Fiber spinning with airfields enhanced by airfoil louvers

Abstract

Airfields are used in common polymer fiber spinning processes, such as melt blowing and spunbonding. A pair of louvers was installed in the air flow field of a melt blowing slot die. Previous research work has shown that, with louvers in place, the air velocity along the fiber threadline is higher than the velocity when louvers are not used. Since the air velocity is what drives the spinning process, the presence of louvers was expected to increase the attenuation of the molten filaments and thus improve the melt blowing process. Melt blowing runs were made with variable louver size (chord), louver separation, louver distance from the die face, the angle of the louvers relative to the die face, and air flow rate. Fibers were collected and fiber diameters were measured.