Pattern forming saturator and method
AssigneeMiply Equipment, Inc.
InventorEliot R. Long
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A saturator of the type which includes a chamber situated between a chamber defining element and a mandrel, in which a web is moved through the chamber to impregnate the web with a saturant contained in the chamber, includes a chamber defining element which defines an array of grooves. The grooves are separated by raised surfaces. The raised surfaces cooperate with the mandrel to pressurize the saturant in a high pressure zone which causes a relatively large amount of saturant to enter the web. The grooves define respective low pressure zones, which cause a reduced amount of saturant or no saturant to impregnate the web. A desired pattern of impregnation of the web can be obtained by properly positioning the grooves with respect to the raised surfaces on the chamber defining element.
Claims27
A saturator for impregnating a porous web with a saturant, said saturator comprising:
- means for defining a chamber, said chamber having a pair of opposed walls, an entrance region, an exit region, a length extending between the entrance and exit regions, and a width extending transverse to the length;
- means for passing the web through the chamber from the entrance region to the exit region;
- and
- means for introducing the saturant into the chamber such that the saturant contacts at least a portion of at least one side of the web as the web passes through the chamber;
- said chamber defining at least first and second zones laterally spaced across the width of the chamber;
- said first zone converging in depth from the entrance region to the exit region such that movement of saturant in the chamber pressurizes the saturant in the first zone to cause the saturant to impregnate a first strip of the web aligned with the first zone;
- said second zone shaped to reduce saturant pressure in the second zone as compared with the first zone such that the first strip of the web aligned with the first zone is impregnated with the saturant to a greater extent than a second strip of the web aligned with the second zone.
A saturator for impregnating a porous web with a saturant, said saturator comprising:
- means for defining a chamber, said chamber having first and second opposed walls, an entrance region, and an exit region;
- means for passing the web through the chamber from the entrance region to the exit region along a transport axis;
- said first wall defining at least one raised surface and at least one groove spaced from one another along a wide axis, transverse to the transport axis, said raised surface and groove alignable with first and second laterally spaced portions of the web, respectively;
- means for introducing the saturant into the chamber between the web and the first wall such that the saturant contacts the web across the full width of the first portion and at least part of the second portion of the web as the web passes through the chamber;
- said raised surface positioned to converge with the second wall in the exit region such that movement of saturant through the chamber pressurizes the saturant over the raised surface, thereby forcing the saturant into the first portion of the web aligned with the raised surface;
- said groove positioned with respect to said second wall to reduce saturant pressure over the groove as compared with saturant pressure over the raised surface, such that the first portion of the web is characterized by increased saturant impregnation as compared with the second portion of the web.
In a saturator of the type comprising means for defining a chamber which converges from an entrance region to an exit region, means for supplying a saturant to the chamber, and means for passing a porous web through the chamber along a direction of travel from the entrance region to the exit region, wherein the chamber is shaped such that movement of the saturant through the chamber pressurizes the saturant in a pressurized zone which includes the exit region, thereby impregnating the web with the saturant, the improvement comprising:
- means, included in the chamber defining means, for forming at least one reduced pressure zone in the exit region adjacent to and laterally spaced from the pressurized zone with respect to the direction of travel of the web, said reduced pressurized zone characterized by a reduced saturant pressure as compared with the pressurized zone such that portions of the web aligned with the pressurized zone are impregnated with saturant to a greater degree than portions of the web aligned with the reduced pressure zone.
A method for selectively impregnating a porous web with a saturant comprising the following steps:
- (a) providing a chamber which includes an entrance region and an exit region, said chamber converging from the entrance region to the exit region in a first, relatively high pressure zone, said chamber also defining a second, relatively low pressure zone situated alongside the high pressure zone;
- (b) introducing the saturant into the chamber;
- and
- (c) passing the web through the chamber from the entrance region to the exit region such that the saturant is brought into contact with the web in both the high pressure zone and the low pressure zone;
- said chamber shaped such that movement of the saturant through the chamber generates higher pressures in the high pressure zone than the low pressure zone, thereby impregnating portions of the web aligned with the high pressure zone with a greater amount of the saturant than portions of the web aligned with the low pressure zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.