Abstract: Microfiber microwebs are provided. The microfiber microwebs have relatively dense nuclei with individual fibers and/or fiber bundles protruding therefrom. The microfiber microwebs can be incorporated into nonwoven webs of blown microfibers, air-laid staple fibers, or wood pulp fibers as well as into shaped articles having porous covering materials. The microfiber microwebs are useful in sorbent, filtration, and thermal insulation materials. The microfiber microwebs are prepared by divellicating a microfiber web to form discrete particles of microfiber microwebs.

Abstract: A method for spraying liquids involving a flow of gas which shears the liquid. A flow of gas is introduced in a converging-diverging nozzle where it meets and shears the liquid into small particles which are of a size and uniformity which can be controlled through adjustment of pressures and gas velocity.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for producing superfine powder in spherical form with a diameter of about 5 to 30 microns in a Laval nozzle system. The material to be powdered is melted in a crucible, and is then superheated after it emerges from the crucible.

Abstract: A gypsum-based pesticide product and method of manufacture of such product in which the product has a release time for the pesticide which is determined at least in part by its size and in which the gypsum is a solid formed by the bonding of plaster of Paris and water. The product, prior to formation of the solid, includes, by weight, no more than about 20% water, approximately 5% of pesticide, with the balance being plaster of Paris. The ingredients, prior to formation into a solid, are intimately mixed for a time period which is only a fraction of the setting time of the mixture with the amount of water being no greater than that required to completely set the plaster of Paris into gypsum.

Abstract: A novel process for rapid solidification of ceramic melts combines certain features of cooling by atomization and by contact with chilling surfaces. The material to be solidified is divided into fine liquid dropletes that are propelled by a rapid flow of gas toward a rapidly moving chill surface, striking the surface with sufficient velocity to flatten each drop into a flat flake like shape. Apparatus for the process is also disclosed. The process is particularly applicable to making very fine grained, or even amorphous, ceramic materials that can be powdered and then sintered into strong, tough ceramic structures.

Abstract: A granular water treatment material and a process for the production thereof, the material being in the form of spherical granules, each having a thermoplastic polymeric matrix (1) and a more dense adjuvant in the form of micro-grains (3) dispersed in the matrix; each granule has on the surface a porosity in the form of micro-cavities (4) and cationic hydrophilic sites distributed on the surface; the process includes providing a mixture of an oxidizable thermoplastic resin and an adjuvant in powdered form, heating the mixture to make it plastic, extruding the plastic material to a diameter corresponding to the size of the granules to be obtained and cutting the extrusions to a length equal to this diameter, achieving a beading of the extruded pieces, oxidizing the surface of the spherical granules thus obtained, then ionically grafting a cationic polyelectrolyte to the surface of said granules.

Abstract: A pad is formed by feeding separate supplies of fibrous material into contact with two separate lickerins that are parallel to each other and rotated toward each other. The fibers from the two lickerins pass through a mixing zone and are accumulated in pocket molds moving on a conveying screen that is moved parallel to the axes of the lickerins. A baffle plate may be inserted into the mixing zone and acts to control the lateral or cross-sectional composition of a web formed by the fibers accumulated in the molds. When different fibrous materials are fed to the lickerin along their length, the vertical composition of the web is altered. Because of the pocket molds the pads are formed as individually shaped products.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing ultrafine particles of hardly water-soluble or water-insoluble organic compounds is disclosed herein, and the method includes heating and evaporating the organic compound in a vacuum vessel in which an inert gas is introduced in a desired pressure, then condensing and depositing the vaporized organic compound on a recovering means cooled, the resulting ultrafine particles exhibiting a high negative zeta potential sufficient to form a stable water dispersion thereof.

Abstract: A process for the production of three-dimensionally deformed mouldings from planar blanks of binder-containing fibrous mats, which preferably contain cellulose and/or lignocellulose fibres is proposed. The initially pourable, loose fibrous material is brought into mat form and compressed to a tangled fibre fabric, from which the desired blanks are punched or separated in some other way. These blanks are subsequently softened by steam treatment or adequately plasticized for deformation purposes by some other heat treatment. In this form, they finally undergo the process which compresses or deforms the fibrous material. During or after steam treatment or the other thermal treatment, a linear or lattice-like retaining grid or pressing grid is applied to at least one side of the mat blank in such a way that, in accordance with the grid structure and at least partly stopping the thickness increase resulting from steam treatment, a corresponding compression pattern is impressed in the vaporized-on mat blank.

Abstract: Greenbodies are produced by a RIM injection molding process wherein a homogeneous mixture of finely divided ceramic or metallic material and a polymerizable monomeric binder is injected into a mold and held at an elevated temperature for a sufficient time to polymerize the binder and form the greenbody. A preferred monomeric binder includes di- and tri-acrylate or -methacrylate esters of polyols. The low viscosity of the monomeric binder allows a loading of ceramic material of greater than 50 vol. % without adversely affecting the ability to injection mold the mixture.

