System for preparing glass fiber pellets
AssigneeOwens Corning Fiberglas Technology, Inc.
InventorsMichael A. Strait, Homer G. Hill, Robert A. Schweizer, Stephen Seng
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Abstract
A system for making densified glass fiber pellets from chopped segments of multi-filament glass strand is described. The densified pellets may be advantageously produced by hydrating chopped glass strands and then pelletizing them by tumbling in a rotary drum, and densifying the resulting pellets by tumbling in a rotating zig-zag or undulating tube for a period of time sufficient to increase their density but insufficient to degrade the fibers to a point where composite articles formed from such pellets have lower tensile or impact strengths than comparable composite articles formed from unpelletized strand segments.
Claims20
A process for forming glass fiber pellets comprising:
- a. forming a strand comprising a plurality of substantially continuous glass fibers;
- b. chopping said strand into segments;
- c. applying to said segments an aqueous hydrating composition;
- d. pelletizing said segments by subjecting said segments to a first tumbling action to distribute the hydrating composition substantially uniformly over the segments and form said segments into pellets having a moisture content;
- and
- e. densifying said pellets by subjecting said pellets to a second tumbling action sufficient to compact the fibers in the pellets and increase pellet density to form densified pellets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.