Patents Assigned to Thibeau
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Patent number: 12012683Abstract: Method for operating a needle loom comprising at least one needle board in which a web or lap of fibres is passed in front of the needles, said web or fibre moving in a so-called feed direction, or machine direction or MD, between two end positions in which the free ends of the needles have a zero speed, and the at least one needle board and/or needles are driven in a back-and-forth movement in a direction other than the feed direction, particularly in the perpendicular direction, or a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the plane of the lap or web, such that the free ends of the needles have, in a first interval extending in the lap or web between an outer surface of the web or lap of fibres and an end position, a first movement having a first speed profile as an absolute value for a first duration, then, in a second interval extending in the lap or web between said one end position and said one outer surface, a second movement having a second speed profile as an absolute value for a second duraType: GrantFiled: August 3, 2022Date of Patent: June 18, 2024Assignee: Andritz Asselin-ThibeauInventor: Andritz Asselin-Thibeau
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Patent number: 12006603Abstract: A facility for forming a fibre batt, in particular nonwoven, provides a device for producing at least one fibre web, and a crosslapper which provides the fibre batt. The production device provides a carding drum and at least one doffer roller collecting the fibres on the drum and supplying the at least one web to at least one outfeed belt. The crosslapper provides an infeed belt for the introduction of the web in the crosslapper, which supplies the fibre batt formed of a stack of layers of the at least one web, and first control means of the profile of the thickness and/or of the area bulk density and/or of the bulk density of the web or of each web. A drafting means is arranged downstream of the outfeed belt of the production device and upstream of the infeed belt. Second control means may be provided to control drafting means.Type: GrantFiled: May 31, 2019Date of Patent: June 11, 2024Assignee: Andritz Asselin-ThibeauInventors: Jean-Christophe Laune, Wael Jabri
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Patent number: 11946180Abstract: Needling machine intended to consolidate, by needling, a web of fibres, in particular a sheet of non-woven fabric, comprising a series of needle-field boards, each board having at least one respective needle field projecting from one face, called the needle face, of the board, means for making the web of fibres move in front of the needles of the boards of the series of boards and means for moving the needles back and forth in a direction transverse to the movement of the web, such that they pass through the web of fibres passing in front of them in one direction and then the other, the series of needle-field boards comprising at least a first board comprising a first needle field and a second board comprising a second needle field, the first needle field being arranged on the needle face of the first board according to a first needle face pattern and the second needle field being arranged on the needle face of the second board according to a second needle face pattern, characterised in that the first needleType: GrantFiled: March 26, 2020Date of Patent: April 2, 2024Assignee: Andritz Asselin-ThibeauInventors: Frédéric Demange, Pierre-Emmanuel Labaume
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Patent number: 11891738Abstract: Device for transferring and/or introducing a fibre web, in particular a nonwoven web, into a consolidation installation, in particular one that is mechanical or hydraulic, for example a needle loom, comprising at least one transfer element comprising at least one roller (12), at least one saber (16) and an endless belt (13) extending between an upstream end and a downstream end so as to wrap around the roller at the upstream end and the saber at the downstream end, the at least one roller being arranged so as to drive the endless belt in rotation, and the at least one saber giving the downstream end of the belt the shape of a corner or lip, the at least one endless belt (13) being modular and consisting of links in the form of transverse strips that are articulated to one another, characterised in that the endless belt (13) consists of a plurality of sub-belts extending parallel to one another.Type: GrantFiled: July 3, 2020Date of Patent: February 6, 2024Assignee: Andritz Asselin-ThibeauInventor: Frédéric Demange
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Patent number: 11885046Abstract: Apparatus for forming a fibre mat, in particular a non-woven mat, comprising a fibre web-forming device, for example a card, a cross-tapper and a device for drafting the fibre web(s) disposed between the web forming device and the cross-lapper in order to draft the fibre web(s), in particular in a time-varying, specifically periodic manner, to thereby adjust a predetermined desired profile of the fibre mat leaving the cross-lapper, the web-forming device comprising at least one output belt (1, 2) for at least one web (5, 6), and preferably two output belts (1, 2) for two webs (5, 6), an upper and lower web respectively; wherein the cross-hipper has an input belt (7) for receiving the web(s) from the output belt(s) of the web forming device, characterised in that the arrangement is such that the path of the web, or of the at least one web, and preferably of the two, upper and lower, webs, between the output belt(s) of the web-forming device, in particular the card, and the input belt of the cross-lapper includType: GrantFiled: November 14, 2017Date of Patent: January 30, 2024Assignee: Andritz Asselin ThibeauInventors: Jean-Christophe Laune, Hugues Leroy, Frédéric Noelle
