JP7620910B2 - Cleaning member and cleaning sponge - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a cleaning member and a cleaning sponge, and more particularly to a cleaning member and a cleaning sponge that have high cleaning performance and durability and do not cause fibrous pieces to adhere to an object to be cleaned.

As sponges for washing dishes or cleaning bathtubs, cleaning sponges in which an elastic resin-based adhesive is fixed to a nonwoven fabric made of synthetic fibers, or cleaning sponges in which abrasive particles are contained in a resin-based adhesive are fixed, are used.

Special Publication No. 54-32553 JP 2005-206675 A

However, in conventional cleaning sponges, the strength of the fiber structure such as nonwoven fabric that comes into contact with the object to be cleaned is weak, and immediately after use, a part of the surface peels off, causing the surface condition to become rough. Therefore, in conventional cleaning sponges, fiber pieces are easily detached from the nonwoven fabric, and there is a problem that the fiber pieces detached from the nonwoven fabric adhere to the object to be cleaned.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and has an object to provide a cleaning tool and cleaning sponge that have high cleaning performance and durability and do not cause fibrous pieces to adhere to the object to be cleaned.

The invention described in claim 1 is a cleaning member comprising a woven fabric containing untwisted yarn made of synthetic fiber, and a dry coating formed on at least a part or all of the woven fabric from an emulsion-type resin composition containing an acrylic copolymer as a main component, the emulsion-type resin composition comprising two types of acrylic copolymers having different glass transition temperatures.
The invention described in claim 2 is a cleaning member described in claim 1, wherein the woven fabric is a plain weave composed of warp yarns and weft yarns, the warp yarns are monofilament yarns made of nylon, the weft yarns are made of a first weft yarn which is a multifilament untwisted yarn made of nylon and a second weft yarn which is a multifilament untwisted yarn made of polyester, and the first weft yarn and the second weft yarn are woven alternately through the warp yarns.
The invention described in claim 3 is the cleaning member described in claim 1 or 2, wherein a mixing ratio of the emulsion-type resin composition is 40 to 60% by weight of the emulsion-type resin composition having a higher glass transition temperature and 60 to 40% by weight of the emulsion-type resin composition having a lower glass transition temperature.
A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a cleaning sponge comprising the cleaning member according to any one of the first to third aspects, and a polyurethane foam adhered to one of the main surfaces of the cleaning member.

According to the present invention, a cleaning tool and cleaning sponge having high cleaning performance and durability and not causing adhesion of fibrous pieces to the object to be cleaned can be obtained.

FIG. 1 is a partially enlarged photograph showing one embodiment of a cleaning member according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a woven fabric. FIG. 3 is a photograph showing the surface state of Example 1, where (a) shows the state before the abrasion/pilling test, (b) shows the state after 500 abrasions, and (c) shows the state after 1000 abrasions. FIG. 4 is a photograph showing the surface condition of Comparative Example 1, where (a) shows the state before the abrasion/pilling test, (b) shows the state after 500 abrasions, and (c) shows the state after 1000 abrasions. FIG. 5 is a photograph showing the surface state of Comparative Example 2, where (a) shows the state before the abrasion/pilling test, (b) shows the state after 500 abrasions, and (c) shows the state after 1000 abrasions.

The cleaning member 10 according to the present invention includes a sheet-like woven fabric 12. The woven fabric 12 is brought into contact with an object to be cleaned to wipe and remove dirt adhering to the object. The woven fabric 12 is made of synthetic fibers, and is constructed in a plain weave such that a first weft thread 16 and a second weft thread 18 are alternately woven with a warp thread 14, as shown in FIG.

The warp yarn 14 is a monofilament yarn of 28 to 39 dtex made of nylon. The first weft yarn 16 is a multifilament non-twisted yarn of 6 to 8 filaments made of nylon. The second weft yarn 18 is a multifilament non-twisted yarn of 8 to 12 filaments made of polyester. The single yarn fineness of both the first weft yarn 16 and the second weft yarn 18 is 278 to 389 dtex.

The woven fabric 12 is provided with a dry film 20 on at least a part or the whole thereof. The dry film 20 is formed to improve cleaning performance and durability while preventing detachment of fiber pieces from the woven fabric 12. The dry film 20 is formed by impregnating or applying an emulsion type resin composition mainly composed of an acrylic copolymer to the woven fabric 12 and drying it by an appropriate method. The emulsion type resin composition contains two kinds of acrylic copolymers with different glass transition temperatures. The reason for using two kinds of acrylic copolymers with different glass transition temperatures is that it is difficult to achieve both the cleaning performance and flexibility required for the cleaning member with only one type, but by blending two kinds of acrylic copolymers in a well-balanced manner, it is possible to achieve both the desired cleaning performance and flexibility. In the present invention, the mixing ratio of the emulsion type resin composition is 40 to 60% by weight of the emulsion type resin composition with the higher glass transition temperature and 60 to 40% by weight of the emulsion type resin composition with the lower glass transition temperature. The amount of the dry coating 20 applied is 8 to 12 g/m ² when the thickness of the woven fabric 12 is 1 mm.

The cleaning member 10 may be used for cleaning by itself, but may also be adhered flat on one main surface to a flat surface such as polyurethane foam to form a cleaning sponge.

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples in any way.

The warp yarn 14 was a 33 dtex monofilament yarn made of nylon. The first weft yarn 16 was a 7 filament multifilament yarn made of nylon, and the second weft yarn 18 was a 10 filament multifilament yarn made of polyester, both of which were 333 dtex. The first weft yarn 16 and the second weft yarn 18 were woven alternately around the warp yarn 14 to produce a plain weave woven fabric 12. The ratio of the constituent materials of the woven fabric 12 was 57 parts nylon:43 parts polyester by weight.

