US2958097A

US2958097A - Spinneret assembly

Info

Publication number: US2958097A
Application number: US683550A
Authority: US
Inventors: Paul A Simpson; William P Dooley
Original assignee: American Viscose Corp
Current assignee: Akzo Nobel UK PLC
Priority date: 1957-09-12
Filing date: 1957-09-12
Publication date: 1960-11-01
Anticipated expiration: 1977-11-01

Description

1950 P. A. SIMPSON ETAL 2,958,097

SPINNERET ASSEMBLY Filed Sept. 12, 1957 United States Patent SPINNERET ASSEMBLY Paul A. Simpson, Nitro, W. Va., and William P. Dooley,

Wallingford, Pa., assignors to American Viscose Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 12, 1957, Ser. No. 683,550

3 Claims. (Cl. 18-8) The present invention relates to a spinneret assembly for use in apparatus for producing tows or ropes of filamentary artificial yarn, such as rayon, from which staple fiber may be out.

A great deal of experimentation has been conducted recently in developing a spinneret assembly of a streamline nature whereby there will result a smooth nonturbulent flow of coagulating acid across the spinneret plate. It has been found that the smoother the flow is across the spinneret plate, the better the yarn product and the spinning operation will be. This is especially true when the spinneret plate has as many as 2000 orifices.

The development of such an assembly has been heretofore hindered by two main problems. In the first instance, it has been the general practice to produce spinnerets having an outwardly extending flange for use in supporting the spinneret in position on the rounder which connected the spinneret unit with the viscose supply line. Such type mounting generally called for a lock nut or coupling to lock the spinneret in position on the rounder. This lock nut or coupling extended beyond the diameter of the spinneret barrel and thereby created a turbulence in the acid as it flowed over the spinnert foil, which turbulence adversely affected the spinning process as well as the quality of the final yarn. To develop a jet assembly having a streamlined exterior would require the elimination of this outwardly extending flange portion of the spinneret.

The second problem which has heretofore retarded the development of a suitable streamline jet assembly was the supposedly apparent need, in addition to the usual filter in the spinning solution supply line, of a spinneret screen or filter patch of large enough area for the spinneret. Complications were encountered in attempting to develop a streamlined jet assembly by internal coupling means in view of the presence of the filter patch extending across the diameter of this spinneret barrel.

This latter problem has been eliminated in that satisfactory filtering may now be accomplished without need of a spinneret filter patch through use of the filtering assembly described in Dolley application Ser. No. 680,137, filed August 26, 1957, and entitled Filter Assembly. This above application relates to a filter unit of a multiple screen nature and is designed to be installed in the main feed line of the yarn-spinning solution which leads to the spinneret unit. With the elimination of the spinneret filter patch, much more freedom was now available for novel interconnecting of the numerous elements making up the spinneret assembly whereby smooth acid flow over the spinneret plate might be achieved. With this additional freedom now available, it has been possible to solve the first problem relating to the outwardly extending flange for the spinneret mount which normally extends into the path of the coagulating liquid flowing around the spinneret plate.

It is therefore one object of the invention to provide an improved spinneret assembly for use in yarn-forming 2,958,097 Patented Nov. 1, 1960 ice apparatus wherein all portions of the spinneret assembly, including the spinneret face, have equal outside diameters whereby a smooth unobstructed acid flow pattern may be achieved around the spinneret face.

Another object of the invention is to provide a spinneret assembly wherein the spinneret is actually in the form of a female-type coupling and has an inwardly extending flange rather than an outwardly extending flange, which flange aids in holding the remaining elements of the assembly in locked position.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from a study of the following description and drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a partially sectioned view showing the external and internal structure of the spinneret assembly, and

Figure 2 is an enlarged view of that portion of the assembly bounded by the dot-dash lines in Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawing, the spinneret assembly is preferably formed of an elongated male coupling 1 having a central bore 3 and an external thread track 5. The male coupling 1 is connected with the supply conduit 7 for the yarn-forming solution by a partially threaded secondary coupling 9 which is positioned over the supply line and threaded onto the thread track 5 of the male coupling 1 to urge and clamp the facing ends of the supply line and the coupling together. A resilient gasket 11 preferably formed of rubber is positioned between the end of the male coupling 1 and the end of the supply line or conduit 7 for providing a seal therebetweem The secondary coupling 9 has a shoulder portion 13 which seats upon a flanged end portion 15 of the supply'line whereby the secondary coupling 9 firmly clamps together the supply line, the gasket and the male coupling when the coupling 9 is rotatably moved into its clamping position.

