Patent ID: 7172398

Claim:
A drawing device for attenuating a plurality of filaments in a meltspinning apparatus, the drawing device comprising: a manifold including an inlet for receiving the filaments, an outlet oriented in a cross-machine direction, and a passageway between said inlet and said outlet, said manifold having a slotted channel communicating with said passageway for discharging air to impinge the filaments in said passageway and said manifold discharging the filaments and the air from said outlet in a downward direction perpendicular to said cross-machine direction; a plurality of first guides positioned proximate to said outlet, each of said first guides including a first major surface oriented at a first rotational angle relative to said cross-machine direction; and a plurality of second guides positioned proximate to said outlet, each of said second guides positioned between a corresponding adjacent pair of said first guides, each of said second guides including a second major surface oriented at a second rotational angle relative to said to said cross-machine direction, wherein said first and second major surfaces are inclined with different inclination angles relative to said downward direction so as to cause the flow of air and the filaments to deviate from said downward direction.