US3270532A - Device for treating a mass of loose fibers - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 6, 1966 M. CHAIKIN ETAL.

DEVICE FOR TREATING A MASS OF LOOSE FIBERS Original Filed Sept. 28, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS M W 5 KM H 5 H F N O C A L VA A E L M nn 37 MGM/06W Sept. 6, 1966 K| ETAL 3,270,532

DEVICE FOR TREATING A MASS OF LOOSE FIBERS Ofiginal Filed Sept. 28, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.2

FIG.3

INVENTORS MALCOLM CHHlK/N HLE XHNDER S N 3y Mam/d W United States Patent 3,270,532 DEVICE FOR TREATING A MASS 0F LOOSE FIBERS Malcolm Chaikin, Maroubra, New South Wales, and

Alexander Samson, Greenwich, New South Wales, Australia, assiguors to Unisearch Limited, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia, a corporation of New South Wales Original application Sept. 28, 1962, Ser. No. 226,932, now Patent No. 3,199,126, dated Aug. 10, 1965. Divided and this application Mar. 30, 1965, Ser. No. 443,795 Claims priority, application Australia, Oct. 18, 1961, 10,381/ 61 7 Claims. (Cl. 6845) The present application is a division of our copending application, Serial No. 226,932, filed September 28, 1962, and now Patent No. 3,199,126, issued on August 10, 1965.

The present invention relates to the treatment of fibre assemblies with fluids supplied in the form of a jet or jets where it is advantageous to have fluid-fibre contact throughout the assembly in a rapid manner and with a minimum of fibre movement. The invention relates to apparatus for preventing macroscopic fibre movement and at the same time allowing intimate fluid-fibre contact.

The invention relates to apparatus for treating a mass of loose fibres with a fluid wherein the fibres are formed into a layer and compressed and the treating fluid is applied to the layer by means of a jet or jets directed transversely thereto, the layer of fibres being compressed to an extent such that relative movement between individual fibres due to the action of the jet or jets or to the action of internal stresses is substantially prevented whilst allowing the fluid to act freely on all fibres.

The present invention may be exemplified to great advantage in the scouring of raw greasy loose wool where it is required to remove from the mass and the individual fibres quantities of wool grease, suint (mainly sheep perspiration) and animal and vegetable and mineral matter, and at the same time to prevent fibre movement. Other applications of this invention are in the washing, dyeing, carbonising and neutralising of loose fibre and fibrous assemblies and fibre slivers and in any treatment of fibres with a jet of fluid in which it is desirable to minimise fibre movement. However, for illustrative and explanatory purposes, the scouring of raw greasy wool is discussed, as in this case, fibre movement is energised by an internal fibre source as well as by external mechanical forces.

In present day textile processing, this procedure is commonly known as raw (greasy) wool scouring and may be carried out using an aqueous solution of soap and soda or synthetic detergent which is caused to act on the loose wool. By loose wool is meant wool fibres whose general configuration is such that some are and some are not considered to be in a parallel position to each other. In this conventional system, loose wool is usually scoured by passing it through a succession of tanks (bowls) containing the scouring liquors, the last tank being a rinsing bowl containing mains water only. The temperatures of the liquors are such as to effect optimum scouring of the loose wool, and usually range from 100 to 160 F. In the bowls the loose wool is moved along by mechanical action and fluid friction forces and is mainly submerged in the liquors, except between bowls when it is elevated out and passed through squeeze rollers, and into the next bowl.

While this method is eifective in scouring the loose wool to remove the undesired matter from it'to a degree sufiicient for the efiicient subsequent processing of the scoured wool, it has one great drawback which takes place during scouring, namely, the entanglement or intertwining or coiling of the loose wool fibres relative to each other, resulting in fibre breakage during subsequent processing.

The movement of wool fibres by writhing and/ or coiling is caused by internal stress changes. When the moisture content of wool changes, whether adsorption or desorption, there is a change in dimension in a radial direction (e.g. swelling due to adsorption) accompanied by stress changes and strain movements. The sum total of elemental strain movements results in a configurational change of the curved (crimped) wool fibre, the total movement'appearing as a writhing action to which is added torsional strain movement (coiling) about the longitudinal wool fibre axis.

The next process after the scouring of raw greasy wool is carding, where the loose scoured weel is disentangled in order to arrange the individual fibres in a sliver in substantially parallel relationship. During this carding operation, wool fibres break due to the method of disentanglement, and the extent of fibre breakage is a function of (proportional to) the degree of entanglement of the scoured wool. In wool processing, the longer fibres are considerably more valuable than the shorter ones, most of the short ones being obtained by fibre breakage, and therefore it is highly desirable that during the scouring process of the loose wool, entanglement of the wool be kept to a minimum, this being one of the most important advantages of the present invention when applied to the scouring of wool.

