JPH0441761A - Production of collected fiber material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the subject collected fiber material useful as a ceiling material for automobile, etc., at a low cost by transferring a raw fiber supplying apparatus relative to a supporting member along the surface of the supporting member, and collecting the fiber in a state to have different thickness to a direction crossing the relative transfer direction of the apparatus and the supporting member. CONSTITUTION:For example, a raw fiber 28 opened in a 1st opening machine 14 is weighed by a weighing device 50, supplied with a belt conveyor 52 to a 2nd opening machine 18 acting as a raw material feeding apparatus, opened again and dropped into a feed box 56 by gravitational force. The obtained fiber 28 is collected on a supporting face 68 of a transfer belt 64 of a belt conveyor 62 acting as a supporting member by sucking the fiber with vacuum to obtain the objective collected material. Since the cross-sectional form of the feed box and the form of the opening 70 are enlarged at both ends to a direction crossing the transfer direction of the transfer belt 64, much fibers 28 are collected on both edge parts of the supporting surface 68.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing a fiber aggregate, and more particularly to a method for producing a fiber aggregate having partially different thicknesses.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A fiber aggregate is a type of nonwoven fabric, and is made of relatively thickly accumulated fibers and fixed in that state.

Generally, such fiber aggregates are produced by supplying the raw material fibers from a supply device onto the support surface of the support body and moving the supply device and the support body relative to each other along the support surface. It is made by accumulating fibers to a substantially constant thickness and fixing the accumulated raw material fibers. The Crosslay manufacturing method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 117865/1986 and the "Fiber Handbook Processing Records" (published by Maruzen Co., Ltd., No. 2)
The Airlay manufacturing method described on page 981 of the Japanese edition) is one example. The crosslay manufacturing method is a method in which the fibers are accumulated by folding a thin fiber sheet in which the fibers are arranged in a certain direction in a direction that intersects the length direction of the fiber aggregate.
The air array manufacturing method is a method in which fibers are blown away and accumulated by an air stream, and products made of fiber aggregates include automobile ceiling materials, carpets, blankets, etc.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in both the cross-lay manufacturing method and the air-lay manufacturing method, the thickness of the accumulated fibers is uniform. Therefore, even if it is necessary to partially thicken the fiber aggregate for reasons such as ensuring strength, the entire fiber aggregate must be thickened, which increases the weight and manufacturing cost of the fiber aggregate. was there.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a fiber aggregate that can produce fiber aggregates having partially different thicknesses.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the manufacturing method according to the present invention applies raw fibers to the support surface of the support device at least in a direction intersecting the direction of relative movement between the supply device and the support. It is characterized by being accumulated with different thicknesses.

Function: By partially varying the stacked thickness of the raw material fibers on the support surface and fixing the fibers in that state, it is possible to obtain a fiber aggregate having partially different thicknesses. If the thickness of the fiber aggregate only needs to differ in one direction,
It is desirable that the thickness of the raw material fibers accumulated on the supporting surface be varied in the direction intersecting the direction of relative movement. This is because it is easier than varying the integrated thickness in the direction parallel to the direction of relative movement.

Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a fiber aggregate that has been limited to a uniform thickness in the past, but with partially different thicknesses. Despite the advantages, there is no need to increase the overall thickness, and weight and manufacturing costs can be reduced.

In addition, when a product made of a fiber aggregate has partially different thicknesses, the thicker and thinner parts would have to be manufactured separately using conventional manufacturing methods, whereas the present invention According to the manufacturing method, it is possible to manufacture them all at once.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, a case in which the present invention is applied to an air lay type automobile ceiling material manufacturing method will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a manufacturing line for a fiber sheet, which is an intermediate material when manufacturing automobile ceiling materials.

This production line includes a raw fiber supply conveyor, 10° mixer, 12. First defibrator 14. Mixing and weighing machine 16° Second defibrating machine 18. Accumulator 20. A fixing machine 22 and a winding machine 24 are provided. The raw material fiber supply conveyor 10 transports two or more types of raw material fibers constituting the ceiling material to a mixer 12.
supply to. Mixer 12 has two conveyors 30.32
are provided so that their conveying surfaces form a figure 7 surface, and the raw fibers 28 are mixed on these conveyors 30 and 32, and further transported to a first defibration 1114 by another conveyor 34 disposed horizontally. sent to. First defibrator 1
A defibrating drum 38 is provided in the casing 36 of No. 4 so as to be rotatable around a horizontal axis perpendicular to the direction of conveyance of the raw material fibers 2B. A large number of needles are protruded from the outer peripheral surface of the defibrating drum 38, and while the raw fiber 28 is being sent through the gap between the defibrating drum 38 and the casing 36 by the rotation of the defibrating drum 38, the needles are used to unravels into fibers.

