Continuous filament process

Glass fibers can be produced by the continuous filament process with fiber lengths up to 10 kilometers. These continuous glass fibers typically are used for reinforcement purposes. Glass fibers produced with the continuous filament process have nearly uniform diameters, ranging from 5-30 /rni, which typically are larger than those ( 10 //m) of discontinued glass fibers produced by the wool process. 

On the spinline, a mixture of air and water (i.e., a fine mist) often is sprayed to the newly formed filaments just below the bushing to help remove the heat from the vicinity of the bushing and cool the individual filaments. This often leads to a quick thermal quench rate, ranging from 500,000 to 1,000,000 K s. Such a high quench rate makes the resultant glass fibers to exhibit relative low densities. 

In addition to the mixture of air and water, a sizing applicator also introduces a mixture of film-forming polymer, lubricant, etc., to provide filament cohesion and protect the glass surface from abrasion. 

In the marble process, the glass first must be melted for making marbles and then is re-melted in the bushing for fiber formation. Due to the re-melting process. 

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The high speed continuous filament process (69) was first used for manufacturing in 1974, and this enabled the yam production rates to be raised from 150 to 380 m /min. This system uses a pair of net conveyor belts to protect and transport an overfed warp of yams through washing and drying. 

In addition to these process, special processes are known, particularly for the manufacture of thin metal fibers the continuous filament process, melt spinning processes and the Taylor process. 

Much thinner metal fibers are manufactured by the so-called bundle pulling process, in which wires are embedded in a ductile matrix (e.g. copper) and are jointly subjected to a continuous filament process. The fibers remaining, after removal of the matrix, have diameters down to 12 pm, but diameters down to 0.5 pm can be obtained with this process. 

Continuous filament process multiple pulling of wires througli ever narrower dies with intermediate annealing. The process is used for the manuraclure of steel fibers for tire cord (ca. 1.50 pm)... 

Glass fiber (1882) n. A manufactured fiber in which the fiber-forming substance is glass (FTC definition). In the continuous filament process, glass marbles are melted in... 

The process of heat bonding using hot calendering is sometimes used in the production of short staple fibre geotextiles. However, this method is more often used for continuous filament—based geotextiles. This process will be explained in detail in the next section covering the continuous filament process. 

Raw materials used to make glass fibers include but are not limited to sand, limestone, soda ash, and cullet. These raw materials are melted in a furnace to obtain molten glass. The molten glass then can be made into glass fibers, mainly by three methods wool process, continuous filament process, and marble process. 

Describe the continuous filament process of glass fibers. 

Filament. Eully drawn flat yams and partially oriented (POY) continuous filament yams are available in yam sizes ranging from about 3.3—33.0 tex (30—300 den) with individual filament linear densities of about 0.055 to 0.55 tex per filament (0.5—5 dpf). The fully drawn hard yams are used directly in fabric manufacturing operations, whereas POY yams are primarily used as feedstock for draw texturing. In the draw texturing process, fibers are drawn and bulked by heat-setting twisted yam or by entangling filaments with an air jet. Both textured and hard yams are used in apparel, sleepwear, outerwear, sportswear, draperies and curtains, and automotive upholstery. 

AH synthetic fibers are produced as continuous filaments, either as yams or tows. Yams are fine enough to be woven or knitted direcdy, but caimot be intimately blended with other fibers on the principal conversion systems used for cotton or wool. For these processes, staple fibers, made by cutting the much larger tows into short lengths, are needed. Tows can also be stretch broken into sHvers or tops, which can then be drawn out and twisted into spun-yams. 

In another laboratory at Kew, C. H. Steam and C. E. Topham, who had worked for Sir Joseph Swan on lamp filaments, developed the continuous filament spinning process (8) and the machinery needed to wash and coUect (9,10) the yams. A fibermaking method was outlined in 1898, and the Viscose Spinning Syndicate was formed to develop the concept into a commercial proposition. 

Spinnerette Process. The basic spinning process is similar to the production of continuous filament yams and utilizes similar extmder conditions for a given polymer (17). Fibers are formed as the molten polymer exits the >100 tiny holes (ca 0.2 mm) of each spinnerette where it is quenched by chilled air. Because a key objective of the process is to produce a relatively wide (eg, 3 m) web, individual spinnerettes are placed side by side in order that sufficient fibers be generated across the width. This entire grouping of spinnerettes is often called a block or bank, and in commercial production it is common for two or more blocks to be used in tandem in order to increase the coverage and uniformity of laydown of the fibers in the web. 

Fibrous materials may be naturally occurring or synthetically manufactured by thermal or chemical processes (Fig. 1) (see Fibers, survey). Refractory fibers are generally used in industrial appHcations at temperatures between 1000°C and 2800°C. These fibers may be oxides or nonoxides, vitreous or polycrystalline, and may be produced as whiskers, continuous filaments, or loose wool products. 

Manufactured fibers produced from natural organic polymers are either regenerated or derivative. A regenerated fiber is one which is formed when a natural polymer or its chemical derivative is dissolved and extmded as a continuous filament, and the chemical nature of the natural polymer is either retained or regenerated after the fiber-formation process. A derivative fiber is one which is formed when a chemical derivative of the natural polymer is prepared, dissolved, and extmded as a continuous filament, and the chemical nature of the derivative is retained after the fiber-formation process. 

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