Abstract: A vacuum insulation panel includes a blended wool media made up of fibers having at least two different average fiber diameters. The blended wool media includes small fibers which improve thermal performance of a vacuum insulation panel and large fibers which improve the mechanical strength of the insulating media and reduce the time required to produce a vacuum within the panel.

Abstract: A fiber insulation product comprising hollow fibers. Each hollow fiber may be composed of at least two different thermoplastic insulating materials, such as glasses, having differing coefficients of thermal expansion, with each of the hollow fibers being an irregular-shape exhibiting a substantially uniform volume filling nature, and providing improved recovery and thermal conductivity abilities even in the absence of a binder material. An apparatus for making hollow fibers for such a product is also provided.

Abstract: A method of making an insulation product of hollow fibers whereby molten insulation material is centrifuged through a plurality of orifices and gas is directed into the molten insulation material through a plurality of gas conduits, wherein each gas conduit directs gas into one of the portions of the molten insulation material being centrifuged through one of the orifices to form a hollow fiber having a hollow bore formed therethrough. The hollow fibers are combined to form the insulation product.

Abstract: In a method for producing hollow mineral fibers such as glass fibers, molten glass is supplied to a rotating glass spinner having a peripheral wall. The spinner rotates so that molten glass is centrifuged through a first tube positioned at least mostly inside the peripheral wall of the spinner in an orifice to form fibers. Gas is introduced into the interior of the molten glass to form hollow glass fibers. A second tube positioned inside the first tube includes an inlet in the wall of the first tube, wherein the orifice and first tube are adapted to allow gas to be introduced through the inlet from outside the peripheral wall. The hollow glass fibers are then collected to form a product such as a mat.

Abstract: A fiber insulation product comprising hollow fibers. Each hollow fiber may be composed of at least two different thermoplastic insulating materials, such as glasses, having differing coefficients of thermal expansion, with each of the hollow fibers being an irregular-shape exhibiting a substantially uniform volume filling nature, and providing improved recovery and thermal conductivity abilities even in the absence of a binder material. An apparatus for making hollow fibers for such a product is also provided.

Abstract: Apparatus for making dual component fibers is provided and includes a spinner having a peripheral wall. The spinner includes orifices located on the peripheral wall thereof for centrifuging the dual component fibers, with the spinner being divided into a series of generally vertically-aligned compartments by baffles positioned circumferentially around the interior of the peripheral wall. First and second molten thermoplastic materials are supplied to the spinner and directed into alternate ones of the compartments so that adjacent compartments contain different thermoplastic materials. Passages are located in each of the compartments through which the respective molten thermoplastic materials flow to the orifices on the peripheral wall of the spinner. The passages in adjacent ones of the compartments communicate with one another and with the orifices to join the first and second molten thermoplastic materials together into dual component fibers.

Abstract: Apparatus for making dual component fibers is provided and includes a spinner having a peripheral wall. The spinner includes orifices located on the peripheral wall thereof for centrifuging the dual component fibers, with the spinner being divided into a series of compartments by baffles positioned circumferentially around the interior of the peripheral wall. The baffles are positioned at an angle of from about 5.degree. to about 75.degree. from vertical, and most preferably about 45.degree. from vertical. The number of orifices on the spinner peripheral wall can thus be increased to increase the throughput of fibers from the spinner while still maintaining a minimum required spacing between orifices for the structural integrity of the spinner.

Abstract: Apparatus for making dual-component thermoplastic fibers, such as glass fibers, comprises a spinner having an orificed peripheral wall for centrifuging fibers from thermoplastic material, the spinner having vertically aligned compartments with first and second thermoplastic materials in alternate compartments, and a series of elongated orifices in the peripheral wall in communication with each of two adjacent compartments to enable centrifuging of both the first and second thermoplastic materials from a single orifice.

Abstract: A method of making textile glass fibers in a rotary process is disclosed. A spinner bearing molten glass rotates on its axis of rotation. Glass is forced through orifices and the resulting fibers are moved along paths generally perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Prior to commingling or turn down of the fibers a quenching liquid is applied to the fibers.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for making glass fibers comprises a burner creating an annular jet of high-temperature, high-velocity gases and an orificed spinner mounted for rotation within the jet where the circumferential rows of orifices on the spinner peripheral wall are grouped in bands, with the bands being spaced apart by blank areas on a spinner peripheral wall, and the orifices increasing in size from the bottom band to the top band.

Abstract: A downwardly moving cylindrical veil of mineral fibers is distributed to form a mineral fiber product by impinging on the interior of the veil jets of gas from an internal blower positioned within the veil to increase the angular velocity of the veil, thereby causing the veil tobreak up into an incoherent flow of mineral fibers.

Abstract: A method for making mineral fibers comprising discharging molten glass as primary molten streams from orifices and joining at least one primary stream to an adjacent primary stream to form a coalesced stream of different cross-sectional shape from that of the orifices, and hardening the coalesced stream into a glass fiber having a cross-sectional shape similar to the shape of the coalesced stream.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing a mat of continuous glass filaments at increased throughput while maintaining desirable tensile strength characteristics by means of a fluidic distribution system employing diagonally opposed Coanda effect surfaces.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing a mat of continuous glass filaments at increased throughput while maintaining desirable tensile strength characteristics by means of an oscillatable, fluidic distribution system.

Abstract: A composite panel including a fibrous glass board and foamed-in-place plastic foam has a perforated sheet at the foam-fiberglass interface, there being at least two holes per square inch in the perforated sheet, the diameter of the holes being less than 0.06 of an inch, and the amount of open area represented by the holes being less than 1.5 percent of the total area of the sheet.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are provided for fluidically attenuating streams of material into filaments wherein the blower is designed according to a number of parameters to provide a stream of working fluid at sonic velocity.