This Invention involves a kind of textile yarn and its production technique, especially a kind of yarn made of fiber from animal pelage and its production technique.

Animal in the Earth is of all shapes and colors, which provides rich resource of animal pelage. Animal pelage consists mainly of collagen fiber, which is twisted in bundle form each other, and each bundle of collagen fiber consists of a lot of tiny collagen fiber. Animal skin consists of cuticular layer, dermis layer and subcutaneous tissue. Dermis layer accounts for 90% or more of the skin, and consists of papillary layer and reticular layer. Collagen fiber in papillary layer is twisted openly, while collagen fiber in reticular layer is twisted tightly. Collagen fiber accounts for more than 95% of whole dermatome fiber and is intersected across in a crisscross fashion and forms a three dimensional net structure. This is the principal part of dermis layer. There is small amount of reticular fiber, elastic fiber and keratin fiber (reticular fiber wraps around bundle of collagen fiber to form net for keeping the collagen fiber in it with elastic fiber and keratin fiber between them). Besides, there is lipoprotein (various kinds of proteins) between fibers, fat and various line bodies in gel form filling space between fibers.

Utilization of human is mainly to process original pelage of animal to leather, which is used to make garment, shoes, hats, furniture, bags, decoration of automobiles and etc. This use of leather requires high quality for original pelage of animal. It requires certain dimension and uniform thickness of the leather. Every defect of the leather, such as burning marks, wrinkle, cut, sting, scratch and etc., would make products defective or rejected. Final utilization factor of original pelage of animal from pelage to leather and then to finished products is only 20~40%, most of animal pelage becomes oddments or leftover bits and pieces.

There is a process abroad that grinds leftover bits and pieces and/or worn-out leather to powder, mixes it with other materials in powder form and makes the mixture regenerative leather. Products from this process are of low grade, poor quality, less application. This process would make serious waste of resource of natural animal pelage.

One of the aims of this Invention is to provide a kind of animal leather yarn to solve the problem of low utilization rate of remnant leather and leftover bits and pieces as well as reclaimation and recycling. The process is to open mechanically collagen fiber of animal pelage in bundle form to leather fiber in single thread form, and further to use this leather fiber for spinning.

Another aim of this Invention is to provide a process to produce abovementioned yarn of leather fiber.

The former aim is realized as follows: A kind of leather yarn is made of 1~100%WT of leather fiber, being mechanically opened from leather, and 0∼99%WT of textile fiber. Leather fiber and textile fiber are disposed longitudinally, interlaced with each other and twisted together to form leather yarn.

Leather fiber in this Invention is made from pelage or leather of cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, deer, goats, pigs, dogs, wolfs, rabbits, rats, kangaroos, crocodiles, fish, snakes and other animals. Length of leather fiber is 10∼45mm, fineness is 0.3D∼2.5D.

Textile fiber in this Invention may be either long staple, or cut fiber, and either natural textile fibers such as cotton, hemp, silk, cashmere, wool, camel hair, rabbit hair, dog hair, down feather and etc. as well as chemical fibers such as terylen, acrylic fiber, urethane elastic fiber, polyamide fiber and polypropylene, or fibers processed or extracted artificially, such as direct viscose, soy, milk, bamboo, testa fat and etc.

The latter aim of this Invention is realized as follows: A method of making yarn of leather fiber contains following process: tanning animal pelage with conventional tanning process, then sorting, swelling, opening fiber, degumming, decoloring, edulcorating, grading, blending, clearing, carding, drawing, and spinning.

Compared with prior arts, this Invention has following advantages:

1. (1) Yarn of leather fiber can be used to tat, knit and weave various textiles and face fabric of top, medium and low grades, and expands scope of application of animal pelage.
2. (2) Yarn of leather fiber has high tensile strength, good elasticity. Various textiles and face fabric of top, medium and low grades, tatted, knitted and weaved with this yarn, have stronger elasticity, resistance to wear, thermo-insulating property, fire resistance property, acoustic absorbability and water absorbability.
3. (3) It has plenty of raw materials with low cost. Final utilization factor of original pelage of animal is only 20~40%, remaining 60~80% is oddments, which is of low cost. Resource of leftover bits and pieces is also very rich and its price is lower, in addition, there is a lot of worn-out leather for reclaimation and utilization in public.
4. (4) This Invention provides feasible method of production of leather yarn made of animal pelage or cheap leftover bits and pieces and worn-out leather. It makes natural resource used more sufficiently and reasonably.

This Invention will be explained further in conjunction with these drawings and embodiments.

• Fig. 1 is structural representation of cross section of leather yarn in this Invention;
• Fig. 2 is flow chart of process of this Invention;
• Fig. 3 is structural representation of device for fiber opening in this Invention.

