Process for bonding ethylene copolymers to fibers

Claim 1

IN A PROCESS FOR BONDING (1) A SATURATED COPOLYMER OF ETHYLENE WITH AN ALPHA-OLEFIN OR (2) A TERPOLYMER OF ETHYLENE WITH AN ALPHA-OLEFIN AND A CYCLIC OR ACYCLIC DIENE HAVING NONCONJUGATED DOUBLE BONDS, SAID TERPOLYMER HAVING A LOW DEGREE OF UNSATURATION, TO NATURAL OR SYNTHETIC FIBERS, SAID PROCESS COMPRISING IMPREGNATING SAID FIBERS WITH AN AQUEOUS DISPERSION OF PHENOL-FORMALDEHYDE RESIN AND AN AQUEOUS ELASTOMERIC LATEX CONTAINING ONE OR MORE SURFACE-ACTIVE AGENTS, THE PH OF SAID DISPERSION OF LATEX AND PHENOL-FORMALDEHYDE RESIN HAVING BEEN MATURED FOR A TIME OF FROM ABOUT 10 TO 80 HOURS, SO AS TO EFFECT A SOLIDS CONTENT IN THE TREATED FIBERS, ON A DRY BASIS, OF ABOUT 5% BY WEIGHT, DRYING THE THUS TREATED FIBERS, ASSEMBLING SAID FIBERS WITH AN ELASTOMERIC MIXTURE CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF THE ABOVE DEFINED COPOLYMER OR TERPOLYMER AND OF A VULCANIZING AGENT, AND VULCANIZING BY HEATING AT A TEMPERATURE OF FROM ABOUT 110* TO 220*C, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING EMPLOYING AS THE ELASTOMERIC COMPONENT OF SAID LATEX A SATURATED ELASTOMERIC ETHYLENE-ALPHA-OLEFIN COPOLYMER OR A LOW-UNSATURATION ELASTOMERIC TERPOLYMER OF ETHYLENE/ALPHAOLEFIN-CYCLIC OR ACYCLIC DIENE HAVING NON-CUNJUGATED DOUBLE BONDS THAT IS GRAFTED WITH AN ACID WATER-SOLUBLE VINYL OR VINYLIDENE MONOMER SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISING OF ACRYLIC ACID, METHACRYLIC ACID, MIXTURES THEREOF, MIXTURES OF ONE OF SAID ACIDS WITH A LOWER ALKYLESTER THEREOF, LOWER ALKYLESTERS OF ACRYLIC ACID, LOWER ALKYLESTERS OF METHACRYLIC ACID, SORBIC ACID, MUCONIC ACID, CROTONIC ACID AND LOWER ALKYLESTERS THEREOF.