JPH07184757A - Pillow filler with antibacterial properties - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a pillow filler having antibacterial properties, which does not require antifungal and insect repellent treatments, is easy to manufacture, and is safe for the human body. In addition, it will provide a new application as a recovery material for used thermoplastics. [Structure] A thermoplastic resin foam containing antibacterial particles made of amorphous calcium phosphate adsorbing antibacterial metal ions, having a length of 1 to 30 mm and a bulk density of 0.
Pillow filler having antibacterial properties so as to be 1 to 0.5 g / cc.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an antibacterial filler for pillows.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a filling material for pillows, urethane foam or a combination of cotton and buckwheat is generally used, or these are used alone. Recently, a crushed product of a thermoplastic resin film has also been used as a substitute for buckwheat.

[0003]

However, when using buckwheat as a filling material for pillows, it is necessary to perform fumigation treatment with an insecticide in order to prevent the occurrence of insects.
The pillow manufacturing process becomes complicated, and the insecticide used for fumigation may remain in the buckwheat rattle and harm the body of the person who uses the pillow. Further, when using a crushed product of a thermoplastic resin film as a filling material for a pillow, the crushed product of the thermoplastic resin film contains a large amount of fine powder. There were problems such as being inhaled and impairing my health. Further, there is a problem that the filler is moldy at high temperature such as summer when the humidity is high and the sweating action is activated. It is an object of the present invention to provide an antibacterial pillow filling material that does not need to be subjected to insect proofing and mildew proofing, is easy to manufacture, and is safe for the human body.

In recent years, from the viewpoint of resource saving and protection of the natural environment, the need to collect and recycle used materials has been emphasized, and simple foods such as trays formed of polystyrene sheets or expanded polystyrene sheets have been demanded. Container,
Attempts have been made to recover and reuse the once used thermoplastic resin of the buffer packaging material by in-mold bead molding such as expanded polystyrene. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a new use for these used thermoplastic resin recovery materials.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the filler for pillow having antibacterial property according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises antibacterial property composed of amorphous calcium phosphate adsorbed with antibacterial metal ions. It is composed of a thermoplastic resin foam containing particles and has a length of 1 to 30 mm and a bulk density of 0.1 to
The feature is that it is set to 0.5 g / cc. Further, the pillow antibacterial filler according to claim 2 of the present invention is characterized in that a used thermoplastic resin is used as the thermoplastic resin in order to achieve the above object.

The antibacterial particles used in the present invention are:
Amorphous Calcium Phosphat
e: ACP particles adsorbing and supporting antibacterial metal ions obtained by mixing a slurry containing particles (hereinafter, abbreviated as ACP) and antibacterial metal ions, wherein generation of mold is suppressed by the antibacterial metal ions. It is what is done. AC above
The slurry containing P particles is prepared by adding 0.1 to 10% by weight of a water-soluble polymer dispersant, for example, ammonium triacrylate salt, to a suspension of calcium hydroxide under stirring, preferably 0.1 to 3 Wt% was added to obtain a mixed solution, and the above mixed solution with stirring was added dropwise with an aqueous solution of phosphoric acid to adjust the pH to 10
By adjusting to 5 or less, ACP fine particles having an average particle size of about 0.1 μm or less are contained. In the above slurry,
By adding the water-soluble polymer dispersant described above, the ACP particles are prevented from agglomerating and the average particle size of the ACP particles is about 0.1 μm.
It can be:

The above-mentioned ACP fine particles were subjected to powder X-ray analysis, and their patterns revealed that calcium phosphate [Ca ₃ (PO ₄ ) ₂ .nH
₂ O] and its pattern is broad, confirming that it is amorphous calcium phosphate. In addition, the ACP fine particles are considered to be an electrostatically active substance because they contain water of crystallization, and it is presumed that various microbes and viruses are easily adsorbed. An antibacterial metal powder, an antibacterial metal compound, or an aqueous solution thereof is added to the above slurry so as to be 50% by weight or less to obtain a slurry solution. In such a slurry solution, the ion-exchangeable ions in the ACP particles are replaced with antibacterial metal ions.

