US1399976A - Method of manufacturing fiber products - Google Patents

Description

G. J. MANSON. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING FIBER PRODUCTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 15, I919- Patented Bea-13, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

e. 1. mmson. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING FIBER PRODUCTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. l5|191 9- 1,399,976. Patented Dec.13,1921.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- \(Q M ze UNITED STATES GEORGE cums 0]? -'.I.'OBOII'.I.O,' 61113310,

' men or Imus-screams 1 1mm riwnuc'rs.

continuation of application Serial Io. 2,418, fled June 5, 1915. This application filed larch 15, 1918. Serial Io. 282,780.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnoncn Lamas- Mfin- SON, a subject of the King of Great ritain, and resident of the city of Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada,

have invented certain new and useful Imthe raw wood by the use of an ordinary chipprovements in Methods of Manufacturing Fiber Products, of which the following is a specification. 1 A

This invention relates to im rovements in methods of manufacturing ber products, and it consists of a method of making un- I cooked or chemically untreated, loose, relatively long fibers from raw wood, together with a certain proportion of short fibers, such fibers being adapted to felt or mat together under pressure to form pulp articles or sheets. The process is designed to make use of what is now generally considered a waste material, namely, saw mill waste comprising slabs, edgings, short butting blocks, slats, burner refuse, sawdust, bark and shavings; and one of the adv tages of the process is that by the use of 1:3; material in the manner hereinafter set forth it is possible to obtain a better fiber board than can be obtained if ordinary pulp wood were ground up. In carryin out the process the saw mill waste is first c ipped; it is then fed with water between the ding surfaces of spaced grinding elements set a short distance apart and having relative movement to each other, being passed between such surfaces for a suflicient length of time to reduce it to a flexible, feltable fibrous material directly adaptable for the manufacture of gulp board; all as more fully hereinafter set orth In the art, paper pulp is produced meand described.

chanically by grinding relatively largle blocks of pulp wood, presented to the grin ing face side on, under high pressure, which 'ves a relatively short ber Paper ul'p as also been manufactured from 0 ps which are chemically digested in one way or another, or softened in water and then passed through a grinder or like fiber-treatmg machine. This treatment has the effect of removing, or softening the barbs on the fibers there y impairing the capacity for felting.

In the. invention of the present application, which is a continuation of my earlier application Serial No. 32,418 filed June 5,

1915, I operate in a different manner and Specification of Letters Patent.

produce a relatively lar e proportion of long fibered material toget er with. a. certain.

per to which it is fed by gravity and which three-quarters of an inch with the grain, and

, produces chips of a size from five-eighths to one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch across the grain. The wood is preferably in the form of saw mill waste including slabs, ed ings, short butting blocks, slats, burner re use, sawdust bark and shav' s. No water is added to the wood, as'it ordlnarily will be found to contain from forty-five to sixty per cent. of water, but this may be as low as twenty-five per cent. if the material has been standing some time.

The raw wood so comminuted is then passed between tapering grinding surfaces having but a narrow clearance between them, the clearance however being sufi'b' ciently wide to accommodate a plurality of fibers side by side. Through this passageway'the comminuted wood is transmitted with a small stream of water, the proportion of water being such that the 1 material 1 coming from the grinder contains about eighty to ninety per cent. of water. The material .is passed through the grinder in such a way comminuted wood is passed are not, in the present invention really the comminuting means, their roughened surfaces being used more for the purposes of friction, to cause 'tive movement of the fibers. More reli iice is placed on the mutual rubbing ac- ;tion of. the wood particles on each other for producing the lateral separation of the fibrous elements from each other. Since the 4 wood is comminhted before entry between these surfaces, the fibers are not broken ofl short, as is inevitable when the wood is presented to a grinding surface under great pressure. In a way, my operation is more what may be termed a rolling separation of the fibers than a true grinding action. I

The pur ose of adding the water to the mixture be ore passing into the grinder is to keep down the temperature and at the same time to make the mass fluid enough so that it will feed through the grinders.

The wood is not steamed, soaked in water, treated with chemicals or otherwise chemically prepared in any way prior to my fiber making operation, it is raw wood which T use, wood which has not been changed otherwise than b the necessary comminution. The materia or stock coming from between the grinding surfaces is then screened in a standard centrifugal or flat screen. Where .the centrifugal screen is used I prefer to emplo a ninety plate, that is to say, a plate with holes .090 inches in diameter the tailings from which screen are returned to the grinder. Before screening, sufiicient water is added to render the stock quite fluid, that is to say, until there are about three hundred parts water to one part stock. The fiber product coming from the screens may be used in same manner as other pulp fiber products, are used in the trade. I refer to continue the process to make a pm? brand as hereinafter described.

After being screened the stock is thickened. The water added before screenin is removed by assing through any standar thickener. T e stock is left with about ninety-seven parts water, or a three per cent. mixture. i

This-three per cent. mixture of pulp and 7 water is then run through a press, which may be of any convenient type depending upon the article to be produced. When pulp sheets are to be pressed I employ from means to add about seven per cent. of water to the bone dry board in order to produce a board whleh will have a water contents corresipondingwith that of the atmosphere.

will be found that the fiber product produced by the rocess described has special qualities in t at there are 'a relatively large percentage of, long fiber bundles, by

two to twenty-eight per cent. of short fibers.

It will be found also that the long fibers will not be completely separated from each other but Will be present in bundles having their ends free to interlock; which ends are thoroughly barbed, because the rolling action in the grinder of the fibers, one against the other, still leaves the fiber raw and in bundles and with the barbs thereon produced by the loosened or brushed out ends of the individual fibers.

