JPH0253929A - Method and apparatus for humidifying a fiber creel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To maintain a controlled amount of moisture on the yarns within a creel closure having the moisture controlled for the purpose of subsequent treatments by holding fibers by spools or other packages into the closure. CONSTITUTION: The closure 10 has a package supporting means and flanks 11 and 12 adjacent to a moisture control means. The humidified gas is introduced to a supply pipe 30, is introduced from the holes on the surface of the supply pipe 30 to the closure and is returned through the hole on the surface of a return pipe 31 to a gas circulating means. The package supporting means includes rails 16 for holding spindles 17 with packages 18 and transfers the respective yarns 21 as warp threads 22 through guides 20 from the closure 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for maintaining controlled moisture in wet, never-dried fibers prior to subsequent processing steps.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method and apparatus for dispensing never-dry yarn from a conditioned creel to maintain a constant and controlled amount of moisture in the yarn, thereby: It is ensured that the supplied yarn remains of constant quality for subsequent processing.

With the present invention, fibers that are never dried can be fed from a creel store and then subjected to subsequent processing that requires the use of a moist feeding system. In the present invention, the fibers are held on spools or other packaging in creel closures with controlled humidity for subsequent processing, and the present invention maintains controlled humidity in the closure. Regarding.

Moist spun yarns or other yarns that require controlled heat treatment or soaking in various treatment baths are often required to have a controlled amount of moisture in the system prior to treatment. Supply of such threads has often been provided from soaking in water, but this is difficult to handle and often leads to disadvantageous results due to water being retained outside the filaments of the thread.

Such a supply of yarn can, of course, be provided online by Junbo Manufacturing, but the subsequent processing is almost always
Being much slower than the spinning process, on-line wet yarn feeding creates a significant fiber production bottleneck.

For some applications in the past, creels have been used to hold and feed yarn from several sources of yarn spools. However, prior to the present invention, creels were not used successfully to feed wet yarn because the amount of moisture in the feed system was not constant, which led to intermittent process operation and unfavorable product quality. It could not be used inside. For optimal operation of such processes using wet yarn fed from a creel, the yarn in the creel must be maintained at a constant, controlled moisture level.

During yarn production and/or subsequent processing, the moisture content (M
It is necessary to control the moisture content in the OY system within a certain range. An example of such a process is the 1987
European Patent Application No. 24788 published on February 2nd
9, the production of precursor yarns for making high modulus barararamid yarns. In the production of such yarns, water-swollen precursor yarns are subjected to heat treatment under tension to increase the modulus and maintain high tenacity in the finished yarn. The biggest advantage of a process such as that of the European patent application is that the yarns are "never dried", i.e. they are maintained at a controlled and relatively high moisture content after spinning and before undergoing any governing treatment. When it is acquired, it is acquired. Another example of a process where the water content in the wet feed system is important is a process in which yarns are colored or treated by a water-swelling process, as in British Patent No. 1,438.067. In such a process, it is desirable for the precursor yarn to have a constant and controlled MOY before being placed in the water-absorbing swelling bath. And in this reference process, the Junbo feed system is fed from the immersion.

Prior to the present invention, attempts were made to feed fiber from a creel in the open environmental conditions of a manufacturing plant in a fiber processing operation that was followed by winding onto a spool of fiber that was never dried, but the results were unsatisfactory. Met. Creeled fiber packages or spools are generally installed at the appropriate desired MOY, but while waiting for the start of the process and during the fairly long run of the process itself, unacceptably large amounts of moisture can be removed from some of the spools. Moisture is lost and moisture is lost in an unusual manner, such as when fiber processing operations are performed on very dry fibers and fibers of varying moisture content.

The present invention provides a method and controlled humidity creel device for maintaining high moisture content of yarn during storage and unwinding, in which a package of yarn is never dried, and the yarn is unwound from the package. mounted on a creel on a package support means including a plurality of spindles arranged for the purpose of maintaining the atmosphere surrounding the package at a high humidity, and providing means for unwinding yarn from the package in the high humidity atmosphere; It consists of transferring the whole thread unwound from the thread. The spindle is mounted within closure means for providing at least a partial cover around the spindle and the package. gas circulation means for circulating gas through the shroud; moisture supply means for supplying moisture to the circulating gas; humidity measuring means for measuring the humidity of the gas being circulated; Humidity control means are provided, comprising control means responsive to the humidity measuring means, for operating the moisture supply means so that the atmosphere can be maintained at a relatively high controlled humidity.

