GB2124581A - Packaging textile articles - Google Patents

Abstract

Textile articles are preconditioned and packed so as to occupy a reduced volume for storage and transportation yet exhibit good recovery from creasing thereby occasioned by reducing the moisture regain of the articles to a predetermined low level, placing the articles in sealable bags and mechanically compressing the bags with the articles in them, then sealing the bags, the predetermined low level of moisture regain being experimentally predetermined.

Description

SPECIFICATION Packaging textile articles This invention relates to packaging textile articles.

It is well known that textile articles are liable to creasing during storage, particularly when packaged after manufacture. One measure, intended to render such creasing readily removable on unpackaging, was to precondition the articles so as to reduce their moisture regain, and to seal the package so as to maintain the moisture regain achieved during the conditioning step throughout storage in the package.

It was later found, surprisingly, that provided the preconditioning was effected in a certain way, conditioned articles could even be vacuum packaged, and still exhibit good recovery from creasing when unpackaged. Vacuum packaging, of course, reduces the volume occupied by the articles, reducing the storage and transportation costs. But it also applies higher creasing forces up to 15 Ibs/sq. in.

The method for conditioning textile articles used in connection with vacuum packaging involves exposing the articles to an atmosphere of low relative humidity. In practice, the articles are passed on a conveyor through an air-conditioned tunnel, remaining in the tunnel long enough - a matter of several hours - to attain equilibrium with the conditioning atmosphere.

We have now found - even more surprisingly that textile articles, including garments of wool and cotton normally sensitive to creasing, and difficult to smooth without heat and pressure, can be compression packed without permanent creasing after only a relatively brief conditioning step.

Compression packaging is, of course, a much more severe process than vacuum packaging, in which very substantial pressures are exerted on the article when packed in a sealable bag which is sealed before the pressure is released. Although compression packaging does not (once the compression is released) reduce the volume of the article more than vacuum packaging, it is nevertheless a simpler and less expensive process to carry out.

The present invention provides a method for packaging textile articles which takes advantage of the simplicity and low cost of compression packaging, yet which by a relatively speedy conditioning step puts the articles in such a condition that they readily recover from creasing due to packaging and storage.

The invention comprises a method for packaging textile articles so as to occupy reduced volume in storage and transportation, yet exhibit good recovery from creasing arising from packaging and storage while packaged, in which the articles are conditioned prior to storage by reducing their moisture regain to a predetermined low level, and the conditioned articles are placed in sealable bags which are, together with the articles placed in them, mechanically compressed so as substantially to reduce the volume occupied thereby and then sealed, said predetermined low level of moisture regain being experimentally predetermined having regard to the nature of the article, the extent of the mechanical compression and the expected conditions and period of storage so that articles so compressed and stored will exhibit good recovery from creasing.

The mechanical compression may be effected in a platen press.

The articles may be conditioned by subjecting a batch of like articles to the action of a circulating conditioning atmosphere and detecting when the moisture regain has fallen to the said predetermined low level.

The articles, after conditioning and before the compression step, are held in a holding atmosphere with which they are substantially in equilibrium.

The conditioning atmosphere may have a relative humidity as low as 5%, while the holding atmosphere may have a higher relative humidity depending on the said predetermined low level of moisture regain of the conditioned articles.

Heat may be used in the conditioning step, but by the end of the conditioning step the articles should be brought down to ambient or not much above ambient temperature.

One embodiment of a method for packaging textile articles according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a plan of a packing plant for packing textile articles according to the invention: Figure 2 is a section through a conditioning enclosure of the plant of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a compression packaging press.

Figure 1 illustrates a packing plant suitable for carrying out the method for packaging textile articles so as to occupy a reduced volume in storage and transportation, yet exhibit good recovery from creasing.

The plant comprises two conditioning enclosures 11 through which conditioned atmosphere can be circulated from conditioning equipment 12 which also supplies conditioned atmosphere to a packaging room 1 3.

