Patent ID: 6984291

Claim:
A vacuum box and skimmer blade assembly for use in a twin fabric forming section of a paper making machine, the forming section including a first and a second forming fabric each having a machine direction and a cross-machine direction, and a machine side surface and a paper side surface, and being movable together in the machine direction through the forming section, the assembly including: a vacuum chamber, having an elongate orifice extending in the cross-machine direction, to which a controlled vacuum means is connected; a first adjustable support means supporting the vacuum chamber; a second adjustable resilient support means carried by the vacuum chamber and adjacent the elongate orifice; and a skimmer blade attached to the second adjustable resilient support means, the skimmer blade having a fabric contacting surface extending in the cross-machine direction and including a leading and a trailing edge; wherein: (a) the first adjustable support means is constructed and arranged to allow the vacuum chamber to be positioned in a first chamber position where the skimmer blade is out of contact with the first forming fabric, and a second chamber position where the skimmer blade can be brought into contact with the forming fabric; (b) the second adjustable resilient support means is constructed and arranged to allow adjustment to the position of the skimmer blade when the vacuum chamber is in the second chamber position to any point between a first blade position where the fabric contacting surface of the skimmer blade is out of contact with the first forming fabric, and a second blade position where the fabric contacting surface of the skimmer blade is in contact with the machine side surface of the first forming fabric; and (c) the vacuum chamber, together with the vacuum supply means, is constructed and arranged, when positioned in the second position, to capture into the elongate orifice at least a major proportion of any fluid skimmed off the first moving forming fabric adjacent the leading edge of the fabric contacting surface of the skimmer blade.