Abstract: Apparatus for and methods of forming airlaid fibrous webs having a multiplicity of layers and/or discrete particles of absorbent gelling material dispersed through at least a portion of the web. The apparatus is of the type which includes a laydown drum having a foraminous forming element, a primary vacuum chamber, and a dusting layer vacuum chamber; a primary hood; and a dusting layer hood. The dusting layer of fibers formed on the laydown drum acts to block the passage of particles or fibers entrained in a first fiber stream which is airlaid over the dusting layer so as to minimize equipment plugging problems and the loss of particles or fibers through the foraminous forming element. The primary vacuum chamber of the laydown drum preferably spans the primary hood and a portion of the dusting layer hood so that the dusting layer is not sheared off, damaged, or destroyed as the laydown drum rotates to the position where the first fiber stream is deposited over the dusting layer.

Abstract: A lickerin and feed mechanism create a supply of individual fibers which follow the rotation of the lickerin. These fibers are deflected from the lickerin in the form of a stream by means of a plate arranged parallel to the lickerin. A conveying screen intercepts the stream of fibers and accumulates them into a web without the use of a high velocity stream of air to doff the fibers from the lickerin or to capture fibers on the conveyor. Further, the housing for the apparatus is opened so that there are no seals to compress the web after it is produced. Multiple lickerins and feed mechanisms may be spaced along the conveying screen to create multiple-layer or blended products. The feed mechanisms may include devices for spraying particulate material on previously formed layers or blending it with fibers as a layer is formed.

Abstract: A roof flashing and method of making same in which both the collar and base member of the flashing are made of elastomeric material. The base member is molded first and has an opening therein surrounded by a stepped flange provided with a series of circumferential slots therein. The collar is molded onto the base member during a subsequent molding operation in which the material of the collar is injected through the slots and completely around the top, bottom and inner side edge of the flange to form a series of closed loops thus providing a positive mechanical lock between the collar and base member. Also, the heat of the elastomeric material of the collar during the second stage molding process causes some melting of the elastomeric material of the base member whereby the collar and base are also fused together.

Abstract: A molded article is molded from a mixed material comprising from 50-94% by weight of sub-divided straw or bagasse, from 6-30% by weight of a synthetic resin or plastics material which binds the straw or bagasse together, and from 0-44% by weight of non-vegetable fillers, the mixed material having a specific gravity of at least 1.0. The invention extends to a method for making a molded article and to compression and molding apparatus for forming a molded article.

Abstract: A nozzle assembly in a multi-element spherical shell generation system includes first and second side-by-side spaced apart nozzles and a web portion extending between and connecting the nozzles. The first nozzle has an inner orifice adapted to discharge a first filler material and an outer annular orifice separated from and defined in concentric relation about the inner orifice and adapted to discharge a first shell material. The second nozzle has an inner orifice adapted to discharge a second filler material and an outer annular orifice separated from and defined in concentric relation about the inner orifice and adapted to discharge a second shell material.

Abstract: A process consisting in preparing a homogeneous system comprising particles of a first electrically conductive material arranged in substantially uniform manner inside a mass of a second liquid material which, when solidified, is both flexible and electrically insulating; and in solidifying the aforementioned mass of the aforementioned second liquid material, so as to form a matrix for supporting the aforementioned particles; throughout solidification of the aforementioned second material, a given pressure being applied on the system for the purpose of producing triaxial precompression of the aforementioned second material when solidified.

Abstract: For the continuous automated production of powders that are well suited for hot pressing--i.e. those consisting essentially of spherical or cubic particles, of high-temperature resistant polymers without damage to the polymer structure in the course of the production process, a concentrated solution of the polymer in an aprotic polar solvent is continuously expressed into a twisting cone of hot aqueous precipitant. In doing so, short irregular wormy formations form, which are united to a fleece-like web, washed with aqueous solvents and finally with water, dried and comminuted. The plant provided for carrying out the process requires comparatively little space, since it does not include treatment tanks for extraction and drying.

Abstract: To adjust eye-glasses to the special shape of the nose of the person wearing the eye-glasses, a faithful molding of the back of the nose is formed. To this effect, once the spectacles are put on, the space remaining between the spectacle arch (4) and the back of the nose is filled with a plastic and hardenable molding material. The spectacle arch (4) is embedded into the hardened molding material to form a plaster model (6). After having removed the molding material, the cavity separating the spectacle arch (4) from the model (6) is filled with a hardenable plastic material which sets on the spectacle material. Said plastic material forms after hardening on the spectacle arch (4) an additional layer (5) adapted to the back of the nose of the person wearing the spectacles.

Abstract: A method for making spherical particles, which includes:(a) kneading powdered raw material, preferably a refractory inorganic material, liquid and wax to form a dough/agglomerated granules,(b) separating, preferably by sieving, the dough/agglomerated granules to a predetermined size fraction without extruding, and(c) spheridizing the granules in a heated rotating bowl.The method is particularly useful for the production of catalysts from refractory inorganic materials.

Abstract: A process for producing ultrafine particles of a ceramic, which comprises heating a ceramic having substantially the same components as the final ultrafine ceramic particles, a metal constituting the metal component of the final ultrafine ceramic particles, a mixture of said ceramic with said metal or carbon, or a mixture of said metal with carbon by an arc plasma or a high frequency induction plasma generated in hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen, or a gaseous mixture of nitrogen and oxygen.