The defibrated raw material fibers 28 are supplied to the mixing and measuring machine 16. The casing 36 of the first defibrator 14 and the mixing weighing machine 6
It is connected to the casing 40 by a passage 42, and a fan 44 is provided in the middle of the passage 42.
The defibrated fibers are conveyed to the mixing and weighing machine 16 by the airflow generated by the rotation of the fan 44. Note that this conveying air is exhausted from an exhaust hole provided in a portion of the passage 42 on the casing 40 side, and the raw material fibers 28 fall into the casing 40 due to gravity. Inside the casing 4o, two conveyors 46, 48 are provided so that their conveying surfaces form a figure 7 surface, and the defibrated and conveyed raw material fibers 28 are conveyed to the conveyors 46, 48.

Fall on 48. And Conveyor 4 of Conhair 48
It is placed in a measuring container 50 provided below the end opposite to 6. A conveyor 52 is provided horizontally below the weighing container 50, and every time a predetermined amount of raw fibers accumulates in the weighing container 50, they are dropped onto the conveyor 52 and transported to the second defibrator 18.

Feed box 5 which is the casing of the second defibrator 18
A defibrating drum 54 is rotatably provided at the upper part of the inner side of the tube 6 . The feed box 56 also includes a fan 58.
is provided to separate the fibers from the defibrating drum 54 and, together with the suction force of a suction box 60 provided below the feed box 56, deposit the fibers on the belt conveyor 62 of the accumulator 20. The air flow generated by the rotation of the fan 58 is transmitted to the feed box 5 during defibration.
The defibrated raw material fibers 28 fall under the feed box 56 due to gravity and accumulate on the belt conveyor 62. The conveyor belt 64 of the belt conveyor 62 is made of a screen net that allows air to flow in and out, but does not allow the defibrated raw material fibers 28 to pass through. A suction box 60 is provided. The suction box 60 has a hollow box shape, has a large number of air holes (not shown) on its upper surface, is connected to a vacuum source (not shown), and sucks the raw material fibers 28 by vacuum, and then 64
It is made to accumulate on the support surface 68 which is the upper surface of the. While the feed box 56 is provided in a fixed position, the conveyor belt 64 is moved, so the support surface 6
The raw material fibers 28 accumulated on the fibers 8 are sent by a conveyor belt 64 and discharged from the open lower door 0 provided at the lower end of the feed box 56, and are formed into a fiber aggregate 76 to be formed into a ceiling material 74 (see FIG. 4). is formed. At this time, the pressure of the accumulated raw material fibers 28 also assists in ejecting the raw material fibers 28 from the open lower 0 .

The cross-sectional shape of the feed box 56 and the shape of the open lower door 0 correspond to the cross-sectional shape of the ceiling material 74 in the width direction. The ceiling material 74 is a fiber aggregate 76 shown in FIG.
Similarly, both ends in the width direction have a thick shape, and the cross-sectional shape of the feed box 56 and the open lower opening 0 are perpendicular to the moving direction of the conveyance heald 64, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. The cross-sectional area and opening area of both ends in the direction of the ceiling material 74 (this direction is the width direction of the ceiling material 74) are increased. Therefore, the feed box 56
Inside, many raw material fibers 28 are accumulated at both ends perpendicular to the moving direction of the conveyor belt 64.
8 is extruded from the open lower lower part 0, and as the conveying belt 64 moves, a long fiber aggregate 76 is formed in the conveying direction. A fiber aggregate 76 is obtained which is thicker than the middle portion and thicker at both ends in the width direction. In this embodiment, the second defibrator 18 constitutes a supply device, and the belt conveyor 62 constitutes a support body.

