Hitco, Inc.

R Glenn Kapaun

Ramon B Fernandez

Gary D Shepherd

Charles P Logan

In a method of making carbon or graphite yarn, a bundle of single ply precursor yarns is knit into an elongated fabric to facilitate subsequent processing of the yarns. The elongated fabric is pretreated to facilitate carbonization thereof such as by being advanced in the direction of elongation thereof through a cleaning process. Thereafter the yarns remain in the form of the fabric to facilitate processing thereof through at least a carbonization step. The carbonization step may be accomplished by winding the elongated fabric onto skeins to a desired extent and then severing the fabric, following which the skeins are disposed in a carbonizing oven to at least partially carbonize the yarns. Thereafter, the fabric length on each skein may be deknitted, and the resulting bundle of single ply yarns is twisted to form a multi-ply yarn which is then fired to substantially raise the percentage of carbon in the yarns and then graphitized. Alternatively, deknitting of the fabric can be delayed until after the firing step or after the graphitization step so as to facilitate movement of the yarns through these processes also, where some deformation in the yarns is tolerable or desirable.

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Huntington Beach, CA, United States of America

R Glenn Kapaun