Patent Abstract:
The present invention provides an electret nonwoven filter medium comprising a nonwoven filter web of electrostatically charged fibrillated fibers ultrasonically joined to each other at a plurality of spots distributed across said nonwoven filter web, the total surface occupied by said spots being less than 5% of the surface of said nonwoven filter web and the number of spots per square centimeter being at least 2. The present invention also provides a method of making the electret nonwoven filter medium.

Full Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to an electret nonwoven filter medium that has been ultrasonically consolidated at a plurality of spots. The present invention further relates to a process for producing the nonwoven filter medium.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Nonwoven webs of electret fibers are typically formed of loosely associated fibers. The filters can be electrostatically charged prior to, during, or after, being formed into a nonwoven web. A particularly effective method of forming a nonwoven electret fiber filter is described in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 30,782 (Van Turnhout et al.). The electret fibers in this patent are formed from a corona charged film that is fibrillated to form the charged fibers. The charged fibers can then be formed into a nonwoven web by common methods such as carding or air laying. This charging method provides a particularly high density of injected charges. However, problems are encountered with forming webs from these precharged fibrillated fibers. The fibers are generally quite large and uncrimped. They also have a resistance to bending. Due in part to these properties, the fibers resist formation into a uniform coherent web, particularly at low basis weights. U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,800 proposes needle punching of the filter web of fibrillated fibers to a reinforcement scrim so as to produce a filter that has substantially uniform properties across the web. However, the mandatory use of a reinforcement scrim in this method can produce an additional pressure drop of the filter. Also, the obtained uniformity should desirably be further improved. Moreover, because of the needle punching, the manufacturing speed of the filter medium is substantially limited.  
           [0003]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,682, provides an alternative method for making a more uniform web. In order to provide a more coherent web, as well as one that resists shedding fibers, this patent proposes a post-embossing treatment. This post-embossing welds the outer surface fibers together allegedly providing a more coherent and comfortable web for use as a face mask. However, this treatment will also tend to result in a more condensed web, which would increase pressure loss over the filter.  
           [0004]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,767 describes a thermal spot embossing step to reinforce a nonwoven web of electrostatically charged and fibrillated dielectric fibers so as to obtain a web of high strength which is free from self dusting. The embossing ratio mentioned in this U.S.-patent is between 2 and 35% of the total surface of the filter. U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,767 also mentions that it could be contemplated to use ultrasonic welding instead of thermal embossing of the nonwoven web. However, according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,767 this would be difficult and it would not be possible to make thin filters. Also, the filters would allegedly be poor in toughness. Moreover, since ultrasonic equipment is generally limited to fairly narrow width webs, additional difficulties would arise in producing a filter web that has dimensions exceeding the width of typical ultrasonic equipment.  
           [0005]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,305 teaches the use of ultrasonic welding techniques to spot laminate a plurality of nonwoven filter webs of melt blown fibers so as to produce a high efficiency filter and disclose arranging several ultrasonic units next to each other so as to be able to weld the laminate across its full width. The different units are then powered by a single controller. It appears that such an arrangement would not be suitable to consolidate a nonwoven filter web so as to produce a filter with uniform properties across its surface.  
           [0006]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,436,054 mentions embossing, ultrasonic welding and needle punching to join a network of reticulated fleeces of electret partially split films together so as to improve the dimensional stability of the electret filter. However, no particular details of these methods are given.  
           [0007]    It is accordingly a desire of the present invention to provide a further method to provide an electret nonwoven filter medium that has uniform properties across its surface and that can be produced at higher speed and therefore at a lower cost. It is further desirable to provide an electret nonwoven filter medium that can be readily converted into a pleated filter with minimum manufacturing burden. The electret nonwoven filter medium can preferably be produced over a broad range of basis weight and preferably has a low pressure drop. Desirably, the performance of the filter medium is improved such as for example the filtration efficiency and particle loading capacity of the filter medium.  
         DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    In one aspect, the present invention provides an electret nonwoven filter medium comprising a nonwoven filter web of electrostatically charged fibrillated fibers ultrasonically joined to each other at a plurality of spots distributed across the nonwoven filter web. The total surface occupied by the spots is less than 5% of the surface of the nonwoven filter web, preferably the surface occupied by the spots is in the range of 0.2 to 2, more preferably 0.5 to 1.5%. The shape of the spots is not particularly limited but is generally square, rectangular or circular. The size of each of the individual spots is typically less than 10 −2  cm 2  and is preferably in the range of 10 −3  to 10 −2  cm 2 . The number of spots per cm 2  is at least 2 and is typically in the range of 2 to 5. The number of spots necessary per cm 2  will generally depend on the basis weight of the non-woven filter web with a low basis weight requiring more spots and a high basis weight generally requiring less spots.  
           [0009]    It was found that an electret nonwoven filter medium in accordance with the present invention has highly uniform filter properties across the web and can be produced at an increased speed relative to a method involving needle punching thereby minimizing the manufacturing costs. Furthermore, the use of a scrim layer is not necessary to maintain the uniform filter properties and the electret nonwoven filter medium can be conveniently used to make a pleated filter by ultrasonically welding a netting to the filter medium which will provide the necessary stiffness to the medium so as to be able to pleat the filter medium. The electret nonwoven filter medium was further found to have a good strength and dimensional stability making it suitable for a variety of filter applications. For example, it was found that for a web having a basis weight of at least 50 g/m 2 , ultrasonically welding suffices to obtain a dimensionally stable web without the need for any additional supporting layers such as a netting or a scrim, thus resulting in reduced pressure drop.  
           [0010]    In a further aspect of the present invention, a method is provided to produce a filter medium as described above. In accordance with the method of the present invention to produce the filter medium, electrostatically charged dielectric fibrillated fibers are produced. This can be readily accomplished by the methods that have been described in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 30,782 (Van Turnhout et al.) and U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 31,285 (Van Turnhout et al.). The method described in these patents comprises feeding a film of a high molecular weight non-polar substance, stretching the film, homopolarly charging the stretched film with the aid of corona elements and fibrillating the stretched charged film. Suitable film forming materials include polyolefins, such as polypropylene, linear low density polyethylene, poly-1-butene, polytetrafluoroethylene, polytrifluorochloroethylene; or polyvinylchloride; aromatic polyarenes; such as polystyrene; polycarbonates; polyesters; and copolymers and blends thereof. Preferred are polyolefins free of branched alkyl radicals and copolymers thereof. Particularly preferred are polypropylene and polypropylene copolymers. Various functional additives known in the art can be blended with the dielectric polymers or copolymers such as poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,399, a fatty acid metal salt, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,504, or particulates, as per U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,648.  
           [0011]    The film may be charged in any of the known ways. For example, the film may be locally bilaterally charged by means of corona elements that carry on either side of the film equal but opposite potentials. Thereby the film is charged to almost twice as high a voltage as by means of unilateral charging, at one and the same corona voltage. The charged polymeric film material can be fibrillated in several ways. For example, a needle roller with metal needles running against the film can be used. Thereafter, the continuous fibers may be cut to a desired length.  
           [0012]    The obtained electrostatically charged fibers can then be formed into a nonwoven web layer through carding or air laying or any other web forming process. In order to increase the basis weight to the nonwoven filter web, it may further be subjected to a randomizer or a cross-lapping operation.  
           [0013]    To consolidate the non-woven filter web the fibers are ultrasonically joined to each other at the plurality of spots (at least 2 per cm 2 ) that occupy less than 5% of the surface of the nonwoven filter web. To effect this consolidation, the non-woven filter web is generally transported through a gap that is maintained between an ultrasonic vibrating unit and a mating tool of an ultrasonic device. The gap, i.e., the distance between the vibrating unit and the mating tool of the ultrasonic device is generally kept constant while consolidating the non-woven filter web. By “constant” in this connection is meant that the gap should not deviate more than 20% of the desired value, preferably not more than 10%. If the non-woven filter web has dimensions exceeding 30 cm to 50 cm, it is preferred to put several ultrasonic devices in parallel next to each other along the direction of the web that is perpendicular to the direction in which the web is being transported. Although horns are available today that have a width of up to 60 cm, such horns may not provide the desired uniformity. To produce a highly uniform web when putting two or more horns in parallel, the gap in each of the individual ultrasonic devices (horn-anvil arrangement) is preferably controlled independently. That is, the gap in each of the ultrasonic devices is controlled independent of the gap in another ultrasonic device.  
