Abstract: An enclosed pressure gravure roll coating applicator, particularly designed for applying pressure sensitive films to web types substrates, and method of operating such coater. A downstream blade and an arcuately spaced upstream blade are positioned with respect to a roll to be coated. An intermediate gap-forming body between the blades forms a running gap with the surface of the roll to be coated. Substantially air free liquid coating is applied under pressure to an offrunning chamber adjacent the offrunning blade with excess coating flowing through the gap to an onrunning chamber adjacent the upstream blade. The pressure in the onrunning chamber is regulated at a relatively constant positive value sufficient to prevent air from entering the onrunning chamber past the upstream blade.

Abstract: A thermal actuator system controls the position of a moveable die lip (32, 34) on a flat film extruder die (30) to control the gauge of the extruded plastic film, and includes thermal actuators each of which has an outer thermal bolt (70) and an inner bolt (80) extending through the outer bolt. The inner and outer bolts have outer ends which are connected together, while the outer bolt is connected to the die body and the inner bolt has an operative end connected to a die lip. An air passage (90) is formed between the inner and outer bolts and through which air is applied for cooling the inner bolt with respect to the outer bolt. Thermal expansion of the outer bolt is controlled by an external heater (75) mounted on the outer bolt.

Abstract: A turret winder for winding web material on spindle-supported cores has a turret which is moveable into three indexing positions, one of which is a web transfer, cutting and winding station, and another of which is a winding completion station. Frames adjacent to the turret support carriages which support a secondary lay-on roll. The carriages include a primary carriage which is moveable vertically with respect to the turret and a lay-on roll carriage which is moveable horizontally with respect to the primary carriage. The lay-on roll carriage has an arm which is engaged by the turret during movement of the spindle between the above two positions so that arcuate movement of the spindle is translated to movement of the lay-on roll carriage in such a manner that the lay-on roll accurately follows the movement as the building roll moves to the winding completion station.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for recycling office waste paper and the like of the type having ink and laser print particles coated thereon. The waste paper is simultaneously pulped and ink particles dispersed by kneading the waste paper in the form of a high solids content aqueous mixture or sludge. After the simultaneous pulping and dispersing, no additional dispersion step is needed to form deinked paper stock The high solids content aqueous mixture or sludge is diluted and forwarded to wet deinking separation devices such as a froth flotation unit or the like. The thus treated pulp is washed and results in the formation of a high quality pulp stock ready for bleaching and/or paper making procedures.

Abstract: Repeatable no-backlash adjustable hydraulic stops are disclosed which have a rigid body which defines a cavity. One or more elastically deformable end plates are mounted in closing relation to the body cavity for enclosing and encapsulating an amount of liquid therein. A plunger in the body is movable in fluid displacing relation to the cavity for providing an accurate elastic displacement of the enclosing end plates which elastic displacement or movement is accurately repeatable by rotating an actuator rod which engages the plunger for varying the fluid displacing relationship to the interior of the cavity. An initial static pressure is formed within the cavity for pre-stressing the components and providing for no-backlash adjustment. Locating pads are formed exteriorly of the flexible walls defining an accurate stop position.

Abstract: An extruder screw for use in the barrel of a plastic materials extruder is formed with a melt section which includes a melt flighting and a compaction channel and which also includes a barrier flight in which only smooth transitions are formed to prevent pressure surges or disruptions. The barrier flight rises radially outwardly of a forward wall of the melt channel, and defines a clearance space with the adjacent wall of the barrel which varies from a maximum at the beginning of the barrier flight to a minimum at the end of the barrier flight. The varying clearance between the barrier flight and the barrel wall approximates the change in viscosity of molten plastic material flowing over the barrier flight from the solids channel into the melt channel, so that a relatively constant shear energy input is applied to the molten plastic material flowing over the barrier flight.

Abstract: A plastic materials screw has a metering section defined by a series of axially extending discontinuous and partially overlapping flightings. The flightings overlap each other by about a half to one turn to define overlapping portions whereby the flow in the primary channel is divided into a pair of secondary flow channels which have velocity profiles normal to the channel root greater than that in the primary channel. At the end of the overlapped portion, the first flighting is discontinued and the second flighting continues with a result that the flows are recombined in a distributive manner to provide improved mixing with a minimum of additional shear stress.

