Anisotropic reinforced ribbon-cast blanket for extended nip press

摘要

A Conventional blanket material, preferably a woven fabric or scrim, is formed into a loop of the desired dimensions and impregnated and coated with a two-component urethane resin. As the urethane is applied to the woven substrate, short fibers are introduced into the urethane through a nozzle which aligns the fibers to run in the cross-machine direction. The fibers are introduced in sufficient quantities to provide significant structural reinforcement of the urethane in the cross-machine direction. The coated blanket is then ground to a desired constant thickness and an array of parallel grooves running in the machine direction are milled into the urethane coating. The anisotropic fiber reinforcement provides sufficient modulus to the urethane system to prevent the grooves from collapsing under the applied loads of the extended nip press. The reinforcing fibers may be glass, carbon fiber, synthetic polymer or other structural fiber material.