Manufacture of non-woven materials

Apparatus for making a non-woven web comprising filament supply means, two or more filament forwarding means and a filament collector, said collector comprising a plurality of vertically arranged continuous belts which are arranged side-by-side so as to define a vertical channel, the inner wall of which provides a collection surface for said filaments, the exit passage at least of said forwarding means being inclined at an angle to the axis of channel, and means causing preferably uniform relative angular motion between said forwarding means and said channel such that the mean distance between said forwarding means and the surface of said channel remains substantially constant while ensuring that the overall relative angular motion between filament supply means and the inlets at least of the filament forwarding means is at least substantially zero, said forwarding means comprising a plurality of air ejectors mounted symmetrically about the axis of the channel on a stationary plate which is substantially co-axial with the channel, said air ejectors comprising a stationary inlet means and a rotatable outlet means, said outlet means being inclined at an angle to the axes of the channel and the axes of all said outlet means being substantially parallel, so that said filaments are projected on to said collection surface to form a non-woven web, and means causing said belts to be driven in continuous synchronous manner to convey said non-woven web away from said filament forwarding means.