           [0014]    An ultrasonic device that is particularly suitable for use in connection with the present invention has been described in WO 96/14202 and is commercially available from Herrmann Ultraschalltechnik in Germany. Such an ultrasonic device comprises a rigidly mounted vibrating unit and a mating tool which is preferably a rotating drum. A gap is maintained between the vibrating unit (weld horn) and mating tool (anvil) and this gap can be adjusted prior and during the ultrasonic welding operation through an adjusting device that is also rigidly mounted. The gap between the mating tool and vibrating unit is maintained constant through a controller which steers the adjusting device in response to a measurement that is indicative of a changing gap. For example, the gap can be controlled by an inductively working sensor that is mounted on the rotating anvil drum. Signals from the sensor are wirelessly transmitted to the controller which detects difference with a target value and compensates for any changes via the adjusting device. Alternatively, a force sensor can be included in the vibrating unit to measure the welding force at regular intervals, for example once per revolution of the anvil drum. The controller can then compare the measured force with a target value and adjust the gap if necessary through the adjusting device. This method may be called force control of the gap. In the force control method, the gap may fluctuate because the welding force will depend on the thickness of the web as well as the distance between the horn and anvil. As a result of thickness variations in the web, the gap may fluctuate to keep a target welding force. Force control is the preferred method in this invention. Voltage control is a still further method that can be employed to keep the gap constant. In this method, the vibrating unit and mating tool are part of a low voltage circuit. Shortly before the vibrating unit would touch the anvil drum, the circuit would close and the controller would receive a signal to retract the vibrating unit to a programmed position through the adjusting device. Then the vibrating unit is automatically lowered again step by step until the next retraction is necessary. This loop ensures a precise small gap between the horn and anvil.  
           [0015]    As mentioned above, the mating tool, i.e. anvil, of the ultrasonic device is preferably a rotating drum. The surface of this rotating drum is generally patterned to produce a desired pattern of spots in the nonwoven filter web where the fibers of the web are consolidated. The pattern may be a irregular pattern whereby the spots will be distributed irregular across the web. The pattern may also be regular or a repeating irregular pattern. Examples of patterns that may be used are illustrated below in the drawings.  
           [0016]    The non-woven filter web may be transported on a scrim layer through the gap between the vibrating unit and mating tool of the ultrasonic device if a scrim layer is desired. The scrim material will generally comprise a thermoplastic material such that the scrim layer can be ultrasonically bonded to the non-woven filter web at the spots simultaneously with the consolidation of the nonwoven filter web at the spots. The scrim layer material can be any known reinforcement scrim, woven or nonwoven. Nonwoven scrims are generally preferred in terms of cost and degree of openness. The scrim material is also preferably polymeric, and for purposes of recyclability, preferably formed of a polymer ultrasonically bondable with the material of the electret nonwoven web. A scrim of nonwoven material will generally be treated to increase tensile properties such as by thermoembossing, calandaring, sonic bonding, binder fibers or the like. A typical scrim material would be a spunbond polypropylene nonwoven web. An alternative scrim layer for use in this invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,769. The scrim disclosed in this latter patent has discrete individual open areas with an average cross-sectional area as viewed from the plane of the filter media of at least 0.25 mm 2 , generally between 0.25 mm 2  and 10 mm 2 . The weight of this scrim is generally between 0.1 g/m 2  and 0.4 g/m 2 . The scrim disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,769 that is preferably used in this invention is a cross laminated web of polyethylene fibers which can be readily ultrasonically bonded to the filter media of this invention. When the non-woven filter web is transported on the scrim layer, the latter will generally underly the filter web. However, it is also possible to include a scrim layer between two or more nonwoven web layers which can then be consolidated and bonded to the scrim layer in the ultrasonic device.  
           [0017]    Alternatively, the non-woven filter web may also be transported on a paper web that is not affected by the ultrasonic welding operation. This paper web can be recollected after the ultrasonic welding operation leaving a ultrasonically consolidated filter web without a scrim layer.  
