Abstract: There is disclosed a melt-blowing die head having a die tip which, instead of a number of individual orifices, has a single continuous slot opening running its length. In addition the die tip is reinforced by means of aerodynamically shaped bosses in the fluid delivery channels which bear between the air plate and the exterior surface of the die tip. The die tip may also have reservoirs at either end in which debris may be collected when the slot is cleaned while the die head is in place on a melt-blowing machine.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for producing three-dimensional structural members having one flat side from wood fibers utilizing flow deposition of the fibers onto a support. The support includes resilient deformable mold inserts. The mold inserts are formed of silicone rubber and may be blocks of the material, or may be a membrane which can be inflated to form the mold inserts. Pressing is done with a force normal to the support, and the mold inserts create response forces at varying directions to thus shape and hold the three-dimensional finished part. Heat drying also may be used.

Abstract: Apparatus and process for forming a laid fibrous article includes a foraminous forming surface for depositing thereon of fibers under the influence of a pressure differential imposed on the surface, wherein the improvement comprises the provision of a concavely contoured portion of the forming surface to yield a non-stepwise gradation in basis weight of the laid fibrous article. The concavely contoured surface portion is bounded by walls defining angles of from about 45.degree. to 68.degree., whereby the laid fibrous article is readily removable from the forming surface, which may comprise the cylindrical surface of a rotating drum.

Abstract: A system for forming an air laid web of fibers and/or particles on a moving foraminous carrier. Fibers and/or particles are blended, and while supported in an air stream, introduced into a distributor unit. The distributor unit includes a rotatable cylinder formed with classification apertures of a predetermined shape, number, and size as specifically related to the types of fibers and/or particles utilized. A rotatable shaft with radially extending wire-like members agitates the fibers and/or particles and throws them outwardly through the apertures. Downwardly directed air flow transports the refined fibers and/or particles so as to form a homogeneous, still further refined, web on the surface of the carier. A variety of adjustments and alternations can be made to the system and its components to control the composition and thickness of the end product, and to attain maximum capacity for any combination of fibers and/or particles.

Abstract: Apparatus for obtaining a predeterminable distribution of weight per unit area in the transverse direction of a mat formed on a movable support for the manufacture of chip board, fiber board and similar boards is described by means of which fluctuations of the raw material composition and fluctuations of the chip geometry can be compensated for, having regard to the retention of a desired distribution of weight per unit area, by varying the thickness of the pre-mat or mat, or, in the case of a mat which is built up of a plurality of layers, of at least one of the mat layers, at least region by region, by mechanical action over the width of the mat in dependence on a desired distribution of the weight per unit area over the width of the pre-mat, or of the mat or of the mat layer.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing layers of dry fibres and/or particles on a forming surface pervious to air. According to the invention, the material is distributed in air and passed to a forming unit where a turbulence with high intensity is effected in that air is injected through separate nozzles.

Abstract: A method for the preformation of a cushion for a seat, characterized by feeding an aggregate of three-dimensional curled short-fiber filaments to conveyor means, causing said conveyor carring thereon said aggregate of filament to be advanced under a rotary member provided on the outer surface thereof with a multiplicity of raised needles and kept in rotation and allowing said needles to come into contact with said aggregate of filaments thereby scraping part of the filaments from said aggregate and giving to said aggregate of filaments a prescribed shape.

Abstract: An apparatus for making airlaid articles such as discrete absorbent cores for catamenial napkins and disposable diapers and the like. Apparatus embodying the invention preferably comprises a laydown drum having a plurality of formation cavities having foraminous bottom walls, which cavities are circumferentially spaced around the perimeter of the drum. The apparatus also preferably includes means for directing a high velocity stream of air-entrained matter such as, for example, fibers or particulate matter, substantially radially towards a relatively short circumferential span of the perimeter of the drum; and a hood having sufficient circumferential span of the drum to enable excess entrainment air to be drawn by vacuum through the foraminous bottom walls of substantially empty cavities, and to enable recirculation of the excess scarfed fibers.

Abstract: A plant for the manufacture of chipboard, fibreboard or similar boards is described wherein mat sections coming from a stationary scattering section are supplied via an intermediate conveyor to a cyclically operating press with a loading and unloading device, and wherein an arrangement is provided for returning mat carriers separated at the press outlet from the compressed mat sections. The mat sections are supplied to the intermediate conveyor from a forming band via a transfer table which variably overlaps the intermediate conveyor. This intermediate conveyor simultaneously serves as a supply unit for the mat carriers which are provided with laterally engageable head strips. The loading and unloading device of the press includes transport devices which extend on both sides of the press and cooperate with the head strips of the mat carriers. The transport devices extend, over a part of their length, parallel to and alongside the corresponding transport devices of the intermediate conveyor.

Abstract: A method for the reduction of the velocity of dispersions of fine particles in gas is described, in which the dispersion is divided into a plurality of mass flows M which are conveyed each to a subsonic diffuser to reduce the velocity from V.sub.1 to V.sub.2, wherein the product of mass flow M and density velocity ration S.sub.1 V.sub.1 /S.sub.2 V.sub.2 is less than 10 kg/sec.The method is particularly useful in the manufacture of mineral wool, where the mineral wool fibers are first obtained being dispersed in a high velocity gas stream.

Abstract: In a melt blowing die tip having a generally triangular nose portion with a knife-edge forming the extremity of the die tip, a channel extending lengthwise of the die tip, a row of small openings extending from the channel to the knife-edge extremity of the die tips, and a plurality of tie bars of generally elliptical cross section integral with the die tip and bridging the channel to strengthen the die tip to withstand the internal, outwardly directed pressure exerted by molten polymer forced into the channel from the die body and flowing to be extruded through the die openings.

