Methods for collecting and loading yarns and apparatuses therefor

A method for collecting yarns and an apparatus therefor which are characterized by that yarns of a plurality of fibrous materials are held and collected by a running belt a part of which is made round into a cylindrical form, run at this state for a prescribed distance together with the belt, and are released from the belt in the collected form, and PA0 a method for loading a bundle of yarns and an apparatus therefor which are characterized by that a cylinder tool which is provided with a ring whose inner diameter is expanded toward the top at one end of the tool is inserted into a cylindrical case, the bundle of yarns is loaded into the cylinder tool from the one end until the top end of the bundle is exposed to the other end of the case, then, the top part of the bundle and the case are held, and the cylinder tool is removed off toward the one end, as the bundle is allowed to remain in the case.

FIELDS OF THE ART 
The present invention relates to methods for collecting yarns comprising a 
plurality of fibrous substances more densely and loading the collected 
yarns into a cylindrical case, and apparatuses therefor. Particularly, the 
present invention relates to improved methods for collecting hollow 
fibers, and loading them into a cylindrical case and apparatuses therefor, 
which are suitable for producing a hollow fiber type of separatory 
apparatus suitable for fluid separation. 
BACKGROUND OF THE ART 
In fluid separation apparatuses, there are several types of membrane forms 
for fluid separation, for example, plane membranes, tubes, hollow fibers, 
etc. Among them, hollow fibers have a large membrane area for the size of 
the case, thus the fluid separation apparatuses therefrom can be 
advantageously made compact and easy to be operated. Today this type of 
the fluid separation apparatuses are primarily used. 
The process for producing fluid separation apparatuses of a hollow fiber 
type comprises (1) forming a bundle of hollow fibers of a prescribed 
count, (2) loading the yarn bundle into a cylindrical case, for example, a 
plastic case, (3) potting the bundle of hollow fibers to both ends of the 
case with a resin such as polyurethane, (4) exposing fiber openings by 
cutting both potted ends of the bundle and (5) fixing the product to the 
headers. 
Collection of hollow fibers into a bundle and encasement thereof have been 
mainly performed manually conventionally, thus the quality of the products 
tends to vary too widely, and the production efficiency remains low, thus, 
the development of a new efficient production method has been desired 
eagerly. 
In the production of a bundle of hollow fibers of a prescribed count, the 
total cross-section of the bundle is generally formed into a flat, round 
or square shape, depending on the cases, and the cross section of the 
bundle is required to be almost the same as the inner cross section of the 
case, and the sizes of the cross section, namely the diameter, if the 
cross section is round, or the major and minor axes, if elliptical, or the 
length and width, if rectangular, should be the same as or just a little 
smaller than those of the case, when a bundle is loaded into the case. 
When it satisfies these conditions, the bundle of yarn fibers formed can be 
readily loaded into the case, but, if not, the shape of its cross-section 
should be modified. 
Heretofore, it has been ordinary that the shape modification of the cross 
section is mainly performed manually because of the difficulty of the 
modification of the cross section by an apparatus. In addition, the bundle 
of hollow fibers which has been modified by hand is usually loaded into 
the case by hand carefully and slowly. Such handiwork, however, must 
largely rely on the art of each worker, resulting in fluctuations in the 
product quality as well as the productivity. The present invention is to 
resolve these problems. 
Moreover, with reference to the production of a fluid separation apparatus 
of a hollow fiber type such as a hemodialyzer, one of conventional methods 
for loading a bundle of permselective hollow fibers into the cylindrical 
case of a fluid separator comprises binding each bundle of hollow fibers 
with a tape at both ends and pushing one end of the bundle forcibly by 
hand into the case, or connecting a string through the cylindrical case to 
one end of the yarn bundle and pulling the other end of the string to 
introduce the bundle into the case. 
In these conventional methods, a skilled worker is required to adjust the 
form of the fiber bundles by hand for inserting them into the cylindrical 
case one by one carefully, and such low efficiencies of these operations 
have been the bottle neck for efficient production of the fluid separation 
apparatuses of a hollow fiber type with productivity increased. In 
addition, the friction with the wall surface on the insertion tends to 
disturb the parallelism of the hollow fibers, and sometimes causes 
deterioration such as breakage of the hollow fibers, which results in 
lower productivity of such fluid separators. 