           [0018]    If a pleatable electret nonwoven filter medium is desired, a netting can be laminated to the non-woven filter medium to provide the necessary stiffness allowing it to be pleated. With the term netting in connection with the present invention is meant a highly open network of fairly thick fibers. Generally the fibers of a netting will have a thickness between 0.5 and 1.5 mm, defining between them generally regularly shaped open areas of an average cross-sectional area between 1 mm 2  and 20 mm 2 . It is a further advantage of the manufacturing method of the present invention that such a netting can be laminated to the nonwoven filter medium simultaneous with the ultrasonic consolidation of the web. In particular, the netting will typically comprise a thermoplastic material and the netting can be transported together with the nonwoven filter web through the gap of the ultrasonic devices where the fibers of the web are ultrasonically joined to each other at the plurality of spots. At the same time, the thermoplastic netting will become ultrasonically bonded to the non-woven filter web at these spots. The thus obtained electret nonwoven filter medium can be pleated by any of the known pleating techniques and is thus suitable for the manufacture of a pleated filter. Accordingly, a pleatable electret nonwoven filter medium with uniform properties can be produced in a convenient and cost effective way. In particular, the method of the present invention is more convenient and cost effective than prior art methods in which the netting material needs to be glued or otherwise laminated to the filter web in a separate lamination step.  
           [0019]    The electret nonwoven filter medium of the present invention may further be laminated to further filter layers. For example, the electret nonwoven filter medium may be laminated with a nonwoven filter layer of melt blown microfibers (BMF layer). The advantage of such a laminate would be that the electret nonwoven filter medium would act as a prefilter to the nonwoven filter layer of melt blown micro-fibers which would otherwise easily get clogged. Thus, the electret nonwoven filter medium of the present invention, which is generally a more open structure then the BMF layer would collect the large particle in a fluid to be filtered and the BMF would filter out particles that would otherwise pass the electret nonwoven filter medium of the invention. The method of the present invention, allows for a convenient, cost efficient and reliable production of such a laminate because the BMF layer can be ultrasonically bonded to the nonwoven filter web while the latter is being ultrasonically consolidated. Furthermore, the filter web of the invention has been found to have an improved efficiency thus resulting in a more effective pre-filter resulting in a longer lifetime of a filter arrangement including such a pre-filter. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]    The invention is further illustrated with reference to the following drawings without however the intention to limit the invention thereto.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 1 is a partial and schematic representation of an ultrasonic device comprising vibrating units and a mating tool in form of a rotating drum.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial view of the rotating drum as shown in FIG. 1.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a second embodiment of a rotating drum.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of an enlarged portion of the second embodiment of the ultra-sonic device comprising a rotating drum as shown in FIG. 3.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 5 is a planar view of an ultrasonically joined non-woven electret filter medium obtained through the use of an ultrasonic device comprising a rotating drum configuration according to FIGS. 1 and 2.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 6 is a planar view of an ultrasonically joined non-woven electret filter medium obtained through the use of an ultrasonic device comprising a rotating drum configuration according to FIGS. 3 and 4.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 7 is a side view of equipment for the ultrasonic joining of non-woven electret filter media in accordance with FIG. 1.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 8 is a side view of a second embodiment for the ultrasonic joining of a non-woven electret filter medium together with a thermoplastic netting.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 9 is a side view of a third embodiment of ultrasonically joining non-woven filter medium together with a thermoplastic netting and a scrim.  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 10 is a side view through an ultrasonic device in accordance with FIG. 1 comprising several ultrasonic vibrating units arranged next to each other.  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 11 shows a side view of one of the ultrasonic devices in accordance with FIG. 10 showing one method of a gap control.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 12 shows a diagram of the efficiency versus the dust particle size for non-woven filter media according to the invention in comparison to a needle punched filter medium.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0033]    [0033]FIG. 1 shows a device  10  for the ultrasonic joining of an electret non-woven filter medium  12 . The basic components of the device are vibrating units  14 ,  16  in the form of weld horns driven by driving units. Typically several weld horns  14 ,  16  are arranged next to each other to allow an ultrasonic joining of a relatively wide electret non-woven filter medium  12 . The weld horns  14 , 16  cooperate with a mating tool or an anvil, which in this embodiment has the form of a rotating drum  18 . Only the drum  18  itself and its axle  20  are shown in FIG. 1. The rotating drum  18  has an outer, essentially cylindrical surface  22 , which is provided with a multiplicity of protrusions  24 . During the ultrasonic joining the electret non-woven filter medium is moving in the direction of arrow  26  and the rotating drum in the direction of arrow  28 . The weld horns  14 ,  16  and the protrusions  24  of rotating drum  18  are arranged in a manner that they form a small gap (with the filter medium placed between the weld horns  14 ,  16  and the protrusions  24  of the drum) the gap being so small that at the points of the protrusions  24  the energy density is high enough to achieve the ultrasonic welding.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 2 shows an enlarged view of the surface  22  of the rotating drum  18  and the protrusions  24 . These protrusions are integrally formed with the surface  22  of the rotating drum through generally known methods such as machining, spark welding and the like. The rotating drum is up to one meter or more in length and it has a diameter of several decimeters.  
