Owens-corning Fiberglas Corporation

Vikas M Nadkarni

John L Kane

A lofted mat of filaments is produced from process and apparatus including: supplying a plurality of streams of molten polymeric material; attenuating said streams of material into continous filaments through the action of a stream of fluid moving from an attenuation means; said filaments being entrained in said fluid moving from said attenuation means, said filaments having non-uniform residual stresses established therein; moving said stream of fluid and filaments along a first surface positioned intermediate said attenuation means and a foraminous surface; establishing a vacuum at said foraminous surface; directing said stream of fluid and filaments into said foraminous surface obliquely oriented with respect to said first surface such that a first portion of said fluid separates from the filaments and passes through said foraminous surface and a second portion of said fluid moves said filaments along the foraminous surface; collecting said filaments in a randomly dispersed, substantially uniform layer having a first thickness; passing said layer through crimp inducing means adapted to permit said unbalanced, residual stresses to randomly crimp said filaments to form said lofted mat having a second thickness greater than said first thickness.

Method for producing a lofted mat

Apparatus for fluidically attenuating streams of molten material into filaments is provided comprising; a base having a first chamber and a recess separated by a wall having a plurality of apertures therethrough, said first chamber being adapted to receive a fluid; a first member having a first arcuate surface and a distal end, the first member being adapted to be joined to said base such that first arcuate surface is adjacent said recess and said apertures of said base; a second member having a second arcuate surface, a head region, and a third arcuate surface, said head region being located intermediate and contiguous with said second and third arcuate surfaces, said second member being joined to said base such that said second arcuate surface is positioned adjacent said recess and said apertures of said base such that said first arcuate surface, said second arcuate surface and said head region form a smoothly converging passageway, the head region being positioned relative to the distal end to form an outlet through which said fluid is moved, said third arcuate surface being adapted to control the moving fluid issuing from said outlet, wherein the contraction ratio of the cross-sectional area of the inlet section to the cross-sectional area of the outlet section of the converging passageway is within the range of values from about 150 to about 750 to 1.

Apparatus for fluidically attenuating filaments

A lofted mat of filaments is produced from process and apparatus including: supplying a plurality of streams of molten polymeric material; attenuating said streams of material into continuous filaments through the action of a stream of fluid moving from an attenuation means; said filaments being entrained in said fluid moving from said attenuation means, said filaments having non-uniform residual stresses established therein; moving said stream of fluid and filaments along a first surface positioned intermediate said attenuation means and a foraminous surface; establishing a vacuum at said foraminous surface; directing said stream of fluid and filaments into said foraminous surface obliquely oriented with respect to said first surface such that a first portion of said fluid separates from the filaments and passes through said foraminous surface and a second portion of said fluid moves said filaments along the foraminous surface; collecting said filaments in a randomly dispersed, substantially uniform layer having a first thickness; passing said layer through crimp inducing means adapted to permit said unbalanced, residual stresses to randomly crimp said filaments to form said lofted mat having a second thickness greater than said first thickness wherein said lofted mat is comprised of a lofted mat comprising a plurality of continuous polymeric filaments having an asymmetrical cross-sectional shape, the cross-sectional shape having a major dimension within the range from about 0.00150 inch to about 0.00350 inch, the filaments having a crimp factor within the range from about 0.1 to about 4 waves per inch of filament, said mat having a density within the range from about 0.33 pounds per cubic foot to about 1.74 pounds per cubic foot.

Polymeric mats having continuous filaments with an asymmetrical

Process and apparatus are provided for producing filaments comprising: supplying a plurality of streams of molten material; attenuating said streams of material into continuous filaments through the action of a stream of fluid moving from an attenuation means; said filaments being entrained in said fluid moving from said attenuation means, moving said stream of fluid and filaments along a first surface positioned intermediate said attenuation means and a foraminous surface; establishing a vacuum at said foraminous surface; directing said stream of fluid and filaments into said foraminous surface obliquely oriented with respect to said first surface such that a first portion of said fluid separates from the filaments and passes through said foraminous surface and a second portion of said fluid moves said filaments along the foraminous surface; collecting said filaments.

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Newark, OH, United States of America

Vikas M Nadkarni