Glass manufacturing – Processes of manufacturing fibers – filaments – or preforms – Formation of fiber or preform utilizing fluid blast
Patent
1998-01-23
1999-05-25
Theisen, Mary Lynn
Glass manufacturing
Processes of manufacturing fibers, filaments, or preforms
Formation of fiber or preform utilizing fluid blast
65456, 65516, 65517, C03B 3705, D04H 303, D04H 316
Patent
active
059066695
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to apparatus and processes for making man-made vitreous fibre (MMVF) products by a centrifugal spinner technique in which the or each rotor is mounted to rotate about a substantially horizontal axis. It also relates to products having particularly useful combinations of properties and which can be made by the centrifugal spinner technique.
The centrifugal spinner can have a single rotor mounted for rotation on a substantially horizontal axis, for instance as in the system known as the Downey spinner. More usually the centrifugal spinner is a cascade spinner comprising a first rotor and one or more subsequent rotors each mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis and arranged such that melt poured on to the first rotor is thrown on to the or each subsequent rotor in turn and is thrown centrifugally off the or each subsequent rotor and optionally off the first rotor as fibres.
It is necessary to carry the fibres away from the rotors. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,670 a cascade spinner discharges into a collection chamber which is closely coupled to the spinner. In this instance the fibres are not collected as a web but are merely sucked out of the chamber as fibres entrained in air.
In most processes the fibres are carried towards and onto a collector where they form a web, which is then carried away from the spinner by the collector. The web may be laminated on itself. It is important to deposit the fibres on the collector in as laminar a fashion as possible. If fibres are deposited perpendicular to the plane of the web, for instance as clusters or balls of fibres, this tends to detract from the properties of the web and products made from it.
It is conventional to provide air flowing axially forward around the spinner so as to carry fibres from adjacent the rotor towards and onto the collector. This transport air can be blasted out of transport air supply orifices positioned around and a few centimeters from the periphery of the rotors as described in GB 867299 or it can be sucked around the spinner by suction applied through the collector, as described in GB 961900, or both by blast and by suction.
The collector is usually the inclined base of a collection chamber. Usually the chamber is open in the spinner end of the chamber, i.e., distant from the collector, and the spinner is positioned in this open end leaving a relatively large and variable open area around the spinner for the entry of induced air which is sucked into the chamber. The spinner with its associated motors for driving the rotors usually has a bulky cross-sectional area, for instance as shown in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,935. Although the spinner may present a substantially rectangular profile as shown in that, often it presents a very irregular profile both in transverse and longitudinal cross-section. Accordingly the cross-section of the open area around the spinner is highly variable with sudden changes in open area along the length of the spinner. Air flow along the length of the spinner is liable to be highly turbulent due to its variable longitudinal profile. Additionally it is necessary to provide sufficiently powerful suction through the collector to suck air in through the open area around the spinner with sufficient axial velocity to carry the fibres onto the collector.
In GB 961900 the spinner end of the collecting chamber is substantially closed except for an opening in which the spinner is located. A tubular duct leads to this opening and the rotors of the spinner are mounted within a spinner housing in this tubular duct, so as to define a relatively narrow passage, which is described as a nozzle, between the spinner housing and the outer tubular wall of the duct. Air is sucked through this narrow passage as a result of suction through the collector, so as to carry fibres away from the spinner rotors and on to the collector. The air flow through the duct is said to be at 1,000 to 5,000 feet per minute (about 5 to about 30 m/s) and it is stated that the passages which conduct the air to the
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patent: 5131935 (1992-07-01), Debouzie et al.
patent: 5468274 (1995-11-01), Grove-Rasmussen
Jespersen Poul Holst
Tonder Flemming Weiss
Rockwool International A/S
Theisen Mary Lynn
LandOfFree
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