroy effect
Used to obtain flocked fabrics with the
same looks as “one thousand stripes”,
popular in the field of garments. Corduroy
effect is obtained by coating the adhesive
with a tooth marked blade. In such way
flock will stick on the adhesive stripes only.
Transfer printing
With the transfer printing system, a
sublistatic transfer paper is laminated on
the flocked fabric.
Rotary screen printing
Fabric is printed on a rotary screen
printing machine. This kind of printing
gives better result when compared to
transfer printing, as far as the look the
touch of flocked surface are concerned.