Recently, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 54711/1985 has 
proposed a method that the bundle of hollow fibers is previously wrapped 
with a sheet so that one end of the bundle is hidden, while the other 
exposed, then inserted into one opening of the case from the hidden end 
and only the sheet is pulled out of the other opening, and Japanese Patent 
Laid-open No. 86,906/1986 has disclosed a method that the bundle of hollow 
fibers is previously wrapped with a cylindrical bag to which a string is 
attached at one end so that the other end of the string contacts one end 
of the hollow fiber bundle, and loaded into the outer case by introducing 
the wrapped bundle from the end to which the string is attached into the 
protection cylinder case and pulling off the cylindrical bag by drawing 
the string. The preliminary operation to wrap the hollow fiber bundle, 
however, are very complicated, in particular, the process tends to become 
complicated, when the bundle is loaded into a cylindrical case by an 
automated system. Thus, further improvement has been desired. 
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide improved methods for 
collecting a bundle of fiber yarns and an apparatus therefor which 
overcome these conventional defects, with production efficiency and 
stability increased. Particularly, an object of the present invention is 
to improve the method for collecting a bundle of hollow fibers, comprising 
one step of the process for producing fluid separation apparatuses of a 
hollow fiber type where highdensity loading of the bundle is required. 
Another object of the present invention is to enable the production of 
fluid separation apparatuses of a hollow fiber type in stabilized and 
increased productivity by optimizing the process for loading a bundle of 
hollow fibers into a cylindrical case for automation. 
The inventors have made an intensified investigation to achieve such 
objects and reached the yarn-collecting method and apparatuses therefor of 
this invention by finding that it is very effective to hold said yarns 
with an endless belt means. 
In addition, the present inventors have found that a bundle of hollow 
fibers can be loaded into a cylindrical case efficiently and stably 
without any adverse effect on the bundle, by inserting previously a 
cylinder tool having a tapered open ring at one end into the cylindrical 
case first, then loading the bundle of said yarns from the tapered opening 
through the cylinder tool into the case, and thus, reached the loading 
method and apparatuses therefor of this invention. 
In other words, the present invention comprises the following: 
A method of collecting yarns in a form of a bundle which is characterized 
by the following steps in combination, holding said yarns by a running 
belt means a part of which is made round into a cylindrical form by 
closing tight, moving said yarns with the belt means for a predetermined 
distance while being held by the belt means, and then releasing said yarns 
from the belt means; 
An apparatus for collecting yarns in the form of a bundle, which comprises 
a means for feeding said yarns, and a belt means which is capable of 
holding said yarns by being made into a cylindrical form, moving with said 
yarns for a predetermined distance while holding said yarns and then 
releasing said yarns; 
A method of loading a bundle of yarns into a cylindrical case which is 
characterized by following steps in combination, inserting a cylinder tool 
having a ring having an inner diameter which is expanded toward the top of 
the ring at one end of the cylinder tool into the cylindrical case, 
loading the bundle of yarns into the cylinder tool from said one end until 
the end of the bundle is exposed at the other end of the tool, holding 
both the exposed end of the bundle and the cylindrical case, and then 
extracting the cylinder tool toward said one end of the tool as the bundle 
is allowed to remain in the cylindrical case; and 
An apparatus for loading a bundle of yarns which comprises a means for 
feeding a bundle of yarns whose at least one end is wound with a taping 
material, a means for fixing a cylinder tool having a ring whose inner 
diameter is expanded toward the top of the ring at one end of the tool, a 
means for holding and transferring the cylindrical case, and a means for 
holding the end of the yarn bundle and transferring the bundle, and a 
means for controlling a series of the following operations: putting the 
cylindrical case on the cylinder tool from the other end of the tool, 
inserting the bundle of yarns into the tool from said one end of the tool, 
until the end of the bundle is exposed to the other end of the tool, then, 
the end of the bundle is held and the case and the bundle are 
simultaneously moved toward the other end of the tool.

