US2729849A

US2729849A - Apparatus and process for forming mineral fiber

Info

Publication number: US2729849A
Application number: US256907A
Authority: US
Inventors: Downey Richard Merritt
Original assignee: Airseal Insulations Inc; Carney Co Inc; Ind Products Co Inc; Midwest Insulations Inc
Current assignee: Airseal Insulations Inc; Carney Co Inc; Ind Products Co Inc; Midwest Insulations Inc
Priority date: 1951-11-17
Filing date: 1951-11-17
Publication date: 1956-01-10
Anticipated expiration: 1973-01-10

Description

Jan. 10, 1956 R. M. DOWNEY 2,729,849

APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR FORMING MINERAL FIBER Filed Nov. 17, 1951 United States Patent 1 2,729,849 APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR FORMING MINERAL FIBER Richard Merritt Downey, North Judson, Ind., assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, of one-fourth to Midwest Insulations, Inc., Wabash, Ind., a corporation of Indiana, one-fourth to Industrial Products Company, Inc., Mount Pleasant, Tenn., a corporation of Tennessee, one-fourth to The Carney Company, Inc., Mankato, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota, and one-fourth to Airseal Insulations, Inc., Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 17, 1951, Serial No. 256,907 7 Claims. (Cl. 182.5)

The present invention relates to an improved process and apparatus for forming mineral fiber and the like.

One of the objects of the invention is to increase the efliciency of the present disc or platen type of fiber forming process by forcing and firmly holding the molten mineral substance against the surface of the disc while it is caused to travel radially thereof due to rapid rotation and be thrown from the peripheral edge in fine fibrous streams through centrifugal force, and which streams may be further affected by a surrounding series of jet streams, such as steam jets. This is accomplished by rotating the disc in a vertical or substantially vertical plane and causing the molten mineral to be discharged from above it so as to fall downwardly adjacent the forward vertical face of the rotating disc, and surrounding the disc with a series of steam jets directed axially thereof inducing a back pressure and partial vacuum adjacent the forward face of the disc such as to disintegrate the material and hold it against the face of the disc in the manner of a film under such induced pressure to thereby prevent particles of the mineral from sloughing off of the face of the disc. Such film of material thus held in intimate contact with the face of the disc, will, through centrifugal force be thrown from the peripheral edge thereof into a series of fibrous streams.

A. further object of the invention is to provide means whereby a single large stream of molten mineral substance may be distributed uniformly upon the exterior surface of a vertically rotating disc or platter to thereby form on said exterior surface a relatively thin film of the molten material which, by the rapid rotation of the disc or platter is disintegrated and forcibly directed off the peripheral edge of the disc tangentially and thereby broken up into fibrous streams. At the same time directly across these fibrous streams of tangentially directed material there is directed a jet or jets of fluid under pressure, preferably steam, which jets may be caused to rotate at approximately the same velocity as the tangentially rotating stream and substantially in the same direction.

A further object of my invention is to provide means whereby the rotating disc onto which the stream of molten material is directed may be preserved and maintained by the cooling effect of the steam or fluid providing jet streams.

It is a further object of the present invention to impart a desirable degree of cooling to the molten mineral substance as it comes into intimate contact with the rotating disc or platter as a result of the cooling effect of the steam or fluid used for providing the jet discharge.

For the purpose of disclosing my invention I have illus trated an embodiment thereof in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation, more or less diagrammatic, of an apparatus for carrying out my invention.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof, and

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a modified form of platen.