Articles from a store 14 are loaded into the conditioning enclosures 11 via sealable doors 15, the doors sealed and the conditioned atmosphere passed through the enclosures 11 in order to reduce the moisture regain of the articles therein to a predetermined low level.

The attainment of the said predetermined low level, which may be such, for example, that the conditioned articles are in equilibrium with air at ambient temperature and about 10% relative humidity or even less, is detected by "wet" and "dry" bulb thermometers 21, 22 of which the "wet" bulb thermometers 21 are in contact with the articles and the "dry" bulb thermometer 22 simply measures the atmospheric temperature.

The thermometers 21, 22 are connected to control means 23 which indicate when the desired level of moisture regain has been attained by the temperatures measured by the thermometers 21, 22, namely the temperature of the articles and the air temperature, being different by a predetermined amount.

When the predetermined low regain level has been attained the articles are removed through doors 24 into the packing room 1 3 where they are packed into sealable plastic bags of negligible air permeability and mechanically compressed in the bags in a platen press 25 which is situated at the end of a packing table 26 with a conveyor 27. The platen press, shown in more detail in Figure 3, is double-sided and has an upper, stationary platen 31 and two lower platens 32a, 32b which can be brought alternately under the upper platen 31 to be elevated by rams 33. While still compressed, the open edge of the bag is sealed by a hot blade 34 before the platen is lowered.Meanwhile a bagged article has been loaded onto the free lower platen, which is then pushed under the upper platen 31 to displace the just-lowered platen to the other side of the press, whereby it is unloaded and reloaded with a freshly bagged article.

The conditioning enclosure 11 is illustrated in more detail in Figure 2, and comprises shelving 41 on which articles 42 can be placed. The shelving defines a tortuous path through the enclosure and is of mesh or expanded and perforated metal so that conditioning atmosphere can permeate the articles and so that the amount of conditioning atmosphere that passes through the enclosure without usefully contacting the articles is as low as possible. Conditioning atmosphere enters via an inlet 43 provided with baffles 44 to divert the incoming air to all parts of the enclosure 11 so that there shall be no regions where stagnation occurs.

An exhaust aperture 45 redirects used conditioning atmosphere to the conditioning equipment 12 for re-circulation.

Preferably, articles to be packaged will be all similar, or at least will have identical conditioning cycles or nearly so, so that the articles can be conditioned in the shortest possible time, perferably as little time as an hour. The predetermined low level of moisture for any particular article will depend on its tendency to crease and retain creases, the extent of the mechanical compression applied by the press 25 and the expected conditions (especially temperature) and duration of storage, and can easily be experimentally determined.

However, as a general guide, if articles are subjected in the apparatus described for an hour or two hours to a conditioning atmosphere which is recirculated so that its relative humidity does not rise much above 10%, preferably 5%, with or even without additional heating during the process (with, if used, cooling to ambient temperature before the process is terminated), most articles, even garments of wool and cotton, will exhibit good recovery from creasing arising from compression packaging and subsequent storage for up to several weeks, perhaps even indefinite storage.

Claims (4)

1. A method for packaging textile articles so as to occupy reduced volume in storage and transportation, yet exhibit good recovery from creasing arising from packaging and storage while packaged in which the articles are conditioned prior to storage by reducing their moisture regain to a predetermined low level, and the conditioned articles are placed in sealable bags which are, together with the articles placed in them, mechanically compressed so as substantially to reduce the volume occupied thereby and then sealed, said predetermined low level of moisture regain being experimentally determined having regard to the nature of the article, the extent of the mechanical compression and the expected conditions and period of storage so that articles so compressed and stored will exhibit good recovery from creasing.

2. A method according to Claim 1, in which the mechanical compression is effected in a platen press.

3. A method according to Claim 1, in which the articles are conditioned by subjecting a batch of like articles to the action of a circulating conditioning atmosphere and detecting when the moisture regain has fallen to the said predetermined low level.

4. A method according to Claim 1, in which the articles, after conditioning and before the compression step, are held in an atmosphere with which they are substantially in equilibrium.