         [0035]    An alternative method is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The rotating drum  18  with its axle  20  is provided with a spiral grove  30  as can be seen from FIG. 3. Separately a metal band  32  of a substantial length is manufactured through conventionally known methods such as machining or stamping. Typically a band of a given width  34  is unwound from a supply roll and passed through a stamping equipment. The configurations as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 are punched out creating a sequence of protrusions  36  which may have a trapezoidal cross-section. FIG. 4 shows, similar to FIG. 1, a portion of rotating drum  18  with a spirally wound grove (not shown) into which the band  32  has been inserted. This is done in a manner that the protrusions  36  with the upper surface  38  form a pattern which is similar to the pattern depicted in FIG. 2 where protrusions  24  have been created on surface  22  of rotating drum  18 .  
         [0036]    Band  32  is spirally wound into the grove of the rotating drum  18  to achieve a staggered configuration of protrusions  36  as can be seen on FIG. 4. The intention is to have  2  adjacent protrusions  40 ,  42  of one row placed in a manner that the protrusion  38  in the next row is arranged between the protrusions  40  and  42 , preferably centrally between them. Resulting welding patterns on the filter web can be seen from FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 shows the planar view onto the ultrasonically joined electret non-woven filter medium  44  with a substantially regular arrangement of the welding spots  46 . FIG. 6 shows the corresponding filter medium  48  with welding spots arranged in a somewhat irregular but repeating pattern. Due to the spiral winding of band  32  welding spot  50  for example is not exactly arranged between the welding spots  52 ,  54  of the subsequent row. Therefore, the appearance of a filter medium  48  produced with a rotating drum according to FIGS. 3 and 4 is different. For the functionality of the electret filter media, this is of no considerable significance.  
         [0037]    The size and number of protrusions  24  according to FIGS. 1 and 2 and the size and number of protrusions  36 ,  38  according to FIGS. 3 and 4 is such that the total surface occupied by the protrusions is less than 5% of the surface of the rotating drum which results in about the same percentage on the ultrasonically joined non-woven filter medium. In accordance with the invention, the number of welded spots per cm 2  on the non-woven filter medium should be greater than 2. In case of FIGS. 3 and 4, for example, bands  32  will have a width of 0.6-1.0 mm, preferably 0.8 mm. Further, the surface area at the end of the protrusions  36 ,  38  can be either circular, elliptic, quadratic, rectangular or of other shapes. In a particular embodiment a square configuration would be preferred having the same dimension as the width of the band namely 0.6-1.0 mm preferably, 0.8 mm. The distance between two adjacent protrusions as for example between the protrusions  40  and  42  in FIG. 4 can be in the order of 6-10 mm, preferably 7 mm, and the distance between adjacent bands can be in the range of 4-6 mm, preferably 5 mm. This is then the distance between two adjacent turns in the spiral grove as depicted in FIG. 3. In principle the same applies for the embodiment as depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 where the protrusions are machined, spark eroded or otherwise generated. The dimensions are in principle identical. The numbers as given above serve only as a general guideline for a preferred configuration, the decisive feature, however, is that the total surface area of the contact portions of the protrusions is below 5% of the surface of the rotating drum, preferably below 2% and that the number of spots per cm 2  is at least 2.  
         [0038]    FIGS.  7 - 9  show side views of the equipment used for the ultrasonic joining of the fibers and other components of electrostatic non-woven filter media. The filter medium  12  is obtained from generally known equipment  60  which produces a non-woven filter web of electrostaticaly charged fibrillated fibers. These fibers are guided to the ultrasonic device  10  as depicted in FIGS.  1 - 4  and described above. The vibrating unit in the form of a weld horn  14  is driven by the unit  62  which includes all features necessary to generate the ultrasonic vibrations as well as means to control the gap. The weld horn  14  corresponds with the mating tool or anvil which has the form of drum  18  rotating in the direction  28  as explained above. The ultrasonically treated web  44  is taken up by the roller  64 . The ultrasonically treated web  44  passes through a pair of rollers  66 ,  68  which simultaneously or additionally also can take over the function of cutting web  44  for example on the 2 sides which may not be welded or otherwise useless and furthermore, there may be additional cutting knives along the width of web  44  in order to generate smaller portions of the ultrasonically treated web  44  which are rolled up by roller  64 .  
