Patent GB-673468-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to the manufacture of fibres of glass or other similar thermoplastic materials
IPC: C03B37/02
Filed: 1949-05-31
Abstract: 673,468. Glass &c, fibres. SOC. ANON. DES MANUFACTURES DES GLACES ET PRODUITS CHIMIQUES DE ST.-GOBAIN, CHAUNY & CIREY. May 31, 1949 [June 1, 1948], No. 14589/49. Class 56. [Also in Groups VIII and IX] Glass &c. fibres having undulations or loops are obtained by mechanically attenuating streamlets issuing from the orifice or orifices 2 of a melting receptacle, and subjecting the resultant fibres, while in a plastic state suitable for attenuation or at least deformation, to a thermal treatment, in particular a cooling action, which is transversely asymmetrical and creates internal properties which deform the fibres. The cooling may be applied continuously along a generating line of the fibre, or a short cooling surface may be used so that the fibre is still plastic when it leaves the surface and is caused to wind so that the cooling takes place along a line of helicoidal shape. The thermal treatment may also be applied discontinuously. (The cooling surface may be formed of polished metal, or of a porous body, porcelain, porous wood, or felt.) As shown the cooling slope comprises a passage 4 through which water circulates closed by a cover 6 secured to a transverse member 7 with felt 8 interposed. The felt is more or less strongly compressed screwing down the cover and permits the water to filter as a thin film of constant thick-' ness over the whole of the front 5, the flow being controlled by regulating the outlet of water at 17. The glass fibres passing over the front 5 come into contact with the water film along a portion of their peripheries only, see Fig. 1a, so that each fibre is given an asymmetric cooling, and becomes undulated. The cooling device is adjusted vertically by means of the nuts 10 screwing on the vertical rod supports, and transversely by the screw 12 which causes the part 13 to pivot about 14. An .alternative device using both a soft and a hard felt permits of a more precise adjustment of the water film. In the apparatus shown in Fig. 3 the cooling is performed by a cylinder 18 of metal or felt which turns in a tray 19 in which water circulates. Fig. 5 shows an apparatus with a roller 20, in which a cooling liquid circulates, which entrains a low freezing point product, e.g. glycerine, from a receptacle 22 by means of a felt 21. The attenuating roller 3 is not vertically beneath the roller 20 so that the fibres contact the latter over a predetermined length and are additionally deformed thereby. Undulations may be formed by a discontinuous cooling, a relaxation of the cooling being brought about by the vaporisation of the film so that the vapour forms a protective sheath around the fibre which prevents cooling for a short instant until the vapour is evacuated. A discontinuous cooling may also be obtained by providing flutings or grooves, particularly longitudinally, on the rollers 18, 20. To reinforce the cooling action heat may be simultaneously applied to the opposite side of the fibre. The fibres have loops of substantially the same diameter and may be used to form felts of improved insulating power, as reinforcements, e.g. in paper products or cementitious materials, or may be used alone or mixed with natural or artificial material to form threads or textiles. Fibres of a diameter not greater than 12 microns with 1 to 3 undulations per cm., located in one or more planes and particularly on helicoidal loops, the undulation wave length being less than 15 mm. with amplitudes comparable with half the length of a wave, are particularly referred to. The dimension &c. of the loops is dependent upon the physical properties of the glass, the superficial tension, the time during which the glass, &c. remains plastic, and the coefficient of expansion, and upon the intensity of the cooling. Specification 673,469 is referred to.