US1500207A - Fiber board having ornamental surfaces - Google Patents

Description

July 8 1924.

J K. SHAW FIBER BOARD HAVING ORNAMEtiTAL SURFACES 2 Sheets-Sheet. 1

Original Filed March gs. 1920 boa f0h72/K6hau; a,

July 8 1924.

J. K. SHAW FIBER BOARD HAVING ORNAMENTAL SURFACES Original Filed March 26 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 8, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN K. SHAW, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR TO G. F. DAHLIBEBG, 01' ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

FIBER BOARD HAVING ORNAMENTAL SURFACES.

Application filed March 26, 1920, Serial No. 368,992. Renewed January 9, 1923.

in the art to which it appertains to make kinds of fibers have and use the same.

This invention relates to a fiber board composed of interlaced fibers with one surface covered with a stone like composition, and has for its object to provide a board of this character, which will be more efficient in action and less expensiveto manufacture than those heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the novel parts and combinations of parts constituting the finished board, all as will be more fully herein after disclosed and particularly pointed out 1 in the claims.

' Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which like numerals designate like parts in all-the views Figure 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of an apparatus suitable for making a fiber board in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the disposition of the individual fibers during the making of the board, and before reaching the traveling surface;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 illustrating the action of the traveling surface upon the individual fibers; and,

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic sectional view of a fiber board made in accordance with this invention, and before it passes the finishing rolls.

In order that the precise invention may be the more clearly understood it is said that fiber boards made of aper, and of various n heretofore proposed, but in so far as I am aware, no one prior to this invention has succeeded in providing layers of different kinds of interlaced fibers inthe same board. In this invention, said layers constitute one integralmass of fibers interta'ngled' together, and therefore,

the fiber mass is devoid of the separated layers common in prior boards and which peel, or divide somewhat after the manner of the leaves of a book. Owing to this peeling or separating action, found in prior fiber boards, it has been found that when said boards are covered with a hard cementitious substance to give an ornamental appearance to the board, the outer layers of the latter would, in use, separate and carry the said ornamental substance with them, sothat said prior boards have been found unsatisfactory.

In this invention, on the other hand, no separated layers exist in the finished board,

all the layers of fibers being interlaced with each other, and therefore, when an ornamental cementitious substance like magnesium oxy-chloride is employed to coat the board, the latter does not peel, and the board can be practically applied to many uses for which the prior boards are unfit, as will appear more fully hereinafter.

1 indicates any suitable tank for holding the stock consisting of water and cooked fibers, 2 the bottom of said tank, 3 an inclined false bottom located above the bottom 2, 4 a roll or drum near the lower end of said false bottom 3, 5 a plurality of supporting rolls, 6 a guide and compression roll adjustable on the slide, or other movable means 7 8 a guide roll similar to the roll 4, and 9 a guide and tensioning roll adjustable on. the means 10. Passing over the rolls just mentioned is the endless foraminous belt or surface 11, conveniently made of wire cloth, and having the oppositely moving portions or runs '12 and 13. Between the runs 12 and 13 is located the water outed on the means 28, and 29 an outlet for the water passin through the belt 18, controlled by t e gate and adjustable through the handle 31. 32 and 33 represent suitable water seals made of flexible material for the belts 11 and 18 respectively.

35 represents a channel or passage for water and fibers which may be maintained at any desired hydrostatic head 36, 37 an opening from the channel 35 into the tank space or chamber 3.8,and 39 a top or parti from the rest of the tank. represents a third channel for water and having a head 46, 47 an opening into the tank chamber or space 48, and 49 a partition coacting with the partition 44 to segregate said space 48 from the remainder of the tank.