Note that a pressure sensor 80 is attached to the feed box 56 to detect the pressure inside the feed box 56, and is adapted to supply a pressure detection signal to the control device 82. In order to keep the quality of the fiber aggregate 76 constant, the feed box 56
It is desirable to keep the pressure at which the raw material fibers 28 accumulated therein are extruded through the open lower lower 0 at a set pressure so that the amount of raw material fibers 28 extruded from the open lower lower 0 is always constant. As the amount of raw material fibers 28 accumulated in the feed box 56 increases, the pressure during extrusion increases, and the amount of raw material fibers 28 to be extruded increases. In this case, the conveyor speed of the conveyor 52 is lowered to reduce the amount of raw material fibers 28 deposited in the feed box 56, and the pressure during extrusion becomes the set pressure, so that the set amount of raw fibers 28 is always supplied from the open lower 0.
is being pushed out. Conversely, if the amount of accumulated raw material fibers 28 decreases and the pressure inside the feed box 56 becomes lower than the set pressure, the conveyance speed of the conveyor 52 is increased to bring the pressure during extrusion to the set pressure. be made to be.

The fiber aggregate 76 thus formed is passed through two needle punches 8688 provided in the fixing machine 22,
The fibers are joined together. The needle bunches 86, 88 each punch separately from both sides of the fiber stack 76, thereby forming a fiber stack sheet 90, which is wound up by the winder 24.

The fiber accumulation sheet 90 is processed into the ceiling material 74 on the processing line shown in FIG. First, the fiber accumulation sheet 90
Resin films 92 and 94 are laminated on both sides, respectively, and heated by a heating device 96. As a result, the resin films 92 and 94 are impregnated into the fiber accumulation sheet 90, and are then cut into predetermined dimensions by a cutting machine 98 and bent by a molding machine 100 to have a predetermined shape, and both ends in the width direction A ceiling material 74 that is thick and has high strength can be obtained.

As described above, according to the manufacturing method of this embodiment, the ceiling material 74 having different thicknesses in the width direction can be easily manufactured, and the weight and manufacturing cost of the ceiling material 74 can be reduced.

Note that, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, an air outlet 103 may be provided in the middle of the feed box 102 to discharge the air conveying the raw material fibers 28. The air outlet 103 extends from the feed box 102 in parallel to the conveyance direction of the belt conveyor 104, and its boundary with the feed box 102 is partitioned by a screen 105. Screen 105
is made of a slippery material to which the raw material fibers 28 do not adhere, and is provided with a large number of air holes 106. Furthermore, a pair of feed rollers 107 are provided at the lower end of the feed box 102 . These feed rollers 107 are provided in an opening 108 through which the raw material fibers 28 are extruded, and in an opening 109 provided opposite to the opening 108 on the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the belt conveyor 104.

When the air outlet 103 is provided to discharge air in this manner, the fan is provided to generate an air flow in a direction that feeds the raw material fibers 28 defibrated by the second defibrator 18 into the feed box 102. Therefore, after the raw material fibers 28 are defibrated by the defibration drum 54, they are conveyed to the lower part of the feed box 102 by the air flow, and the air is discharged from the air outlet 103 as shown by the arrow in FIG. It is stored in a box 102 and accumulated on a belt conveyor 104.

Furthermore, when the raw material fibers 28 are sent out from the feed box 102 through the opening 108, they are actively sent out by the rotation of the pair of delivery rollers 107, and the fiber aggregate 76 is smoothly formed on the belt conveyor 104. Note that each of the feed rollers 107 has an opening 108,
109, the raw fibers 28 are not caught between the feed box 102 and the delivery roller 107, and the belt conveyor 104 always moves the raw material fibers 28 in the direction to be delivered from the opening 108. Therefore, the raw material fiber 28 does not come out from the opening 109.

In this embodiment, the raw material fibers 28 are sent into the feed box 102 by an air flow, and are collected in the feed box 102 as the air is discharged from the air outlet 103. Therefore, a suction box is provided and the raw fibers are deposited by suction. It is not essential to have a suction box, and the suction box can be omitted.

Furthermore, it is not essential to provide the feed roller 108 and may be omitted.

Furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, the ceiling material 74 was manufactured by an air-lay manufacturing method in which the raw material fibers 28 were conveyed by an air flow, but the raw material fibers 28 were manufactured using only a conveyor without installing a fan or suction box. The ceiling material may be manufactured by an auto-feed manufacturing method in which the fibers 28 are conveyed. In this case, after the raw material fiber 28 is defibrated,
The raw material fibers that are dropped into the feed box from a conveyor installed above the feed box and accumulated in the feed box are sent out from the feed box by their own weight and the movement of the belt conveyor 62 to form a fiber aggregate. becomes.

