Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE OF THE lNvLL.,ION
FIBROUS MOLDED PRODUCT, ITS MOLDING METHOD AND ITS
MOLDING APPARATUS
RacR~ROUND OF THE lNvL..~ION
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fibrous molded product, its
molding method and its molding apparatus, and more
particularly, a molding method and a molding apparatus in
which the fibrous molded product capable of being produced
with its intermediate portion being opened out of it and its
molding can be performed without using any punching die.
Description of the Related Art
As the prior art methods for making a grinding disc
substrate, a heat-resistance packing, a cotton roll substrate
and a clutch plate substrate or the like, it has been
generally applied to have a method for putting a raw material
of fibrous sheet into a chemical liquid tank and immersing it
with chemical liquid or another method in which a form of the
product is punched out in advance from a raw material sheet,
immersed in chemical liquid and then punched into a final
product form.
In the aforesaid prior art method, a doughnùt-shaped disc
or packing having a complex shape or insulating material and
the like was punched out with a die, so that there were some
problems that a substantial amount of substrate material
became useless to cause a poor yield of product (including
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chemical liquid) to be attained and a high cost of the
product occurred.
As well known in the prior art, in the case that a
cylinder packing is manufactured, for example, not only all
the outer circular circumferential portions of a desired
cylinder are deposited from the rectangular substrate
material but also the inner circumferential portions other
than the thickness of the cylinder are deposited, and such
waste material is of a part of the material immersed with
chemical liquid requiring a special treatment if it is
deposited as industrial waste material, so that it requires
an additional cost of processing and further, various
disadvantages are also pointed out for the paper-like raw
material sheet. Although an arrangement of fibers
constituting the raw material sheet formed on an endless
rotating net is determined in reference to a relation between
a flow rate of the fibers injected from a raw material box
nozzle and an advancing rate of the net, a good state or a
bad state of this arrangement of the fibers is discriminated
normally by sampling the same sizes in the flowing direction
of the raw material and the width direction of the sheet and
measuring the tensile strengths in both directions of the raw
material, the fiber arrangement shows that a certain strain
may easily occur or occurs after immersion of chemical liquid
in the raw material or the fiber arrangement is different in
view of the direction of the fibers, influences over its
strength and then a uniform quality may not be attained. In
particular, in the case that the product having a weight of
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about 400 to 650 g/m2 is manufactured by one forming
operation, dispersion of the fibers is bad and its uniform
base material can not be attained, immersion of chemical
liquid is not uniform, resulting in that a frequent
occurrence of a sheet having insufficient strength can not be
avoided.
SU~ARY OF T~E ~r~v~:~.ION
In view of the foregoing practical situation, it is an
object of the present invention to provide a fibrous molded
product, its molding method and its molding apparatus in
which uniform quality can be attained and non-required
portions may not be deposited.
This invention has accomplished the following technical
means in order to resolve the aforesaid issues and attain the
object, i.e.
(A) A molding method for molding a fibrous molded product
characterized in that a forming net is arranged above a water
holding and dehydration tank having water feeding and
dehydrating functions, mold frames are arranged on the
forming net, a molding device having an agitating tank is
arranged above the mold frames, water is supplied from
outside to the water holding and dehydrating tank in such a
way that a water level in the device reaches at a higher
location than that of the forming net, thereafter liquid raw
material having fibers as its main raw material is supplied
to the agitating tank, the agitating vanes are rotated to
agitate the liquid raw material, then water in the water
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holding and dehydrating tank is dehydrated and at the same
time wet raw material in the tank is dehydrated to form the
fibrous molded product having a form of each of the mold
frames on the forming net.
(B) An apparatus for molding a fibrous mold characterized
in that the same is comprised of a molding device in which an
endless forming net is rotatably arranged above a water
holding and dehydrating tank having a water supplying
function and a dehydrating function, mold frames are arranged
above the forming net and an agitating tank is arranged above
the mold frames; a raw material tank for supplying liquid raw
material to the molding device, a water supplying tank, and a
drying device for press contacting the molded product out of
the endless forming net and the molding device so as to dry
the molded product.