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Patent number: 11505885Abstract: A needling device to consolidate a fleece. The device including at least one needle plate with an array of needles; at least one column with its longitudinal axis rigidly connected to the at least one needle plate; drive systems; a sealed housing; and at least one guide pot. The drive systems are configured to impart to the at least one column a to and fro motion so that the needles follow an elliptical path to pass through, in one direction then the other, the fleece that passes in front of it in the machine drive direction to consolidate it. The sealed housing containing part of the column and drive systems and wherein the at least one guide pot is fitted in an opening in the sealed housing and oscillates in relation to an axis of oscillation perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and the machine drive direction.Type: GrantFiled: April 22, 2021Date of Patent: November 22, 2022Assignee: ANDRITZ ASSELIN-THIBEAUInventors: Frédéric Demange, Eric Potdevin
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Patent number: 11499256Abstract: A needling machine to consolidate a fleece. The machine includes one or more needle plates having an array of needles; one or more columns coupled to the needle plates; and driving means configured to impart an elliptical to and fro motion to each needle plate so that the needles pass first in one direction, then the other, over the fleece passing before it in the machine. The machine further comprising a sealed housing enclosing part of each column and driving means; and one or more guide pots within the sealed housing. Each driving means including a longitudinal driving means imparting to each column a straight to and fro motion. Each needle plate oscillates in relation to each respective column. The driving means further comprise transverse driving means imparting to a point on each needle plate a to and fro motion essentially parallel to the machine direction.Type: GrantFiled: April 22, 2021Date of Patent: November 15, 2022Assignee: ANDRITZ ASSELIN-THIBEAUInventors: Frédéric Demange, Eric Potdevin, Jean-Christophe Laune
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Patent number: 11421362Abstract: Needle machine comprising at least one needle plate, from which projects an array of needles, means for imparting an elliptical, reciprocating motion to the needles and at least one support table drilled with an array of through holes, or which it is intended to pass in a direction MD, being supported on it, a fabric or web of fibres to be consolidated by needling, the each executing an elliptical, reciprocating motion in the respective through holes, each having an upper respective opening on the fabric support side, a lower respective opening on the opposite side and an inner sidewall extending between the two upper and lower openings, characterised in that each hole is machined so that there is a longitudinal section with a greater dimension MD in which the upper respective opening of the hole has a greater dimension in the direction MD and, in this longitudinal section of greater dimension MD, the inner sidewall of the hole is defined, at least in its upper region, by two left and right lines inclined toType: GrantFiled: July 14, 2020Date of Patent: August 23, 2022Assignee: ANDRITZ ASSELIN-THIBEAUInventors: Frédéric Demange, Jean-Christophe Laune
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Patent number: 10100447Abstract: An installation for consolidating a batt of fibers, for example a nonwoven web, includes a mechanical consolidation workstation using needlepunching from which the fiber batt emerges in a machine or MD direction. A device is provided downstream of the consolidation workstation for stretching in the cross or CD direction which is transverse, in particular perpendicular, to the machine direction, and parallel to the plane of the batt, particularly before it is wound onto a reel. A consolidated nonwoven that can be obtained by the installation is also provided.Type: GrantFiled: September 18, 2015Date of Patent: October 16, 2018Assignee: ANDRITZ ASSELIN-THIBEAU S.A.S.Inventors: Jean-Christophe Laune, Hugues Leroy
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Patent number: 8381375Abstract: A crosslapper receives a card web and folds it into a lap intended to be needle-punched or consolidated by other ways. The web includes zones which are more condensed, having a spectrum of orientation of fibers with a component parallel to the width of the web, alternating with less condensed zones having a longitudinal unidirectional spectrum of orientations. The zones which are less condensed are used to form the edge zones of the lap. The result is that the lap has different respective spectra of orientation which pre-compensate for the unwanted changes produced by the needle-punching or other consolidation which follows. A needle-punched lap is obtained having a uniform MD/CD ratio (relationship between longitudinal and respectively transverse tensile strengths) or having a sought profile of the MD/CD ratio across the width of the lap.Type: GrantFiled: March 6, 2009Date of Patent: February 26, 2013Assignee: Asselin-ThibeauInventors: Cathia Dos Santos, Michel Colotte, Jean-Louis Dupont, François Louis
