IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF NON-WOVEN FABRICS

摘要

1,206,618. Non-woven fabric. ORCON CORP. 31 Oct., 1967 [31 Oct., 1966], No. 49438/67. Heading D1R. A non-woven fabric F is made by forming a conveyor belt 36 to a tube shape about a cylindrical support 27 with the longitudinal axis of the belt parallel to the longitudinal axis of the support guiding a plurality of warp strands- WS onto the outside of the tubular conveyor belt 36 and aligned with the longitudinal axis thereof, winding fill strands FS around the warp strands WS whilst applying a binder to the fill strands to bond the warp and fill strands together, and transporting the non-woven fabric formed along the support solely by positive drive of the belt and frictional contact of the fabric F on the belt 36. There may be a release film, e.g. of polypropylene, between the conveyor belt 36 and the fabric, or the conveyor belt may be coated with the release film. Compressed air can be injected between the conveyor belt and the support. The warp strands WS can be formed into a cylndrical bundle around the cylindrical support by reel guides 24 and constricting ring 26. The spacing of the warp strands can be precisely controlled by tandem offset guides 23, 24 (Fig. 2). The fill strands can be wound onto the warp strands from packages 28 mounted on a drum 29 which rotates concentrically around the support 27. The binder, e.g. a filmforming polymer which may contain a wetting agent, can be applied to the fill strands by running them through a magazine 33 of binder which is also mounted on drum 29. The binder magazine can be kept filled during operation by feeding binder from a reservoir (58) into an annular ring 64 also mounted on the rotating drum, the ring 64 being connected to the binder magazine 33. Centrifugal force acting on the binder whilst in the ring distributes around the ring to the outlet to the binder reservoir. The overflow from the magazine can be returned to the reservoir via a second stationary annular ring 67 which is concentric with the first ring. The fabric can be slit and spread into a flat sheet and wound onto a storage roll 49, (Figs. 3 and 4). The speed of the storage roll and the conveyor belt are coordinated to avoid stressing the fabric.