         [0039]    The entrance of the untreated web  12  into the ultrasonic unit  10  is depicted in more detail with the enlarged section A. It can be seen that the weld horn  14  with its lower end  70  and the protrusion  24  on the rotating drum  18  form a gap  72 . Furthermore, it can be seen that the incoming web  12  is significantly thicker than the outgoing ultrasonically treated web  44 . When entering the gap  72  the incoming web  12  is compressed which can be seen from the portions  74  and  76 . This compression either takes place automatically or with the help of additional guidance means (not depicted). Furthermore, the weld horn  14  may be significantly wider than the protrusion  24 . There is generally no structure on the lower surface  70  of weld horn  14 .  
         [0040]    The cross-sectional configuration of the ultrasonically treated web  44  is shown in the enlarged portion B. The fibers of web  44  have been ultrasonically joined at the portion  78  and there are smooth transitions  80  and  82  between the welded portion and the normal portion of web  44 . Furthermore, it can be seen that the thickness of the ultrasonically treated web  44  is significantly smaller than that of the original web  12  resulting from the ultrasonic treatment. It can also be seen that the welded portion  78  has indents on both sides, the upper side and the lower side, although only the protrusions  24  are in contact with the web  12  on the lower side, however, a total compression occurs which causes the upper portion to be compressed so that transitions on both sides  80  and  82  are observed.  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 8 shows an alternative arrangement for the ultrasonic equipment. Also here the original web  12  is obtained from the unit  60  and guided to the ultrasonic device  10  which is shown in a reversed arrangement. The rotating drum  18  is on the upper side and the weld horn  14  and the corresponding driving unit  62  are on the lower side. The essential difference is that in addition to the originally untreated web a second layer  84  is guided onto the ultrasonic device  10  through the use of the dispenser roll  86  and two guidance rolls  88  and  90 . This additional layer  84  is a netting onto which the web can be ultrasonically bonded. Netting  84  and web  12  are joined to yield the configuration  92  which is taken up by the take-up roller  64  and the guidance rolls  66  and  68 .  
         [0042]    The difference relative to the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 can be seen again with the two enlarged portions C and D. The original web  12  and the netting  84  are guided to the gap  72  created by the weld horn and the protrusion  24  of the drum  18  to generate the laminate  92 . Also here a guidance and a compression of web  12  and netting  84  at the portions  74  and  76  can be seen. The compression takes place primarily on the original web  12  while the netting is only slightly compressed during the ultrasonic welding procedure. The enlarged view D shows a similar configuration as the view B in FIG. 7 also showing the portion  78  compressed through the ultrasonic welding and the transition areas  80  and  82 .  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 9 shows a third configuration of the ultrasonic equipment the numerals being the same as in the preceding figures. The added feature here is that a third layer  94  is supplied from the roller  96 . This is a scrim layer. In this case the ultrasonic device  10  is again arranged in the same sense as in FIG. 7, this essentially depends on the practicability in the process. Portion E is in principle comparable to portions A and C in FIGS. 7 and 8 respectively. Portion F shows again that there is a three-layer configuration with the netting  84 , the filter web  12  and the scrim  94  altogether being combined to the laminate  98  which then is taken up be roller  64  in the same manner as described above. It should be noted that these are three typical configurations, however, a multiplicity of further variations can be contemplated, for example a multiplicity of layers including layers of spun bond fibers or melt-blown fibers.  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 10 provides a side view of the ultrasonic equipment in accordance with the preceding figures showing the rotating drum  18  with its axis  20  on the lower side and the weld horns  14  with driving units  62  on the other side, all of them being arranged so that the web  12  can pass therebetween. The ultrasonic equipment includes four individual ultrasonic vibrating devices  100 ,  102 ,  104 ,  106  all operating independently of each other. Each of them is equipped within the driving unit  62 , with a sensor  108  for monitoring the gap between horn and anvil and an actuator  110 . Sensor  108  and actuator  110  are electrically connected through electrical wirings  112  and  114  to an electronic control unit  116  which ensures that the gap  72  is maintained within tolerances which are small enough in order to ensure an ultrasonic joining of the components of the web  44  or laminate  92 ,  98  and further prevents horn and anvil from touching each other. These controls are handled independently for each individual ultrasonic vibrating system  100 ,  102 ,  104  and  106 . Control unit  116  is then connected to a central power supply unit  118 .  