In these Figures, 21 is a ring having tapered opening, 22 is the inner 
surface, 23 is a supporter, 24 is the part to be cut, 25 is a sleeve, 26 
is the cylindrical case, 27 is the bundle of hollow fibers, 28 is an 
adhesive tape and 29 and 30 are holding means. The best embodiment for 
carrying out the invention is set forth below. 
FIG. 1 is a front view showing the structure of a yarn-collecting apparatus 
which is an embodiment of this invention, while FIG. 2 is a plane view 
showing the state where a bundle of hollow fibers is suitably collected by 
means of an endless belt means 2, a belt-rounding jig means 3 and a 
collecting nozzle means 4 into an almost appropriate shape and loaded into 
the case 5. The endless belt means 2 is driven by rollers 6, 7 or 8. The 
arrows in the Figures indicate the moving directions of the bundle of 
hollow fibers, the belt means or rollers. 
In other words, a bundle of hollow fibers 1 is extended in almost parallel 
preliminarily and fed to the apparatus according to the invention, in 
which said yarns are collected into a bundle of yarns more densely, as it 
runs with the endless belt means 2 while being held with the belt means a 
part of which is made round into a cylindrical form by the belt-rounding 
jig means 3. 
At the start, the bundle of hollow fibers 1 may be fed near the 
belt-rounding jig means 3 by holding it with a robot (not shown in the 
Figure), or it is also possible to install a belt conveyer (not shown in 
the Figure) which runs at the same speed as the endless belt means does, 
behind the roller 8, and drives it synchronously with the roller 8. 
In some cases, the bundle of yarns 1 rises, as it is collected from a wide 
form to a dense and narrow form, until it expands over from the overlapped 
belt edges. In such a case, the expansion can be prevented by placing a 
roller or a guide 10 on the position to press the expansion of the bundle 
of said yarns 1. 
The endless belt means 2 is made round into a cylindrical form, just like a 
layer sheet in a rolled "SUSHI", after it passes through the belt-rounding 
jig means 3. 
The bundle of hollow fibers 1 is collected by the belt-rounding jig means 3 
and shaped into the finally right cross-sectional form by the collecting 
nozzle means 4, then loaded into the case 5 which is located in front of 
the bundle in this situation. It is a matter of course that the shape of 
the collecting nozzle means 4 should be designed accurately to the inner 
cross section of the case 5. The belt-rounding jig means 3 may be 
integrated with the collecting nozzle means 4, or the belt-rounding jig 
means 3 can also work as a collecting nozzle means 4 or vise versa. 
The bundle of hollow fibers 1 loaded in the case 5 is cut with a cutter 
such as a knife in an appropriate length, by allowing the endless belt 
means 2 to stop tentatively, when the top of the bundle 9 comes to a 
prescribed position, and binding the bundle 1 with an adhesive tape 14 or 
the like at a predetermined position between the collecting nozzle means 4 
and the case 5, so that the adhesive tape 14 is left at both ends after 
cutting. The endless belt means 2 is tentatively stopped by, for example, 
using a switch equipped with a light detector 12 at the top end 9. After 
completion of cutting, the case into which the bundle of hollow fibers has 
been loaded is removed and a new empty case is set to the position and the 
next operations can be repeated automatically. 
When the endless belt means 2 is made round into a cylindrical form by the 
jig means 3, the reversion of overlapped belt edges is undesirable during 
the operation, because a part of said yarns in the bundle are nipped and 
damaged by the endless belt means 3. In order to prevent such phenomena, 
guide pins may be set before and after the jig means 3 to make the overlap 
of the belt edges constant or the jib means 3 may be bored perpendicularly 
to the belt-running direction and pressurized air is introduced from the 
hole to make the overlap constant. The endless belt means 2 runs at such a 
state as the bundle of said yarns 1 is held with the endless belt means, 
and the bundle of said yarns 1 also runs at the same speed as the belt 
means 2 does resultantly. 
