Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification – Fluid treatment – Special forms and forming
Patent
1992-07-17
1994-04-19
Coe, Philip R.
Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification
Fluid treatment
Special forms and forming
8158, 68205R, 118314, 239101, 239562, D06B 102
Patent
active
053034414
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for delivering metered quantities of fluid.
BACKGROUND ART
In EP-A1-0,306,568 are disclosed a method and apparatus for applying liquid medium to web or sheet material, particularly for patterning material such as woven or tufted web material such as carpet fabric and tiles. The apparatus comprises a row of jets each of which is controlled by an electro-mechanical valve. The material is passed beneath the jets which fire discrete liquid droplets directly at the material when the valves open and close under the control of a computer. Several such rows can be provided to apply multiple colours.
The jets comprise hollow needles or capillary tubes which have a bore diameter of from 0.2 mm to 2 mm and operate to fire the liquid in pulses of 0.5 to 15 milliseconds, the duration being varied to match other parameters such as the pressure of the liquid and its viscosity, the speed of passage of the material and the extent of the area desired to be covered by each pulse.
While the apparatus as is described in EP-A1-0,306,568 is eminently suitable for the printing of patterns such as are appropriate to carpets and carpet tiles and at reasonable speeds in comparison to other, conventional ways of patterning such items, it is not readily capable of being adapted to printing fine detail such as is required on apparel fabrics and some household fabrics for curtains, upholstery and the like, nor to operate at speeds commensurate with conventional methods for colouring such fabrics.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides methods and an apparatus by which such apparatus may be so adapted.
The invention comprises a method for delivering metered quantities of fluid comprising supplying the fluid under pressure to a valve with a capillary outlet having a valve end and a delivery end and controlling the opening and closing of the valve to admit a succession of discrete quantities of the fluid to the valve end whereby to expel a like succession from the delivery end the valve being opened only for a time interval within the range of time intervals for which the amount of fluid admitted to and hence the amount expelled from the capillary outlet is linearly dependent on the time interval.
The invention also comprises a method for delivering metered quantities of fluid from a plurality of capillary outlets which may have different characteristics comprising supplying the fluid under pressure to valves for said capillary outlets which each have a valve end and a delivery end and controlling the opening and closing of the valves to admit successions of discrete quantities of fluid to the valve ends whereby to expel like successions from the delivery ends the valves being opened only for time intervals for which the amount of fluid admitted to and hence the amount expelled from the capillary outlet is independent of the characteristics of the capillary outlets.
Said discrete quantities may be from 0.01 to 0.05 microliters in volume.
The invention also comprises a method for applying fluid such as colorant to a web material comprising metering quantitites of the fluid through a plurality of valved capillary outlets in the aforesaid way. Said outlets may be spaced apart so as to be able to apply the fluid to the web in lines spaced 30/cm. The outlets may be arranged in echelon with regard to a relatively travelling web so as to space the lines of application of the fluid to the web more closely than the spacing between adjacent outlets.
The invention also comprises a method for applying fluid such as fluid to a textile web, comprising applying the colourant in droplets of volume 0.01 to 0.05 microliters selectively from outlets so arranged and controlled as to apply the droplets at a possible packing density of 1,000,000 droplets per square meters.
The succession of discrete quantities may be at the rate of between 2,500 and 4,000 per second. The fluid may comprise a liquid of low viscosity.
The invention also comprises apparatus for applying a fl
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Dawson Timothy L.
Ellis Henry
Coe Philip R.
Dawson Ellis Limited
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