In the embodiment of one invention disclosed I provide 2,729,849 Patented Jan. 10, 1956 a rotary nozzle 1 which comprises essentially a hollow cylindrical member having formed in the front face thereof, an annular row of jet discharge openings 2. Within this row of jet discharge openings 2, I provide a disc or platen 3 which is of smaller diameter than the diameter of the circle in which the jets or nozzles 2 are arranged, and which may be, if desired, a separate disc or platen, or preferably is merely a thickened portion of the front face of the nozzle 1. This nozzle 1 is carried on a hollow shaft 4 mounted in suitable bearings 5 and 6 and adapted to receive at its rear end 7 a suitable supply of steam or other suitable fluid under pressure. The shaft 4 and with it the nozzle 1 are rotated through the medium of a driving belt 8 operating on a pulley 9 on the shaft 4 and driven by any suitable means. The nozzle and disc are mounted so that the disc is rapidly rotated in a substantially vertical plane, although if desired the parts may be tilted so that the stream of molten material may be effectively delivered against and over the front face of the disc. Mounted above the nozzle is a slag trough 10 which is supplied with molten mineral substance or skoria and from its delivery end delivers a stream 11 of this molten material to a position for causing it to fall down in front of and closely adjacent the forward face of the disc 3. The spacing of the stream of molten material relatively to the front face of the disc 3 may be accurately attained by providing suitable adjusted means 12 for the slag trough whereby the delivery mouth of the trough may be adjusted relatively to the plane of the front face of the disc. A shield 13 extends across the face of the nozzle behind the slag stream 11 and in front of the nozzles as they cross the slag stream so that there will not be delivered against this slag stream a jet of steam or other fluid under pressure to thereby divert the stream from its falling plane.

In operation, as the jets 14 are projected from the jet nozzles 2, there is created a low pressure area adjacent to the forward face of said disk to force the slag stream 11 in the direction of the arrow 15 against the disk face to spread and disintegrate the stream over said face.

As a result this molten material spreads itself over the face of the disc in a relatively uniform thin film, and due to the rapid rotation of the disc is thrown off tangentially from its peripheral edge as indicated at Fig. 2, being broken up at the same time into thin streams such as indicated at 16. Bear in mind that at the same time there is projected angularly across these tangential streams of fibrous portions 16, a series of jets 14 from the nozzle 2,

which jets are shown in the illustrated embodiment of the invention as rotating in the same direction and at the same speed as the tangential movement of a fibrous material being thrown off the peripheral edge of the disc or platter. Or to put it another way, due to the rotary motion the material is discharged tangentially from the periphery of the disc in the form of a plurality of still fluid streams which are projected into the path of the steam or fluid issuing from the rotary jets, while said jets are travelling at essentially the same velocity and direction, and in a plane parallel to the streams. As a result of this, there is a secondary division and attenuation of the material with the subsequent cooling to form fibers.

Due to the fact that the molten mineral material is forced by the back pressure or partial vacuum into intimate contact with the solid metallic surface of the disc, it is necessary to cool the metallic surface in order to preserve and maintain its surface and shape, and it is to be observed that in the present case the same fluid, generally steam, which provides the breakup jets, acts as a coolant for the nozzle, and particularly a coolant for the disc 3 so that this disc will not become distintegrated or destroyed by the action of the molten material which is delivered thereagainst.

In Fig. 3 I have illustrated a modified form of the disc 3 disclosed in Fig. 1 wherein this disc 3 is somewhat dishshaped as at 17 to provide an annular rim 18 over which the film must flow before it is discharged tangentially. This has some advantages in some instances as it provides for the maintenance of a thickened film on the front face of the disc.

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a hollow head mounted for rotation in a substantially vertical plane and having a series of spaced discharge jet openings circularly disposed in the outer face of said head and coaxial with the latter; a platen disk on the said outer face arranged within the circle of said orifices, a hollow shaft carrying said head and providing a conduit for delivering fluid under pressure to the interior of said head, means for rotating said shaft, a material trough disposed above said rotating head having a discharge opening extending beyond the said outer face of said disk and delivering a stream of molten material across and parallel with said outer face, and a shield disposed behind said stream and in front of the jet openings as they pass behind said stream. 2. An apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a platen disk having a forward face disposed in a vertical plane, means for rapidly rotating said disk, means for discharging a stream of molten material transversely of, parallel to and spaced from the said forward face of said disk, and a series of jet nozzles positioned about and adjacent the forward face of said disk from which said fluid jets are discharged in a direction parallel to its axis of rotation to encompass an area forwardly of the face of said disk and to create a low pressure area adjacent the face of said disk to force the molten material against the said forward face, the rotation of said disk causing the said material to move radially over the face of said disk and into the path of said jets.