(C) A fibrous molded product which is dehydrated and
molded under a condition in which the liquid raw material fed
into mold frames is agitated to prohibit direction
characteristic and condensation of the fibers in the raw
material while the dispersion is being unified.
This invention constructed as described above has the
following actions.
That is, in the aforesaid (B), the water holding and
dehydrating tank has a function of forced dehydration under a
vacuum operation and another function capable of closing a
dehydration port, opening the water feeding port to keep
water and increasing its water level up to the agitating
tank. When liquid raw material having plant fibers, mineral
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fibers of carbon, glass, a proper amount of filling material,
chemicals and water mixed from each other is fed into the
agitating tank, moisture is dehydrated from the endless
forming net into the lower water holding and dehydration
tank. In this case, when the water level is increased up to a
higher position than that of the forming net in accordance
with the method described in the above (A), the liquid raw
material rides on the water, so that rotation of agitating
vanes causes only the liquid raw material to be agitated. In
this way, when water in the water holding and dehydration
tank is discharged so as to be vacuum sucked, the liquid raw
material above the forming net is dehydrated and the mold
frame is present on the forming net, resulting in that the
wet molded product of fibrous material strictly corresponding
to the shape of the mold frame can be formed. Then, the water
holding and dehydration tank is separated from the mold
frame, resulting in that the endless forming net can freely
rotate and so the molded product rides on the endless forming
net to move outward. At the far moving location, the drying
device dries the fibrous molded product (refer to Fig.2).
With such operations above, a doughnut-shaped packing, for
example, can be formed not with the prior art punching by a
punching mold, but the fibrous molded product having
originally a donut-shaped form can be formed. As regards this
fibrous molded product, the prior art raw material fibrous
sheet has a direction of the fiber directed toward a
specified direction due to the fact that the liquid raw
material is directly injected from the raw material liquid
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tank, although in the present invention, the direction of the
fiber is in an irregular one and has a uniformity and further
it can be attained as the molded product having no difference
in vertical or lateral direction in view of its strength due
to the fact that the raw material is agitated within the
agitating tank.
As described above, the present invention has the
following superior effects.
A. It has an effect that it is possible to prevent the
liquid raw material placed in the agitating tank from being
initially dehydrated by fulfilling water over the forming
net.
B. It has some effects that condensation of fibers of
the raw material can be prevented while the liquid raw
material is not dehydrated, the direction characteristic in
the fibers can be set to be irregular and unified and as a
result quality of the product can be improved since the
liquid raw material is agitated on the water.
C. Since the mold frame is arranged on the forming net
and the material is agitated on it, it is possible to agitate
the material and supply uniform raw material immediately to
the mold frame.
Accordingly, the present invention has some effects that
uniform quality can be attained, molding of the doughnut-
shaped product can be attained with the mold frame, so that
useless state of the substrate material under punching
operation can be saved and occurrence of the punched disposed
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materials which are causes of the pollution can be
eliminated.
D. Since the dehydration tank is placed just below the
mold frame, it has some effects that the fibrous molded
product molded within the mold frame can be vacuum dehydrated
at that site and the mold for the molded product can be
positively formed.
As described above, since the present invention can
realize completely the various effects, remarkable effects
can be attained in each of the fields such as a grinding
disc, an anti-heat packing, a control device, a clutch plate
and a molded product and the like, so that a wide range of
application in the industrial field can be expected.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig.l is a front elevational view for showing a fibrous
material molding apparatus.
Fig.2 is a front elevational view in a central
longitudinal section of the molding apparatus.
Fig.3 is a top plan view of the molding apparatus.
Fig.4 is a top plan view for showing a second preferred
embodiment of the molding frame.
