Co-mingling of particulate material and co-axial-meltblown fibers
AssigneeThe Procter & Gamble Company
InventorFabio ZAMPOLLO
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to the manufacturing equipment for web materials comprising fibers and particulate material, to a process of operating such an equipment and to particular materials resulting therefrom. Coaxially meltblown fibres are combined with a stream of particulate or short fiber material and the resulting commingled mixture is deposited onto a collector. The meltblown fibers are formed by nozzles which are divided into two or more sub-arrays configured to produce two or more different types of fiber, having e.g. different diameters and/or polymer composition.
Claims8
A web forming apparatus configured to form a commingled web comprising:
- a particulate material supply system oriented to deliver a vertically downwardly moving stream of particulate material;
- at least one polymer supply system providing polymer material to a first and a second multi-row CA-meltblowing system, wherein the first and second multi-row CA-meltblowing system each comprise an array of polymer releasing orifices comprising at least two cross-directionally extending rows of polymer releasing orifices;
- a forming box comprising:
- a particulate material inlet connected to the particulate material supply system, two CA-meltblown fiber inlets each connected to one of the CA-meltblowing systems, and a commingled material outlet;
- a collector configured to move along a machine direction of the apparatus;
- wherein each one of the CA-meltblowing inlets of the forming box is positioned machine-directionally before (“upstream”) and after (“downstream”) the particulate material inlet;
- wherein the arrays of polymer releasing orifices each comprise at least a first and a second sub-array, each first and second sub-array comprises at least one row of orifices;
- wherein the orifices of at least one first and second sub-arrays release fibers of different properties than the orifices of at least one different first and second sub-array;
- wherein the one or more properties are at least one of:
- a. the orifices of the first and second sub-arrays exhibiting differing orifice diameters;
- b. the orifices of the first and second sub-arrays are connected to polymer supply systems for differing polymer types;
- c. the orifices of the first and second sub-arrays are connected to polymer supply systems for differing polymers throughput;
- d. the orifices of the first and second sub-arrays are connected to polymer supply systems for differing polymer supply pressure;
- or
- e. the orifices of the first and second sub-arrays are connected to independent temperature control systems.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.