Hybrid spinner for making a mixture of single-glass and dual-glass fibres right at the fibre forming stage

An apparatus for making bi-component glass fibers including single straight glass fibers and dual glass component curly fibers, comprising:

• a spinner having a bottom wall, a circumferential peripheral side wall, and an upper horizontally disposed top flange;
• said apparatus including equipment for supplying first and second molten materials to a distributor spinner cup located within said spinner;
• said spinner further comprising a plurality of vertically oriented flanges circumferentially placed about an inner surface of said spinner peripheral side wall;
• said vertically oriented flanges extending radially inwards and terminating adjacent to an outer side of a vertically disposed peripheral wall of said distributor spinner cup, thereby providing a plurality of vertically oriented compartments;
• said distributor spinner cup also including a bottom wall fixedly attached to said bottom wall of said spinner, and a horizontally disposed mid-flange extending inwardly from said vertically disposed peripheral wall;
• said mid-flange including an upturned vertically disposed circumferential end flange, and said distributor cup having a horizontally disposed top flange extending radially inwardly from the top of said vertically disposed peripheral side wall;
• said distributor spinner cup mid-flange being adapted to receive a second molten B glass stream and, in operation, through rotation, centrifugally move said glass B stream to an inner side of said peripheral wall of said cup, above said mid flange through a plurality of apertures openly connected to every second adjacent vertically oriented compartment;
• said spinner distributor cup bottom wall being adapted to receive a first molten glass stream A and, in operation, through rotation, centrifugally move said first molten glass stream A to said inner side of said peripheral side wall of said distributor spinner cup below mid-flange, through a plurality of apertures openly connected to every first adjacent vertically oriented compartment;
• said spinner peripheral side wall having an inner wall, an inner interior wall portion, an outer interior wall portion, located outwardly of said interior wall portion, and an outer wall;
• portions of said inner wall and said inner interior wall of said spinner peripheral side wall having a plurality of first horizontal open slots, adapted to receive glass A from glass A vertical compartments, and vertically disposed upwards or downwards adjacently a plurality of second horizontal slots adapted to receive glass B from glass B vertical compartments;
• thus said horizontal slots being stacked upwardly and downwardly with adjacent molten glass streams of A and B glass;
• each glass stream A exiting outwardly from said first horizontal slots to an annular, non-interrupted, horizontally-disposed cavity located circumferentially within said inner interior wall portion of the spinner peripheral side wall;
• and each glass stream B exiting outwardly from said second horizontal slots to an annular, non-interrupted, horizontally-disposed cavity located circumferentially within said inner interior portion of the spinner peripheral side wall;
• each of said cavities containing said A and b glasses, derived from said first and second horizontal slots, includes at least one exit orifice, each of which communicates with a plurality of passages extending outwardly within said outer interior wall of said spinner peripheral wall side wall;
• each of said passages joining together as combined A & B glass streams and exiting through common orifices in said outer wall of said spinner peripheral side wall to form in operation, dual-component helical, curly glass fibers of two glasses of differing coefficients of thermal expansion;
• and said spinner peripheral side wall also comprising in at least one predetermined height portion a plurality of third adjacent vertically stacked horizontal open slots, all of which being adapted to accept only one of each of glass A or glass B;
• each of said slots extending radially outwards throughout the said peripheral side wall to a single orifice in said outer wall, in operation, forming straight glass fibers;
• wherein, in operation, said spinner creating a mixture of said dual-component helical curly glass fibers and said straight glass fibers to form a hybrid fiberglass insulation product.