The bundle of said yarns 1 goes to the collecting nozzle means 4, and the 
nozzle means 4 is required to have the outlet of an appropriate shape 
suitable for the bundle of hollow fibers 1 and the inner cross section of 
the case 5. The collecting nozzle means 4 can decide the final cross 
section of the bundle of hollow fibers 1, and allows the endless belt 
means 2 to turn to the side opposite to said yarns and unfold the belt 
means 2. Thus, the distance from the point where the bundle of hollow 
fibers is held with the endless belt means 2 to the point where the 
holding is released, is practically about 5 cm to about 200 cm, preferably 
10 cm to 200 cm. 
Any belt can be used in this invention as long as it suits the object of 
this invention, but in general, rubber belts or cloth belts can be 
preferably used. Examples of such belts are a cloth-layered rubber belt 
which has a structure in which a couple of cloth sheets coated with an 
adhesive rubber on both of their surfaces are laminated and covered with 
covering rubber sheets, respectively, a steel-code belt which is prepared 
by laminating covering rubber sheet onto both surfaces of a steel code 
layer, a rubber belt made of only rubber or a woven fabric belt which is 
prepared by coating or impregnating woven cloth with a resin, and a 
cloth-layered rubber belt, a woven fabric belt or the like is preferred. 
The material of the covering rubber sheets is not particularly limited, 
but natural rubber, isoprene rubber, butyl rubber, neoprene rubber, NBR, 
SBR, urethane rubber, or silicone rubber can be cited practically. 
Examples of resins for coating and impregnation are polyurethane, 
silicones or epoxide resins. The belt means for this invention is 
practically flat, 0.5 to 2 mm thick and 4 to 20 cm wide, and made endless 
into a ring. 
The method for loading a bundle of yarns and an apparatus therefor of this 
invention are characterized by use of a cylinder tool which has a tapered 
opening ring whose diameter is expanded toward the end. A preferable 
embodiment of such a cylinder tool is shown in FIG. 3. In other words, the 
cylinder tool in FIG. 3 has, at one end, a ring 21 whose inner surface 22 
is expanded toward the end, and has a supporter 23 for fixing the ring 21, 
further includes a substantially cylindrical sleeve 25 which is made by 
overlapping the cut edges 24 of a sheet and is tapered toward the opposite 
end of the ring 21. 
A preferred example of the ring are a metallic ring which is made of 
stainless steel or aluminum whose inner surface is at least coated with a 
fluorine-containing resin such as polytetrafluoroethylene or a silicone 
resin or satin-finished to reduce the friction with the bundle of hollow 
fibers, or a plastic ring which is made of a fluorine-containing resin or 
the like. The sleeve is preferably made from a plastic sheet such as a 
fluorine-containing or olefin resin sheet and, may be embossed, if 
necessary, to reduce the friction with the bundle of hollow fibers. 
The method for loading of this invention is such that a cylinder tool is 
inserted into a cylindrical case for a fluid separation apparatus, a 
bundle of yarns such as a bundle of permselective-hollow fibers is loaded 
from the ring-equipped side into the inside of the cylinder tool, until 
the top end of the bundle of the yarns is exposed to the other end of the 
cylinder case. FIGS. 4 and 5 show these preferable embodiments. In other 
words, a cylindrical case 26 is put on the cylinder tool as shown in FIG. 
3 equipped with a ring 21 and a sleeve 25 from the top of the sleeve, as 
shown in FIG. 4, then, a bundle of hollow fibers 27 which is bound with 
adhesive tapes 28 at both ends is loaded into the sleeve 25 from the side 
of the ring 21, as shown in FIG. 5. A long bundle of fibers which is wound 
with an adhesive tape only at the top end also may be loaded into the 
sleeve only at the head part. In this case, it is preferred that the 
bundle of said yarns is loaded into the case by a prescribed length, wound 
with an adhesive tape near the ring 21, and the loaded bundle is cut off 
with a knife or the like. 
In addition, the loading method of this invention is such that the exposed 
part of the bundle of hollow fibers loaded into the case and the case are 
held and the cylinder tool is pulled off to the ring side, as the bundle 
is left in the case. The preferred embodiment is shown in FIG. 6. In other 
words, the product obtained by operations as shown in FIGS. 3 through 5 is 
supported by holding the case 26 with a holding means 29 and the exposed 
end of the hollow fiber bundle 27 with a holding means 30, respectively, 
and both of them are transferred at the same speed to the side of holding 
means 30 to pull out only the cylinder tool having a ring 21 which is 
fixed by a means for fixing and a sleeve 25 whereby a cylindrical case 
packed with a bundle of hollow fibers is obtained. 