         [0045]    [0045]FIG. 11 shows an individual ultrasonic vibrating system, e.g. component  100  in FIG. 10. There are different types of control that can be utilized, the most preferred one is the so-called force control. The two main purposes of this equipment are to generate the vibrations for the ultrasonic welding and to ensure the control of gap  72  between the rotating drum  18  and the weld horn  14 . As shown in FIG. 10, the driving unit  62  comprises a sensor  108  and an actuator  110 . For the explanation of the control for the gap  72  further details are shown in FIG. 11. Actuator  110  provides the vibration for weld horn  14 . Furthermore, a force sensor  108  is in contact with either the actuator  110  or directly with the weld horn  14 . Its purpose is to sense the force that the weld horn is actuating onto the material to be joined. This sensor can be of any type for example some kind of a piezzo sensor. The force signal is passed to the electronic control unit  116  through the electrical connection  112 . If the electronic control unit  116  identifies that the measured force is below a preset threshold value the entire system comprising actuator  110  sensor  108  and weld horn  14  is moved downwards through the driving means  120  which is electrically connected to the electronic control unit  116  through the wiring  122 . Actuator  110  is connected through the wiring system  124  in a manner that a relative movement between control unit  116  and actuator  110  is possible. The weld horn  14  is also electrically connected to the electronic unit control through the wiring  126  which is also flexible. Rotating drum  18  is connected at its axis  20  to the electronic control unit  116  through wiring  128 . As soon as the horn  14  makes contact with the protrusion or any other portion of the rotating drum  18  an electrical short circuit is created and sensed through the wirings  126 ,  128 . The electronic control unit  116  then ensures that a minimum gap  72  is restored.  
         [0046]    In accordance with the process of the invention, the materials to be joined ultrasonically are passing through gap  72  (not shown, see preceding figures) and the control mechanism operates in the following manner: If sensor  108  senses a force that is too low actuator  110  is moved down through driving means  120  until the threshold value for the force is obtained. The same occurs in the opposite direction when the force is too high. Accordingly a continuous control of the gap  72  is ensured by using conventional electronic control systems. Furthermore, the additional control of the conductivity between weld horn  14  and rotating drum  18  ensures that a minimum gap is maintained thus avoiding horn and anvil touching each other.  
         [0047]    An alternative method for controlling the gap is to sense the distance between the weld horn  14  and the surface of the rotating drum  18  through a sensor that is placed within the rotating drum  18 . Further details on ways to control the gap are found in WO 96/14202.  
       EXAMPLES  
       [0048]    The invention will be further described by the following examples and test results:  
       Example 1  
       [0049]    A scrim layer  94  (see FIG. 9) was used comprising a non-woven spun-bonded material produced in a known manner from fibers being multiple thermally bonded and randomly arranged. The basis weight of this non-woven spun-bonded material was 10 g/m 2 . The spun-bonded web was combined with a non-woven material of the electret filter material consisting of electrostaticaly charged dielectric fibrillated or split fibers with the typical dimensions of 10 by 40 microns in a side view. The basis weight of this non-woven material was about 30 g/m 2 . As materials for this electret filter layer products distributed under the designation of 3M Filtrete™ by the Minnesota, Mining and Manufacturing Company were used. The two layers, the scrim layer with a basis weight of 10 g/m 2  and the electret filter layer with a basis weight of 30 g/m 2 , were then ultrasonically joined using a process as shown in FIG. 8 utilizing an equipment as described therein with a rotating drum of the above given dimensions according to FIGS. 3 and 4 with top areas  38  of the bands  32  of 0.81×0.81 mm and a spacing between two adjacent protrusions  38  of 6.9 mm and a distance between 2 subsequent rows of 4.83 mm. This results in a portion of the ultrasonically joined area of the filter web of 1.5% of the total area in the rotating drum corresponding to about 2% of the area in the web due tot the fact that the portion of ultrasonically joined fibers is slightly larger in area than the portion of the rotating drum. The number of spots per cm 2  is about 2.3. The thus bonded laminate of filter media and scrim was adhered to a thermoplastic netting or a reticular support structure. This netting consists of fibers having a diameter of about 0.45 mm. The openings of the support structure are diamond shaped and have a size of about 3.6×4.1 mm. The thickness of the support structure is about 0.85 mm. The fibers consist of polypropylene or other polymers. The netting or reticular support structure was adhered to the laminate of the fiber media and scrim utilizing conventionally used adhesives. The thus obtained structure was then pleated and formed into a filter with a pleat height of 25 mm, pleat spacing of 9.4 mm and total dimensions of the filter of 290×100 mm resulting in 31 pleats. This construction was then appropriately mounted into a frame by gluing or insert-molding.  
