E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Todd A McCoy

Edgar N Rudisill

Michael C Davis

Lyles Howard Sowell

Kenneth Stephen Freund

Phillip Osborne Staples

Andrew James Giles

John C Cleary

James Stephen Bailey

Leonard Ray Tucker

John M Dakin

Nathan Cory Jetton

A process for drying/heat-treating nonwoven webs in which the web is partially dried under tension in a first drying zone and further heat treated under low tension or in a substantially tensionless state a second drying zone. The process significantly reduces the occurrence of stretch-type defects in the nonwoven webs.

Method and apparatus for heating nonwoven webs

The invention is particularly related to the problems of dispersing fiber to obtain a uniform distribution. The invention includes tapered ducts oriented at an appropriate angle relative to the horizontal for redirecting and decreasing the speed of an air stream containing fiber therein such that the fiber precipitates from the air stream and falls gently to form a uniform fiber bed in a bin.

Inlet design for handling bulk textile fiber

A process of feeding carded fiber to an airlay and particularly to combining carding technology with airlay technology. A carding machine portion is arranged to card fiber while a disperser-roll in the airlay portion picks the individualized carded fibers from a tool bed roll and centrifugally doffs them into an air stream. As such, airlays will be able to handle longer fiber lengths which conventional airlay equipment is unable to handle or satisfactorily open up. Further, an improved process for doffing fiber from a airlay machine and particularly centrifugally doffing fiber from a carding machine.

Feeding carded fiber to an airlay

A device and process for dividing a pneumatic flow of fiber into a plurality of streams of pneumatically-conveyed fiber which aid in distributing the fiber more uniformly across an area such as a fiber bin.

Distribution of fiber from pneumatic fiber conveying system

This invention relates to improved aerodynamics in dry fiber web forming machines and particularly to airlays which form high quality webs. The invention includes a disperser roll for feeding fibers into the air stream and a second roll opposite to the disperser roll for balancing the disruptive effects of long stationary walls and rotating members in the air duct. In one alternative arrangement of the invention, the fibers are also fed to the air stream by a second disperser roll opposite the first disperser roll.

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Hendersonville, TN, United States of America

Todd A McCoy