In the application of the present invention to the scouring of wool, loose wool is preferably conveyed at any desired speed in a layer in a compressed state between two porous conveyors along a given path which extends either entirely above, entirely below or partly above and partly below the surface of the scour liquor, which is preferably at a temperature of 60 to 165 F., and in this moving condition the compressed wool is subjected to scouring liquor jets directed transversely to the direction of movement at any chosen pressure and velocity impinging on the compressed wool layer from above and/ or below. These scour liquor jets which may be one or more in number in each bowl extend transversely across the conveyors. Of fundamentalimportance is that, in this invention, the loose wool is subjected to such a state of compression (which will usually involve the application to the loose wool of a pressure of from 20 to lbs. per square foot depending on other parameters, such as wool density, jet velocity, quality and state of wool) that movement of the wool fibres relative to each other is reduced to a practical minimum, so as to bring about the least amount of entanglement, intertwining or coiling. With the loose wool in a compressed condition during liquor jet impingement, the entanglement, intertwining or coiling of the wool fibres is kept to a minimum and thus the condition of the scoured loose wool is such that fibre breakage during carding and subsequent processing it also kept to a minimum. For convenience, wool scoured according to the present invention will be referred to hereinafter as compression-jet scoured wool.

The present invention may be applied to any of the stages of a loose wool scouring system, such as de-suinting, detergent washing or rinsing, the apparatus used being substantially as outlined above.

The present invention is to be clearly distinguished from that disclosed in Australian patent specification No. 147,792, where the method of wool washing as described would result in greater entanglement, and therefore a much inferior quality of scoured wool than is obtained with a conventional multi-bowl aqueous scour. From extensive experiments carried out at the textile processing laboratories of the University of New South Wales, Commonwealth of Australia, it has been established that aqueous solution jetting on Wool (under liquid) without compression results in an extremely entangled fibre mass, as the jet force greatly assist entanglement by moving fibres.

The apparatus as described and shown in the drawing of Austrlian patent specification No. 147,792 makes no reference to compression of the wool fibres at any stage of the process, and furthermore, there are two portions of the wools under liquid path where the fibres are completely free and may even float away from the conveyor belt which is supposed to transport them. Experimental results indicate that this method and apparatus would be most conducive to producing an entangled wool product if it were to scour at a commercial rate and for commercial cleanliness. The result would be severe fibre breakage during carding and, therefore, heavy financial loss. A similar disclosure is also contained in British Patents 683,137 and 573,042 and in Canadian Patent 515,153.

For an understanding of the principles of the present invention, reference is made to the following description of a typical embodiment thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a part sectional elevation, of a somewhat schematic nature, illustrating one form of apparatus embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial plan view illustrating the mesh character of a conveyor belt shown schematically in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a practical embodiment of the rotating mesh surface drum shown schematically in FIG. 1.

The apparatus to be described may be used singly or with other scouring bowls, de-suinting bowls, rinsing bowls, or otherwise, the whole considered to be a scouring train, which accomplishes the task of removing wool grease, suint, animal, vegetable and mineral matter from around the wool fibres as presented in the form of raw greasy wool.

A tank 1 contains liquor, up to liquid level 2, and may be connected hydraulically to another tank (not shown) used as a storage vessel for the liquor. A drum 3 attached to shafts suitably located in bearings and driven by mechanical or electrical power has on its periphery a wire mesh, which in turn may be covered by other meshes.

An endless conveyor belt 4, which may consist of a flexible netting or mesh, is made to move for part of its path around a portion of the periphery of the hollow drum 3 and may be guided and/or driven by rollers 10, 11, or the pivoting roller 8. This pivoting roller 8 produces a tension in conveyor belt 4- by means of the pivoted lever 9 and weights 21, maintaining a predetermined tension by taking up any stretch of the conveyor belt. The tensioned conveyor belt 4 exerts an inward radial compressive force all along the periphery of the drum to which it is adjacent, so that when the wool is held between conveyor belt 4 and drum 3, the layer of wool then formed is compressed and compression exists so long as there is tension in the belt, and the belt and drum are adjacent to each other over an arc. This conveyor belt 4 is made to move in an endless manner at the same linear velocity of the drums periphery, so that the wool which is held and compressed between the conveyor belt 4 and drum 3 is not subjected to any shear tendencies when compressively held. The wool is fed in a uniform manner to the conveyor belt 4 near rollers 10, and is first compressed above the liquor level 2 between the drum 3 and rollers 10 and remains compressed whilst submerged, compression being released above the liquor level when the conveyor belt changes direction near roller 11. On the inside of the hollow drum 3 is an upper jet manifold 19 containing several upper jets 5. This upper jetting system receives liquor under pressure from the jetting pump 7 and jets the liquor through the upper jet slots 5 in a downward direction on to the compressed wool layer which is held between drum 3 and conveyor belt 4; similarly the lower jet manifold 20 and lower jets 6 may receive their portion of liquor from the jetting pump and jet in an upward direction so as to impinge onto the compressed Wool layer which is held between the conveyor belt 4 and drum 3. The wool remains in a compressed state all the time that it is submerged (when jetting takes place) and compression is released near roller 11 where a beater 12 may be located to assist in the removal of any Wool which may adhere to the drum mesh.

