Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Sheets or webs edge spliced or joined – Sheets or webs coplanar
Patent
1997-01-28
1998-10-13
Bell, James J.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Sheets or webs edge spliced or joined
Sheets or webs coplanar
156157, 156258, 156264, 1563043, 1563045, 1563047, 428 57, 428102, 428223, B32B 300
Patent
active
058209590
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to corrugator fabrics.
Known corrugator fabrics generally comprise either a wholly woven material or a single basecloth having a batt of staple fibres needled to the upper and lower faces thereof. The two ends of the fabric are connected so as to form an endless belt.
Woven corrugator belts generally have a good resistance to compaction and abrasion, but suffer from very low permeability, typically less than 3 cfm at 0.5" water gauge pressure, because of the complex multiply weave designs needed to achieve the required belt thickness of 8 to 10 mm. Because of the low permeability water vapour cannot easily escape through the belt. This reduces the speed of drying of the starch based adhesive used in the corrugator process. Furthermore, difficulties are encountered in forming a covered seam in a woven belt which is the same thickness as the rest of the belt. This results in marking of the board transported by the belt.
Known corrugator belts comprising a needled batt or a basecloth have an increased permeability, typically 10-15 cfm at 0.5" water gauge pressure compared to woven belts, but the needling process results in predominantly vertically orientated fibre tufts in the batt layer. Resistance to compaction and abrasion is not as good as that of woven belts.
Reduction in belt thickness either by compaction or abrasion can result in reduced bond strength between the outer liners and centre flute of the corrugated board pressed by the belt. Compaction of the belt reduces the thickness of the staple fibre layer. This can be particularly problematic when different board widths are being processed, the edges of the belt becoming more compacted than the middle portion. This is because narrow boards do not protect the edges of the belt while the belt passes over the heat plates of the corrugator machine.
Non-marking seams can readily be made with these nonwoven belts. The belt is split within the needled batt layer thereby forming a flap to the joint. Such flaps are necessarily weak. The fibres in the flap are not secured to a basecloth and the flap is dimensionally unstable and prone to abrasive wear and tearing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made from a consideration of the aforementioned problems.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a corrugator fabric comprising a first basecloth having a staple fibre layer secured to the lower face thereof and a second staple fibre layer secured to the upper face thereof, wherein the lower face of a second basecloth is secured to the second staple fibre layer and optionally the first basecloth, and a third staple fibre layers is secured to the upper face of the second basecloth, the fabric further characterised by a seam flap, wherein the seem flap comprises at least one basecloth.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of making a corrugator fabric comprising the steps of securing a first staple fibre layer to one face of a first basecloth, securing a second staple fibre layer to the opposite face of the first basecloth, securing a first face of a second basecloth to the second staple fibre layer and optionally to the first basecloth and securing a third staple fibre layer to a second face of the second basecloth, and forming a seam flap, wherein the seam flap comprises at least one basecloth.
The first and third staple layers may be secured in position at any time during the manufacture of the fabric. However, in a preferred embodiment of the invention the first layer of staple fibres as previously defined is actually applied to the fabric after the previous layers have been secured in place. The first staple fibre layer is secured in place, after having first inverted the fabric.
The fabric may contain one or more further basecloths and a corresponding number of further staple fibre layers.
The construction of the corrugator fabric of the invention exhibits high resilience, which provides good resistance to
REFERENCES:
patent: 2165772 (1939-07-01), Walsh et al.
patent: 3331140 (1967-07-01), Bernard
patent: 4364421 (1982-12-01), Martin
Bell James J.
Scapa Group PLC
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