GB695033A - Method of making crinkled artificial fibres - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:0695033/IV (a)/1> Crinkled artificial filaments are produced by melt-spinning fine filaments of an extrudable organic thermoplastic material downwardly through air and directing against all sides of each such filament a plurality of streams of a gas inert to and cooler than the filaments, which streams converge upwardly to define a cone with its apex 1-10 inches below the extrusion orifice, and cooling and stretching the filaments. As shown, the material, which may be a polymeric or co-polymeric composition of vinylidene chloride, is extruded from the orifices of a conventional plastics extruder to form one or a plurality of filaments 10 which pass downwardly, while still hot, through a zone surrounded by gas nozzles 12 in a tubular ring 19. The nozzles 12 are directed toward the filaments and tilted slightly upwards so that streams of air or gas converge in an "air cone" with its apex in the axis of the bundle of filaments 10 slightly above the plane of the nozzles 12, as shown by broken lines. The ring 19 is disposed concentric with and in a horizontal plane at right angles to the axis of the bundle of filaments 10, and its distance below the extrusion orifice is adjustable. After their passage through the air streams the filaments are further cooled by passing them by means of guide rolls through a bath of cold water or other inert liquid and are cold-stretched by means of snubbing rolls up to about 400 per cent before they are wound on a storage reel. The crinkled filaments produced are more uniform than those produced by blowing a gas or spraying a non-solvent liquid on but one side of the filaments. U.S.A. Specification 2,377,810 is referred to.