It has been discovered that the moisture level of yarns that are never dried in packages is maintained by maintaining the yarns in high humidity conditions.

Referring now to the drawings, like or corresponding parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the drawings, and FIG. 1 represents a preferred apparatus for carrying out the invention.

The closure 10 has sides 11 and 12 (shown transparently) adjacent to the package support means and the humidity control means. In FIG. 1 the supply pipe 3o and the return pipe 31 from the humidity control means are shown. The package support means includes a rail I6 for holding a t'L6 spindle I7 on which the package 18 is mounted. Package 18 comprises a spool of never-dried fiber treated in the present invention;
bobbin, cone or other package. A removal/pulling guide 20 is attached to the beam 19 above and near the spindle 17. Thread 21 from package 18
is moved from the closure body 1o above the guide 20. More than one rail 16 can be provided, two are shown in FIG. In two cases, the rails are mounted in a single plane generally parallel or at a slight angle. Each rail 16 has a plurality of spindles 17 mounted in such a way that the threads 21 can be easily transferred from the spindles, and each thread 21 is arranged such that the threads 21 are transferred from the closure lO as warp threads 22. It passes over the guide 2° and is guided through the guide 20.

The closure body IO (together with other elongated components in FIG. 1) is
The ends are shown truncated because they can have variable lengths. The purpose of the closure 10 is to contain a humid atmosphere, and for this reason the closure 10 can include sides 11 and 12 as well as ends, a top and a bottom, if considered desirable for the use. .

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the humidity control means includes gas circulation means 23 with a moisture center 24. Referring to FIGS.

The humidity center 24 includes a moisture supply means 25 and a humidity measurement means 2.
6, and control means 27 mounted in cooperative relationship therewith. The gas circulation means 23 includes sections 28 and 29, each section having two supply pipes 30.
and one return pipe 31. In operation, the conditioned gas in the gas circulation means 23 is transferred to the humidity center 24 and the distribution T by the blower 32 mounted on the main leg 33.
It passes through the manifold 34 and is forced into the manifold 35. The conditioned gas is then directed into the supply pipe 30 and into the closure through holes (not shown) in the surface of the supply pipe 30. The supply tube 30 is preferably mounted above the package support means and the hole is preferably provided in the bottom part of the surface of the tube. The gas is returned from the closure to the gas circulation means 23 through holes in the surface of the return pipe 31. The return pipe is preferably mounted below the package support means. Gas is drawn in through the main leg 33 and passed to the moisture center 24. In the humidity center 24, the relative humidity of the scum is determined by humidity measuring means 26 using, for example, wet bulb and dry bulb temperature readings. An indication of the relative humidity of the gas is sent to the control means and if the relative humidity is indicated to be less than a predetermined minimum value, water from line 38 is supplied to the moisture supply means 25.
and is injected into the main landing gear 33 to heat the gas. In this way, the atmosphere in the creel closure is maintained at a high, predetermined relative humidity. Moisture main leg 3
It has been found that an effective and preferred means for injecting the moisture supply means 25 is to use an ultrasonic mist generator as the moisture supply means 25.

The present invention is particularly directed to the use of loose aramid fibers, particularly poly(p-7 enylene tele7 talami F) (PPD-T). Fibers from PPD-T and PPDT are 19
Blades issued on March 4, 1975
No. 3,869,429. Other fibers may, of course, be used in the practice of this invention.

And indeed, the invention can be used for fibers that have to be sent to types of processes that require controlled amounts of moisture.

The present invention is particularly useful for maintaining moisture in yarns prior to heat treatment. One example of such heat treatment is
It is disclosed in the above mentioned European Patent Application No. 247.889.

In carrying out the process disclosed in this European patent application, yarn is conventionally fed in packages to a creel with an MOY of about 35±5% water and a relative humidity in the creel closure of about 90% at ambient temperature.
It has been discovered that MOY can be maintained if controlled between 99% and 99%. The flow of atmosphere through the creel closure is adjusted to maintain its humidity at that temperature.

As a general rule in the treatment of yarns that are never dried,
Preferably, the yarn is held at a higher MOY than full reinforcement of the polymer structure occurs. In general, M.O.Y.
It is believed that, for p-aramid yarns, should be maintained at about 20% or higher, based on the dry weight of the yarn.

