Systems and methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament
AssigneeAladdin Manufacturing Corporation
InventorThomas R. Clark
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 1.5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.
Claims21
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the method comprising:
- (A) providing a multi-rotating screw (MRS) extruder comprising an MRS Section;
- (B) providing a vacuum pump in communication with the MRS section that is adapted to maintain a pressure within the MRS Section below a pressure of about 5 millibars, the vacuum pump comprising a controller that operates the vacuum pump to maintain the pressure within the MRS Section below the pressure of about 5 millibars;
- (C) using the controller to operate the vacuum pump to reduce the pressure within the MRS Section below the pressure of about 5 millibars;
- (D) while the controller is operating the vacuum pump to reduce the pressure within the MRS Section below the pressure of about 5 millibars, passing a melt comprising recycled polymer through the MRS Section;
- and
- (E) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament.
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the method comprising:
- providing a polymer melt from an extruder to a chamber;
- providing a pressure regulation system in communication with the chamber that is adapted to maintain a chamber pressure within the chamber below a pressure of about 5 millibars;
- using a controller to operate the pressure regulation system to maintain the chamber pressure within the chamber below the pressure of about 5 millibars;
- separating the polymer melt from the extruder into a plurality of streams such that each stream is at least partially exposed to an interior of the chamber and such that a respective surface area of each of the plurality of streams is exposed to the chamber pressure within the chamber;
- after the plurality of streams are exposed to the chamber pressure, recombining the plurality of streams into a single polymer stream;
- and
- forming polymer from the single polymer stream into bulked continuous carpet filament.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.