Patent ID: 6406287
Filing Date: 2002-06-18
Classification: D01G,D04H

Abstract:
A device for forming fiber balls out of elongated fibers carried in an air flow, wherein the device comprises:a frame, a stator chamber fixed to the frame and having a circular cross section and an inner wall; a rotor also having a circular cross section and being arranged coaxially within the stator chamber and rotatable around its shaft, whereby the rotor has on its periphery a plurality of radial blades at mutual peripheral distances and at a short distance from the inner wall of the stator chamber in order to form an annular intermediate space extending over the axial length of the rotor between the inner wall of the stator chamber and the blades of the rotor; means fastened to the frame and functionally connected to the shaft of the rotor for rotating the rotor; an input opening at one end of the stator chamber for directing fibers carried by the air flow into said intermediate space as a turbulent flow propagating spirally in the direction of the shaft; and an output opening at the opposite end of the stator chamber in order to remove and to separate from the air flow the fiber balls formed in said intermediate space, wherein the stator chamber and the rotor are substantially conical for mutually positioning in the axial direction.