The atmosphere in a creel is generally air containing water. However, if desired or necessary for some particular purposes, air can be replaced by other gases such as nitrogen or argon, etc.

The feed system for the following examples was made by the procedure described in the European patent application mentioned above.

Three feed systems of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) were used in the following examples. The as-spun properties of these yarns are shown in Table 1 below.
Shown below.

Table l Yarn Denier Intrinsic viscosity # (g/dl) A 400 5.5 B 1150 5.4 C14355,4 Strength Modulus (gpd) (gpd) 26.5 550 26.7 530 26.5 520 Example 1 Yarn # The feed system identified as B was subjected to a heat treatment process as described in the European patent application mentioned above. A warp yarn containing 48 yarn ends runs at 135 yards per minute (12
3m/m) and 2.2 grams per denyl (
Heat treated in a 40 foot (12.2 meter) oven at 650° C. under tension of g p d). The residence time of the yarn in the oven was approximately 6 seconds. The oven was heated electrically and the thread was heated primarily by radiant heat and only partially by convection heat. The oven was continuously purged with nitrogen that was preheated to oven temperature. The yarn leaving the oven was advanced by a set of water-cooled rolls, in which case the temperature of the yarn was reduced to about 25°C.

The yarn supplied for carrying out the heat treatment is positioned on the spindle of the creel of the invention and, before the heat treatment,
An air atmosphere of 90-99% relative humidity was maintained in the conditioned creel of the present invention. As a comparative test, a feed system from the same spinning process was fed from a creel that was not humidity conditioned and heat treated.

As an indication of the improvement provided by the present invention, yarn fed from unconditioned creels is uneven in color along its length, varying from deep gold to dark brown, with variable degradation and It exhibited non-uniform yarn properties, whereas the yarn fed from the conditioned creel of the present invention was uniformly dark gold in color.

The main advantage provided by the invention consists in the reduction of yarn breaks that occur during subsequent yarn processing when the invention is used in a feed system. In subsequent processing, the yarn package, which is never dried, is placed on the grill for as long as 6 or 8 hours until processing is complete. Meanwhile, without the effect of the present invention, there is a large loss of moisture and an increase in yarn breakage. The counts of remaining uncut yarns (ends) were measured in several runs of a 48 yarn creel set-up for both conditioned and unconditioned creels of the present invention. ) (at least 10 productions in all cases). These results for Curran 1- are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2 1'J-Rule At start 2 hours later 4 hours later Setting after 2 hours Fraction of Fraction of Fraction of Color closed body present
48 44* 41* Dark golden closed body heat 48 28* 8* Dark brown Book values are averages of creel settings of at least IO.

A feed system with an initial MOY of 35% was fed to both setups. Each production lasts about 6 hours, and at the end of 6 hours, in a creel setting without closure, the yarn has an MO of about 20%.
It did not have YL.

On the other hand, the MOY for the yarn in the conditioned creel of the present invention maintained an initial MOY of 35% throughout manufacture.

Example 2 Another feeding system (identified above as threads #A and C) was also
Heat treatment was performed in the oven of Example 1. The treatment temperature and treatment tension were maintained the same as in Example 1.

However, the heating time was modified with different yarn deniers. Yarn #A was heated for about 3.6 seconds and yarn #C was heated for about 6.7 seconds. Yarn #B was treated as in Example 1.

All heated processing systems were manufactured by Lindley.
Lindly Ultra If Yar, available from Ly and Co., Inc., Mineola, New York.
A yarn defect inspection device called In5pector, Model 2070 was used to inspect for optical defects. To inspect for defects, the yarn to be inspected was passed through an inspection device with the purpose of detecting protrusions from the main thickness of the yarn. The number of protrusions is considered to be indicative of the number of defects in the yarn under inspection. Defect levels were reported as number of defects per 5000 yards inspected. And the yarn examined in each case of this example was the last portion of the yarn to be heat treated in production. All defect levels for yarns with and without closures of the invention are shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3 Yarn Defect Level # (#/5000 Yards of Yarn) With Closures 85* Without Closures 650 With Closures 180 Without Closures 1120 With Closures 190 Without Closures 1400 *These values are based on at least 5 complete inspections. Average value, in this case 5000 yards of yarn were tested.

The main features and aspects of the invention are as follows.