[0008] Such a slurry solution is dried to obtain antibacterial particles composed of ACP particles which adsorb and carry antibacterial metal ions. The antibacterial particles may be further granulated. In this case, the slurry solution may be granulated by a spray drying granulation method or the like. When the amount of ACP fine particles in the slurry is 90% by weight or more, the viscosity of the slurry becomes high, which makes it unsuitable for mixing with the antibacterial metal powder, the antibacterial metal compound powder or the antibacterial metal aqueous solution. When granulating and drying, the content of the ACP fine particles in the slurry is changed within the range of 1 to 90% by weight, whereby antibacterial particles having a desired average particle diameter can be obtained.

As the granulation method, the obtained particles are
The particle size is not particularly limited as long as the particle size is 200 μm or less. However, in addition to the above spray drying granulation method, for example, a granulation method of pulverizing after freeze-drying, a high-speed stirring granulation method, or the like may be used. it can. As the antibacterial metal, at least one metal selected from gold, silver, zinc, copper, tin, lead, arsenic, platinum, iron, antimony, nickel, aluminum, barium, cadmium, manganese, or a mixture thereof, or a metal thereof. Compounds and their aqueous solutions can be used.

The thermoplastic resin used in the present invention is not particularly limited, but for example, polystyrene,
Polystyrene-based resins such as styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer, polyolefin-based resins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and the like are used. Among them, polystyrene-based resins are preferably used. Further, as the thermoplastic resin, a simple food container such as a tray formed of a polystyrene sheet or a foam polystyrene sheet,
It is possible to recover and reuse the thermoplastic resin once used as a cushioning packaging material by in-mold bead molding such as expanded polystyrene. In addition, when the used thermoplastic resin is a foam, it is desirable to use a foam that is roughly crushed and then heat-reduced.

The pillow filler having antibacterial properties of the present invention is manufactured, for example, as follows. The recovered used thermoplastic resin and antibacterial particles made of amorphous calcium phosphate adsorbing antibacterial metal ions are supplied to the hopper of the extruder, and these raw materials are heated and melted and kneaded, and the foaming agent is press-fitted. And extruded into atmospheric pressure in a strand shape with a diameter of about 0.5 to 3 mm from an orifice having a predetermined hole diameter of a mold attached to the end of the extruder to foam, and then the length of the foamed strand Cut to about 1 to 30 mm and have a bulk density of 0.1
Obtain ~ 0.5 g / cc of pellets and use this as a filling material for pillows.

Here, the bulk density means that when the pellets are filled in a container having a constant volume in a natural state without being forcedly pushed while vibrating the container, the pellets packed per unit volume of the container. Is the weight of. Even if the same thermoplastic resin material is used, the bulk density of the pellets varies depending on the expansion ratio and the pellet shape.

As the above-mentioned foaming agent, volatile hydrocarbons such as propane, butane, pentane and the like which are used in ordinary extrusion foam molding and decomposition type foaming agents such as azodicarbonamide are appropriately used. As a method for producing expanded pellets, a foaming agent is added to the above thermoplastic resin,
After extruding in a strand form from the orifice of the die attached to the extruder, the strand extruded from the die of the extruder foams in addition to the method of pelletizing by the so-called hot cut method in which the strand is cut before cooling It is possible to use a conventionally known method such as a method of cooling and pelletizing before and foaming the pellet having the foaming property by using heating steam or the like. The expansion ratio of the thermoplastic resin can be about 1.5 to 10 times. Further, as the shape of the pellets obtained by foaming the thermoplastic resin, a disk shape,
Any shape can be used as long as it can be used by filling a pillow, such as a curved or twisted shape, a spiral shape, a straight rod shape, or a string shape, but if the shape is twisted or curved, the pellets are suitable. It is advantageous that the filling material is less lopsided in the pillow because it is entangled in the pillow and the shape of the pillow is less likely to collapse.

