E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

William Carter Dodson, Jr

Rashmikant M Contractor

Earl Edwin Seppala

James John Hentges

An apparatus is disclosed for high speed production of uniform webs by air-laydown of textile fibers. A feed batt of staple fibers is fed to a toothed disperser roll that projects the fibers at high velocity and low angle into an airstream of high uniform velocity and low turbulence to form a thin fiber stream from which the fibers are subsequently separated on a moving screen in the form of a web. Air flow control means upstream of the toothed dispenser roll deflects the air stream at a constantly varying angle of deflection to improve fiber laydown uniformity.

Air flow control apparatus for a fiber air-lay machine

A compressed batt of fibers is fed against a rotating toothed roll for dispersion of the fibers from the batt and this dispersion of fibers is fed through the point of closest clearance between the toothed roll and a feed roll rotating in the opposite direction. Downstream of this point of closest clearance, a stationary shoe is provided spaced from the surface of the toothed roll to permit the dispersion of fibers to follow the surface of the toothed roll. The shoe is closely fitted to the surface of the feed roll which has the effect of forming a pinch point where the feed roll enters beneath the shoe. In accordance with the invention, the shoe is equipped with passages for the flow of air to exit at the pinch point to prevent fibers from entering the pinch point, i.e., between the feed roll and shoe.

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Wilmington, DE, United States of America

William Carter Dodson, Jr