US3343382A

US3343382A - Washing apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3343382A
Application number: US605705A
Authority: US
Inventors: Jr Ernest A Taylor
Original assignee: Monsanto Co
Current assignee: Monsanto Co
Priority date: 1966-12-29
Filing date: 1966-12-29
Publication date: 1967-09-26
Anticipated expiration: 1984-09-26

Description

SePt- 26, `1967 l E. A. TAYLoR, .IRv 3,343,382

WASHING APPARATUS Filed DBC. 29, 1966 IINVENTOR. ERNEST A. TA Y1. 0R,JR.

QMJAML ATTORNEY y United States Patent Office 3,343,382 Patented Sept. 26, 1967 3,343,382 WASHING APPARATUS Ernest A. Taylor, Jr., Decatur, Ala., assignor to Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 29, 1966, Ser. No. 605,705 5 Claims. (Cl. 68--181) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention provides an apparatus for continuously washing a moving tow of synthetic filaments, the tow being spread into ribbon form. The apparatus is provided with an elongated chamber through which water and the tow are passed. Opposite walls of the chamber are provided with spaced convex protuberances which cause the water to sweep back and forth from one side of the passageway to the other along a substantially sinusoidal path, the water thus passing back and forth through the tow.

This invention relates to washing apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for washing a moving tow.

In some wet spinning operations the freshly spun synthetic fiber tow is passed through a bath of hot'water to remove the residual solvent from the filaments making up the tow. A major disadvantage of this process is that the washing process is somewhat inefficient. This inefiiciency apparently stems from the fact .that circularion of the hot water around and through the moving tow is poor. Apparently, the wash water clings to the tow to form a boundary layer of water which impedes the washing process. This problem is overcome in the present invention by forcing the heated water to travel back and forth through the tow from one side to the other to thereby break up this boundary layer and thereby better expose the filaments in the tow to the hot water.

One object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for washing a moving strand.

Another object of this invention s to provide an apparatus which thoroughly and eiiiciently washes a tow by forcing heated water back and forth through a tow from one side to the other.

A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for washing a moving tow wherein the tow moves through a hot water carrying passage in the apparatus, the passageway having on opposite walls thereof a plurality of spaced protuberances which force the moving water to sweep back and forth from one side of the passageway to the other.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a tow washing apparatus having a rectangular passageway through which the tow and hot water are passed, opposite walls of the rectangular passageway having thereon a plurality of spaced convex or semi-cylindrical protuberances which cause the 'heated water to sweep back and forth from one side of the passageway to the other along a substantially sinusoidal path.

One embodiment of the present invention contemplates a tow washer having an elongated chamber or passageway through which a moving tow is passed. Heated water is introduced into the chamber at the midpoint thereof and ows outward toward the ends of the chamber. Opposite walls of the chamber are provided with spaced, semi-cylindrical protuberances, the protuberances on one wall being spaced longitudinally from those on the -other wall so that the iiowing water is forced to sweep back and forth from one side of the chamber to the other as it moves therealong. In this manner the hot water is forced back and forth through the moving tow to provide an efficient washing operation.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent when the following detailed description is read in conjunction with the appended drawing, in which FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the invention with portions cut away to show a passageway for carrying a moving tow and heated water,

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 showing the cross-sectional configuration of the passageway, and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary vertical cross sectional view of the apparatus showing the luse of concave deection surfaces used when the convex protuberances are positioned close together.

Referring now in detail to the drawing there is shown a tow washing apparatus 11 having an elongated chamber 12 which has a rectangular cross-sectional configuration. The ends 13 of the chamber 11 are provided with elongated openings 14 through which a wide, thin ribbon of synthetic filaments 17 are moved, the filaments 17 being advanced by rolls 18. The dimension W on the growing (FIGURE 2) gives the width of the openings 14; This may be from 1/2 to 2 times the normal width of the tow. Preferably, it is slightly greater than the normal tow width.

The chamber 12 is provided with an inlet opening 19 through which heated water from a supply 20 is forced. The heated water flows from the inlet opening 19 outward toward opposite ends of 'the chamber 12 and eXits from the chamber 12 through openings 21.

From the drawing, it will be readily apparent that the tow bundle 17 travels substantially along the center line of the chamber 12 with'the hot water flowing from the midpoint of the chamber back and forth through the tow to the outlets 21 at the ends of `the chamber. In order to force the heated water to sweep back and forth through the tow from one side to the other, a plurality of spaced, convex protuberances are secured to the upper and lower walls of the chamber 12. Upper protuberances 23 are so spaced longitudinally from the lower protuberances 24 on the lower wall of the chamber that each upper protuberance 23 is at the midpoint, longitudinally, between two of the lower protuberances 24. The upper protuberances 23 are also so positioned that one of these protuberances is directly opposite the hot water inlet 19.

The

protuberances

23 and 24 extend from the walls of the chamber 12 toward the center line of the chamber a suicient distance to leave only a narrow passageway for the at bundle of filaments 17, this passageway having the verti-cal dimension A. The vertical dimension A of the passageway is the distance between the plane defined by the apices of the upper protuberances 23 to the plane deiined by the apices of the lower protuberances 24. The width of the passageway is the dimension W.

