Water reduction by modulating vacuum

摘要

A system and a method for dewatering an acoustical tile basemat comprising a continuously traveling wire, a device for depositing a dilute water slurry of solids including fiber and binder on the wire, a vacuum box below the wire for separating water from the solids deposited on the wire to form a basemat, a vacuum source, and a valve for cyclically connecting the vacuum source to the vacuum box at a cyclic rate that limits vacuum exposure to a length of the basemat newly arriving at the vacuum box to less than four inches per cycle.

主权项

1. A method of dewatering a slurry of fiber and binder for use in making a basemat in a water felting process on a travelling wire comprising establishing a fiber and binder slurry on the travelling wire, subjecting the fiber and binder slurry to a vacuum applied to the bottom of the wire by cyclically modulating the vacuum in a vacuum box under the wire between a peak vacuum value and an atmospheric pressure.