Adsorbed fluid is removed from the loose wool in a preliminary operation by squeeze rollers 13 and then proceeds to the main squeeze rollers 15, located near roller 1 4. Passing through the main squeeze rollers 15, the loose Wool proceeds to the next operation on the conveyor 16. The liquor which is squeezed out from squeeze rollers 13 drops into tank 1, whilst liquor which is squeezed out of the main squeeze rollers 15 drops into drip-tray 17 from which it is pumped back into tank 1 by auxiliary pump 18. There is circulation of jetting liquor by means of jetting pump 7 where it takes jetting liquor on the suction side from tank 1 or a storage tank (not shown) and discharges the jetting liquor into the upper jet manifold 19 and lower jet manifold 28, from where the liquor is jetted onto the compressed wool layer, and thus returns to tank 1. The auxiliary squeeze rollers 13 are used for the purpose of removing a great portion of the liquor which is associated with a wet mass of wool. It may be advantageous to support the conveyor belt 4 at positions opposite the upper jets 5, since part of the jet kinetic energy Will be converted to pressure energy and may tend to stretch the conveyor belts at these points. This requirement will be mainly dependent on the elastic properties of the material of the conveyor belt.

Use of the apparatus above described has resulted in a scoured Wool product in no way inferior to conventionatlly scoured wool as regards residual wool grease content and residual foreign-particle content.

In addition, the jet-scoured Wool product obtained was less entangled than conventionally scoured wool to the extent that less energy was required to disentangle the representative samples. This would indicate that compression jet-scoured wool would yield more wool top than conventionally scoured wool (as measured :by the top to noil ratio) and that the jet-scoured wool tops fibres would have a longer mean fibre length penmitting finer count Wool spinning. These postulations have been proved correct by experimental results.

In the operation of the apparatus described above, it is necessary to adjust the tension in the conveyor belt 4 so that, While the wool fibres are compressed to a sufiicient degree to permit as little relative fibre movement as possible, they are not compressed to such an extent that the jets of liquor do not penetrate throughout the layer. For Wool of any particular quality or condition the degree of compression and other factors for optimum results must be found by experiment. In a particular case, very satisfactory results as shown by top to noil ratio were obtained when scouring s Merino Warp length fleece wool under the following conditions:

Wool compression pressure 45 lbs/ft. (22 gms./cm. Liquor jet velocity 27 ft./sec. (823 cm./sec.) Conveyor transverse velocity- 12 ft./min. (366 cur/min.) Wool layer area density 200 gm/ft. (0.22 gm./-cm. Liquor temperature (using soap-soda solution of standard concentration) F. (57.2 C.) Liquor pH 10-l0z5 Top to noil ratio 1621 This top to noil ratio compares very favourably with the ratio of 8 or 10 to 1 obtained with conventional scouring methods. It should be emphasized that these figures are given only as an example and they may in fact vary over a fairly wide range.

The term high velocity jet, as used herein, means a jet of treatment fluid having a velocity such that it Will penetrate the compressed layer 0t fibres and, in the case of treatment processes such as the scouring of wool fibres, will, in addition, carry away any impurities or exitraneous matter adhering to the fibers in the compressed ayer.

While a specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described in detail to illustrate the application of the principles of the invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from such principles.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for treating a mass of loose fibres, such as wool fibres and the like, comprising, in combination, a treatment liquid reservoir, an endless conveyor of a porous material permitting the passage of liquid therethrough, having an intermediate portion of its run submerged in the treatment liquid in said reservoir, and traveling along a path fixed with respect to said reservoir and the treatment liquid, and opposite end portions of its run disposed outside the treatment liquid; means, including a drum and said endless conveyor, effective initially to compress a layer of fibres on said conveyor in advance of transport of such layer through the treatment liquid; means, including said endless conveyor, efiective to maintain such layer of fibres compressed on said conveyor during passage of such layer through the treatment liquid; means operable to direct a high velocity jet of treatment liquid through the layer of compressed fibres while the layer is being transported through the treatment liquid; and means, including said conveyor to maintain the fibers under a sutficient degree of compressiori to prevent entanglement of the fibers while they are being treated with the jet of treatment liquid and, efiective only after emergence of the layer of compressed fibres from the treatment liquid on .the endless conveyor, to release the pressure applied to the layer of compressed fibres.

