Systems for fiber guidance
AssigneeWichita State University
InventorRichard Sack
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Abstract
Provided herein is a system for guiding polymeric fibers using ultrasonic waves. In particular, this application discloses a system of producing fibers including an emitter, a fiber guidance system, and a collector. The emitter supplies the polymer jet into the fiber guidance system. The fiber guidance system includes a phased array of transducers and a control system. The control system directs the phased array of transducers to generate acoustic energy to create an acoustic hologram and guide the polymer jet in space to form the polymer fiber before it is collected in the collector.
Claims20
A system for forming a polymer fiber, the system comprising:
- a reservoir for holding a polymer solution;
- an emitter for emitting a jet of the polymer solution from the reservoir to form a polymer jet, whereby the polymer jet solidifies into a fiber;
- and
- a fiber guidance system comprising a phased array of transducers and a control system, the control system configured to direct the phased array of transducers to generate acoustic energy for creating an acoustic hologram operative to guide the polymer jet in space as the polymer jet is emitted from the emitter whereby the fiber is formed to correspond with the acoustic hologram generated by the phased array of transducers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.