Abstract: Improved apparatus for dewatering or washing a suspension of paper pulp in which first and second rolls are rotatably mounted with an endless loop of wire tensioned around the rolls, and in which a headbox delivers a pulp suspension to be thickened or washed and positioned with an outlet to discharge the pulp suspension into or onto the wire as it approaches the first roll, and in which the washed or dewatered pulp is collected after it has passed between the wire and a second roll, in which the first roll has a central shaft, and screw flighting on the shaft formed in left and right-hand sections are terminated at cylindrical discs mounted at opposite ends of the shaft, and in which the screw flighting has a depth which is substantially greater than the maximum thickness of the pulp layer and in which the aggregate open area between the screw flights is substantially greater than the cross-sectional area of the headbox outlet to assure that the spaces between the flights can be no more than partially filled

Abstract: Broke handling and reducing apparatus and method for comminuting a moving continuous sheet or web material such as paper broke in the dryer or converter section of a papermaking machine, includes a plurality of high pressure water jet cutting nozzles mounted in spaced-apart relation transversely to the direction of movement of the material and are mounted so as to direct high pressure cutting jets into the path of movement. The nozzles are mounted so that at least some of the nozzles are cyclically moved with respect to others of said nozzles to form a plurality of mutually intersecting jet cutter paths to reduce the material into a multiplicity of smaller discrete or easily separable pieces.

Abstract: A wire-type pulp washing machine includes an endless moving foraminous wire which extends about a breast roll defining an on-running end and a couch roll defining an off-running end with a generally horizontal upper run of the wire extending between the rolls with showers providing a counter-current washer. The endless wire forms a wire return run having a horizontal wire section beneath the upper run. Pulp which has been washed on the upper counter-current washer may be removed and subjected to a chemical action, such as a bleaching action, and then reapplied to a horizontal return run section of the wire by a headbox to form a pulp mat on the inside surface of the wire. This pulp mat is subject to further countercurrent washing by the application of wash water to an upper surface of the mat and by draining of the wash water through the wire by suction boxes. This wash water may advantageously be applied as the wash water to the last stage of the counter-current washer along the upper run.

Abstract: Apparatus for screening a papermaking pulp or stock suspension through a stationary cylindrical screen includes a rotating hydrofoil member which has a curved outer or camber surface portion mounted for rotation with the camber surface in a close but spaced proximity to the inside surface of the screen, in which a discrete part or segment of the body of the member is movable with respect to the body and defines a portion of the curved camber surface, so that the effective spacing between the curved surface and the adjacent inside surface of the screen may be adjusted. The hydrofoil is fabricated from sheet metal and forms an outwardly opening spanwise slot, and a sheet metal fabricated segment is received within the slot and forms a substantial continuation of the outer surface, and is adjustable by a threaded fastener which is accessible through a slot formed in the face surface of the hydrofoil.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for thickening a suspension of solid particles in liquid employs three rolls ranged in spaced relation with their axes defining a triangle, and a single loop of wire is trained around and in wrapping relation with all three rolls. With one exception, each of the rolls has in combination therewith a headbox which delivers a flow of the suspension to be thickened in such manner that it is trapped between the wire and the portion of the roll wrapped by the wire so that the trapped suspension is dewatered and concentrated by expression of liquid through the wire. The pulp deposited on the inside of the wire at each of the stations comprising a roll and headbox is ultimately collected from the surface of the one roll having no headbox and is transported out from within the space within the wire loop.

Abstract: Embodiments of apparatus for thickening a liquid suspension of solid particles, such as papermaking pulp in water, include a pair of spaced apart rolls and a woven wire or plastic wire belt trained around these rolls. The suspension is supplied to the apparatus at the first roll for centrifugal extraction and is carried by the belt to the second roll for further water extraction and thickening, and is then discharged from the apparatus. In one embodiment, the first roll is formed with an open surface, and the suspension is delivered to the web at least partially by flowing through the first roll openings, from either a headbox in the on-running wedge zone or a headbox internal to the rolls to deliver stock outwardly through the roll.

Abstract: A flat bed, Fourdrinier-type, countercurrent washer for cellulosic pulp incorporates a pressing section at the downstream end thereof which includes the couch roll and additional rolls that carry out multiple mechanical pressing operations on the pulp after it has been subjected to multiple stages of displacement washing without mechanical treatment. As a result, where such washers without mechanical pressing deliver pulp of a consistency of the order of 15% solids, this washer increases the pulp consistency to as high as 40% while correspondingly increasing the effectiveness of the washing operation as a whole.