The foregoing construction is, or may be the same as is described and claimed in my copendin application. Serial Number 368,- 990, filedaarch 26, 1920, and entitled, Process of and apparatus for making fiber boards,

The operation of this machine will be, understood from what follows It is referred to use long fibers, but of course, fibers of any usual length may be employed. By reason of the direction of flow of the water through the chambers 38, 43, and 48, and by reason of the natural'tendency of the flowing water to laterally separate said fibers, the latter will be brought into positions more or less parallel to each other, and more or less erpendicular to the line of travel of the sur ace 13, while at the same time all of said fibers will occupy positions more or less staggered with relation to their neighbors as shown. Accordingly, a large'percentage of the forward ends 61 of "said fibers will first contact with said surface 13, and will be carried along'by the belt 'from the positions shown in Figure 2, to

those shown in Figure 3, for the rear ends 62 of said fibers will have lagged behind the front ends 61, in the water, so that the front row of .said fibers assume a somewhat curved or bent shape. The second row, or those fibers 63 immediately following, and which. have not reached the surface 13, but have reached the rear ends 62 of the fibers 60, are now forced by the oncoming water to contact at their forward ends against the curved fibers 60. And, as said fibers 63, originally, due to their parallel positions, as shown at 63 in Figure 2, were more or less red or interlaced with thefibers before the latter became curved it is evident that this interlacing or entang action between the fibers 60 and 63 will be enhanced or increased by the oncoming water after said curvature takes place. I

It results from the actions just described that said fibers 63 become, themselves, more or lesscurved, as indicated in Figure 3, due to the transverse movement of the fibers 60, and that a third row of fibers 64 which are also interlaced or staggered with the fibers 63 will become in time curved and entangled with the fibers 60 and 63 that have preceded said fibers 64. It thus results that owing to the floating of the fibers into' parallel, inter-.

laced or staggered positions, and in a direction transverse to the traveling surface 13, the entanglement of the fibers is continuous between successive rows; and the pressure of the water causes the whole to. be very loosely assembled in their interlaced posi tions on said surface, thus forming an opei mass of fibers more compact next to the wire than awa from it. This mass is carried through t e opening into the space 43, with one or more partially curved and artia y 60 and 63, cli to 1t.

In said chamfi and entangled with the layers on the belt, and the process ofentanglement and massing proceeds as before. In the meantime, other layers of fibers, in all respects similar to the layers 60," 63 and 64, are interlaced, entangle and massed on the traveling belt 18 from the space or chamber 48. This second mam of opening 71 by the belt 18, in a condition s1milar to the first mentioned mass that passes the opening 70, and the fibers in the space 43 interlace, and become entangled with said second mass in a manner similar to that described in connection with said first mentioned mass. The result is, owing to these parallel and staggered relations, the fibers in the s ace 43, constitute a third mass of fibers whic are interlaced and entangled with each other, as well as with'each' of said first named masses.

As a result of the foregoing entanglements of the various fibers, and the motion of the surfaces 13 and 18, the mass of fibers are carried through-the opening 75 between the compression or compacting ,rolls 6 and 25, andis formed into the sheet or board 76, all as will be readily understood.

An important feature of this invention .resides not-only in being able to thusinterentangled laye1s, similar to the fi rs r or space 43, other fibers similar to the fibers 64 become interlaced fibers are carried through the That is to say, I may feed to the channel 35, onekind of fibers, which may be relativel short or more pensive fibers, than are ose' fed to the cha e1 40, and I may feed to the channel 45, the same class of fibers as are fed to the channel 35, or I may feed a totally different class of fibers. In other words, I may provide as many channels 35, 40 and 4.5 as there are different characters of fibers in the finished board, and I may place in the first channel 35 and in the last channel 45 any characters of fibers I desire, whereupon the board will be provided with an outer layer 77 corresponding to the fibers that are fed to the channel 35, with another outer layer 78 corresponding to the fibers that are fed to the channel 45, and with one or more intermediate layers 79 corresponding to the character of the fibers which are fed to the channel 40 and to any other channels which may be located intermediate of the channels 35 and 45.

But, the important feature to be emphasizedin this invention is the fact that no matter how many kinds of fibers, or how many layers of fibers that are present in the finished board, the fibers of each layer will be interlaced or entangled with the fibers of its adjacent layer, so that the board will not consist of separate and distinct layers, as is common in ordinary fiber boards, and somewhat like the leaves of a book that can be peeled off, but its body portion will consist of fibers that are firmly interwoven, and its outer layers will be firmly interwoven with said body portion.