Fig.5 is a sectional view taken along a line A-A of
Fig.4.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREF~-~R~n EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to the drawings, the preferred embodiments
of the present invention will be described. Fig.l is a front
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elevational view for showing an entire apparatus. Fig.2 is a
front elevational view at a central longitudinal section of
the molding apparatus. A fibrous material molding apparatus 1
is comprised of molding devices 2, a drying device 3, a raw
material tank 4, a water supplying tank 5 and an endless
forming net 6 and the like. As illustrated in detail in
Fig.2, the aforesaid molding device 2 has a water holding and
dehydration tank 7 at the lower part of it, and the mold
frame 8 and the agitating tank 9 are overlapped on it. The
aforesaid water holding and dehydration tank 7 is formed with
a drain groove 7A at its lower end and has a water feeding
pipe 7B connected thereto. The aforesaid water drain port 7A
is provided with an opening or closing valve 7C (both for
automatic and manual operations). A water receiving pan 7D is
arranged below the discharging pipe 7B. The side wall of the
water holding and dehydration tank 7 is formed with a water
feeding port 7E and a suction port 7F, wherein the water
feeding pipe 5A connected to the water feeding port 7E is
connected to the water feeding tank 5. Reference numerals 5B
and 5C denote water feeding valves. A suction pipe lOA
connected to the aforesaid suction port 7F (refer to Fig.l)
is connected to a vacuum pump 10. At the upper part of the
water holding and dehydration tank 7 is arranged a resilient
contact member 7G. The contact member 7G is coincided with a
mold of the mold frame 8 mounted above and its upper surface
has a sealing material quality. An endless forming net 6 is
arranged above the water holding and dehydration tank 7. The
endless forming net 6 is constructed such that its both
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longitudinal ends are formed to be circular around a lower
part of the water tank 7, the forming net is wound around a
plurality of supporting rolls 6B...., a driving roll 6A, and
a press roll 6C as shown in Fig.1 and can be constructed to
be endless and rotatable. At the lower surface of the endless
forming net 6 is installed a dehydration box (water suction)
for use in removing water adhered to the forming net 6. The
aforesaid mold frames 8 are removably installed at the lower
ends of the agitating tanks 9 and their shape is a doughnut-
shape as shown in the figure. That is, the mold frame is
comprised of an annular outer mold 8A and an annular inner
mold 8B. In the case that a plate-like molded product is to
be attained, the inner mold 8B is not used. The agitating
tank 9 is a cylinder having no bottom part, a driving shaft
9A is pivotally supported at a flat central part of an upper
bearing 9H and rotated alternatively in a clockwise or a
counter-clockwise direction by a driving mechanism not shown
in the figure. Agitating vanes 9B, 9B,....are radially
arranged at the aforesaid driving shaft 9A. A supporting
column 9C is vertically arranged at the lower part of the
driving shaft 9A, and the aforesaid inner mold 8B is
installed at the lower end as required. An inner cylindrical
valve 9D is arranged at an inner upper part of the agitating
tank 9 and above the agitating vanes 9B in such a manner that
it can be moved up or down, and a raw material receiving part
9E is formed between the inner cylindrical valve 9D and the
wall of the agitating tank. The upper part of the raw
material receiving part 9E is formed with a feeding port 9F
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and an extremity end of a feeding pipe 4A of the raw material
tank 4 is placed near it. With such an arrangement as above,
the inner cylinder 9D is moved down and acts as a valve for
closing the bottom part of the raw material receiving part
9E. In the case that the liquid raw material is fed from the
raw material tank 4, the material is inputted at only one
locati-on, so that the material is once stored at the raw
material receiving part 9E and the inner cylindrical valve 9D
is moved up to cause the liquid raw material to be moved down
in an annular form. As shown in Fig.l, the drying device 3 is
constructed such that the lower part of the base end of the
endless rotating blanket 3A is press contacted with an
extremity upper end of the endless forming net 6 at the
rotating extremity end of the endless forming net 6. The
endless rotating blanket 3A is wound around a plurality of
supporting rolls 3B..., press rolls 3C, 3D and rotated.
Reference numeral 3E denotes a pick-up tube, reference
numeral 3F denotes an air feeding nozzle-and reference
numeral 3G denotes a dehydration device. The pick-up tube 3E
has a sucking force and the fibrous molded product 11 on the
forming net 6 is sucked against the blanket 3A and
transferred to the blanket. In addition, a air feeding nozzle
3G transfers the fibrous molded product 11 adhered on the
blanket 3A onto a conveyor 3H with injected air.