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the suction force of the suction box 110 is varied in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction of the belt conveyor 62, and the amount of raw material fibers accumulated on the conveyor belt 64 is varied in the orthogonal direction. . suction box 1
On the upper surface of 10, there are many air holes 11 as shown in FIG.
2 are formed, and the number of air holes 112 is increased at both ends in the orthogonal direction.

Therefore, the raw material fibers 2 are placed on the conveyor belt 64 at both ends in the orthogonal direction, that is, in the width direction of the ceiling material
8 will be accumulated thickly, resulting in a fiber aggregate that is thick at both ends in the width direction. In this case, it is not essential that the opening of the feed box 56 has the same shape as the cross-sectional shape in the width direction of the ceiling material 74 as in the above embodiment, and the opening of the feed box 56 is not essential to have the same shape as the cross-sectional shape in the width direction of the ceiling material 74. It is possible to use a rectangle that allows .

Further, the raw material fibers 28 may be transported to the feed box 56 by any appropriate means, such as by air flow or only by a conveyor.

Further, as in the Naction Box 116 shown in FIG. 8, the diameters of the air holes may be made different in the direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the belt conveyor 62, so that the suction force may be made different. Air holes 118 with large diameters are provided at both ends of the suction box 116, and air holes 118 are provided in the middle.
8 is provided with air holes 120 having a diameter smaller than 8, thereby increasing the suction force at both ends of the suction box 116 in the above-mentioned orthogonal direction, and the raw material fibers 28
The amount of accumulated fibers is increased, and a fiber aggregate having thick widthwise ends is obtained.

Furthermore, like the suction box 124 shown in FIG. 9, the interior is partitioned by a plurality of partition plates 126 to form a plurality of chambers 128 extending in the vertical direction, and a louver 130 is rotatably arranged in each chamber 128. set, louver 13
The suction force may be changed by adjusting the opening amount of 0.

In this embodiment, by changing the opening amount of the louvers 130 over time, it is possible to manufacture fiber aggregates having different thicknesses even in the direction parallel to the conveying direction of the belt conveyor 62. In that case, if the opening amount of the louver 130 is made uniform in the width direction, the belt conveyor 62
A fiber aggregate having different thicknesses can be obtained only in the direction parallel to the conveyance direction. When manufacturing fiber aggregates having different thicknesses only in the direction parallel to the conveyance direction of the belt conveyor 62, the feed box 56 is provided so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and the distance between the feed box 56 and the belt conveyor 62 is It is desirable that the distance be determined according to the thickness of the fiber assembly to be manufactured. In this way, by adjusting the opening amount of the louver 130, the thickness of the raw material fibers 28 accumulated to different thicknesses is adjusted by the lower end surface of the feed box 56, and the thickness of the fiber aggregate to be manufactured is adjusted accurately. It is.

Yet another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 10-13. This embodiment has a depression 142 in the center like the fiber aggregate 140 shown in FIG. 10, and a belt conveyor 144.
A fiber aggregate having different thicknesses both in a direction parallel to and perpendicular to the conveying direction of the fiber is produced. In this case, the suction box is designed to vary the amount of raw material fibers accumulated by adjusting the opening amount of the louver, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. In addition, the feed box 146
The feed box 146 has a rectangular opening 148 as shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, a shaping plate 150 is provided so as to be movable up and down. As shown in FIG. 13, at the lower end of the shaping plate 150, a cross-sectional shape in the width direction of the fiber aggregate 140 (belt A shaping section 152 is provided that forms an opening having a shape corresponding to the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the conveyor 144.

When manufacturing the fiber aggregate 140 in this embodiment, the shaping plate 150 is first positioned at the rising end position shown in FIG. 11, and the raw fibers are accumulated into a rectangular cross-section.

In this case, the suction force of the suction box is the same in the direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the heald conveyor 144. Then, by increasing the suction force at both ends of the suction box in the orthogonal direction and lowering the shaping plate 150 as shown in FIG. It is thickly accumulated in the area, and a depression 142 is formed. After shaping the depressions 142, if the cross-sectional shape of the aggregate 140 is to be made rectangular again, the shaping plate 150 is raised. The amount of accumulated fibers in the direction parallel to the conveyance direction of the belt conveyor 142 can be gradually decreased or increased, and a fiber aggregate 140 in which the side surfaces of the recesses 142 are inclined is manufactured.