downwardly in spaced parallelism with the forward face of said disk to be forced thereon by said partial vacuum subject to discharge from the peripheral edge thereof under centrifugal force, and means for preventing the passage of the fluid delivered by the jet orifices through the falling stream of molten mineral substance.

4. Apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a hollow head mounted for rotation in a substantially-vertical plane and having spaced jet openings arranged in a circular series coaxially of and near the periphery of said head and in the forward face thereof, a material a trough having a discharge spout disposed beyond said forward face to deliver a stream of molten material in spaced parallelism with and adjacent to said forward face, and means for supplying fluid through said openings at a velocity to create a low pressure area adjacent the for: ward face of said disk to force said molten stream against said face.

5. The method of producing mineral fiber which consists in directing a stream of molten material in spaced parallelism with the forward face of a disk rotating in a substantially vertical plane, directing a stream of fluid outwardly of said forward face and in substantialparallelism with the aixis of said disk, the velocity of said stream of fluid being such as to create a low pressure area adjacent the face of the disk whereby to force said molten stream against said face.

6. Apparatus for forming mineral fiber comprising a hollow head mounted for rotation in a substantially vertical plane and having spaced jet openings arranged in a circular series coaxially of and near the periphery of said head and in'the forward face thereof, a material trough having a discharge spout disposed beyond said forward face to deliver a stream of molten material in spaced parallelism with and adjacent to said forward face, means for supplying fluid through said openings under sufficient pressure to create a low pressure area adjacent the forward face of said disk to force said molten stream against said face, and a shield substantially wider than said stream of material interposed between the latter and the forward face of said disk in the path of fluid projected from said jet openings.

7. Apparatus for producing .mineral wool and the like which comprises a disc rotatable about a substantially horizontal axis, an annular blow nozzle of a diameter slightly larger than that'of the disc and positioned so as to blow an annular blast past the periphery of said disc 7 at a velocity to create a low pressure area adjacent to the face thereof, and means for flowing molten material by gravity in front of said disc sufliciently close to the front surface thereof to cause said material to be drawn.

by suction induced by said low pressure area against the front face of said disc.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 65,339 Butcher, Jr. et al. June 4,1867 687,524 Fellner Nov. 26, 1901 1,051,844 Passow Jan. 28, 1913 1,834,687 Davis Dec. 1, 1931 2,318,244 McClure Y May 4, 1943 2,328,714 Drill et al. Sept. 7, 1943 2,470,569 Meighan et al. May 17, 1949 2,587,710 Downey Mar. 4, 1952

Claims

7. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING MINERAL WOOL AND THE LIKE WHICH COMPRISES A DISC ROTATABLE ABOUT A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL AXIS, AN ANNULAR BLOW NOZZLE OF A DIAMETER SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN THAT OF THE DISC AND POSITIONED SO AS TO BLOW AN ANNULAR BLAST PAST THE PERIPHERY OF SAID DISC AT A VELOCITY TO CREATE A LOW PREASSURE AREA ADJACENT TO THE FACE THEREOF, AND MEANS FOR FLOWING MOLTEN MATERIAL BY GRAVITY IN FRONT OF SAID DISC SUFFICIENTLY CLOSE TO THE FRONT SURFACE THEREOF TO CAUSE SAID MATERIAL TO BE DRAWN BY SUCTION INDUCED BY SAID LOW PRESSURE AREA AGAINST THE FRONT FACE OF SAID DISC.