Basf Corporation

Ian Wolstenholme

Andrew M Coons, Iii

Melvin R Thompson

Willis M King

Leonard C Vickery, Jr

Multiple (at least two) differently colored or colorable feed yarns are fed from their respective yarn packages to a multi-position interlacer manifold assembly. The feed yarns are maintained separate and apart from one another and are passed in this separated state through individual interlacer jets associated with the interlacer manifold assembly. The individual yarns are thereafter conveyed to a conventional yarn processing system (e.g., an apparatus known colloquially in the art as a 'Gilbos' apparatus) where they are entangled with one another to provide a finished yarn in which the individual yarn components remain substantially coherent throughout the finished yarn. The individual interlaced yarns thus become entangled with one another when subjected to the yarn processing system without substantial inter-yarn blending or commingling occurring (which blending or commingling would thereby cause the constituent yarns to become nearly indistinguishable from one another). That is, each of the interlaced feed yarns will retain substantially its individual coherent identity in the final entangled yarn product so that its associated color is capable of being visually perceived along the length of the yarn--i.e., as color 'pixels' in the yarn.

Growing community of inventors

Loughborough, United Kingdom

Ian Wolstenholme