As further seen in the drawing, the opposite end of the male coupling 1 terminates in a tapering flange '16 which extends outwardly from the axis of the male coupling at approximately an angle of l20-160 from the axis of the coupling. This flanged end portion 16 of the male coupling 1 is inserted within a female-type spinneret coupling 17 which includes, as an integral part thereof, a face plate 19 having minute orifices 21 extending therethrough through which the yarn-forming material is extruded as it passes into the interior female coupling 17 from the bore 3 of the male coupling 1.

The opposite end of the female-type spinneret coupling 17 terminates in an inwardly extending flange 23. Preferably, the flange 23 extends inwardly of the side of the female coupling at approximately a right angle. The outside diameter of the flange 16 is slightly less than the inside diameter of the flange 23 so that the couplings may be readily assembled.

Loosely positioned within the female-type spinneret coupling 17 immediately adjacent the underside of the flange 23 and lying between the underside of the flange 23 and the tapering flanged end 16 of the male coupling 1, is a resilient gasket 25 preferably in the form of a rubber O-ring. This gasket 25 is intended to form a seal between the above flanged portions of the male and female-type couplings 1 and 17 respectively.

To urge the tapering flanged end 16 of the male coupling 1 against the gasket 25 and, in turn, to urge the gasket against the underside of the flange 23, as well as the upper portion of the inner surface of the side wall of the female coupling 17 to provide a seal therebetween, a wedge nut 27 is threaded over the complementary thread track 5 on the exterior of the male coupling 1. By threading the wedge nut 27 toward the tapered flanged end 16 of the male coupling 1, the nut 27 is brought into contact with the flange 23 of the female-type spin.-

neret coupling. Upon further rotation of the nut 27, the

flanged end 16 of the male coupling 1 is drawn outwardly of the female. coupling 17 against the gasket 25 and the underside of the female coupling flange '23 to provide a tight seal, between the two couplings. The wedge nut 27 is, of course, threaded upon the male coupling 1 before the supply line 7 is connected with the male coupling. To prevent marring the flange 23 of the female spinneret coupling 17 through contact with the wedge nut 27 during assembly, a slip ring 24 is positioned between the opposing surfaces of the nut and flange. I

The male coupling 1, the wedge nut 27', and the lock nut 9 are preferablyformed of hard rubber material or a corrosion-resistant alloy such as Hastelloy C while the female coupling 17 is preferably formed of a rigid metal suchasplatinum, The gaskets or seals 11 and 25 are preferably formed of soft rubber.

The gasket 25 must be of such design and structure that it does not pocket during assembly of the couplings. A straight line surface must -lie against the straight line surface of the flange 16 of the male coupling. This precaution is necessary to prevent the formatrion of dead spots or pockets behind the flange 16 wherein viscose or other spinning solution might accumulaterand gel. Portions of such gel matter will break off .and clog up the spinneret openings.

From a study of the above description of the spinneret assembly, itis seen that we have provided a novel-type assembly. wherein the outside diameter of the jet assembly a umror'm and equal whereby the acid flow over the spinneret will be smooth and nonturbulent, thus providing, improved spinning conditions and improved yarn.

While preferred embodiments have been shown and described, his to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

We claim: p

1. A spinneret assembly for use in producing artificial yarn from a yarn-spinning material comprising a' cupshaped spinneret comprising a face portion having a plurality of orifices through which the yarn-spinning material is extruded, a cylindrical portion formed integrally with said face portion, an inwardly directed flange on said cylindnical portion at the end opposite the face portion, an elongated tubular coupling member having an outwardly directed flange on one end thereof, said outwardly directed flange having a smaller diameter than the internal diameter of the inwardly directed flange of saidspinneret and said outwardly directed flange being located within .said spinneret, a resilient ring-shaped gasket located between s'aid'flan'ges, said gasket having an internal diameter smaller than the diameter of said outwardly directed flange and an outside diameter larger than the diameter of said inwardly directed flange, and a cylindrical element pressing the flanges of the spinneret and coupling member toward one another to compress salid gasket therebetween to form a seal, said cylindrical element having the same diameter as the cylindrical portion .of the spinneret and constituting with said cylindrical portion a continuous cylindrical surface for said spinneret assembly.

2. The assembly set forth in claim 1 wherein said cylindrical element is releasably secured to said coupling member.

3. The assembly set forth in claim 1 wherein said coupling member is externally threaded and said cylindrical element is internally threaded and screwed onto said coupling member.

References-Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 932,025 Witte Mar. 20, 1934 2,803,851 Braunlich Aug. 27, 1957 2,834,046 Hesselink May 13, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,029,765 France June 5, 1953 516,571 Germany Jan. 23, 1931