A manufacturing step of molding the product in the device
1 constructed as described above will be described. In Fig.2,
both an opening or closing valve 7C at the water drain port
7A and a suction port 7F are closed, water feeding valves 5B
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and SC in the water feeding tank 5 are opened and water is
fed up to the lower ends of the agitating vanes 9B. Then, the
inner cylinder 9D is moved down, the opening or closing valve
4B of the raw material tank 4 is opened, the liquid raw
material (pulp, chemicals, filling material and water are
mixed to desired substrate material under a specified rate)
is put into the raw material receiving part 9E. After this
operation, the inner cylinder 9D is moved up and the liquid
raw material is moved down form the raw material receiving
part 9E in a downward direction. Then, the agitating vanes 9B
are rotated alternatively in normal or reverse direction
within a range of 10 Aato gOAa. With such an arrangement as
above, directions of the fibers in the liquid raw material
are made irregular,their consolidation is prohibited and
their dispersion is unified. In particular, since water is
present below the forming net 6, moisture in the liquid raw
material does not drop at once and then an agitating
efficiency is improved. Then, the opening or closing valve 7C
is opened to discharge water, resulting in that moisture in
the liquid raw material is also dropped, the fibrous material
forms a layer on the forming net 6 between the outer mold 8A
and the inner mold 8B and the fibrous molded product 11 is
formed. Then, the moisture is sucked by a vacuum pump 10 at
the suction port 7F, resulting in that the fibrous molded
product 11 on the forming net 6 is dehydrated. Then, as the
supporting frame 9G is lifted up by a lifting means not
shown, the mold frame 8 is moved away from the forming net 6
and lifted up and the fibrous molded product 11 is left on
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the forming net 6. Then, as the driving roll 6A is moved to
cause the forming net 6 to be advanced toward the drying
device 3, the fibrous molded product 11 left on the forming
net 6 is pressed by the blanket 3A and moisture contained in
the product is squeezed. In addition, the fibrous molded
product is sucked at the part of the pick-up tube 3E, moved
away from the forming net 6 and adsorbed against the blanket
3A. Subsequently, the fibrous molded product pressed by the
press rolls 3D is moved away from the blanket 3A at the air
feeding nozzle 3F with injection air injected from the nozzle
3F and the product is transferred onto a conveyor 3H. The
fibrous molded product 11 carried by the conveyor 3H is
heated by a heating and pressing device 3J and dried by it. A
post-treatment coinciding with the object is carried out for
the dried fibrous molded product 11 by the conventional
method. These steps can be automated by an automatic control.
As shown by a top plan view of Fig.3, a plurality of molding
devices 2 can be arranged side-by-side in a vertical and a
lateral orientation. However, as shown in Figs.4 and 5, a
plurality of molded products can be formed once by dividing
the mold frame 8 into a plurality of segments in one molding
device 2. That is, in Fig.4, a plurality of doughnut-shaped
molds 8C.. are formed at the outer mold 8A and their
surrounding portions are applied as tapered surfaces
8D........ directed downward. However, inner molds 8B... at the
central part of each of the doughnut-shaped molds 8C are
conical in shape, their upper portions are of tapered
surfaces 8E, each of the upper portions of the inner walls
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8B..... is connected to the outer mold 8A with the thin
supporting members 8F. Accordingly, if water is poured up to
the upper end of the mold frame 8, the liquid raw material is
agitated afterward and water is drained, the liquid raw
material slides on the tapered surfaces 8D and 8E, enters the
molds 8C and then a plurality of fibrous molded products are
once formed. In addition, a sub-raw material tank can be
installed in addition to the raw material tank 4. This sub-
raw material tank holds chemicals or raw materials having
other objects and these materials can be added to the liquid
raw material during agitation or after agitation. It is
apparent that this invention is not limited to the aforesaid
preferred embodiments, but its design can be properly
modified. For example, it is possible to use the mold frame
integrally formed with the forming net at the lower surface
of the mold frame.