1. A humidity-controlled creel device that maintains a high yarn moisture content during storage and winding, comprising a package support means including a spindle for supporting the yarn package for unwinding; closure means for providing at least a partial covering around the package in the package support means and around at least a portion of the yarn adjacent the package to be unwound; gas circulation means for at least partially isolating an atmosphere within the enclosure from environmental conditions outside the enclosure and for circulating gas through the enclosure provided on the enclosure means; and a moisture supply for supplying moisture to the circulating gas. supply means, humidity measuring means for measuring the humidity of the gas circulated through said closure means, and activating said moisture supply means when the humidity measured by said measuring means is below a predetermined level, thereby said and a humidity control device responsive to said humidity measuring means for maintaining a humidity level of the gas within the enclosure above said predetermined level.

2. The gas circulation means includes a supply pipe that introduces gas into the closure means, a return pipe that accommodates gas from the closure means, a main leg that connects the return pipe and the supply pipe, and the return pipe. and a blower in the main landing gear for guiding gas contained in the air into the supply pipe.

3. The device according to 2 above, wherein the humidity measuring means measures the relative humidity of the gas in the return pipe.

4. The device according to item 1 above, wherein the moisture supply means comprises an ultrasonic mist generator.

5. The device according to item 1, wherein the predetermined humidity level is above 90% relative humidity.

6. The predetermined humidity level is about 90 to 99 relative humidity.
%.

7. The package support means comprises a plurality of spindles supporting a plurality of yarn packages for unwinding, the spindles being arranged to unwind the packages, and the yarn being unwound to form warp yarns. The device according to item 1 above.

8. A never-dried p-aramid yarn comprising unwinding a package of precursor yarn having a moisture content greater than about 20% based on the dry weight of the yarn and providing the yarn for subsequent processing. unwinding yarn from the package while exposing the package, the unwinding yarn, and at least a portion of the unwinding yarn to an atmosphere having a relative humidity of at least 90%. A method consisting of

9. The method according to 8 above, wherein the p-aramid yarn is a poly(p-phenyline terephthalamide) yarn.

10. A method for maintaining a controlled moisture content in yarns that are never dried before subsequent processing, comprising: installing a package of yarns that are never dried in at least a partial envelope; the relative humidity of the atmosphere within said envelope; A method consisting of winding the yarn, which is maintained above about 90% and never dried from the package, at = 20 degrees, and pulling the yarn out of the sheath for subsequent processing.

11. The yarn that is never dried is poly(p-phenyline).
IO) above.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of the creel of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of the humidity control means of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a simplified partially cross-sectional view of a moisture core including moisture supply means, humidity measurement means and control means; In the figure, 10...Closing body, 11.12...Side surface, 16
... Rail, 17 ... Spindle, 18 ... Package, 19 ... Beam, 20 ... Guide, 21 ... Thread, 22 ... Warp, 23 ... Gas circulation means, 24・・・
- Moisture center, 25... Moisture supply means, 26... Humidity measuring means, 27... Control means, 30... Supply pipe,
31...Return pipe, 33...Main landing gear, 34...Distribution T
35... manifold pipe, 38... conduit.

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. A humidity-controlled creel device that maintains high yarn moisture content during storage and unwinding, the device comprising a spindle for supporting yarn packages for unwinding. package support means; closure means for providing at least a partial covering around the package in the package support means and around at least a portion of the yarn adjacent the package to be unwound; closure means for at least partially isolating an atmosphere within the enclosure from environmental conditions outside the enclosure; gas circulation means for circulating gas through the enclosure included in the closure means; and gas circulation means for circulating moisture through the enclosure. a moisture supply means for supplying the gas; a humidity measuring means for measuring the humidity of the gas circulated through the closure means; a humidity control device responsive to the humidity measuring means for activating and thereby maintaining a humidity level of the gas within the enclosure above the predetermined level;
A device consisting of. 2. A never-dried p-aramid yarn comprising unwinding a package of precursor yarn having a moisture content greater than about 20% based on the dry weight of the yarn and providing the yarn for subsequent processing. unwinding yarn from the package while exposing the package, the unwinding yarn, and at least a portion of the unwinding yarn to an atmosphere having a relative humidity of at least 90%. A method consisting of 3. A method for maintaining a controlled moisture content in yarns that are never dried before subsequent processing, comprising: installing a package of yarns that are never dried in at least a partial envelope; the relative humidity of the atmosphere within said envelope; a method comprising: maintaining the yarn above about 90%, unwinding the yarn that is never dried from the package, and pulling the yarn out of the wrapper for subsequent processing.