The

protuberances

23 and 24, which are generally semi-cylindrical in cross-sectional configuration, extend towardV the center line of the passageway a distance L (refer to drawing), the dimension L being 4-10 times the dimension A, with the preferred value being 5-7A. The dimension M on the drawing represents one-half the base dimension of each prot-uberance 23 and is in the range of 6-12A with the preferred value being 7-10A. The distance between centers of adjacent protuberances 23 is represented on the drawing by the letter N, the distance or dimension N being 16-32 times the dimension A with a preferred range of 22-26A. The purpose of maintaining a precise relationship between the various dimensions is to insure that the heated water will pass through the chamber along a substantially sinusoidal path. There is some controlled turbulence on the downstream side of each of the protuberances but the ow path of a major portion of the heated water substantially defines a sine curve.

The product of dimension A and dimension W defines the area of the clear space through the water. The dimension A may range from zero to 30 times the normal thickness of the tow. Preferably, the dimension A is 2-3 times the tow thickness when W is the normal tow width.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the heated water is swept back and forth laterally through the tow to provide intimate contact with every filament in the tow and yet the protuberances 23 do not impede water flow to an undesirable extent.

As the protuberances are moved closer together (longitudinally), eddying turbulence between adjacent protuberances will increase. This eddying turbulence can be substantially eliminated by providing the chamber with concave deflection surfaces 28 and 29 (FIGURE 3) which are positioned between and interconnect adjacent protuberances. The concave surfaces and the convex protuberances will dene a substantially sinusoidal path through the chamber. In the event that the

concave surfaces

28 and 29 are used, the dimension L will be the distance from the outermost portion (i. e., most distant from the tow 17) of the concave surface to the plane defined by the apices of the protuberances. The dimension M will be the longitudinal distance from the center of the protuberance to the point of inflection of the curve formed by the concave and convex surfaces (the point at which the concave surface intersections the convex outer surface of the protuberance).

The use of the concave surfaces intersecting the convex protuberances will eliminate eddying turbulence between adjacent protuberances when these protuberances are positioned fairly close together longitudinally.

In operation, the tow 17, which has been flattened to a wide, thin ribbon of filaments is advanced by the rlls 18 through the chamber 12. Hot water is circulated at high speed through the chamber 12 as described above. It can readily be seen that the internal configuration of the chamber 12 will cause the heated water to pass back and forth through the tow from one side to the other, thereby breaking up any boundary layer around every filament and throughly penetrating the tow to provide a superior washing result.

While this apparatus has been described in connection with washing a tow, it may also be used to treat a tow or fabric with either a liquid or gaseous treating medium as, for example, in a fabric dyeing operation.

It is to be understood that the embodiment disclosed herein may be amended or altered and that numerous other embodiments may be contemplated without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for treating a moving strand, comprising an elongated chamber having therein an inlet opening and an outlet opening, means for forcing a treating medium into the inlet opening and through the chamber to the outlet opening, said chamber having on opposite sides of the interior thereof a plurality of spaced protuberances for deflect'ing said treating medium from one side of the chamber to the other, said protuberances each having a convex surface configuration, said protuberances on one side of the chamber being spaced longitudinally from the protuberances on the other side of the chamber in such al manner that each of said protuberances is positioned at the longitudinal midpoint between adjacent protuberances on the opposite side of the chamber, said protuberances having a height L, a base width 2M and a spacing between centers N, where where A is the distance from the plane dened by the apices of the protuberances on one side of the chamber to the plane defined by the apices of the protuberances on the other side of the chamber.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the inlet opening is near the midpoint of the chamber and the outlet opening comprises openings at each end of the chamber.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 where 4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the protuberances are generally semi-cylindrical in cross-sectional configuration with one of said protuberances being positioned across the chamber directly opposite said inlet opening.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the chamber is provided with concave surfaces interconnecting adjacent protuberances, said convex protuberances and concave surfaces forming substantially a sinusoidal path through said chamber.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,897,122 2/1933 Hartmann et al.

2,558,734 7/1951 Cresswell 68--181 3,267,704 8/1966 Muller 68-62 FOREIGN PATENTS 661,941 4/ 1963 Canada.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner.

Claims

1. AN APPARATUS FOR TREATING A MOVING STRAND, COMPRISING AN ELONGATED CHAMBER HAVING THEREIN AN INLET OPENING AND AN OUTLET OPENING, MEANS FOR FORCING A TREATING MEDIUM INTO THE THE INLET OPENING AND THROUGH THE CHAMBER TO THE OUTLET OPENING, SAID CHAMBER HAVING ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE INTERIOR THEREOF A PLURALITY OF SPACED PROTURBERANCES FOR DEFLECTING SAID TREATING MEDIUM FROM ONE SIDE OF THE CHAMBER TO THE OTHER, SAID PROTUBERANCES EACH HAVING A CONVEX SURFACE CONFIGURATION, SAID PROTUBERANCES ON ONE SIDE OF THE CHAMBER BEING SPACED LONGITUDINALLY FROM THE PROTUBERANCES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHAMBER IN SUCH A MANNER THAT EACH OF SAID PROTUBERANCES IS POSITIONED AT THE LONGITUDINAL MIDPOINT BETWEEN ADJACENT PROTUBERANCES ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CHAMBER, SAID