As shown in Fig. 1, leather yarn in this Invention consists of 1~100%WT of leather fiber 1, being mechanically opened from leather, and 0~99%WT of textile fiber 2. Length of leather fiber 1 is 10~45mm, fineness is 0.3D∼2.5D. Leather fiber 1 and textile fiber 2 are disposed longitudinally, interlaced with each other and twisted together to form leather yarn.

As leather fiber has very strong amplexation and has tiny gap between fibers, its fiber may be disposed longitudinally and intertwine by itself. Textile fiber has also gap between fibers and amplexation, its fiber may also be disposed longitudinally. Leather fiber and textile fiber may be intertwined together uniformly.

Leather fiber 1 is made from pelage or leather of at least one animal such as cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, deer, goats, pigs, dogs, wolfs, rabbits, rats, kangaroos, crocodiles, fish, snakes and other animals. Tanning process of this animal pelage is the same as conventional tanning process, i.e. screen selecting of raw material, liming, washing, deliming, tanning and softening, dehydrating and etc. (This process is not required for worn-out leather, leftover bits and pieces and reclaimed leather). After tanning, following process is necessary to carried out: sorting, swelling, opening fiber, degumming, decoloring, edulcorating, grading, blending, clearing, carding, drawing, and spinning. Textile fiber 2 may be natural textile fiber such as cotton, hemp, silk, cashmere, wool, camel hair, rabbit hair, dog hair, down feather and etc. as well as chemical fiber such as terylen, acrylic fiber, urethane elastic fiber, polyamide fiber and polypropylene, or fibers processed or extracted artificially, such as direct viscose, soy, milk, bamboo, testa fat and etc.

As shown in Fig. 2, production process of leather fiber is as follows: First, swell the leather, open its fiber, degum and decolor them, so to obtain leather fiber of length of 10~45mm and fineness of 0.3D∼2.5D with strong elasticity and high tensile strength. Then mix it with textile fiber uniformly, and clear, card, draw and spin them to obtain blending yarn of leather and textile fibers. Following is detailed description of these steps:

1. 1. Process animal pelage to leather with conventional tanning process. Conventional tanning process is: screen selecting of raw material→liming→washing→ deliming→tanning and softening,→ dehydrating and etc. This process is a mature one and will not be explained here in detail. (This process is not required for worn-out leather, leftover bits and pieces and reclaimed leather).
2. 2. Process for production of leather fiber and yarn is as follows: sorting, swelling, opening, degumming, decoloring, edulcorating, grading, blending, clearing, carding, drawing, and spinning.
   1. a) Sorting: Sort leathers according to their kind, shape, size and thickness.
   2. b) Swelling: Swell leathers with swelling agents and make them expanded and opened. Swelling agent used for this purpose depends on kind of leather. Possible choice includes Lamepon A (oleol amino-acid sodium), penetrating agent, high-efficiency wetting agent, lime and protease. Swelling goatskin, for example, is to put pieces of goatskin into water solution of 1.5% of Lamepon A and 1% of high-efficiency wetting agent with liquor ratio of 600% at temperature of 28~30°C, stir them uniform, to immerse them for 15∼25 hours, then to wash them and swing dry.
   3. c) Opening fiber: This step is the key step of this Invention. The operation is performed with an Opening device of animal pelage and leather fiber, developed by this Inventor. As shown in Fig. 3, this device comprises Machine frame 10, Delivering flat belt 11, Delivering rollers 12, Feeding rollers 13, Feeding plate 14, Pricker roll 15, Grid 16, Cage 17 and Beater 18. On opening operation, processed leather is delivered with Delivering flat belt 11 into Delivering rollers 12, pressed by Feeding rollers 13 on Feeding plate 14 and fed into Pricker roll 15. Rotating in high speed, Pricker roll 15 opens leather into fiber, which is stuck on Cage 17 by blower in the Cage 17, small pieces of leather that is not opened stays on Grid 16 under Pricker roll 15. Fiber stuck on Cage 17 is taken by Beater 18 and falls down through outlet under Beater 18. Through operation of opening fiber, the raw material is processed to leather fiber of length of 10∼45mm and fineness of 0.3D∼2.5D.
   4. d) Degumming: After operation of opening, fiber of animal pelage has still small amount of residues in gel form, namely lipoprotein (various kinds of proteins) between them, fat and various line bodies, which requires operation of degumming to remove them. This degumming may be performed with AT leather degreasing agent, KN leather degreasing agent, AD leather degreasing agent and etc. Fiber from goatskin leather, for example, may be put into water solution of 10%WT of AD leather degreasing agent at room temperature (PH value is 7.0∼8.0), stir them uniform for 15∼60 minutes, then remove water and swing them dry.
   5. e) Decoloring: Worn-out leather, leftover bits and pieces of leather and recycled leather have various colors, and it is necessary to carry out operation of decoloring with bleaching powder or bleaching water. Fiber from goatskin leather, for example, may be put into water solution of 5% of bleaching water (sodium hypochlorite) at temperature of 25~30°C, stir them uniform for 20∼30 minutes, then remove water from them and dry them by baking.
   6. f) Edulcorating: Remove other impurity from leather fibers.
   7. g) Grading: Separate leather fibers into various grades through air flow grading boxes.
   8. h) Blending: Operation of blending of graded leather fiber and textile fiber is carried out according to need and proportion, so to realize them intersected each other uniformly. In order to reduce amplexation of leather fiber and result in a uniform yarn stem, it is allowed during blending process of leather fiber to spray preparation agent (it refers to animal oils, vegetable oils, mineral oils and synthetic fats) in proportion of 0.1~5%WT, or to add talcum powder in 0.5~0.8%WT, so to make uniform blending of leather fibers.
   9. i) Clearing: It is to carry out further edulcorating and uniform blending of blended fibers with conventional clearing process, then perform punching.
   10. j) Carding: It is to make rolled leather fiber or blended fiber become paralleling with conventional carding process.
   11. k) Drawing: It is to process with conventional drawing process (continuous 5~8 round of drawing) to make qualified yarn string for spinning equipment.
   12. l) Spinning; Based on different sizes of leather fibers and different requirements for yarns, it is possible to used conventional processes respectively such as ring spinning, rotating cup spinning, blowing spinning and friction spun spinning, finally, to obtain yarn of leather.