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Publication number: 20090217498Abstract: A crosslapper receives a card web and folds it into a lap intended to be needle-punched or consolidated by other means. The web comprises zones which are more condensed, having a spectrum of orientation of fibres with a component parallel to the width of the web, alternating with less condensed zones having a longitudinal unidirectional spectrum of orientations. The zones which are less condensed are used to form the edge zones of the lap. The result is that the lap has different respective spectra of orientation which pre-compensate for the unwanted changes produced by the needle-punching or other consolidation which follows. A needle-punched lap is obtained having a uniform MD/CD ratio (relationship between longitudinal and respectively transverse tensile strengths) or having a sought profile of the MD/CD ratio across the width of the lap.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 6, 2009Publication date: September 3, 2009Applicant: ASSELIN-THIBEAUInventors: Cathia DOS SANTOS, Michel COLOTTE, Jean-Louis DUPONT, Francois LOUIS
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Patent number: 7373705Abstract: The installation includes two needling apparatuses (2, 3) which succeed each other on one side of the path (1) for the fleece to be needled. The needles (47) have an “elliptical” movement, i.e. their reciprocating movement of penetration is combined with a reciprocating movement parallel to the direction of progression. The two mechanisms are actuated at the same speed but with a phase shift of 180° between them. The installation is used for balancing horizontal vibrations.Type: GrantFiled: September 6, 2005Date of Patent: May 20, 2008Assignee: Asselin-ThibeauInventors: Robert Jean, Francois Louis
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Patent number: 7007348Abstract: The machine for making a non-woven material aerologically has a forming and conveying surface permeable to air, a dispersion chamber surmounting said surface and means, particularly vacuum means located under said forming and conveying surface of the non-woven material, which are capable not only of producing an air flow inside the dispersion chamber that allows the fibers inside the chamber to disperse and projects them onto the forming and conveying surface, but also create a vacuum in one zone—called the vacuum zone (9)—of the forming and conveying surface (1) of the non-woven material that extends under the dispersion chamber (2) and downstream from it, with the vacuum speed decreasing between the upstream and downstream parts of said zone (9).Type: GrantFiled: March 31, 2004Date of Patent: March 7, 2006Assignee: ThibeauInventors: Xavier Catry, Christian Vanbeselaere, Marc Brabant
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Patent number: 6732412Abstract: So as to produce a condensed nonwoven, at least one first nonwoven is produced with the aid of a carding machine (1), said first nonwoven issued from the carding machine is directed to a rotating transfer element (20) by means of one first transport surface (S1), and said first nonwoven is transferred onto a second transport surface (S2) by means of said transfer element (20), the second transport surface (S2) being driven at a linear speed (V2) slower than the circumferential speed of the transfer element (20). In the transfer zone between the two transport surfaces (S1) and (S2), the first nonwoven is preferably kept against the surface of the transfer element (20) by means of suction. Application: production of heavy condensed nonwovens, especially having a weight of more than 80 g/m2.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2002Date of Patent: May 11, 2004Assignee: ThibeauInventors: Michel Collotte, Marc Brabant
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Publication number: 20030061686Abstract: So as to produce a condensed nonwoven, at least one first nonwoven is produced with the aid of a carding machine (1), said first nonwoven issued from the carding machine is directed to a rotating transfer element (20) by means of one first transport surface (S1), and said first nonwoven is transferred onto a second transport surface (S2) by means of said transfer element (20), the second transport surface (S2) being driven at a linear speed (V2) slower than the circumferential speed of the transfer element (20).Type: ApplicationFiled: September 30, 2002Publication date: April 3, 2003Applicant: THIBEAUInventors: Michel Collotte, Marc Brabant
