The United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of

United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Agriculture

Harold L Salaun, Jr

Craig L Folk

Roger S Brown

Gain L Louis

Disclosed is a new roller drafter for drafting and aligning fibers in a strand or strip of card web e.g. for producing filament-wrapped yarn. The improvements include, increasing (in the direction of strip or strand movement) the distances between nips of adjacent pairs of rolls and optionally increasing in said direction of strip or strand movement the outer diameters of each pair of rolls. Also disclosed are, a process utilizing said roller drafter (optionally with filament wrapping), and a drafted strand or strip and a wrapped yarn which are products of the present invention.

Roller drafter, process of use, and products produced thereby

An apparatus for drafting and parallelizing strands of fiber comprising three side-by-side rolls nested in three side-by-side troughs which conform to and are adjacent the bottoms of the three rolls. The rolls are rotated in the same direction at sequentially greater speeds. The first two rolls include fiber-combing teeth, and the third roll is composed of a smooth, rubber-like surface. The fibers pass sequentially around the bottoms of the three rolls through a very narrow gap between the rolls and troughs to emerge in a parallelized, drafted condition. The unit may be incorporated into a no-twist yarn system as the sole mechanism for drafting and parallelizing the fiber, to form no-twist yarn in a continuous manner; or be used in place of conventional drafting system.

Growing community of inventors

Metairie, LA, United States of America

Harold L Salaun, Jr