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AssigneeMinnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
InventorsAllen L. Taylor, William F. Sheffield
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An apparatus and method for continuously poling a film of material exhibiting pyroelectric and/or piezoelectric characteristics are disclosed. The apparatus includes a drive for advancing the film, a hot poling roller, a cold fixing roller, and a pair of electrodes that establish an electric field across the film while it is heated by the hot roller. In a first embodiment, one side of the film is coated with a conductive layer that is electrically grounded to serve as a ground electrode and the poling roller serves as a high voltage electrode for establishing the electrical field across the film. In a second embodiment, the poling roller is electrically grounded and a plurality of corona charging devices are employed as the high voltage electrode. In both embodiments, the poling roller is separated from direct physical contact with the film by a resistive layer in order to avoid serious damage to the film due to electrical arcing that can occur through a defective or thinner than normal area of the film.
A poling apparatus for continuously processing a length of film of polymeric material to semipermanently align the dipoles of the film to provide at least one of pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties in the film, which apparatus comprises:
A process for continuously poling a film of polymeric material to align the dipoles of the film to provide at least one of pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties in the film, which process comprises the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.