Celanese Gmbh

Basf Aktiengesellschaft

Lummus Industries, Inc.

Fredrick A Ethridge

Gene P Daumit

J Eugene McAliley

Douglas D Roth

James R Crozier, Jr

An improved package wind cutter utilizes a specially configured guide hook carried on the periphery of a reduced diameter winder dome to eliminate the need for a pressure roller mounted internally of the winder dome, thereby simplifying the manufacture, operation and maintenance of the apparatus and appreciably improving the strand distribution characteristics of the cutter as the relative speed of the cutter reel and winder dome are varied. The improved guide hook passes the strand from the dome to the reel with minimum separation from both the reel and the remaining pressure roller.

Package wind cutter

An improved multifilamentary tow of carbon fibers is provided which possesses a novel physical configuration that better enables it to undergo impregnation with a matrix-forming resin to form quality composite articles. The individual filaments of the tow are randomly decollimated and commingled with numerous filament cross-over points throughout the length of the multifilamentary tow in order to create a multitude of interstices between adjacent filaments which are well adapted to receive and retain a matrix-forming resin as evidenced by the ability of the filaments when subjected to the flaring test described herein to resist lateral expansion to a width that is as much as three times the original width. The tow commonly comprises approximately 1,000 to 50,000 filaments. Also, the filaments of the tow are substantially continuous and contain at least 70 percent carbon by weight (preferably at least 90 percent carbon by weight). In a preferred embodiment wherein the resistance to lateral expansion is the greatest, the multifilamentary bundles have been found to be capable of being readily woven with no significant productivity loss to form a quality reinforcing fabric while free of a protective size, such as that which has heretofore been required while weaving carbonaceous multifilamentary yarn bundles of the prior art.

Weaving process utilizing multifilamentary carbonaceous yarn bundles

A melt-spinning apparatus is disclosed for reducing the birefringence variability of melt-spun yarn made at high pack throughputs. It involves extruding polymer at an average mass-flow rate through a first group of orifices (defined by specific location in the spinnerette), that is greater than the mass-flow rate of polymer through a second group of orifices (also defined by location in the spinnerette). The apparatus comprises a spinneret having concentric rows of orifices and a centrally located quench means, with the diameter, d.sub.1, of the orifices in the row closest to the quench means being greater than the diameter, d.sub.2, of the orifices in the row furtherest from the quench means by an amount such that d1/d2 is in the range from 1.03 to 1.20.

Melt-spinning apparatus for polyester filaments

An improved process is provided for the thermal conversion of a multifilamentary tow of an acrylic fibrous material wherein the filaments are disposed in a substantially parallel relationship in a multifilamentary tow of carbonaceous fibrous material which contains at least 70 percent (preferably at least 90 percent) carbon by weight. During at least one stage of the process the multifilamentary tow is subjected to the impingement of at least one stream of a liquid whereby the parallel relationship of the filaments is disrupted in the substantial absence of filament damage with the filaments becoming decolumnized to a degree sufficient to enable the resulting carbonaceous fibrous material to be more readily impregnated by and dispersed within a matrix-forming resin. In a preferred embodiment such impingement is carried out following a thermal stabilization step and prior to a carbonization step while the multifilamentary tow is simultaneously completely submerged within a liquid. The particularly preferred liquid for use in the process is water.

Production of a carbon fiber multifilamentary tow which is particularly

A melt-extrusion process is disclosed for reducing the birefringence variability of melt-spun yarn made at high pack throughputs. It involves extruding polymer at an average mass-flow rate through a first group of orifices (defined by specific location in the spinnerette), that is greater than the mass-flow rate of polymer through a second group of orifices (also defined by location in the spinnerette). It is preferred that a spinnerette be used in which the dimensions of the orifices differ from group to group in a defined manner.

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Waxhaw, NC, United States of America

Fredrick A Ethridge