Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

Stanley P Cernohous

Edward M Fischer

Alan A Allen

A combined skirted oil-sorbing boom and oil-sorbing sweep has a buoyant inner core and an oil-sorbent outer core of a spirally wound sheet of polymeric, oleophilic, hydrophobic microfibers. Adhesively bonded to a sheet of the microfibers at the outer face of the outer core is an open-mesh netting of polymeric monofilaments that are fused at their crossings. The netting and the sheet to which it is adhered extend from the outer core to form a depending skirt which acts as a barrier to oil that is being sorbed by the microfibers. The buoyant inner core can be an open-cell foam that sorbs oil slowly, thus supplementing the oil-sorbing capability without significant loss of freeboard.

Growing community of inventors

Dellwood, MN, United States of America

Stanley P Cernohous