Thus, a bundle of permselective hollow fibers can be loaded into a 
cylindrical case stably and efficiently without damage to the bundle. The 
cylinder tool may be made movable, but the stationary installation is more 
suitable for automation, as shown in FIGS. 3 through 6, with productivity 
increased. In the loading method according to this invention, in case that 
the cylinder tool is fixed, automated loading becomes possible by 
combining the means for feeding a bundle of hollow fibers with a means for 
holding and transferring the cylindrical case as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, 
and by providing a means for controlling each means to repeat a series of 
processes in order for putting the cylindrical case on the cylinder tool 
(FIG. 4), then loading a bundle of hollow fibers into a cylindrical case 
(FIG. 5), and transferring the case packed with the yarn bundle (FIG. 6). 
Said yarns in this invention may be any kinds of fibrous materials of 
plural counts, however, a plurality of hollow fibers are more effective. 
Especially, examples of fibrous material which are preferably used in this 
invention are hollow fibers having permselectivity, which can be used in 
fluid separation such as liquid separation, for example, dialysis, reverse 
osmosis, ultrafiltration, or gas separation, for example, oxygen 
enrichment. The fibrous material also may be hollow fibers which are used 
as a support for forming permselective membranes by coating or the like. 
The hollow fibers particularly suitable for the present invention can be 
used in treatment for body fluid such as hemodialysis, blood filtration, 
plasma separation, ascites treatment or artificial lungs. 
The material of such hollow fibers is not particularly limited, but 
cellulose, cellulose esters, polyethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer, 
poly(methyl methacrylate) polysulfone, polyether sulfone, 
polyacrylonitrile and other polymers can be used in case of body fluid 
treatment. 
The cross section of such hollow fibers is usually round, but it may be 
modified, for example, a finned shape or two lines of hollow fibers bonded 
to each other at their external periphery. Further, the hollow fibers may 
be crimped, or may be wound in spiral with other fine fibers. 
The hollow fiber has an inner diameter 10 to 1,000 microns, preferably 20 
to 300 microns, while its wall thickness is 3 to 300 microns, preferably 
5-100 microns, particularly 6-30 microns. 
The count of said yarns in this invention is 2,000 to 200,000, preferably 
5,000 to 20,000, because the effect of this invention is advantageously 
manifested. 
A fluid separation apparatus of a hollow fiber type can be produced more 
effectively and stably by the methods of this invention, and the fluid 
separation apparatus can be used in fluid treatment such as reverse 
osmosis, ultrafiltration or dialysis, or gas treatment such as oxygen 
enrichment or helium separation. Particularly, the methods of this 
invention enables easy loading of a bundle of hollow fibers stably with 
increased productivity, even in production of blood-treating apparatuses 
such as a hemodialyzer, blood filter, plasma separator or artificial lung 
in which the damage of hollow fibers must be avoided to the utmost. 
POSSIBILITY OF INDUSTRIAL USE 
The method for collecting a bundle of yarns and an apparatus therefor 
according to this invention can automatically collect a bundle of fibrous 
materials such as hollow fibers more densely, and can automatically repeat 
a series of operations of loading the bundle of said yarns into a case, 
stopping at an appropriate position and cutting the bundle of said yarns 
at a predetermined position, whereby a bundle of straightened yarns of 
almost equal length is readily obtained in a very high productive 
stability. Further, the operations of exchanging the case loaded with a 
bundle of hollow fibers with a new, empty case also can be automatically 
made. 
The method for loading a bundle of yarns and an apparatus therefor 
according to this invention can load efficiently a bundle of permselective 
hollow fibers into a cylindrical case for a fluid separation apparatus 
without damage to the bundle, and, in particular, an automated system 
which can conduct the method of this invention enables loading of a bundle 
of hollow fibers in very high efficiency and increased productivity. 
In other words, the present invention is an epochmaking, big stride of 
innovation to bring about a great labor saving in the production process, 
a great increase in productivity and a stabilization of quality.