Static reduction roller and method for reducing static on a web
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsFred J. Roska, Chris J. Tanley, Kevin B. Newhouse, Bruce E. Tait
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure describes a looped pile static reduction roller (100, 200, 300), an apparatus (400) including the looped pile static reduction roller, and a technique to neutralize static and static patterns from a polymeric film surface during processing, to enable higher speeds and fewer defects during web transport. The looped pile static reduction roller includes a static reduction engagement cover (160, 260, 360) that is resilient and can facilitate discharge of static from the web to ground before, during, and after contact with a charged web (320, 420).
Claims27
A static reduction roller, comprising:
- a roller having an electrically insulative major surface, a central axis, and two ends;
- a static reduction engagement cover having an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface adjacent the major surface of the roller, the static reduction engagement cover comprising:
- as its resilient outer surface a knit fabric comprising a base layer having first and second faces and a resilient looped pile protruding from the first face, the resilient looped pile fabric comprising loops having a height from about 0.25 mm to about 5 mm;
- and
- electrically conductive fibers selected from the group consisting of metal coated fibers, metal fibers, alloy fibers, carbon fibers, or a combination thereof,
- wherein the electrically conductive fibers are disposed throughout the resilient engagement cover such that a portion of the electrically conductive fibers are proximate the outer surface of the static reduction engagement cover.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.