Abstract: In the field of unwinding webs from an unwind stand in which a fresh web is prepared with a paste strip and is lapped spliced to a progressing expiring web, and the expiring web is then cut upstream of the splice to form a tail, the position of the tail is predicted or detected, and the movement thereof to a taping station causes a tape support roll, which supports a strip of one-sided adhesive tape to be applied to the tail in such a manner that part of the adhesive strip covers the tail and part of the strip engages the underlying web so that the tail becomes firmly taped down to the web thereby permitting the web to be run in either direction through processes such as converting processes, coating processes or the like. Embodiments of tape tail detectors are disclosed and embodiments of hold-down tape transfer mechanisms are disclosed.

Abstract: A plastic resin pelletizer system for controlling the position of the pellet cutting knife blades in relation to a die plate face includes vibration detection pick-up in the form of a piezoelectric accelerometer mounted to the pelletizer die plate. Characteristic frequencies or a signature output is identified as representing the condition of contact between the blades and the die face, and the amplitude of the characteristic signature is used to indicate the extent or degree of pressure of the contact, in controlling the position of the knives with respect to the die plate.

Abstract: A method of pulping baled waste material includes breaking up the bale and applying the broken bale to a fluffer or shredder to form a fluffed waste paper product containing heavy and light contaminants. This product is applied to an air separator from which heavier non-paper contaminant fraction is removed, and the remaining product is applied to the inlet of a vortex separator which removes a light reject fraction. A second accepts fraction is then water soaked and applied to the inlet of a series of drum-type pulpers. The invention further includes a drum-type pulper in which an axial shaft has radially-extending arms or buckets which dip into a pool of stock from waste paper in which the buckets sweep the interior of the drum, lift a quantity of the mixture from the pool, and allow the same to drop back into the pool. Vanes on the buckets cause the mixture to move axially in the drum from an inlet to an outlet.

Abstract: A wire-type pulp washing machine includes an endless moving foraminous wire which extends about a breast roll defining an on-running end and a couch roll defining an off-running end with a generally horizontal upper run of the wire extending between the rolls with showers providing a counter-current washer. The endless wire forms a wire return run having a horizontal wire section beneath the upper run. Pulp which has been washed on the upper counter-current washer may be removed and subjected to a chemical action, such as a bleaching action, and then reapplied to a horizontal return run section of the wire by a headbox to form a pulp mat on the inside surface of the wire. This pulp mat is subject to further countercurrent washing by the application of wash water to an upper surface of the mat and by draining of the wash water through the wire by suction boxes. This wash water may advantageously be applied as the wash water to the last stage of the counter-current washer along the upper run.

Abstract: A cylinder type paper pulp washer or thickener apparatus includes a rotatable cylinder mold with a forming wire surface. The mold rotates at least partially submerged in a vat of dilute paper pulp stock and a differential pressure across the wire surface draws stock from the vat through the cylinder mold and forms a pulp mat on the wire surface, and a plurality of disrupters are positioned within the vat and in arcuately spaced relation to the wire surface to cause a disruption of the fiber mat which obstructs the flow of the stock liquid through the wire surface and thereby provides for the reestablishment of flow. Various disrupters are shown, including a rotating non-circular bar, a doctor blade, a foil, a fluid jet, a brush, and a triangular protuberance. A plurality of such disrupters are positioned in peripherally spaced relation to cause repeated disruption and reformation of a fiber mat to increase the throughflow and washing or thickening efficiency of the apparatus.

Abstract: A process of preparing a suspension of paper making fibers in water for use in the making of paper includes the steps of treating a mass of fibrous materials, such as shredded waste paper materials, with steam under pressure in a closed vessel, and transferring the resulting mixture of treated materials and steam to a second vessel containing a substantial volume of aqueous liquid in such manner that the mixture impacts directly the liquid in the second vessel at very high velocity causing disintegration of the solid materials into essentially separate fibers and contaminant particles accompanied by dispersion of these solids in the liquid in the second vessel. Systems are described for carrying out these process steps on either a continuous or a batch basis.