On-line drying of hollow fiber membranes
AssigneeGambro Lundia AB
InventorsUlrich Bauer, Reinhold Buck, Juergen Graf, Helmut Hildwein, Bernd Krause, Markus Storr, Arnd Wochner
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a continuous process for preparing permselective hollow fiber membranes being suitable e.g. for hemodialysis, hemodiafiltration and hemofiltration of blood which comprises a two-stage drying and tempering treatment of the hollow fiber membranes. According to a further aspect, the invention relates to a continuous process for drying permselective hollow fiber membranes on-line. The invention also relates to devices for on-line drying of permselective hollow fiber membranes.
Claims17
A device for continuously drying and tempering hollow fiber membranes comprising a plurality of rollers disposed within a housing, the housing having an inlet and an outlet for the hollow fiber membranes and an exhaust separate from the inlet and the outlet, wherein the device is configured to pass the hollow fiber membranes over an outer surface of the rollers while heating the hollow fiber membranes;
- the outer surface of each roller of the plurality of rollers being individually heatable and each roller being individually driven by a drive, and wherein the rollers are positioned within the housing such that the axes of all rollers are parallel and all axes lie in a single common plane,
- wherein the surface of each roller is configured to be heatable to a temperature in the range of from 150° C. to 300° C.,
- wherein each roller is configured to rotate at a circumferential speed in the range of from 30 to 100 m/min, and
- wherein the width of the gap between the first two rollers downstream of the inlet is in the range of 0.2 to 8 mm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.