JPS6031937B2 - Continuous low-temperature plasma polymerization treatment equipment for fabrics - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously subjecting fabrics such as knitted fabrics, woven fabrics, non-woven carpets, etc. to low-temperature plasma treatment for graft polymerization.

Traditionally, processing equipment for imparting new properties such as water absorption, water repellency, antistatic properties, antifouling properties, and soil release properties to fabrics consists of a dipping bath for applying chemicals, a squeeze mangle, a dryer, and a heat treatment machine. It had been.

However, these processes are uneconomical because they wet the fabric and then dry it, which requires a large amount of energy, and depending on the type of fabric, a process of reacting the chemicals used by heat treatment is required.

In addition, the chemical liquid applied to the cloth corner tends to aggregate due to the surface tension of water during the drying process, and when the surface of the cloth corner is observed microscopically, it is applied in a patchy manner, which results in poor performance or durability. There were some things that were not good.

For these reasons, basic research on fiber modification by low-temperature plasma polymerization has recently been announced as a new method.

For example, the document ACTA Polymenca 203 page 32
Volume (1st year) describes plasma polymerization of acrylic acid monomers on the surface of polyester fibers, and the literature
IResearchJ.

In M130 May (1972 Wang), there is a plasma polymerization of fluorine compounds on the surface of wool. However, these reports were very small-scale tests, and in order to put them into practical use, it was necessary to solve the following problems.

The first is the development of a sealing device that can continuously introduce and introduce cloth into a low-pressure system.The second is the development of a device that rapidly removes volatile substances contained in cloth.The third is the development of a device that can rapidly remove volatile substances contained in cloth. Fourthly, it is necessary to develop a treatment device that activates the fiber surface by low-temperature plasma treatment.Fourthly, it is necessary to develop a device that immediately treats the activated fiber surface with a reactive gas such as a vinyl monomer.Secondly, thirdly, The fourth item must be performed continuously and in a short period of time.

This is because when a cloth containing a bright sacrificial substance is supplied into a low-temperature plasma reactor, the volatile substance lowers the degree of vacuum inside the reactor due to its vertical action, making the state of low-temperature plasma generation unstable. In addition, the low-temperature plasma of the levitating substance itself causes a reaction with the fabric, resulting in a reduction in the processing effect.

In addition, the Futake surface activated by low-temperature plasma treatment,
Its activation period (life) is extremely short and it is necessary to treat it with a reactive monomer immediately after activation. The present invention was developed as a result of intensive research to solve these problems.

That is, the present invention provides a continuous low-temperature plasma processing apparatus in which a divided chamber is provided in a reactor of the low-temperature plasma processing apparatus to form at least three processing chambers, and in the reactor, a luminescent monstrous substance is treated. A primary treatment chamber for removal, a secondary treatment chamber for activating the surface of the fabric by low-temperature plasma treatment, and a graft polymerization chamber for graft polymerization are formed to perform Futake's low-temperature plasma graft polymerization treatment. It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing device that can perform the processing effectively. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The apparatus according to the present invention will be explained in detail below based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

1 is a reactor, and this reactor 1 has an inlet 3 for continuously introducing the cloth 2 to be subjected to low-temperature plasma treatment into the reactor 1, and an inlet 3 for continuously introducing the cloth in the reactor 1. An outlet port 4 is provided for extracting the liquid.

In addition, although cloth can be continuously inserted into each of the sealing mechanisms 12 provided in the inlet port 3, outlet port 4, and partition wall 7, the inside of the reactor 1 can be kept under vacuum (0.1 to 10 Torr).
sealing mechanisms 5, 6, and 12 are provided which can maintain the temperature at a temperature of 0.5 to 0.0 r, preferably from 0.5 to By using this sealing mechanism, the inlet and outlet of the reactor 1 and the second compartment 10 can be sealed. Furthermore, the inside of this reactor 1 is divided into a first compartment 9, a second compartment 10, and a third compartment 1 by a partition wall 7.
1 are formed sequentially along the transport direction of the cloth corners 2,
A sealing roll 12 is provided on the partition wall 7 that separates each chamber, allowing the cloth band 2 to pass therethrough, but preventing air permeability between adjacent chambers. The first compartment 9 is provided with contact drying means for cloth using a thermal sill roll 13, and the second compartment 10 is equipped with a low-temperature plasma treatment mechanism. This low-temperature plasma treatment mechanism has a pair of electrode plates 14 and 15 that are vertically spaced apart from each other with the moving Mt. The high frequency from an oscillator (not shown) is supplied to the other electrode plate 1.
5 is grounded. In addition, these electrode plates 14 and 1
No. 5 requires that the gas be uniformly dispersed and distributed over the entire surface of the electrode plate by using, for example, a wire mesh or a porous metal plate. This is because the electrode plates 14 and 15
This is to enable a more uniform low temperature plasma to be generated between the metal plates, and to allow the low temperature plasma excited by the high frequency to float approximately uniformly near the entire surface of the metal plate. 16 is a gas nozzle for blowing out gas such as argon, helium, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc. toward the entire surface of the electrode plate 14, and 17 is an intake duct installed opposite to the gas nozzle 16 with both electrode plates in between. This intake duct 17 is connected to a vacuum pump (not shown).

