Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Direct application of fluid pressure differential to... – Bulk deposition of particles by differential fluid pressure
Patent
1979-12-21
1983-03-01
Woo, Jay H.
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Direct application of fluid pressure differential to...
Bulk deposition of particles by differential fluid pressure
156167, 264176F, D04H 316
Patent
active
043754465
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an improved process for the production of a nonwoven fabric comprising spinning continuously a fused thermoplastic resin from a plurality of spinning holes provided in a spinning apparatus, while simultaneously jetting a gas at a high speed from gas discharging holes provided adjacent to the spinning holes to stretch fibers of the thermoplastic resin thereby forming a fiber stream consisting of the fibers and the gas, and then collecting the fiber stream.
BACKGROUND ARTS
Methods for the production of a nonwoven fabric comprising melt spinning a thermoplastic resin and blowing it as fine fibers against a moving collecting plate have been known as the "melt-blowing process" (Japanese Patent Kokai (Early-Publication) Nos. 10,258/1974, 48,921/1974 and 121,570/1975, or "jet-spinning process" (Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 25,871/1969 and 26,977/1969).
Since in these known methods, a fiber stream is simply collected on a flat or hollow-cylindrical collecting plate having a large number of pores, they have the disadvantages that a part of the fiber stream blown onto a collecting plate tends to be scattered together with the blown gas, and that the thickness and weight per unit area of a nonwoven fabric collected on a plate are uneven. For example, in the production of a nonwoven fabric, particularly bulky, made of such fine fibers as having a fiber diameter of several microns, the scattering of fibers is so remarkable that the workability and operation environment tend to be deteriorated and that the resulting product is uneven. In order to prevent this phenomenon, there has been proposed a method comprising forcedly withdrawing the gas blown against the collecting plate by using a sucking means provided on the back side of the collecting plate. However, this method is disadvantageous in that it is uneconomical because of needing power for the exhaust of the gas, that the displacement of the sucking means has a limit, and further in that if the displacement is increased, a nonwoven fabric in contact with the surface of the collecting plate may also be sucked such that the density thereof is increased, resulting in difficulty in obtaining a uniform and bulky nonwoven fabric.
Furthermore, the prior art methods only produce nonwoven fabrics wherein fibers are disposed in parallel with the surface of the nonwoven fabrics, but cannot produce nonwoven fabrics wherein fibers are arranged in the vertical direction to the surface (i.e. in parallel with the thickness direction).
As a result of intensive studies on a method for producing a bulky and uniform nonwoven fabric consisting of fine fibers, the inventors have found that a bulky and uniform nonwoven fabric consisting of fine fibers can very easily be obtained by blowing a fiber stream of a thermoplastic resin into a valley-like space zone formed by two plates having a large number of holes, and that in particular, a nonwoven fabric wherein fibers are vertical to the surface of the nonwoven fabric (in parallel with the thickness direction) can be obtained by blowing a fiber stream into an area where the two porous plates meet. The present invention has been accomplished based on this finding.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a process for the production of a nonwoven fabric comprising spinning continuously a molten thermoplastic resin from a plurality of spinning holes provided in a spinning apparatus thereby to spin fibers, while simultaneously jetting a gas at a high speed from gas discharging holes provided adjacent to the spinning holes to stretch the spun fibers of the thermoplastic resin, thereby forming a fiber stream consisting of the fibers and gas, and then blowing the fiber stream onto porous plate or plates to give a nonwoven fabric consisting of said fibers, characterized by arranging two movable plates respectively having a large number of pores so that they may come into contact with each other via the fibers to provide a contact region, and that they may also form a fiber-co
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Fujii Shigeo
Ikeda Tokuzo
Mikami Takashi
Okano Shuji
Clarke W. T.
Kurtzman M. B.
Toa Nenryo Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Woo Jay H.
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