Systems for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament
AssigneeAladdin Manufacturing Corporation
InventorThomas R. Clark
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament from polymer, where the systems are configured for: (1) passing polymer flakes through a crystalliers; (2) melting the polymer to create a first single stream of polymer melt; (3) separating the first single stream of polymer melt into multiple streams of polymer melt; (4) exposing the multiple streams of polymer melt to a pressure of between about 0 millibars and about 25 millibars in a chamber; (5) recombining the multiple streams of polymer melt into a second single stream of polymer melt; and (6) providing the second single stream of polymer melt to one or more spinning machines that are configured to form the second single stream of polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
Claims20
A system for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the system comprising:
- a crystallizer configured to at least partially dry a plurality of polymer flakes;
- a melt processing unit comprising:
- a first section in mechanical communication with the crystallizer and configured to receive the plurality of polymer flakes from the crystallizer and melt the plurality of polymer flakes into a first single stream of polymer melt;
- a separation element configured to receive the first single stream of polymer melt and divide the first single stream of polymer melt into at least eight streams;
- a chamber configured to receive the at least eight streams from the separation element;
- and
- a second section in mechanical communication with the chamber and configured to receive the at least eight streams and recombine the at least eight streams into a second single stream of polymer melt;
- a pressure regulation system configured to maintain a chamber pressure within the chamber between about 0 millibars and about 25 millibars as the at least eight streams are in the chamber;
- at least one computer-controller configured to operate the pressure regulation system to maintain the chamber pressure between about 0 millibars and about 25 millibars;
- and
- a spinning machine in mechanical communication with the melt processing unit and configured to receive the second single stream of polymer melt and form polymer from the second single stream of polymer melt into the bulked continuous carpet filament.
A system comprising:
- a crystallizer configured to at least partially dry a plurality of polymer flakes;
- a melt processing unit comprising:
- a first section in mechanical communication with the crystallizer and configured to receive the plurality of polymer flakes from the crystallizer and melt the plurality of polymer flakes into a first stream of polymer melt;
- a separation element configure to generate multiple streams of polymer melt from the first stream of polymer melt;
- a chamber configured to receive the multiple streams of polymer melt from the separation element;
- and
- a receiving section configured to receive the multiple streams of polymer melt from the chamber and recombine the multiple streams of polymer melt into a second stream of polymer melt
- a vacuum pump in mechanical communication with the chamber, wherein the vacuum pump is configured to maintain a chamber pressure within the chamber of between about 0 millibars and about 25 millibars;
- a controller that operates the vacuum pump to maintain the chamber pressure within the chamber between about 0 millibars and about 25 millibars;
- and
- at least one spinning machine configured to receive the second stream of polymer melt from the receiving section of the melt processing unit and form the polymer from the second stream of polymer melt into bulked continuous carpet filament.
A system for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament, the system comprising:
- means for at least partially drying a plurality of polymer flakes to create a plurality of at least partially dry polymer flakes;
- a melt processing unit comprising:
- a first section, the first section being configured to melt the plurality of at least partially dry polymer flakes to create a first single stream of polymer melt;
- a separation element configured to receive the first single stream of polymer melt and divide the first single stream of polymer melt into a plurality of streams;
- a chamber configured to:
- receive the plurality of streams,
- expose each of the plurality of streams to a chamber pressure,
- recombine the plurality of streams into a second single stream of polymer melt, and
- provide polymer from the second single stream of polymer melt to at least one spinning machine configured to form the polymer from the second single stream of polymer melt into the bulked continuous carpet filament;
- and
- a pressure regulation system configured to maintain the chamber pressure within the chamber of the melt processing unit between about 0 millibars and about 25 millibars as the plurality of streams pass through the chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.