High pressure water jet comminuting

Abstract

A cutter for comminuting a moving continuous sheet or web, such as paper broke, in the dryer or converter section of a papermaking machine, includes a plurality of high pressure water jet cutting nozzles positioned in a conduit section for receiving such broke from the papermaking machine. In one embodiment the nozzles are arranged in banks positioned to impact the sheet as it passes through the conduit section, from opposite sides, and are mounted on water conduits which, in turn, are mounted for reciprocating movement and are oscillated transversely of the direction of sheet movement by a mechanical drive. The cutting jets from the high pressure nozzles impact the sheet simultaneously at opposite sides, while being reciprocated to reduce the sheet into a multiplicity of smaller discrete or easily separable pieces which fall through the bottom of the conduit section, for further processing or disposal. The nozzles may be directed at an angle to the direction of sheet movement, so as to impart a force component tending to pull the sheet through the conduit section. In another embodiment, an open face roll forms a backing support for the sheet and a mutually reciprocating pair of nozzle banks have cutting jet sprays directed against and through the sheet supported on the open face roll.