2. A device for treating a mass of loose fibres, such as wo-ol fibres and the like, comp-rising a treatment liquid reservoir, a drum rotatable above said reservoir with its 101WC1' surface adapted to be submerged in the treatment liquid, said drum having a porous peripheral surface permitting the passage of treatment liquid therethro-ugh, an endless conveyor of a porous material permitting the passage of liquid therethrough, having a first portion trained to run adjacent one side of said drum and extending into close proximity to said drum, a second portion trained to run around the portion of said drum which extends from a location above the treatment liquid to the level of the treatment liquid and a third portion trained around the portion of the drum submerged in the treatment liquid; means to apply tension to said conveyor for causing the conveyor to be urged against said drum for compressing fibres which are adapted to be fed between said conveyor and said drum to be compressed therebetween; means for advancing said conveyor and rotating said drum; and means for directing a jet of treatment liquid through the fibres which are compressed between said conveyor and said drum.

3. A device according to claim 2, wherein said means for directing a jet of treatment liquid through the fibres which are compressed between said conveyor and said drum includes means inside said drum.

4. A device according to claim 2, wherein said means for directing liquid through the fibres includes means exterior of said drum.

5. A device according to claim 2, wherein said treatment liquid is directed through the fibres which are compressed between said endless conveyor and said drum at a location where the fibres are submerged in the treatment liquid.

6. A device according to claim 2, including beater means adjacent one side of said drum for removing the fibres therefrom after they have been moved around between the drum and said conveyor in the treatment liquid.

7. A device for treating a mass of loose wool fibres, comprising a treatment liquid reservoir, a drum rotatably mounted adjacent said treatment liquid reservoir and including a lower portion adapted to rotate submerged in the treatment liquid, an endless belt fibre conveyor trained to run with at least a portion thereof in close proximity to said drum and extending around the lower portion of said drum within the treatment liquid, said conveyor also including a portion in close proximity to the portion of the drum which is above the treatment liquid, said conveyor and said drum being of a mate-rial to permit the passage of a treatment liquid therethrough and through fibres to be compressed therebetween, means for rotating said drum and moving said endless conveyor to compress fibres fed between said endless conveyor and said drum and to transport the fibres around the lower portion of said drum within the treatment liquid, means for tensioning said endless conveyor to cause compression of the fibres fed between said conveyor and said drum, and means in said drum and in said reservoir for directing a jet of treatment liquid through the fibres compressed between said endless conveyor and said drum.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 77,861 5/1868 Baker 6845 573,936 12/ 1896 Turk-ington 6844 2,724,955 11/1955 Spooner 68158 FOREIGN PATENTS 760,058 10/ 1956 Great Britain.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A DEVICE FOR TREATING A MASS OF LOOSE FIBRE, SUCH AS WOOL FIBERS AND THE LIKE, COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A TREATMENT LIQUID RESERVOIR, AN ENDLESS CONVEYOR OF A POROUS MATERIAL PERMITTING THE PASSAGE OF LIQUID THERETHROUGH, HAVING AN INTERMEDIATE PORTION OF ITS RUN SUBMERGED IN THE TREATMENT LIQUID IN SAID RESERVOIR, AND TRAVELING ALONG A PATH FIXED WITH RESPECT TO SAID RESERVOIR AND THE TREATMENT LIQUID, AND OPPOSITE END PORTIONS OF ITS RUN DISPOSED OUTSIDE THE TREATMENT LIQUID; MEANS, INCLUDING A DRUM AND SAID ENDLESS CONVEYOR, EFFECTIVE INITIALLY TO COMPRESS A LAYER OF FIBRES ON SAID COVEYOR, IN ADVANCE OF TRANSPORT OF SUCH LAYER THROUGH THE TREATMENT LIQUID; MEANS, INCLUDING SAID ENDLESS CONVEYOR, EFFECTIVE TO MAINTAIN SUCH LAYER OF FIBERS COMPRESSED ON SAID CONVEYOR DURING PASSAGE OF SUCH LAYER THROUGH THE TREATMENT LIQUID; MEANS OPERABLE TO DIRECT A HIGH VELOCITY JET OF TREATMENT LIQUID THROUGH THE LAYER OF COMPRESSED FIBRES WHILE THE LAYER IS BEING TRANSPORTED THROUGH THE TREATMENT LIQUID; AND MEANS, INCLUDING SAID CONVEYOR TO MAINTAIN THE FIBERS UNDER A SUFFICIENT DEGREE OF COMPRESSION TO PREVENT ENTANGLEMENT OF THE FIBERS WHILE THEY ARE BEING TREATED WITH THE JET OF TREATMENT LIQUID AND, EFFECTIVE ONLY AFTER EMERGENCE OF THE LAYER OF COMPRESSED FIBRES FROM THE TREATMENT LIQUID ON THE ENDLESS CONVEYOR, TO RELEASE THE PRESSURE APPLIED TO THE LAYER OF COMPRESSED FIBRES.

Images