The above-mentioned woven fabric 12 was impregnated with an emulsion-type resin composition obtained by mixing 50% by weight of an emulsion mainly composed of an acrylic copolymer having a glass transition temperature of 29°C (Ultrasol 21K, manufactured by Aica Kogyo Co., Ltd.) and an emulsion mainly composed of an acrylic copolymer having a glass transition temperature of -37°C (Ultrasol 38K, manufactured by Aica Kogyo Co., Ltd.). The woven fabric 12 impregnated with the emulsion-type resin composition was dried in a dryer at 150°C for 3 minutes to form a dried coating 20, thereby obtaining Example 1 having a thickness of 1 mm. The amount of adhesion of the dried coating in Example 1 was 10 g/ ^m2 .

(Comparative Example 1)
The woven fabric 12 of Example 1, which was not impregnated with the emulsion-type resin composition, was used as Comparative Example 1.

(Comparative Example 2)
A web was prepared from 17 dtex fibers made of nylon 66, and chemically bonded with an acrylic adhesive to form a nonwoven fabric, to obtain Comparative Example 2. The ratio of fibers to adhesive in Comparative Example 2 was 45:55 by weight.

Using the test pieces of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2, the cleaning performance was evaluated according to the following method and the following criteria.
Contaminated board: Ceramic platter Stains: Dried rice grains, burnt curry roux, burnt demi-glace sauce, burnt cheese, and burnt chocolate formed all over the surface of the contaminated board.
Test piece: The cleaning members of Example 1, Comparative Example 1 and Comparative Example 2 were cut into a square with a side length of 150 mm.
Cleaning test: After pouring hot water of about 30°C onto the soiled stained board, the stain on the stained board was cleaned by applying an equal load to each test piece, and the degree of stain removal was evaluated visually and by touch with the fingers.
Evaluation of cleaning performance: good ◯, almost good △, poor ×.

As shown in the results in Table 1, Example 1 and Comparative Example 2 showed good cleaning performance for all stains, but Comparative Example 1 showed one almost good result and two bad results. These results demonstrate that the dried film 20 formed from the emulsion-type resin composition containing an acrylic copolymer as the main component is effective in improving cleaning performance.

Next, the durability was evaluated according to the following criteria using the following method.
Object: 16-mesh stainless steel net with a wire diameter of 0.25 mm (EA952-16, manufactured by ESCO Corporation)
Testing equipment: Abrasion and pilling tester (Nu-Martindale 864, manufactured by James H. Heal & Co. Ltd.)
Test piece: A cleaning sponge having a 4 mm thick polyurethane foam adhered to one main surface of each of Example 1, Comparative Example 1 and Comparative Example 2, cut into a disk shape with a diameter of 38 mm.
Cleaning test: Five test pieces of each type were attached to the test device, and the test pieces were subjected to 100 abrasion tests at abrasion pressure of 9 kPa between the test pieces and the object. After each abrasion test, the weight of the test pieces was measured with an electronic scale and the condition of the test pieces was photographed. This was repeated until the test pieces had been abraded 1000 times.
The measured values of five test pieces for each test were averaged to calculate the wear rate (%) = weight loss due to wear / weight of test piece before the wear test x 100. The state of fiber peeling was evaluated by comparing the photographs before the test, after 500 wears, and after 1000 wears.

As shown in the results in Table 2, Example 1 had the lowest wear rate.

3, 4, and 5 are photographs showing the surface conditions of Example 1, Comparative Example 1, and Comparative Example 2, respectively, and as the photographs show, no noticeable fuzzing or pilling occurred in Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, which used woven fabric, whereas Comparative Example 2, which used nonwoven fabric, showed severe fuzzing and pilling.

From the above evaluation results of cleaning performance and durability, it was confirmed that a cleaning member (Example 1) having a dry film made of an acrylic copolymer on a woven fabric of the present invention has higher cleaning performance and durability and is less likely to produce fiber fragments detached from the cleaning member compared to a cleaning member made only of woven fabric (Comparative Example 1) and a cleaning member made of nonwoven fabric (Comparative Example 2).

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 cleaning member 12 woven fabric 14 warp thread 16 first weft thread 18 second weft thread 20 dry coating

Claims (4)

A woven fabric including a non-twisted yarn made of a synthetic fiber;
A dry coating formed from an emulsion-type resin composition containing an acrylic copolymer as a main component is provided on at least a part or all of the woven fabric,
A cleaning member, wherein the emulsion-type resin composition contains two kinds of acrylic copolymers having different glass transition temperatures. The woven fabric is a plain weave fabric made of warp and weft yarns,
The warp yarn is a monofilament yarn made of nylon,
The weft yarn is composed of a first weft yarn which is a multifilament non-twist yarn made of nylon, and a second weft yarn which is a multifilament non-twist yarn made of polyester,
The cleaning member according to claim 1 , wherein the first weft yarns and the second weft yarns are woven alternately with the warp yarns. The cleaning member according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mixing ratio of the emulsion-type resin composition is 40 to 60% by weight of the emulsion-type resin composition having a higher glass transition temperature and 60 to 40% by weight of the emulsion-type resin composition having a lower glass transition temperature. 4. A cleaning sponge comprising the cleaning member according to claim 1 , and a polyurethane foam adhered to one main surface of the cleaning member.