The interlacing process is facilitated by the fact that the openings 37, 42, and 4:7 are of a less area than are the spaces 38,

$3, and 48 into which the fibers are led. In other words, the fibers must first pass through the openings at a relatively .high velocity and in a comparatively close relation to each other; and they are then immediately released into a wider space where they take on a lesser velocity, and naturally spread'out as they pass along with the water, thus assuming the parallel relations indicated in Figure 2.

I further prefer to permit a very large proportion of the water, say 90% of the same, to escape through the opening while a very muchsmaller proportion, say 10%, escapes through the opening 29. 1

The gates 16 and are conveniently manipulated to 'etfect'this division of the water, while maintaining the desired proper steady flow through the surfaces 13 and 18 to produce the desired results. But, of course, the proportions of water that escape through the two openings mentioned may be widely varied according to the results sought in the finishedboard.

4 The rolls 6 and 25 are readily adjusted by the means illustrated to produce any desired compression in the openings 75 between said rolls, so that the fiber board may be given any desired degree-of porosity. In

fact, by using relatively large fibers in the channel 40, and relatively fine fibers in the channels and 45, I am enabled to control the air spaces in the body of the board, and thereby control its heat insulating qualities.

The heads 36,41 and 46-of the liquid in the channels 35, 40 and are so maintained that there will be a minimum tendency of liquid to flow between the chambers or spaces 38, 43 and 48. In other words, the

pressures of the liquid in the last mentioned chambers are maintained as nearly equal as possible and thus a minimum tendency of the fibers to mix in the said'interlaced spaces is. secured.

From the foregoing it will be clear that my board is devoid of layers that will peel OE, and is readily provided with any desired character ofmiddle fibers 79 and any desired character ofouter fibers 77 and 78.

I prefer, in carrying out this invention, to

pass the board between the finishing rolls and 86 operated by any suitable means, such as the belt 87, operating the pulley 88, fast on the'shaft 89, carrying the roll 86, and the pulley 90, also fast on the shaft 89, around which passes the belt 91 driving the pulley 92, rigid with the shaft 95 on which is mounted the roll 85. Said rolls 85 and 86 are adjusted to and from each other by any suitable means, as indicated by the dotted lines 96, so that any degree of compression may be exerted on the board. The

pulley 92 is of a different diameter from the pulley 90 so that the roll 85 will run at a difi'erent angular speed from the gear 86.

97 represents any suitable supply of a cementitious substance 100, such .for ex ample, as the oxy-chlorides of magnesium, and said substance under the control of the means 98 ispermitted to How on to the nel 45, and to add said cementitious sub;

stance to the water therein, in which case the layer 78 will be impregnated with said substance and the stream 100, or layer 99, will take a deeper hold on the board, but in most cases, a fire proofing, or a waterproofing compound will be used in one or both of the channels 35 and 45.

The fiber boards made as above will have ornamental stone like surfaces which are readily set by adding sugar to the composition,- and are' readily colored, by 'known processes, to imitate different kinds of natural stones, and they are useful as wall coverings, panels, tiles, wainscoatings, and in a host of other places where artificialstone is now used. Such boards have a high heat insulating value, not found in artificial stone, and this value may be readil increased by increasing the size of the bers in the channel 40, so as to increase the size of the air cells in the layer 7 6 of the finished I 6 board.

1. A fiber board composed of a body por-- tion of one kind of fiber interlaced with another kind of fiber covering said body portion; and a surface portion covered with a hard stone like composition having an ornamental surface, substantially as described.

2. The process of making an ornamental heat insulating panel which consists in providing a fiber board made of different kinds of fibers interlaced with each other and covering the same on one side with a composition containin ma esium o -chloride, substantially as descr ibed, Xy

3. A fiber board composed of a body portion of relatively coarse fibers, surface .portions of relatively fine fibers interlaced with said coarse fibers, and-one of said surface portions covered with a cementitious material having an ornamental surface, substantially as described. a 4. The process of making an ornamental heat insulating-wall covering material which consists in forming a layer of interlaced fibers of one kind; a layer of interlaced fibers of another kind interlaced with said first mentioned fibers, and having higher heat insulating properties than said first layer; and coating one of said layers with a cementitious material having an ornamental surface, substantiall as described.

In testimony whereof I a my signature.

JOHN K. SHAW.

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