Method of making plural component fibers
AssigneeBASF SE
InventorWilliam H. Hills
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for extruding a wide variety of plural-component fiber configurations in a spin pack utilizes one or more disposable distributor plates in which distributor flow paths are etched on one or both sides to distribute the polymer components to appropriate spinneret inlet hole locations. The etching process permits the distribution paths to be sufficiently small to facilitate issuing multiple discrete polymer component streams axially into each spinneret orifice inlet hole, whereby the resulting extruded fiber can be made up of at least one hundred side-by-side sub-fibers. If the adjacent sub-fibers are weakly bonded, they can be readily separated by agitation to significantly increase the effective yield from the spin pack and provide very fine and uniform fibers.
Claims39
A method of forming plural-component synthetic fibers from plural respective dissimilar molten/solution polymer components, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) flowing said plural components, mutually separated, in a structure having plural parts;
- and
- (b) in said structure, distributing each separate component to an array of inlet holes for multiple spinneret orifices in a spinneret plate such that each component flows into each inlet hole to provide, in each spinneret orifice, a combined flow containing each of said plural components, said spinneret plate being one of said plural parts of said structure;
- wherein said fibers are issued in a first direction as respective streams from said structure by said spinneret orifices;
- and
- wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:
- (b.1) providing at least one distributor plate, having upstream and downstream surfaces, said at least one distributor plate having multiple distribution flow paths formed therein by etching the plate at least at one of said surfaces;
- (b.2) positioning said at least one distributor plate in said structure so that the upstream and downstream surfaces are transverse to said first direction and in a position requiring said plural components to flow through said multiple distribution flow paths formed therein so that at least one of said plural components has at least one instance of flow which is transverse to said first direction;
- and
- (b.3) directing the mutually separated components through said distribution flow paths to combine said components in a predetermined manner at a plurality of said inlet holes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.