Patent ID: 6723033
Filing Date: 2004-04-20
Classification: A24D

Abstract:
A system for manufacturing a filter, comprising:an arrangement for establishing a continuous strand of material and moving the strand along a path: a particle delivery arrangement for repetitively drawing a metered amount of particulate material at a first location and releasing the drawn, metered amount of particulate material at a delivery location, the delivery location being along the strand path; the establishing arrangement including a unit located upstream of the delivery location for at least partially opening the established continuous strand of fibrous material so that at the delivery location the released particulate material is released into the at least partially opened continuous strand, whereby a particle location is defined along the strand; a unit located downstream of the delivery location for closing the at least partially opened continuous strand of fibrous material so as to fixedly capture the metered, released particulate material at the particle location in the closed strand; and a first drum adjacent the delivery location, the drum including a plurality of vacuum communicating holes along a perimeter of the drum adapted to form a recess at spaced locations along the continuous strand of fibrous material, wherein the first drum is located beneath the continuous strand of fibrous material at the delivery location such that the released particulate material is at least partially received in one of the recesses at the delivery location.