Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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¦l ~THOD OF FABRICATING
I PAPERMAKERS i`~CHINE
CLOTHING
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to papermakers machine clothing
and more particularly relates to methods of fabricating such
clothing including endless dryer felts and forming fabrics.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
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¦I Prior hereto, papermakers machine clothing such as
¦¦ dryer felts were fabricated by weaving in sizes to custom fit
¦l on particular machines, on which the felt was to be mounted.
~¦ The inefficiency of this procedure has long been appreciated.
¦ Reserve felts had to be maintained as standbys. Long lead times
had to be considered to fabricate particular felts. Inventories
had to be maintained by both the papermill operator and the felt
manufacturer. These inventory requirements were costly in
! terms of both maintenance and space occupied. I ~
By the method of the present invention, many of the , --
above-described problems of the prior art are removed. ¦ -
¦! Papermachine clothing fabric of a universal size may be
¦¦ pre-fabricated and then assembled together to obtain a final
' clothing of the desired size rapidly, when it is needed.
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In addition, small pieces of the fabric, previously discarded
¦ as waste may be utilized and incorporated in the method of the
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SUM~ RY OF THE INVENTION
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The invention comprises a method of fabricating
i papermakers machine clothing, which comprises;
1 providiny a plurality of sections of a papermakers
¦! machine clothing fabric, each of said sections having a width
substantially equal to the width of the desired clothing and a
¦ length substantially less than the length of the desired
clothing product, the total of the lengths of the plurality
of sections being substantially equal to the desired length
I ; of the desired clothing product;
I I said sections having a seaming means along the
I edges which aré parallel to the cross-machine direction of
the fabric; and
!i seaming the sections together along the edges having
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the seaming means.
. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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Fig. 1 is a top view of an embodlment section of paper-
machine clothing employed in the method of the invention.
!i Fig. 2 is a segmentary plan view of a seam
1i construction which may be used in the method of the invention.
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I Fig. 3 is a sectional view along lines 3-3 of
¦I Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a view-in-perspective of an endless belt
assembled by the method of the invention from a plurality
of the sections shown in Fig. 1.
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' DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODI~TS OF THE INVENTION
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For the sake of brevity, the invention will be
I detailed in a description of the fabrication of an endless
¦l dryer felt for use on a papermakers machine. However, those
, skilled in the art will appreciate that the method of the
, invention may be employed to fabricate any papermachine
clothing including forming fabrics.
!~ Referring first to Fig. 1, there is seen a top
~ view of-a section 5 of dryer felt fabric woven in the
¦, conventional manner from a plurality of warp (cross-machine
direction) and weft (machine direction) yarns. Along the
¦~ edges parallel to the cross-machine direction of the
, fabric, section 5 has a plurality of integrated loops 12
(exaggerated in size in Fig. 1 for the purpose of
¦, illustration) which serve as a seaming means for joining the
section 5 to a number of like sections.
Fig~ 2 is a segmentary plan view of a seam construction
which may be used as the seaming means along the two edges of
section 5 to join it to another section 5. In the 7ig~ 2,
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the numerals 10 and 10' indicate identical seam-halves joined
by pintle 14. Each of the halves 10 and 10' contains first,
second and third warp systems and a single filling system.
In the Figure 2, the first, second and third warp
systems of sea~-half 10 are respectively indicated by the
numerals 16, 18 and 20 and the filling by the numeral 22 while !
in the seam-half 10' these are respectively indicated by the
numerals 24, 26, 28 and 30.
The first and second warp syster,ls in each seam-half
provides with the filling of that seam-half, back and face
weaves. In the Fig. 2, in seam-half 10' the warp systems
24 and 26 provide with the filling 30, back weave 32 and face
weave 34 (see Fi~-,re 3) with the face weave overlying the back weave
for a portion thereof and with the third warp system 28 binding
face and back 34 and 32 together in the zone of overlying.
The seam-half 10 is similarly constructed with warp
sy~stems 16 and 18 providing with filllng 22 back and face weaves
36 and 38 (refer to Figure 3) overlying for a portion and the third w~rp h
system 20 binding these together in the zone of overlying to
provide a double layer. In each seam-half the zone where th~
face and the back weave overly is a double layer zone and the
face and the back weave are maintained in position in this zone
by the third warp system. The filling system during weaving
is formed over an edge cord, not shown,to provide the stepped
configuration with protruding loops along the double layer
edge where the rilliDg system lS folded. The loops so formed
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are vertical to the plane of the seam-half or web through
which the pintle can be inserted. This provides a means to
mesh opposing loops, and provides a positive lock upon
joining pin insertion to make the abric endless. During
weaving of the seam-half heat can be applied to heat set
the filling loops as they are formed over the edge cord.
The loom used to weave the seam-halves 10, 10' is a
conventional narrow fabric webbing loom as known in the
narrow fabric industry. The edge cord diameter can be
varied to vary the loop diameter if desired. A chemical
treatment can be applied, if desired, to the filling yarn
before, during or after weaving in order to lend stiffness
and physical integrity to the loops 12~ !
The attachment of the seam half to a fabric like section ,
S of the seam-half such as a papermaker dryer felt is
accomplished by butting the fabric ends oi section 5 to the
stepped area of the seam-half and sewing the single layer area
to the fabric ends of the sectlon 5.
Although a single seaming means has been described
herein for brevity, it will be appreciated that a plurality
of sections 5 can be joined together by any conventional and
known seam~ng means to provide a wide varlety of seam
constructions. In a preferred embodiment, seam loops are
woven directly in the fabric sections 5 while the section 5
is on the loom. The technique is well known in the art;
see for example U. S. Patent 3,815,645.
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Figure 3 is a sectional view along lines 3-3 of
~ig. 2 and shows further details of the joinder of two
sections 5 by the seaming means including loops 12 and
l' pintle 14.
S j , By joining a plurality of sections 5 together as
described above, an endless dryer felt 40 may be fabricated
as shown in Figure 4.
?l The following example sets forth the best mode
I contemplated by the inventor for making and using the
I0 ¦ invention but is not to be considered limiting.
j 400 foot rolls of a dryer felt are woven in a 5 foot
width on a Texo loom. ~eam loops are woven into the edges
¦ parallel to the cross-machine direction of the fabric.
Il' 20 foot lengths are cut from the 400 foot roll and 20 of
`.5 ~I the 5 foot wide pieces are seamed together side by side to
!I form an endless dryer felt having a width of 20 feet and
¦l a continuous length of 100 feet (20 X 5'). The endless
dryer felt may be i~stalled and used on a conventional
l~ papermakers machine.
o l~ rrhose skilled in the art will appreciate that the
I' papermachine clothing employed in the method of the invention
¦l is to be heat-set before or after complete or partial
assembly by seaming and that shrinkage may occur, thereby
¦ altering the dimensions of the final product. Those skilled
, in the art will also know how to compensate for the loss of
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i dimension by starting with appropriately oversized section 5
ii which upon heat-setting will obtain the desired dimensions.
I The nature of the fabric weaves and materials employed
: ! in the method of the invention are not critical and one can
¦¦ employ as the sections 5 any conventional fabric weaves of
any conventional fabric materials and one can employ any
il conventional papermakers machine clothing fabrics including
; ¦, forming fabrics and dryer felt fabrics.
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