Abstract: Improved air laid papermaking is disclosed in which the fine particles which pass through the forming wire are, after collection by a baghouse separator, delivered back to the papermaking machine for incorporation in the web being formed by the machine. A plurality of individual separator units within the baghouse are sequentially discharged so that a substantially constant feedback of fines to the papermaking machine is obtained. The fines are fed back to a selected one of the distributors of the papermaking machine to be distributed to the surface of the web being formed at a position downstream of the position at which fibers are initially laid on the wire, thereby trapping the fines on the surface of the previously laid mat of fibers such that very little of the fines pass through the forming wire at this position.

Abstract: A mat-forming apparatus, especially for the production of particle board, comprises a conveyor grate disposed above a layer-carrying surface, e.g. a conveyor, and below a feeder for scattering the particles onto the surface through the travelling grate. According to the invention, the lower pass of the conveyor grate is displaceable in the same direction as the receiving conveyor and is inclined upwardly away from the receiving conveyor in the direction of displacement thereof at an acute angle, this lower pass forming an inclined plane.

Abstract: There is disclosed a novel apparatus and process for melt-blowing from fiberforming thermoplastic molten polymers to form fine fibers by extruding through orifices in nozzles the molten polymer at low melt viscosity at high temperatures where the molten fibers are accelerated to near sonic velocity by gas being blown in parallel flow through small orifices surrounding each nozzle. The extruded molten polymer is passed to the nozzles through a first heating zone at low incremental increases in temperature and thence rapidly through said nozzles at high incremental increases in temperature to reach the low melt viscosity necessary for high fiber acceleration at short residence time to minimize or prevent excessive polymer degradation.

Abstract: Particleboard is manufactured by scattering an endless mat of chip and binder material on a series of overlapped mat carriers 17 moving on a forming conveyor 2 beneath a scattering station 1. A cut-off saw 5 is then used to separate the endless mat into mat sections 18 each of which is mounted on a respective mat carrier 17. The overlap between the mat carriers is eliminated and the laden mat carriers are removed from the forming conveyor 2 by an accelerating conveyor 6 which simultaneously operates as an intermediate store and a feed unit for a single storey press 8 arranged immediately after the accelerating conveyor 6. The accelerating conveyor 6 introduces the laden mat carrier into the inlet to the press from where it is transported into the press by internal transport devices of the press. After the mat section has been pressed to form a particleboard a pair of driven rollers 9 extract the mat carrier from the press and feed it towards a separating wedge 10.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing and packaging cheese in which cheese curd which has been milled and salted is fed into four columns mounted on an upright tubular trunk fitted at the lower end with a guillotine blade movable between a closed position in which it closes the bottom of the trunk and an open position in which the blade is wholly clear of the trunk. The columns are maintained at a sub-atmospheric pressure so that air in the curd is flashed off immediately the curd enters the columns. The curd in the columns flows into the trunk and merges with the curd from the other columns to form a pillar of curd supported on the guillotine blade. The walls of the columns are perforated for drainage of whey pressed out from the curd by the weight of superimposed curd. An elevator below the trunk lowers the pillar of curd when the guillotine blade is withdrawn, the blade being subsequently returned to cut off a block of cheese from the lower end of the pillar.

Abstract: A thermally-insulating, non-flammable, air-permeable insulation for installation in the field, for example, in closed cavities between the walls of a house. A multitude of individually preformed, foamed plastic particles are initially entrained in a carrier stream, and thereupon drenched with a settable film-forming, non-flammable, liquid substance, such as a sodium silicate solution. The liquid substance sets to form a film which covers and adheres the particles to one another to form a thermally-insulating dense structural aggregate mass having structural integrity, resistance to fire, and venting capability. A method of making and installing the insulation, and a preferred apparatus therefor, are disclosed.

Abstract: A method for minimizing the accumulation of static charges on fibers resulting from the dry-fiberization of pulp lap sheets includes the steps of: (1) directing a plurality of the pulp lap sheets into a stacked condition; (2) directing the stack of sheets in a downstream direction to a fiberizing device for separating the fibers from the stack; and (3) applying an antistatic chemical to less than all of the sheets in the stack upstream of the fiberizing device.

Abstract: Button rods are made of different colored resins containing thixotropic agents and having catalyst and promoter agents added to separated portions of each resin so that when the resins are combined their gel time is accelerated. The combined resins are mixed both for mixing purposes and to lower the apparent viscosity, and the resins are fed through nozzles and into an inclined trough. The nozzles are reciprocated in arcs to lay the resins in a zig zag pattern in the trough, and the resins flow from the trough into an inclined casting tube where they quickly attain a relatively high apparent viscosity until they are removed from the tube before completely hard. The rods can then be sliced into button blanks or hardened and ground into beads.

Abstract: Button rods are made of different colored resins containing thixotropic agents and having catalyst and promoter agents added to separated portions of each resin so that when the resins are combined their gel time is accelerated. The combined resins are mixed both for mixing purposes and to lower the apparent viscosity, and the resins are fed through nozzles and into an inclined trough. The nozzles are reciprocated in arcs to lay the resins in a zig zag pattern in the trough, and the resins flow from the trough into an inclined casting tube where they quickly attain a relatively high apparent viscosity until they are removed from the tube before completely hard. The rods can then be sliced into button blanks or hardened and ground into beads.