The foaming ratio of the thermoplastic resin and the shape of the pellets should be selected within the range of the bulk density of 0.1 to 0.5 g / cc when the pillow has a bulk density of 0.5 g / cc or more. This is because it is too heavy and not practical, and it is hard to feel and is not suitable as a filling material for pillows, and if the bulk density is 0.1 g / cc or less, strength problems occur as a filling material for pillows. For example, when polystyrene is used as the used thermoplastic resin, the expansion ratio is increased and the bulk density is 0.2 g /
If it is cc or less, the strength of the pellet as the filling material for the pillow is insufficient, and the pellet is broken during use of the pillow, or only the portion on which the head is placed is deformed and is not restored to its original state. Moreover, when polyethylene was used as the used thermoplastic resin, polyethylene could be used with a higher expansion ratio because it is more elastic than polystyrene, but even if the bulk density was 0.1 g / cc or less, it was the same as with polystyrene. There was a problem that the shape of the pillow was not restored after use.

[0015]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below. (Example 1) Collected pellets of expanded polystyrene used, granulated antibacterial particles obtained by mixing 0.1 wt% of silver ions as antibacterial metal ions in a slurry containing amorphous calcium phosphate particles, and as a foaming agent. About 2% by weight of azodicarbonamide was fed to the extruder, and the diameter was 1.0 mm.
It was extruded in a strand shape from a die having holes, and hot cut. The resulting pellet has a diameter of about 3 m
m, about 1 mm thick disk-shaped, with a bulk density of 0.26 g /
It was cc. The pellets thus formed were filled into a pillow and used as a substitute for buckwheat. The finished pillow had a slightly solid feel to the touch, but the usability was almost the same as the conventional buckwheat pillow. When the pillow filled with the above pellets was allowed to stand in a press having a relative humidity of 80% for 1 month, no mold was found in the filler.

(Example 2) Collected pellets of used expanded polyethylene, antibacterial particles granulated by mixing 0.1% by weight of silver ion as antibacterial metal ion to a slurry containing amorphous calcium phosphate particles, Then, about 2% by weight of azodicarbonamide as a foaming agent was supplied to the extruder, extruded in a strand form from a mold having a hole having a diameter of 0.8 mm, and hot cut. The resulting pellet was in the form of a curved string having a diameter of about 1.5 to 2 mm and a length of about 8 to 10 mm, and had a bulk density of about 0.15 g / cc. The pellets thus formed were used as a substitute for buckwheat and filled into pillows. The feel of the finished pillow was softer than that of the polystyrene of Example 1.
As a result of leaving the pillow filled with the above pellets in an indenter having a relative humidity of 80% for one month, no mold was observed.

[0017]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION The pillow filler of the present invention has antibacterial properties because it contains amorphous calcium phosphate particles having antibacterial properties in the thermoplastic resin, and is subjected to antifungal, antibacterial and insecticidal treatments. No need. The filler is made of thermoplastic resin foam and has a length of 1 to 30 mm and a bulk density of 0.1 to 10.
Since the pellets are selected so as to be 0.5 g / cc, fine powder does not scatter. Therefore, the manufacturing process does not become complicated, and the safety for the human body is high.

Moreover, when the pillow is filled, a suitable space is formed between the pellets and the air permeability is high, so that sweat or the like is easily evaporated, which is hygienic and comfortable to use. Since the thermoplastic resin is made by foaming, the firmness and elasticity of the pillow can be freely adjusted by selecting the shape and foaming degree of the pellet. Since it is a foam of thermoplastic resin, it can be made extremely lightweight. Furthermore, it does not require strong material strength and can use relatively inferior materials such as used thermoplastic resins, so it can be made inexpensive, and new applications can be provided as a recovery material for used thermoplastic resins. It also has the effect of contributing to resource conservation and nature conservation.

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A thermoplastic resin foam containing antibacterial particles made of amorphous calcium phosphate having adsorbed antibacterial metal ions, having a length of 1 to 30 mm and a bulk density of 0.1 to 0.5 g. / Cc which is a filler for pillow having antibacterial property. 2. The filling material for pillow having antibacterial property according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic resin is a used thermoplastic resin.