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JP-2026075228-A - Apparatus and method for manufacturing microfiber molded products

JP2026075228AJP 2026075228 AJP2026075228 AJP 2026075228AJP-2026075228-A

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a manufacturing apparatus and method for obtaining a sheet of fine fibers, and for obtaining a molded product of fine fibers with sufficient thickness by laminating the sheets. [Solution] The system consists of a supply part I which spreads a fine fiber suspension ss onto a transport substrate, a dehydration part II which dehydrates the fine fiber suspension ss sent from the supply part I to obtain dehydrated fine fiber material ds, and a transfer part III which transfers the dehydrated fine fiber material ds sent from the dehydration part II onto a transfer substrate 31 to form a sheet of fine fibers sh. In the transfer mechanism 30 of the transfer part III, the dehydrated fine fiber material ds is transferred onto the transfer substrate 31 by passing the transfer substrate 31 and the dehydrated fine fiber material ds on the transport substrate 10 between the transfer roll 32 and the support roll. When the dehydrated fine fiber material ds is transferred onto the transfer substrate 31, a sheet of fine fibers sh is obtained. When the sheet of fine fibers sh is laminated, a molded fine fiber product is obtained. [Selection Diagram] Figure 1

Inventors

  • 合田 真二
  • 西内 大貴
  • 薮谷 智規
  • 内村 浩美
  • 伊藤 弘和

Assignees

  • 川之江造機株式会社
  • 国立大学法人愛媛大学

Dates

Publication Date
20260508
Application Date
20241022

Claims (8)

  1. A manufacturing apparatus for obtaining a microfiber molded product from a suspension of microfibers, A supply part that spreads the suspension of the fine fibers onto a transport substrate, A dehydration unit dehydrates the suspension of fine fibers sent from the supply unit to obtain a dehydrated product of fine fibers, It consists of a transfer part that transfers the dehydrated fine fiber material sent from the dehydration part to a transfer substrate to form a sheet of fine fibers, The transfer part includes a transfer mechanism that holds the fine fiber dehydrated material between a transfer roll and a support roll. The transfer mechanism is characterized in that it transfers the dehydrated fine fibers onto the transfer substrate by passing the dehydrated fine fibers on the transfer substrate and the conveying substrate between the transfer roll and the support roll.
  2. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 is further provided with a stacking mechanism, The lamination mechanism is characterized by transferring dehydrated fine fibers sent from the dehydration part onto a sheet of fine fibers that has been transferred onto the transfer substrate by the transfer mechanism.
  3. The apparatus for manufacturing a fine fiber molded product according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the transfer substrate is made of a material with higher wettability than the conveying substrate.
  4. The apparatus for manufacturing a fine fiber molded product according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the transfer mechanism comprises a transfer roll and a drive roll for a conveying substrate that also functions as a support roll.
  5. The apparatus for manufacturing a fine fiber molded product according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the transfer mechanism comprises a transfer roll and a dedicated support roll.
  6. A manufacturing apparatus for a microfiber molded product, characterized in that the lamination mechanism described in claim 2 is configured by arranging a plurality of transfer mechanisms described in claim 1 in series.
  7. A method for producing a microfiber molded product from a suspension of microfibers, A supply step of spreading the suspension of the fine fibers onto a transport substrate, A dehydration step is performed to dehydrate the suspension of fine fibers sent from the supply step in order to obtain a dehydrated product of fine fibers, A method for manufacturing a microfiber molded product, characterized by comprising a transfer step of transferring the dehydrated microfiber material obtained through the dehydration step onto a transfer substrate to form a sheet of microfibers.
  8. A method for manufacturing a molded microfiber product, wherein a lamination step is further performed, and the lamination step is characterized in that the dehydrated microfiber material sent from the dehydration step is further transferred to the sheet of microfibers transferred on the transfer substrate.

Description

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for manufacturing a microfiber molded product made of a viscous fine fibrous material. In this specification, the term "microfiber molded product" includes both a sheet of fine fibers and a laminated sheet obtained by laminating these sheets to give it thickness. In this specification, "fine fibers" refer to fibers with a diameter of 3 to 1000 nm and a fiber width of 500 μm or less (so-called nanofibers). Examples of materials used for these fine fibers include wood-derived cellulose nanofibers, crab shell-derived chitin nanofibers, and algae-derived paramylon nanofibers, but are not limited to these; nanofibers derived from various materials can be used. Some of these microfibers possess physical properties such as being five times stronger than steel, yet weighing only one-fifth as much, as well as high elasticity, low thermal expansion, and high transparency. Therefore, they are expected to have a wide range of applications in various fields, including structural and reinforcing materials, optical materials such as displays that take advantage of their transparency, electronic materials such as memory elements, and packaging materials. To be used in the wide range of applications described above, the fine fibers need to be formed into sheets. When forming microfibers into a sheet, the typical manufacturing process involves the following steps: (1) dispersing the microfibers in water to form a microfiber suspension; (2) placing the microfiber suspension on a dehydrated substrate; (3) removing water from the microfiber suspension on the dehydrated substrate (dehydration); (4) transferring the dehydrated microfiber material to a transfer substrate; and (5) peeling off the transferred dehydrated microfiber material from the transfer substrate. Through these steps, a microfiber sheet derived from the microfibers is obtained. Regarding the manufacturing process described above, there are many documents besides Patent Document 1 concerning the technique for obtaining a microfiber suspension. Furthermore, a manufacturing method including a dehydration process has been developed as described in Patent Document 2. However, the fine fiber sheets obtained with these conventional technologies are only thin in thickness. To obtain microfiber sheets that can be implemented in society, they need to be finished to a certain thickness or higher. However, if one attempts to obtain a thick microfiber sheet or microfiber molded product from the outset, the material being handled is in the form of a suspension, making handling difficult and impractical. Therefore, the inventors focused on the fact that a fine fiber molded product of sufficient thickness can be manufactured by laminating the still thin, dehydrated fine fiber material after dewatering. However, the technology for obtaining microfiber molded products has not yet been developed and therefore cannot be put into practical use. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2023-95921Japanese Patent Publication No. 2015-110858 This is an explanatory diagram of a manufacturing apparatus A according to the first embodiment of the present invention.This is an explanatory diagram of a manufacturing apparatus B according to a second embodiment of the present invention.This is an explanatory diagram of a manufacturing apparatus C according to a third embodiment of the present invention.This is an explanatory diagram of the manufacturing apparatus D according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.This is an explanatory diagram of the experimental equipment used in the experiments of this invention.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the concept of transcription rate in transcription tests.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the concept of area variation rate in transfer tests.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the concept of layer transfer rate in layering tests.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the concept of the rate of change in the layering area in lamination testing. Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. This invention relates to a technique for obtaining molded products of a desired thickness by forming sheets of fine fibers derived from various materials and laminating them as needed. In this invention, a fine fiber suspension, obtained by dispersing fine fibers in water, is used as the starting material. There are no restrictions on the method for obtaining the fine fiber suspension; any method can be used. Figures 1 to 4, which illustrate the various embodiments below, conceptually represent the basic structure. Therefore, the specific structure can be modified as long as each part can perform its function. Furthermore, the addition of auxiliary mechanisms to improve or enhance the functionality of the basic structure is also optional. (Manufacturing apparatus A according to the first embodiment) Based on Figure 1, a manufacturing apparat