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US 6,663,823 B2Granted
Process for making nonwoven fabric and apparatus used for this process
AssigneeUni-Charm Corporation
InventorsToshio Kobayashi, Satoru Tange
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process for making a nonwoven fabric in which continuous fibers are evenly distributed and neither bundles nor lumps of the fibers, includes a guide box for continuous fibers being provided between extruding nozzles adapted to discharge the continuous fibers under hot air blast and a conveyor belt. The box has an upper end opening and a lower end opening being larger than the upper end opening. The continuous fibers are subjected to a suction effect provided from below the guide box so that the continuous fibers may be secondarily stretched and thereby thinned within the guide box.
Claims19
A process of making a nonwoven fabric, said process comprising the steps of:
- discharging continuous fibers of a thermoplastic synthetic resin from a melt-extruder;
- stretching, and thereby thinning, the discharged continuous fibers by a hot air blast;
- and
- placing the stretched continuous fibers upon a conveyor located below the melt-extruder to form the non-woven fabric;
- said placing comprising the steps of:
- providing a guide box between said melt-extruder and said conveyor, said guide box having an upper end opening spaced from nozzles of said melt-extruder by a predetermined distance and adapted to receive said stretched continuous fibers and a lower end opening adjacent said conveyor and having a dimension larger than said upper end opening as measured in a traveling direction of said conveyor;
- and
- generating a suction under said conveyor to cause said stretched continuous fibers to flow within said guide box in a well ordered manner from said upper end opening to said lower end opening;
- wherein said suction is sufficient to cause further stretching, thinning, and cooling of said continuous fibers and to cause a flow velocity of said fibers in a vicinity of said upper end opening to be equal to or greater than a flow velocity of said fibers after being discharged form the melt-extruder.
6 more elements
A process of making a nonwoven fabric, said process comprising the steps of:
- discharging continuous fibers of a thermoplastic synthetic resin from a melt-extruder;
- stretching, and thereby thinning, the continuous fibers by blowing air from an air nozzle onto said continuous fibers being discharged;
- and
- placing the stretched continuous fibers upon a conveyor located below the melt-extruder to form the non-woven fabric;
- said placing comprising the steps of:
- providing a guide box between said melt-extruder and said conveyor, said guide box having an upper end opening spaced from nozzles of said melt-extruder by a predetermined distance and receiving said stretched continuous fibers, and a lower end opening adjacent said conveyor and having a dimension larger than said upper end opening as measured in a traveling direction of said conveyor;
- and
- generating a suction under said conveyor to cause said stretched continuous fibers to flow within said guide box from said upper end opening to said lower end opening;
- wherein
- said suction is sufficient to cause further stretching, and hence thinning, of said continuous fibers in said guide box and to cause a flow velocity of said fibers in a vicinity of said upper end opening to be equal to or greater than a flow velocity of said fibers after being discharged form the melt-extruder;
- and
- said upper end opening of said box is spaced from said nozzles by a distance of 10˜200 mm.
9 more elements
A process of making a nonwoven fabric, said process comprising the steps of:
- discharging continuous fibers of a thermoplastic synthetic resin from a melt-extruder;
- stretching, and thereby thinning, the continuous fibers by blowing air from an air nozzle onto said continuous fibers being discharged;
- and
- placing the stretched continuous fibers upon a conveyor located below the melt-extruder to form the non-woven fabric;
- said placing comprising the steps of:
- providing a guide box between said melt-extruder and said conveyor, said guide box having an upper end opening spaced from nozzles of said melt-extruder by a predetermined distance and receiving said stretched continuous fibers, and a lower end opening adjacent said conveyor and having a dimension larger than said upper end opening as measured in a traveling direction of said conveyor;
- and
- generating a suction under said conveyor to cause said stretched continuous fibers to flow within said guide box from said upper end opening to said lower end opening;
- wherein
- said suction is sufficient to cause further stretching, and hence thinning, of said continuous fibers in said guide box and to cause a flow velocity of said fibers in a vicinity of said upper end opening to be equal to or greater than a flow velocity of said fibers after being discharged form the melt-extruder;
- and
- said guide box has a pair of walls opposed to each other in the traveling direction of said conveyor and sloping with respect to said traveling direction so as to converge upwardly from said lower end opening toward said upper end opening at which said walls are spaced from each other by a distance of 10˜100 mm as measured in the traveling direction.
9 more elements
An apparatus for making non-woven fabric by stretching, and thereby thinning, continuous fibers of a thermoplastic synthetic resin discharged from a melt-extruder by a hot air blast and then placing the stretched continuous fibers upon a conveyor located below said melt-extruder, said apparatus comprising:
- a guide box located between said melt-extruder and said conveyor, said guide box having an upper end opening spaced from nozzles of said melt-extruder by a predetermined distance and adapted to receive said stretched continuous fibers, and a lower end opening adjacent said conveyor and having a dimension larger than said upper end opening as measured in a traveling direction of said conveyor;
- a suction source located below said conveyor, said suction source being sufficiently strong to put the continuous fibers in order, cause further stretching, thinning and cooling of said continuous fibers, and maintain or accelerate a flow velocity of said continuous fibers in a vicinity of said upper end opening;
- and
- hot air nozzles surrounding and adjacent to the nozzles of said melt-extruder for blowing the hot air blast on the continuous fibers being discharged from the nozzles of said melt-extruder.
1 more element
An apparatus for making non-woven fabric, said apparatus comprising:
- a melt-extruder for discharging continuous fibers of a thermoplastic synthetic resin;
- a conveyor positioned below said melt-extruder for receiving the continuous fibers;
- a guide box located between said melt-extruder and said conveyor, said guide box having an upper end opening spaced from nozzles of said melt-extruder by a distance of 10˜200 mm and adapted to receive said continuous fibers, and a lower end opening adjacent said conveyor and having a dimension larger than said upper end opening as measured in a traveling direction of said conveyor;
- and
- a suction source located below said conveyor.
2 more elements
An apparatus for making non-woven fabric, said apparatus comprising:
- a melt-extruder for discharging continuous fibers of a thermoplastic synthetic resin;
- a conveyor positioned below said melt-extruder for receiving the continuous fibers;
- a guide box located between said melt-extruder and said conveyor, said guide box having an upper end opening spaced from nozzles of said melt-extruder by a predetermined distance and adapted to receive said continuous fibers, and a lower end opening adjacent said conveyor and having a dimension larger than said upper end opening as measured in a traveling direction of said conveyor;
- and
- a suction source located below said conveyor;
- wherein said guide box has a pair of walls opposed to each other in the traveling direction of said conveyor and sloping with respect to said traveling direction so as to converge upwardly from said lower end opening toward said upper end opening at which said walls are spaced from each other by a distance of 10˜100 mm as measured in the traveling direction.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.