       Example 2  
       [0050]    This Example differs from Example 1 only by the basic weight of the electret non-woven filter media which was chosen to be 40 g/m 2  so that together with the scrim of 10 g/m 2  a total basic weight of 50 g/m 2  was obtained.  
       Example 3  
       [0051]    Example 3 is similar to Example 2 except that in addition to a scrim layer, a netting was also ultrasonically welded to the web which had a weight of 50 g/m 2 . This configuration was ultrasonic joined according to the process illustrated in FIG. 9.  
       Example 4  
       [0052]    Example 4 differs from Example 3 by the fact that the scrim was omitted. The basic weight of the web was chosen to be 50 g/m 2 , the netting was as described above and the ultrasonic treatment was done as described in FIG. 8.  
       COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE  
       [0053]    A larger number of Comparative Examples was created in the same manner as for the Examples 1-4 essentially differing in that a needling process was used instead of the ultrasonic bonding. For the comparison comparative samples were chosen that showed the same pressure drop as Examples 1-4. Thus filters with essentially the same initial performance were compared.  
         [0054]    With the above described sample filters comparative measurements were conducted.  
         [0055]    The efficiency was measured in accordance with the test norm DIN 71 460, part 1.  
         [0056]    The measurement of the efficiency is conducted as follows: A test dust “coarse” according to DIN ISO 5011 is introduced according to §4.4 of DIN 71 460. This dust is measured with particle counters prior and after the entry through the filter to be tested. The particle counters have the capability of determining particles of different particle sizes ranging between 0.5 and 15 microns at least. The ratio within this particle range then is the efficiency in percent. All provisions according to DIN 71 460, §1-4.4.2, were taken into account. It is particularly important that the filters to be tested are identical in size and configuration as stated above for the different examples.  
         [0057]    The results can be taken from FIG. 12. It shows Examples 1, 2 and 4 compared with the Comparative Example. It can be seen that for the tested range of particle sizes between 0.1 and 10 microns the efficiency is increased by about 10 percentage points.  
         [0058]    Furthermore, the captured dust was determined for all 4 examples in comparison with the reference example. Also in this case the tests were conducted following the test norm DIN 71 460 part 1.  
         [0059]    The determination of the captured dust was conducted as follows: All provisions of DIN 71 460, part 1, were taken into account which are relevant for the determination of the captured dust, especially §6.3. The measurement was carried out from an initial pressure drop until the pressure drop had been increased to a level of 25, 50, 75 and 100 Pa respectively. The filters were weighed prior and after the test. In this specific case the ratios between the Examples 1-4 and the Comparative Example were taken into account and the percentage increase of the captured dust with respect to the Comparative Example was determined. For the weighing also DIN ISO 5011 was to be applied.  
         [0060]    The results are listed in Table 1, which shows the additional loading as compared to the needle type Comparative Example. The different steps are resulting in an increase of the pressure drop of 25, 50, 75 and 100 Pa respectively. It can be seen that the most significant improvement was obtained with Example 4, which did not include a scrim layer.  
                               TABLE 1                       Loading step:                       Increase of pressure       drop in Pa   Example 1   Example 2   Example 3   Example 4                   Initial (+0 Pa)   100%   100%   100%   100%        +25 Pa   162%   148%   117%   260%        +50 Pa   139%   134%   109%   217%        +75 Pa   148%   139%   113%   229%       +100 Pa   152%   139%   112%   234%       Average   150%   140%   113%   235%

Technology Classification (CPC): 3