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US 4,397,623 AGranted
Apparatus for the production of mineral fibers by means of rotating discs
AssigneeUnited States Gypsum Company
InventorsWilliam F. Porter, Donald R. Janninck
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for producing mineral fibers comprising a container having means for heating the mineral material to form a molten pool therein, a plurality of discs having a portion thereof immersed in the molten pool, and means for rotating the discs in the same angular direction at high speed. In a preferred embodiment means are provided for moving a gas such as air or steam across the edges of the rotating discs to assist in the attenuation of the fibers.
Claims6
An apparatus for producing mineral fibers from a molten mineral composition, which comprises,
- a. a container for holding said mineral composition in molten form, and means for heating said composition and maintaining said composition in molten form,
- b. a plurality of discs affixed to spaced-apart substantially parallel horizontal shafts, said discs being in substantially coplanar arrangement, and being positioned so that the lower edge of all but the last one of said discs are immersed in said molten composition during operation, and
- c. means for rotating all said shafts and discs affixed thereto in the same angular direction, said discs being arranged and dimensioned to propel a portion of molten slag from their peripheries in the form of elongated droplets or streams, a portion of said elongated droplets or streams being propelled on a vector tangent from one disc to another, said elongate droplets or streams passing through a cooling zone of air where they become solidified as fibers and removed from said apparatus, the portion of said molten slag removed from said container by said discs but not formed into fibers returning to said container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.