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Patent number: 6195845Abstract: A fiber web is formed by the airlay technique on a web forming and transport surface by dispersing and projecting individualized fibers onto said surface by means of a flow of air, and the fibers are subjected to a carding operation prior to being inserted into the flow of air. According to an essential characteristic of the invention, action is taken on the fiber feed rate by means of one or more regulator systems between the carding operation and the insertion of the fibers into the air flow so as to make said fiber feed rate more regular. In a preferred variant of the invention, a regulator system comprises at least a combing cylinder which is designed to be rotated to have a circumferential speed that is strictly less than that of the carding cylinder and that rotates in a direction of rotation that is opposite to that of the carding cylinder, and that is coated on its periphery with a covering whose teeth or spikes point backwards, i.e. in the opposite direction to its direction of rotation.Type: GrantFiled: April 14, 1999Date of Patent: March 6, 2001Assignee: ThibeauInventors: Jean-Louis DuPont, Xavier Catry, Marc Brabant
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Patent number: 6085389Abstract: Apparatus for forming a lap of stock fibers, in particular for continuously loading a textile machine such as a card, the apparatus comprising a feed chimney (4) which is open at its top and bottom ends (4a, 4b) and which is provided with an air exhaust opening (9) of given section or with a plurality of air exhaust openings distributed over a given section. The exhaust opening(s) (9) opening out directly into an expansion chamber (13). The air inside the expansion chamber is taken up by suction via a air manifold chamber (18a) which is designed to have low pressure established therein, and which communicates with the expansion chamber (13) via an air takeup slot (14) which extends substantially over the entire width l of the section of the exhaust opening(s) (9) or via a plurality of air takeup openings which are distributed substantially over the entire width l of the section of the exhaust opening(s) (9).Type: GrantFiled: April 2, 1999Date of Patent: July 11, 2000Assignee: ThibeauInventors: Marc Brabant, Xavier Catry, Christian Vanbeselaere, Reinhold Doring
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Patent number: 6050469Abstract: A fiber web transferring device comprising a conveyor belt, a suction cylinder, a lower calendering cylinder and an upper calendering cylinder. The suction cylinder having a stationary suction sector and rotates in a direction which corresponds to a linear moving direction of the conveyor belt. The suction cylinder transfers a non-consolidated fiber web from the conveyor belt to the lower calendering cylinder and is substantially tangential to the lower calendering cylinder so as to cooperate therewith to define a pre-calendering zone for the fiber web. The suction cylinder is positioned such that the suction cylinder sucks the fiber web from the conveyor belt and holds the fiber web against the outer surface of the suction cylinder to the pre-calendering zone. The fiber web then adheres to the outer surface of the lower calendering cylinder past the pre-calendering zone until the fiber web reaches the upper calendering cylinder.Type: GrantFiled: March 13, 1996Date of Patent: April 18, 2000Assignee: Thibeau Et CieInventors: Marc Brabant, Jean-Louis Dupont
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Patent number: 5872440Abstract: The oscillating mechanical device comprises a shaft on which an oscillating member is mounted, and which is resiliently urged towards a middle angular equilibrium position, together with a single-phase induction motor whose rotor is coupled to the shaft so as to enable oscillations of the shaft to be sustained. According to the invention, the stator of the single-phase induction motor is fed with an alternating drive signal whose frequency is adjusted to the vicinity of the natural frequency of oscillation of the mechanical device. More particularly, the frequency of the drive signal of the stator is set to lie in the frequency range ?f-0.8 Hz; f+0.1 Hz!, where f represents the natural frequency of oscillation of the mechanical device, and is preferably set to the natural frequency of oscillation of the mechanical device with a tolerance of plus or minus one-tenth of one hertz. The device is applicable to card web combs used in the textile industry.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 1996Date of Patent: February 16, 1999Assignee: Thibeau (SA)Inventors: Marc Brabant, Xavier Catry, Didier Deldique
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Patent number: 5584101Abstract: The device of the invention enables a fiber web at the outlet from a carder to be removed and conveyed at high speed without significant change to the structure of the web, and in particular without stretching the web. The device comprises a takeoff cylinder which is adjacent to the last working cylinder of the carder, suction means, and a conveyor belt. The belt of the conveyor is permeable to air, and at least level with the takeoff cylinder it possesses at least one rectilinear web-receiving portion that passes close to the takeoff cylinder with a linear speed that is substantially equal to the peripheral speed of the takeoff cylinder, travelling in a direction that is orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the takeoff cylinder, and interposed between the suction means and the takeoff cylinder. The suction means establish a suction zone between the takeoff cylinder and the rectilinear portion of the conveyor belt, substantially in the vicinity of the line where they are almost tangential.Type: GrantFiled: September 22, 1995Date of Patent: December 17, 1996Assignee: Thibeau (SA)Inventors: Marc Brabant, Jean-Louis Dupont