Sprayed adhesive system for applying a continuous filament of theroplastic material and imparting a swirling motion thereto

An apparatus for forming a substantially continuous filament of a thermoplastic work material and imparting a swirling motion thereto, comprising:

• a body member which has a work material supply passage and a gas supply passage formed therein, said gas supply passage substantially aligned with and generally radially spaced from a longitudinal central axis of said body member, and said gas supply passage having substantially no inclination along a radial direction toward said central axis of said body member;
• an outlet nozzle section which is connected to said body member and has a substantially conically tapered shape, said nozzle section having a nozzle extrusion passage formed therein in communication with said work material supply passage;
• and
• a housing member which operably connects to said body member to delimit a substantially annular gas transfer zone in fluid communication with said gas supply passage and to delimit a substantially annular gas outlet passage around said nozzle section and in fluid communication with said gas transfer zone, said housing member including an exit section having inner wall surfaces which substantially parallel the substantially conically tapered shape of said nozzle section, and which are in a selected spaced relation from said nozzle section to define said gas outlet passage, said gas supply passage, said housing exit section and said nozzle section configured to provide for a selected gas flow which imparts said filament swirling motion substantially without disintegrating said filament, said apparatus thereby constructed to deposit a substantially continuous, swirled filament of said work material onto a selected substrate.