Methods for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament
AssigneeAladdin Manufacturing Corporation
InventorThomas R. Clark
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from recycled polymer. In various embodiments, the method includes: (1) reducing recycled polymer material into polymer flakes; (2) cleansing the polymer flakes; (3) melting the flakes into a polymer melt; (4) removing water and contaminants from the polymer melt by dividing the polymer melt into a plurality of polymer streams and exposing those streams to pressures below 5 millibars; (5) recombining the streams; and (6) using the resulting purified polymer to produce bulked continuous carpet filament.
Claims26
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the method comprising:
- melting a plurality of polymer flakes to create a first stream of polymer melt;
- routing the first stream of polymer melt through a separation element to generate multiple streams of polymer melt;
- exposing the multiple streams of polymer melt to a pressure within a multiple stream section of a melt processing unit to a pressure between about 0 millibars and about 5 millibars;
- while maintaining the pressure of the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit between about 0 millibars and about 5 millibars, allowing the multiple streams of polymer melt to pass through the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit into a receiving section of the melt processing unit;
- recombining the multiple streams of polymer melt into at least one stream of polymer melt at the receiving section of the melt processing unit;
- and
- providing polymer from the at least one stream of polymer melt to at least one spinning machine configured to form the polymer from the at least one stream of polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the method comprising:
- melting a plurality of polymer flakes to create a first stream of polymer melt;
- routing the first stream of polymer melt through a separation element to generate multiple streams of polymer melt;
- exposing the multiple streams of polymer melt to a pressure within a multiple stream section of a melt processing unit to a pressure between about 0.5 millibars and about 1.2 millibars;
- while maintaining the pressure of the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit between about 0.5 millibars and about 1.2 millibars, allowing the multiple streams of polymer melt to pass through the multiple stream section of the melt processing unit into a receiving section of the melt processing unit;
- recombining the multiple streams of polymer melt into at least one stream of polymer melt at the receiving section of the melt processing unit;
- and
- providing polymer from the at least one stream of polymer melt to at least one spinning machine configured to form the polymer from the at least one stream of polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.