PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15958250
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["428", "357000"]

Abstract:
Disclosed is the preparation of improved high strength nylon staple fibers having a denier per filament of 1.0 to 3.0, a tenacity T at break of at least about 6.0, and a load-bearing capacity, T 7 , of greater than 3.2. Such nylon staple fibers are produced by preparing tows of relatively uniformly spun and quenched nylon filaments, drawing and annealing such tows via a two-stage drawing and annealing operation using relatively high draw ratios and then cutting or otherwise converting the drawn and annealed tows into the desired high strength nylon staple fibers. The nylon staple fibers so prepared can be blended with other fibers such as cotton staple fibers to produce nylon/cotton (NYCO) yarns which are also of desirably high strength.

Claim (Index 1):
A process for preparing nylon staple fibers having a load-bearing capacity of greater than 3.2 grams per denier measured as tenacity (T 7 ) at 7% elongation, said process comprising the steps of melt-spinning nylon polymer into filaments, quenching said filaments and forming one or more tows from a multiplicity of said quenched filaments, subjecting said tow(s) to drawing and annealing, and converting said drawn and annealed tow(s) into staple fibers suitable for forming into spun yarn comprising;\n A) the nylon polymer melt spun into filaments has a formic acid relative viscosity (RV) of from 45 to 100; B) said nylon polymer filaments are spun, quenched and formed into tows with both positional uniformity and uniformity of quenching conditions which are sufficient to permit use of draw ratios that provide the desired eventual staple fiber T 7  tenacity greater than 3.2 grams per denier; C) the drawing and annealing of the tow(s) is carried out in a two-stage continuous operation conducted at a total effective draw ratio of from 2.3 to 5.0, said operation comprising a first drawing stage wherein from 85% to 97.5% of the drawing of the tow(s) occurs and a second annealing and drawing stage wherein said tow(s) is/are subjected to an annealing temperature of from 145\u00b0 C. to 205\u00b0 C.; said operation being followed by a cooling step wherein said drawn and annealed tow(s) is/are cooled to a temperature of less than 80\u00b0 C.; and D) the tow(s) is/are maintained under a controlled tension throughout said two stage continuous operation.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 19.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.59036
- Patent Class: 428.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['09934905', '10733998', '10564223', '12173648', '09958320']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9156636416360204
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.522771802481958
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8763744577206143
- Mean Citation Score: 327.220598
- Max Citation Score: 347.06992
- Similarity Product: 246.368766470604

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test