Sorting: To sort cowhide leather, its leftover bits and pieces and recycled cowhide leather of different weight, thickness and size.

Swelling: Put sorted cowhide leathers into water solution of 2% of Lamepon A, 1.5% of high-efficiency wetting agent, with liquor ratio of 500% at temperature of 28~30°C, stir them uniform, to immerse them for 18 hours, then to wash them with clear water remove water and air dry.

Opening fiber: This operation is performed with an Opening device developed by this Inventor. Through operation of opening, the swelled cowhide leather is processed to leather fiber with length of 15∼45mm and fineness of 1D~2.3D.

Degumming: Put opened cowhide fiber into degreasing water solution of 5%WT of anion-nonion surface active agent and 6% of organic solvent (PH value is 7.5∼9.0), stir them uniform at room temperature and immerse them for 60 minutes, then wash with clear water and swing them dry.

Decoloring: Put degummed cowhide fiber into water solution of 5%WT of bleaching water at temperature of 35~37°C, immerse them for 35 minutes, then wash them with clear water and dry them by hot air blow.

Edulcorating: Card with conventional cotton opener and remove other impurity from cowhide fibers

Grading: Separate cowhide fibers into various grades according to their thickness and length through air flow grading boxes.

Swelling: Put sorted pigskin into water solution of 1.8% of Lamepon A, 1.3% of high-efficiency wetting agent, with liquor ratio of 550% at temperature of 28~30°C, stir them uniform, to immerse them for 16 hours, then to wash them with clear water, remove water and air dry.

Opening fiber: This operation is performed with an Opening device developed by this Inventor. Through operation of opening, the swelled pigskin is processed to pigskin fiber of length of 10~40mm and fineness of 0.8D∼2D.

Degumming: Put opened pigskin fiber into degreasing water solution of 5%WT of surface active agent and 5% of organic solvent (PH value is 6.0∼8.0), stir them uniform at room temperature and immerse them for 45 minutes, then wash with clear water and swing them dry.

Decoloring: Put degummed pigskin fiber into water solution of 5%WT of bleaching water at temperature of 35~37°C, immerse them for 30 minutes, then wash them with clear water and dry them by hot air blow.

Process of sorting, edulcorating and grading for pigskin fiber are the same as in Embodiment 1.

Swelling: Put sorted goatskin into water solution of 1.5% of Lamepon A, 1% of high-efficiency wetting agent, with liquor ratio of 600% at temperature of 28~30°C, stir them uniform, to immerse them for 15 hours, then to wash them with clear water, remove water and air dry.

Opening fiber: This operation is performed with an Opening device developed by this Inventor. Through operation of opening, the swelled goatskin is processed to goatskin fiber of length of 16∼30mm and fineness of 0.3D~1D.

Degumming: Put opened goatskin fiber into degreasing water solution of 10%WT of AD leather degreasing agent (PH value is 7.0~8.0), stir them uniform at room temperature and immerse them for 20 minutes, then wash with clear water and swing them dry.

Decoloring: Put degummed goatskin fiber into water solution of 5%WT of bleaching water at temperature of 25~30°C, stir them uniformly for 30 minutes, then wash them with clear water and dry them by hot air blow.

Process of sorting, edulcorating and grading for goatskin fiber is the same as in Embodiment 1.

