Orienter

An orienter system for orienting strands with their longitudinal axes substantially parallel comprising an orienter formed by a plurality of spaced parallel orienter shafts each mounting a plurality of axially spaced radial orienter discs, said orienter discs on adjacent said orienter shafts overlapping, a plurality of side by side orienting passages, said orienting passages having their longitudinal axes substantially parallel and through which said strands pass and are aligned with their longitudinal axes substantially parallel to said longitudinal axes of said orienting passages and form a mat, said orienter discs defining opposite sides of said orienting passages, a preorienter positioned directly above said orienter, said preorienter including a plurality of spaced parallel preorienter shafts having their axes substantially perpendicular to said longitudinal axes of said orienting passages, a plurality of preorienter discs mounted in axially spaced relationship on each of said preorienter shafts, each said preorienter disc extending substantially radially of its preorienter shaft, said preorienter discs on adjacent of said preorienter shafts overlapping, a plurality of side by side preorienter passages, said preorienter passages having their longitudinal axes substantially parallel to said longitudinal axes of said orienting passages and having their opposite sides defined by said preorienter discs, said preorienter passages having widths W at least twice as wide as widths X of said orienting passages therebelow, said widths W and X being measured perpendicular to said longitudinal axes of said passages and the direction of flow of said strands through said passages and means for mounting said preorienter discs so that the maximum spacing T between their peripheries and the adjacent portions of the top of said orienter passages is not more than 30 cm (12 inches) but does not exceed the average or mean length L of strands to be oriented.