Kimberly-clark Worldwide, Inc.

Kimberly-clark Corporation

Peter K Costello

Michael Alan Hermans

Frank Stephen Hada

Ronald Frederick Gropp

Clifford Lee Alberts

Todd M Ake

Kurt T Otto

A through-air dryer is disclosed. The through-air dryer includes a cylindrical deck made from a plurality of deck plates that support a throughdrying fabric. The deck plates are supported by opposing hubs. Each of the hubs is in communication with a bearing that is mounted to a stationary shaft for allowing the cylindrical deck and the hubs to rotate. The bearings are positioned so as to create a through-air dryer structure that remains stable during operation and allows for easy calculation of loads on the dryer.

Through-air dryer assembly

A through-air dryer is disclosed. The through-air dryer includes a cylindrical deck made from a plurality of deck plates that support a throughdrying fabric. The deck plates are supported by opposing hubs. Each of the hubs is in communication with the bearing that is mounted to a stationary shaft for allowing the cylindrical deck and the hubs to rotate. The bearings are positioned so as to create a through-air dryer structure that remains stable during operation and allows for easy calculation of loads on the dryer.

Creping doctor blades useful for making soft tissues are substantially improved by ion nitriding the surface(s) of the doctor blade to produce a hardened surface while retaining the resilient interior of the non-treated blade. The resulting blades have approximately a three-fold increase in blade life.

Ion nitrided creping doctor blade

Method for creping tissue

The operating speed of a microcreping process and the crossdeckle product uniformity can be significantly improved by tempering the primary blade at temperatures of about 850.degree. F. or greater.

Growing community of inventors

Neenah, WI, United States of America

Peter K Costello