Fibers, woven fabrics including the fibers, and methods of manufacturing the same

Abstract

Fibers, yarns, woven fabric including the yarns and fibers, and methods of manufacturing the same are disclosed. Fibers can include base material staple fibers and dissolvable or water-soluble fibers that are mixed together to define an ultra-homogenous yarn comprising base material and dissolvable material, which is provided in at least the warp direction to form a woven fabric having a 7-end, 8-end or 10-end sateen weave. A processing step provides for the removal of the dissolvable fibers to produce a yarn defining a plurality of pores that are uniformly distributed throughout the structure of the yarn. The woven fabric has a thread count between 450-1200. The woven fabric is thermally-insulative, breathable and moisture-wicking.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of making a specialized yarn comprising a spinning process, the spinning process comprising the steps of:
 mixing insoluble and dissolvable fibrous materials in a blow-room to form an once-blended homogenous mixture of insoluble and dissolvable fibers;   cleaning and carding the once-blended homogenous mixture of insoluble and dissolvable fibers to form once-blended homogenous slivers of insoluble and dissolvable fibers;   drawing two or more homogenous slivers together in a draw frame to form twice-blended ultra-homogenous slivers of insoluble and dissolvable fibers;   passing the twice-blended ultra-homogenous slivers through a roving machine to produce a twice-blended ultra-homogenous roving; and   spinning the twice-blended ultra-homogenous roving into the special yarn,   wherein the specialized yarn comprises a homogenous distribution of insoluble and dissolvable fibers such that dissolution of the dissolvable fibers forms a plurality of micro passageways extending from a plurality of positions along an outer surface of the specialized yarn and to within a central core thereof.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of micro passageways are provided at least about every 1-30 degrees around the entire 360 degrees of the outer surface of the specialized yarn. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of micro passageways are provided at least about every 0.5-15 degrees around the entire 360 degrees of the outer surface of the specialized yarn. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the twice blended ultra-homogenous roving is spun on a spinning machine. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the twice-blended ultra-homogenous roving is spun using an S or Z twist. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the twice-blended ultra-homogenous roving is spun on a ring frame at a twist multiplier between about 3.2 and about 4.0. 
     
     
         7 . The method of making the specialized yarn of  claim 1 , further comprising a pre-spinning process, the pre-spinning process comprising the steps of:
 providing separate insoluble fibers and dissolvable fibers;   mixing the insoluble and dissolvable fibers independently in a blow-room;   cleaning the mixed insoluble and dissolvable fibers independently; and   carding the cleaned and mixed insoluble fibers and the cleaned and mixed dissolvable fibers independently to form separate insoluble slivers and dissolvable slivers, wherein the insoluble fibrous material comprises the insoluble slivers and the dissolvable fibrous material comprises the dissolvable slivers.   
     
     
         8 . The method of making the specialized yarn of  claim 1 , further comprising a pre-spinning process, the pre-spinning process comprising the steps of:
 providing separate insoluble fibers and dissolvable fibers;   mixing the insoluble fibers in a blow-room;   cleaning the mixed insoluble fibers; and   carding the cleaned and mixed insoluble fibers to form a web of insoluble fibers, wherein the insoluble fibrous material comprises the web of insoluble fibers and the dissolvable fibrous material comprises dissolvable fibers.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the dissolvable fibrous material is a fine PVA fiber, about 0.9 Dn to about 1.2 Dn, with a 38 mm staple length. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of mixing insoluble and dissolvable fibrous materials in a blow-room comprises mixing the dissolvable fibrous material in an amount of about 10% to about 25% by weight in the specialized yarn. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the insoluble fibrous material is selected from a group consisting of cotton, silk, bamboo, sea shell, sea weed, cupro, wool, milk, modal, acrylics, poly(trimethylene terephthalate), Lyocell, silver, charcoal, viscose or other cellulosic fibers, or any combination thereof, and the dissolvable fibrous material comprises polyvinyl alcohol. 
     
     
         12 . A process of making a specialized woven fabric from the specialized yarn of  claim 1 , comprising:
 using the specialized yarn in preparatory to make beam;   weaving the specialized yarn into a greige fabric; and   dissolving dissolvable fibers from the specialized yarns to form the plurality of micro passageways extending from the plurality of positions along the outer surface of the specialized yarns and to within the central cores thereof.   
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 12 , wherein the greige fabric comprises a 7-end, 8-end, or 10-end sateen weave. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 13 , wherein the 7-end sateen weave comprises move numbers of 2, 3, 4, or 5; the 8-end sateen weave comprises move numbers of 3 or 5; and
 the 10-end sateen weave comprises move numbers of 3 or 7.   
     
     
         15 . The process of  claim 14 , wherein the woven fabric comprises a thread count between about 450 to about 1200 thread count. 
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the step of weaving the specialized yarn into the greige fabric includes orienting the specialized yarn in the warp direction of the fabric. 
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 16 , wherein the step of weaving the specialized yarn into the greige fabric further includes orienting more of the specialized yarn in the weft direction of the greige fabric than in the warp direction. 
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the woven fabric comprises thermal resistance index of about 0.024° C.-M 2 /W to about 0.350° C.-M 2  Mat about 23° C. ambient temperature, a total insulation value of about 0.12 Clo to about 0.30 Clo, and a dry heat flux of about 100 W/m 2  to about 161 W/m 2 . 
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 12 , further comprising crosslinking to fix up the micro passageways produced from the dissolved dissolvable fibers, wherein the crosslinking provides durability to the micro passageways such that they maintain their shape and resist shrinking throughout the lifetime of the fabric. 
     
     
         20 . The process of  claim 12 , wherein the woven fabric comprises a warp float size of between 1 and 2 millimeter.