Coating apparatus – Solid member or material acting on coating after application – Running length work
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-12
2001-07-10
Lamb, Brenda A. (Department: 1734)
Coating apparatus
Solid member or material acting on coating after application
Running length work
C118S420000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06258164
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a cleaning system for cleaning a coating agent feed system and nozzles used for coating a fiber or the like, especially an optic fiber, the coating agent feed system comprising a feed channel for feeding coating agent from a coating agent tank into a coating agent chamber situated in a nozzle unit, between two nozzles, and a fiber inlet channel for guiding the fiber to be coated through a first nozzle into the coating agent chamber and an outlet channel for guiding the fiber through a second nozzle out of the coating agent chamber.
BACKGROUND
Problems have turned up after the coating phase in different fiber lines used for instance at the manufacture of cables. In fiber coloring lines and also band fiber lines and drawing towers, for instance, it has been necessary to clean all the used nozzle units inconveniently by hand after spreading acrylate. The cleaning has taken place by detaching the used nozzle units after each drive, by disassembling them and by cleaning the parts separately and by reassembling the units and by mounting them back in place in the line for next coating phase. Such an operation is slow and laborious, delaying the production and raising the production costs at the same time. The costs are also increased by the fact that the waste of coating agent is large in the cleaning phase. This is of significance, because the coating agent, for instance acrylate, has a high price. A further drawback of the prior art technique is that the cleaning work mostly is dirty work to be done by hand and, on top of it all, dangerous substances have to be handled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide a cleaning system by means of which the drawbacks of the prior art technique can be eliminated. This has been achieved by means of a cleaning system of the invention, which is characterized in that the cleaning system comprises a second feed channel for steeping agent, positioned in the nozzle unit, this feed channel being arranged to open into the coating agent chamber, and that a change valve is arranged between an outlet end of the coating agent feed channel at the coating agent chamber and an outlet end of the second feed channel at the coating agent chamber, the change valve being arranged to close the second feed channel in one position and the coating agent feed channel in the other position, whereby steeping agent can be fed through the second channel into the coating agent chamber when the coating agent feed channel is closed.
An advantage of the invention is that it is not necessary to detach the nozzle unit for cleaning at all. The cleaning work is not manual either, which means that the workers do not come into contact with dangerous substances at all when cleaning. A further advantage of using this invention is that such amounts of expensive coating agent are not wasted as in the prior art technique. An advantage of the cleaning system of the invention is also that the cleaning measures can be automated in an advantageous manner.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4728034 (1988-03-01), Matsumara et al.
patent: 841 307 A1 (1998-05-01), None
Lamb Brenda A.
Nextrom Holding S.A.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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