The fiber board made from ground wood pulp will be found much denser than board produced from the fibers produced according to my process as the fibers are smoother than that produced by my rocess, but this dense board has not as hi an insulating value and is not as economical to manufacture. The board produced from the fibers produced in my process will be found to have a slight brownish tingeowing to the resence of the bark. The gums and resin in the bark will also cause a closer adhesion of the fibers acting more or less, as binding,

means.

The grinding surface referred to in the foregoing process may be of a variety of forms, I have devised, however, a form of grinder in which the process maybe 600- nomically carried out and which is shown in the drawings tion. a I

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the apparatus.

Fig. 2 is a mechanism.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the rotating grinding element.

Fig. 4 is an end view of the grinding element.

Fig. 5 is a view of a bundle of the barbed accompanying this specificafiber of raw wood produced for use in the manufacture of the fiber board aceordingto the present method. a v

plan view of the adjusting 4 Fig. 6 is a -v1ew showing the ordinary fiber of ground wood pulp.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures. 1

Referring to the drawings, A represents a suitable base having standards 10, 11 and Y12 which supportthe shaft B adapted to be turned by a convenient source of power which has a collar 21 fitting between the col-j lars 22 and 23 on the shaft B. Ball bearings 24 are shown between the collar 21 and the collars 22 and 23. and well known means for adjusting the shaft in a lengthwise direction may be employed. 4 a

represents the rotary grinding element :which is conicalin form, the outer surface being substantially at an angle of 30 to the axis. This element is secured to and rotates with the shaft B and is adapted to cooperate' with the fixed element D of the grinding pair which is secured to the fixed casing E.

Material is adapted to be fed between the grinding element from a feeding chamber 30 at thesmall end of said members and the ground fibers are adaptedto be withdrawn from the larger peripheries of the grinding pair from the outlet box 31. The feeding may be facilitated by a worm c'onveyer 32 mounted on the shaft B within the feeding chamber 30. r V

The grinding element may be of sandstone or an artificial sandstone such as is manufactured from a mixture of cement and sharp sand in equal proportions with a sm all percentage, say 10%, of soft material such as sawdust, to produce voids therein.

The rotary grinding element C is provided on its surface with a plurality of feeding grooves 33 which extend in a spiral manner around on the periphery and are gradually decreased in depth from their by the reduction in depth of the groove;

commencement at the small end of the .cone

to their end near the large end of, the cone.

nel moving in an axial direction is gradually,

forced out between the'grinding elements.

The grinding elements are adjusted rela-i tively to each, other so that there will be enough room between the surfaces for the fiber bundlesjto rub against each other and not to he faces. 7 v

The stock is fed continuously under moderate pressure and is distributed between the rubbed directly between the surgrinding surfaces by grooves 33 v already,

explained. It is necessarythat the continuity of the feed should not be interrupted be mainand that a continuous film of stock tained between the surfaces, 7

-Where the conical surfaces are of narrow diameter the stock is broken'up while a finish is imparted to it at thehigh speed of the Any other convenient fiber produced according tothe present process may be seen by the illustrations represents a: well barbed fiber bundle progiven in Fig. 5 of the drawings. ,Fig. 5

duced according to the rolling action in the present process, while Fig.' G the ordinary fiber ground wood pulp.- It is found that the well barbed fiber produced by my process is more advantageous in making the V nap on fibers, in that the-barbs interlock to a much greater extent, thereby producing a better nap and Zone not liable to split or peel.

As many changes could be 'made in the above process and many apparently widely difierent embodiments of my invention, within the scope of the claims, produced without departing from thespirit or Scope thereof, it isintended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification and drawingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim as m invention is:

'l 'The herein descrl ed process of manufacturing'a fiber product which comprises,,

first chipping saw mill waste, then gr nding.

the raw chipped wood with water between closely spaced surfaces having a movemente relative to'each other, such surfaces being sufficiently far apart to permit at the nar- 'rowest point the presence of a plurality of fiber bundles therebetween, whereby a rolling separation is efl-ected,'then screeningthe. fibrous material,,then thickening the stock of the screening operation, and then pressing the fibers. V 3. The herein described process of manufacturing afiber product which comprises, first chippin raw wood, then grinding the raw chippe wood with water between closely spaced surfaces having a movement relative to each other, such surfaces being s'ufiiciently'far. apart to permit at the nar .rowest point the presence of a plurality of fiberbundles therebetween, whereby a rolling separation is effected, -=then screening the fibrous material, thenthickening the stock ofjth'e screening'operation, then pressing the" fibers, then drying the pressed material, and

then adding a percentage of water to correspond withfatmospheric conditions. I

4. The herein described'process of manufacturing a fiber product which comprises 18.0

first chipping raw' wood, then grinding the chipped wood with water between closely spaced surfaces having a movement relative to each other, such surfaces being sufficiently far apart to permit at the narrowest point the presence of a plurality of fibers therebetween, whereby a rolling separation is effected.

5. The herein described process of manufacturing a fiber product which comprises grinding relatively small pleces of raw wood with'water between closely spaced surfaces 6. The herein described process of manufacturing a fiber product which comprlses grinding relatively small pieces of raw wood with water between closely spaced surfaces having a movement relative to each other, such surfaces being sufiiciently far apart to permit at the narrowest point the presence of a plurality of fiber bundles therebetween whereby a rolling separation is effected, then pressing the fibers produced by the aforesaid grinding operation to form a fiber product.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand'in the presence of a witness.

GEORGE JAMES MANSON.

Witness:

Rossini S. SMART.

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