Further, the third compartment 11 is provided with a monomer gas supply port 21 and a monomer gas discharge port 22 for supplying a monomer gas to be graft-polymerized into the third compartment 11. Although the first compartment 9 is provided with a drying means using a heat cylinder, for example, a heating drying means using microwaves or a heating drying means using infrared rays may be used. Reference numeral 18 is a cloth guide roll provided in the third compartment 11, and 19 and 2 are vacuum pipes provided in the first compartment 9 and the third compartment 11.

The above is the configuration of this embodiment.Next, its operation will be described. First, a vacuum pump (not shown) is driven to create a negative pressure in each vacuum pipe 19 and intake duct 17.
The inside of the first compartment 9 is made into a reduced pressure chamber maintained at 10 to 10 morr, and the insides of the second compartment 10 and the third compartment 11 are also depressurized, and the degree of vacuum is maintained at 10 to 10 morr. 0.
The degree of vacuum is adjusted to 5 Tom or less, and the degree of vacuum in the third compartment 11 is adjusted to an appropriate range determined depending on the type, concentration, and properties of the polymerizable monomer gas used.

Next, the drying means installed in the first compartment 9 is operated, and gas is supplied from the gas nozzle 16 into the second compartment 10 so that the inside of the second compartment 10 is 0.1 ~lOT
While adjusting the gas supply amount so that it is preferably 0.5 to 2 rorr, a high frequency, preferably in the range of lk to 30 NM, is applied to the electrode plates 14 and 15. That is, when gas from the gas nozzle 16 is passed between the pair of electrode plates 14 and 15 to which high frequency waves are irradiated, low-temperature plasma is generated, and the inside of the second compartment 10 becomes a plasma atmosphere. Further, a polymerizable monomer gas such as acrylic acid, acrylic ester, methacrylic ester monomer, etc. is supplied to the third compartment from a gas supply port 21, and unreacted monomer gas is discharged from a monomer gas discharge port 22. Discharge. At this time, if the air remaining in the third compartment 11 acts as a polymerization inhibitor on the polymerization of the polymerizable monomer gas, the interior of the third compartment 11 may be supplied with a vacuum pipe 20 or the monomer gas. It is also necessary to sufficiently replace remaining air with monomer gas using the port 21 and the monomer gas discharge port 22. The discharged monomer gas may be supplied to the gas supply port 21 again after removing impurities generated by a secondary reaction and adjusting the gas concentration, if necessary. Note that the gas concentration or pressure in the third compartment is adjusted according to the processing purpose using the vacuum pipe 20 and the monomer outlet 22. Therefore, when the fabric strip 2 is transferred through the reactor 1, the fabric strip 2 is transferred through the reactor 1.
The cloth is first dried in the first compartment to remove bright substances contained in the cloth.

In this way, the fabric from which the luminous substance has been removed in the first compartment is immediately sent into the second compartment, where it passes through a plasma atmosphere to activate the surface of the fabric, and then into the third compartment. Plasma graft polymerization is completed on the fabric 2 by passing through the monomer gas in the compartment 11, and the fabric is led out of the reactor 1. As described above, the present invention heats and dries a cloth to be treated with low-temperature plasma in a vacuum chamber, then passes the cloth through a low-temperature plasma atmosphere to activate the surface of the cloth, and then injects the monomer into the cloth. Since plasma graft polymerization is carried out through a chamber filled with gas, the fabric immediately before plasma treatment is heated by heating means installed in the vacuum chamber to effectively remove the sacrificial substances contained in the fabric. The low temperature plasma atmosphere can be maintained in a good condition because it is removed by V and supplied to the low temperature plasma atmosphere.
Furthermore, poor reaction due to thin, permeable substances is eliminated, and high-quality low-temperature plasma processing is realized.

The plasma-treated fabric is then passed through a monomer gas chamber, so that monomers are graft-polymerized on the surface of the fabric by the plasma, and the desired plasma-grafted fabric can be continuously produced. In addition, by providing a reduced pressure chamber (low pressure chamber) adjacent to the second compartment that maintains a low-temperature plasma atmosphere, the sealing performance (vacuum efficiency) between this second compartment and the outside is improved. )
This also has the effect of improving low-temperature plasma generation. Furthermore, in the present invention, the cloth curtains that pass through each vacuum chamber continuously are treated in a low-temperature plasma atmosphere without being exposed to normal pressure, and then sent to the monomer gas treatment chamber, so that they are activated by the low-temperature plasma. This method has the effect of making it possible to carry out modification for fabrics very efficiently without causing the plasma polymerization efficiency to decrease due to deactivation of the converted cloth by moisture in the outside air.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a sectional view showing an implementation row of a processing apparatus according to the present invention. 1... Reactor, 2... Clothes, 3...
...Inlet, 4... Outlet, 5, 6... Seal mechanism,
7... Partition wall, 9... First compartment, 10... Second compartment, 11... Third compartment, 12... Seal roll, 13... Heat cylinder roll , 14, 15...
Electrode plate, 16... Gas nozzle, 17... Intake duct, 18... Guide roll, 19, 20... Vacuum pipe, 21... Gas supply V supply port, 22... Monomer supply port.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In front of the low-temperature plasma processing chamber through which the fabric can continuously pass, there is a chamber through which the fabric introduced from the outside can continuously pass, and at the rear of the low-temperature plasma processing chamber, the fabric can be continuously led out to the outside. The front chamber is equipped with depressurization and heating means to remove volatile substances contained in the fabric to be introduced into the low-temperature plasma treatment chamber, and the rear chamber is equipped with 1. A continuous low-temperature plasma polymerization treatment apparatus for fabric, characterized in that it is capable of being filled with or circulating a monomer gas.