Patent ID: 7052266

Claim:
An apparatus for making fiber-containing rubber strips each including short fibers oriented in the widthwise direction of the strip, the apparatus comprising a screw section for pushing out a fluid mixture of unvulcanized rubber and short fibers as fiber-containing rubber, an orienting section comprising a radially extending path for the fiber-containing rubber defined between confronting stationary surfaces and provided with an inlet in the center thereof so that the fiber-containing rubber is expanded circumferentially while flowing radially from the center towards the periphery, and a second path extending between said inlet and a downstream end of the screw section, a looped nozzle on the periphery of the radially extending path, and a dividing section comprising a plurality of cutter means arranged around the looped nozzle and extending across a gap of the nozzle so that the fiber-containing rubber extruded from the looped nozzle is circumferentially divided into a plurality of strips.