Swelling: Put sorted carp fishskin into water solution of 1.5% of Lamepon A, 1.2% of high-efficiency wetting agent, with liquor ratio of 700% at temperature of 25~30°C, stir them uniform, to immerse them for 8 hours, then to wash them with clear water, remove water and air dry.

Opening fiber: This operation is performed with an Opening device developed by this Inventor. Through operation of opening, the swelled carp fishskin is processed to carp fishskin fiber of length of 10∼30mm and fineness of 0.3D~1D.

Degumming: Put opened carp fishskin fiber into water solution of 4%WT of surface active agent and 4% of organic solvent (PH value is 6.5∼7.5), stir them uniform and immerse them for 15 minutes, then wash with clear water and swing them dry.

Decoloring: Put degummed carp fishskin fiber into water solution of 3%WT of bleaching water at temperature of 35~37°C, stir them uniform for 20 minutes, then wash them with clear water and dry them by hot air blow.

Process of sorting, edulcorating and grading for carp fishskin fiber are the same as in Embodiment 1.

Swelling: Put sorted raw python skin into water solution of 1.5% of Lamepon A, 1% of high-efficiency wetting agent, with liquor ratio of 800% at temperature of 25~30°C, stir them uniform, to immerse them for 10 hours, then to wash them with clear water, remove water and air dry.

Opening fiber: This operation is performed with an Opening device developed by this Inventor. Through operation of opening fiber, the swelled raw python skin is processed to raw python skin fiber of length of 10∼35mm and fineness of 0.5D~1.8D.

Degumming: Put opened raw python skin fiber into water solution of 10%WT of AP degreasing agent (PH value is 7.0∼8.0), stir them uniformly for 25 minutes, then wash with clear water and swing them dry.

Decoloring: Put degummed raw python skin fiber into water solution of 3%WT of bleaching water at temperature of 35~37°C, stir them uniform for 25 minutes, then wash them with clear water and dry them by hot air blow.

Process of sorting, edulcorating and grading for raw python skin fiber is the same as in Embodiment 1.

Blending: On cowhide fiber (20∼40mm, 1.0~2.0D) processed in Embodiment 1, spray water solution of 2%WT of palm oil and add talcum powder in proportion of 0.8%WT, and open the fiber with conventional opening machine twice. After this operation, keep the fiber closed in nonventilated place for 24 hours.

Clearing: Process the blended cowhide fiber with conventional clearing process so that to remove impurity further and make more uniform blending, then perform punching

Carding: It is to make rolled cowhide fiber become paralleling with conventional carding process.

Drawing: It is to process with conventional drawing process continuously for 8 round, so that to make the fiber qualified yarn string for spinning equipment.

Spinning: With conventional ring spinning device, spin and twist yarn of cowhide fiber.

Blending: With cowhide fiber (20∼40mm, 1.0~2.0D) processed in Embodiment 1, blended it with cotton fiber (38 mm, 1.5D) in proportion of 35%WT for cotton fiber and add talcum powder in proportion of 0.5%WT, and open the fiber with conventional opening machine twice. After this operation, keep the fiber closed in nonventilated place for 20 hours.

Process of clearing, carding, drawing and spinning for blended fiber are the same as in Embodiment 6.

Blending: With goatskin fiber (16~30mm, 0.3∼1.2D) processed in Embodiment 3, blended it with spinnable ramie fiber (38 mm, 1.5D) in proportion of 50%WT for ramie fiber, spray uniformly water solution of 1% of palm oil and add uniformly 0.5% of talcum powder, and open the fiber with conventional opening machine twice. After this operation, keep the fiber closed in nonventilated place for 18 hours.

Process of clearing, carding and drawing for blended fiber is the same as in Embodiment 6.

Spinning: With conventional rotating cup spinning device, spin and twist yarn of goatskin fiber.

Blending: With raw python skin fiber (28∼35mm, 0.8∼1.8D) processed in Embodiment 5, blended it with spinnable terylene fiber (38 mm, 1.5D) in proportion of 55%WT for terylene fiber, add uniformly 0.6% of talcum powder, and open the fiber with conventional opening machine twice. After this operation, keep the fiber closed in nonventilated place for 15 hours.

Process of clearing, carding and drawing for blended fiber is the same as in Embodiment 6.

Spinning: With conventional blowing spinning device, spin and twist yarn of raw python skin fiber.

Blending: With pigskin fiber (28∼35mm, 1.0D~1.8D) processed in Embodiment 2, blended it with spinnable viscose fiber (38 mm, 1.5D) in proportion of 55%WT for viscose fiber, add uniformly 0.6% of talcum powder, and open the fiber with conventional opening machine twice. After this operation, keep the fiber closed in nonventilated place for 15 hours.

Process of clearing, carding and drawing for blended fiber is the same as in Embodiment 6.

Spinning: With conventional friction spinning device, spin and twist yarn of pigskin fiber.

See Attached Table 1 for properties of yarns in above embodiments.