Method of nonwoven reclaim
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsLawrence James Romano, III, Stephen Harding Primm
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method for reducing a nonwoven fabric to flakes which can be recycled into the spinning system of a meltblowing, spunbonding or carding process. The process according to this invention is a noncontact one, involving the use of a hot air knife. The hot air knife emits a jet, or stream, of heated air under pressure at a high flow rate. A nonwoven fabric is contacted with the jet of air and as a consequence, the nonwoven web is physically broken into small pieces, or flakes. The resultant flakes are brushed off the conveyor and collected in a reclaim hopper; they are readily reprocessable due to their small size.
Claims17
A method of reducing a thermoplastic nonwoven web to flakes, comprising:
- a) providing means for forming a heated fluid jet;
- b) feeding said nonwoven web onto a transfer belt positioned in the path of said heated fluid jet;
- c) contacting said nonwoven web with said heated fluid at an angle within about 15.degree. of perpendicular to the web surface to reduce said web to flakes having an average equivalent diameter between about one-sixteenth inch to about one-eighth inch and an average thickness between about 1/3000.sup.th to about 1/10,000.sup.th inch;
- and
- d) applying vacuum to draw said fluid through said web.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.