Note that, as in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, when the cross-sectional shape of the feed box 56 and the shape of the open lower door 0 correspond to the cross-sectional shape of the ceiling material 740 in the width direction, the raw material fibers 28 are accumulated in the feed box 56 to a thickness that approximately corresponds to the thickness in the width direction of the ceiling material 74,
By being extruded from the open lower 0, the ceiling material 740 is accurately shaped to have the thickness in the width direction. In other words,
By making the cross-sectional shape of the feed box 56 correspond to the cross-sectional shape in the width direction of the ceiling material 74, primary shaping is performed to make the amount of accumulated raw material fibers 28 approximately correspond to the cross-sectional shape in the width direction of the ceiling material 74. The secondary shaping is performed by making the shape of the opening lower 0 correspond to the cross-sectional shape of the ceiling material 740 in the width direction. However, it is not essential to perform both -order shaping and quadratic shaping in this way, and only one of them may be performed. Figure 7.

Also in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the suction forces of the suction boxes 110, 116 and 124 are made different, and the opening of the feed box 56 is shaped to correspond to the cross-sectional shape in the width direction of the ceiling material 74. For example, it is possible to manufacture a fiber aggregate with good dimensional accuracy by the second shaping and the second shaping, but the suction box 11
It is sufficient to simply make the suction forces of 0, 116 and 124 different. Furthermore, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 10 to 13, the amount of fiber accumulation may be varied only by raising and lowering the shaping plate 150.

Also, FIGS. 1 to 4, FIG. 7, and FIG. 8.

In each of the embodiments shown in FIG. 9 and FIGS. 10 to 13, a feed roller for feeding raw material fibers to the opening of the feed box was not provided, but
It may be provided similarly to the embodiments of FIGS.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, a case has been described in which the present invention is applied to a method of manufacturing a ceiling material for an automobile, but the present invention can also be applied to a method of manufacturing a fiber aggregate other than a ceiling material.

In addition, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications and improvements based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the claims.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the accumulation of fibers according to a method for producing a fiber aggregate, which is an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view showing a feed box used in carrying out the above manufacturing method. Figure 3 is a diagram schematically showing a manufacturing line for laminated fiber sheets among the air lay type ceiling material manufacturing lines that carry out the above manufacturing method, and Figure 4 is a diagram showing a processing line for processing laminated fiber sheets into ceiling materials. FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a feed box together with a belt conveyor used to carry out a method for manufacturing a fiber aggregate according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a side sectional view thereof. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a suction box used in carrying out a method for manufacturing a fiber aggregate, which is still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a suction box used in carrying out a method for manufacturing a fiber aggregate, which is still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a front view showing a suction box used in carrying out a method for manufacturing a fiber aggregate, which is still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a plan view showing a fiber aggregate manufactured by a manufacturing method that is still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a front view showing a feed box and a shaping plate used for manufacturing the fiber aggregate of FIG. 10, and FIG. 12 is a side view. FIG. 13 is a front view showing the shaping plate moved to the lower end position. 10: Raw material fiber supply conveyor 12: Mixer 14: First defibrator 16: Mixing and weighing machine 18: Second defibrator
28: Raw fiber 56: Feed box 68: Support surface 70: Opening 74: Ceiling material 76: Fiber aggregate 102: Feed box 103: Air outlet 108: Opening 110: Suction box
112: Air hole 116: Suction box 11B, 120: Air hole 124: Suction box 126: Partition plate 130:
Louver 140: Fiber aggregate 146: Feed box 148 Two openings 150: Shaping board

Claims (1)

[Claims] By supplying the raw material fibers from the supply device onto the support surface of the support and moving the supply device and the support relative to each other along the support surface, almost all the raw material fibers are placed on the support surface. A method of producing a fiber aggregate by stacking the raw fibers to a certain thickness and then fixing the raw fibers, the raw fibers being stacked on the support surface at least in a direction intersecting the relative movement direction between the supply device and the support body. 1. A method for producing a fiber aggregate, which comprises stacking the fibers with different thicknesses in the direction of the fibers.