Patent Application
20160237608
The present invention relates to a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabric and a bulk recovery method for nonwoven fabric.
Sanitary napkins and disposable diapers have been conventionally used as absorbent articles. And pee pads for pets included within the category of the above absorbent articles are also widely used as toilets for pets. A liquid permeable top sheet is provided to the part of such absorbent articles which contacts such as the user's skin. And recently, bulky nonwoven fabric is preferred as the material of the top sheet since a high capturing performance is required from the viewpoint of reducing the sticky touch felt by the skin.
Such nonwoven fabric is manufactured in a strip form by appropriate methods such as the carding method, and are wound in a rolled form thereafter to be stored in states of nonwoven fabric rolls. And the nonwoven fabric roll is brought to the absorbent article manufacturing line when the nonwoven fabric is to be used, then the nonwoven fabric is unrolled from the above nonwoven fabric roll at the above manufacturing line to be used as the material for the top sheet.
Meanwhile, tensile force in the winding direction is applied in order to avoid the nonwoven fabric from meandering and the like when winding the nonwoven fabric into a roll of nonwoven fabric. For such reason, the nonwoven fabric is usually wound tightly by this tensile force. In other words, this nonwoven fabric is compressed in the thickness direction to be in a state such that the bulkiness is reduced. Therefore, only nonwoven fabric with its bulk reduced would be unrolled and provided when the nonwoven fabric is unrolled from the nonwoven fabric roll at the absorbent article manufacturing line, that is, the aforementioned requirement of a bulky nonwoven fabric would not be met.
There is known, as a method of increasing the bulk of nonwoven fabric, a process such as blowing hot air against the surface of the nonwoven fabric to heat the surface of the nonwoven fabric so that the fibers of the compressed nonwoven fabric would return to its initial state. PTL 1 discloses, for example, a method of preparing a heating chamber for heating nonwoven fabric and blowing hot air into either the entrance side or the exit side when the nonwoven fabric is transferred from the entrance side to the exit side of the heating chamber. The hot air blown into the heating chamber is discharged from the other side of the entrance or the exit so to flow along the surface of the nonwoven fabric in the heating room allowing the nonwoven fabric to recover its bulk.
[PTL 1] Japanese Laid-open Application No. 2012-097087
The bulk recovery apparatus heats the nonwoven fabric to soften the nonwoven fabric. Therefore, the nonwoven fabric can easily stretch in the transfer direction when tensile strength in the transfer direction acts thereagainst. Meanwhile, nonwoven fabric with a low melting point is likely to stretch whereas nonwoven fabric with a high melting point is unlikely to stretch under the same heating condition since the melting points of the nonwoven fabrics differ according to their materials. Therefore, the amount of stretching of the nonwoven fabric needs to be brought to an appropriate state by adjusting the amount of hot air flow which is blown into the bulk recovery apparatus, in this case.
However, with the configuration disclosed in PTL 1, the orifice size of the nozzle for blowing in hot air is limited by the entrance size or the exit size of the heating chamber since the nozzle is arranged to the entrance or the exit of the heating chamber and therefore the range in which the hot air flow rate can be adjusted was narrow.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and an objective thereof is to widen the range in which the hot air flow rate can be adjusted in a bulk recovery apparatus.
A main aspect of the invention for achieving the above objective is an apparatus that recovers a bulk of a nonwoven fabric by blowing hot air and heating the nonwoven fabric that is transferred in a transfer direction, including a case member that has both end portions thereof in the transfer direction opened; an entrance, that is provided to an opening on one end side, in the transfer direction, of the case member, the entrance being used to transfer the nonwoven fabric; an exit that is provided to an opening on an other end side, in the transfer direction, of the case member, the exit being used to transfer the nonwoven fabric; a wall surface that is along the transfer direction and is located between the entrance and the exit of the case member; a blast opening that is provided to the wall surface and blasts into a space inside the case member the hot air in a direction in the transfer direction or a direction opposite the transfer direction; and a discharge opening that is provided to the case member, at a part on a downstream side of a direction in which the hot air is blasted, the discharge opening being made to discharge the hot air from the space inside the case member, wherein the hot air flows from the blast opening toward the discharge opening while coming into contact with one face of two faces of the nonwoven fabric in the space inside the case member.
Other features of the present invention will be made clear through the present specification with reference to the accompanying drawings.
According to the present invention, the range in which the hot air flow rate can be adjusted in a bulk recovery apparatus can be widened.
At least the following matters will become clear through the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.
An apparatus that recovers a bulk of a nonwoven fabric by blowing hot air and heating the nonwoven fabric that is transferred in a transfer direction, including a case member that has both end portions thereof in the transfer direction opened; an entrance, that is provided to an opening on one end side, in the transfer direction, of the case member, the entrance being used to transfer the nonwoven fabric; an exit that is provided to an opening on an other end side, in the transfer direction, of the case member, the exit being used to transfer the nonwoven fabric; a wall surface that is along the transfer direction and is located between the entrance and the exit of the case member; a blast opening that is provided to the wall surface and blasts into a space inside the case member the hot air in a direction in the transfer direction or a direction opposite the transfer direction; and a discharge opening that is provided to the case member, at a part on a downstream side of a direction in which the hot air is blasted, the discharge opening being made to discharge the hot air from the space inside the case member, wherein the hot air flows from the blast opening toward the discharge opening while coming into contact with one face of two faces of the nonwoven fabric in the space inside the case member.
According to such a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabrics, the sectional area of the exit part of the blast opening can be changed freely since the size of the hot air blast opening is not limited. Hereby, the range in which the hot air flow rate can be adjusted can be widened.
It is preferable that in the nonwoven fabric bulk recovery apparatus, a sectional area of the blast opening is wider than a sectional area having a normal direction thereof come along the transfer direction of the hot air flowing in the space at an interior of the case member.
According to such a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabrics, the air flow is prevented from becoming too fast even when the air flow of the hot air blasted out from the blast opening is increased, and the deterioration of energy efficiency is also reduced. Therefore, the nonwoven fabric bulk recovery can be performed efficiently since the adjustment range of the hot air flow can be set widely.
It is preferable that in the nonwoven fabric bulk recovery apparatus, the blast opening is provided to a part of the entrance of the case member, the discharge opening is provided to a part of the exit of the case member, and the hot air is blasted to flow from an upstream side along the transfer direction toward a downstream side along the transfer direction.
According to such a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabrics, the hot air moves in a manner flowing along the surface of the nonwoven fabric which is transferred in the transfer direction so that the hot air compressing this nonwoven fabric in the thickness direction of the nonwoven fabric is effectively prevented and thus the bulk can recover smoothly.
It is preferable that in the nonwoven fabric bulk recovery apparatus, a direction in which the hot air is blasted forms an angle that is 30 degrees or less with respect to the transfer direction.
According to such a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabrics, the angle formed between the direction in which the hot air is blasted and the nonwoven fabric transfer direction is made small as possible such that the blasted hot air can flow easily along the surface of the nonwoven fabric and thus the bulk of the nonwoven fabric can recover efficiently.
It is preferable that in the nonwoven fabric bulk recovery apparatus, a shape, of a wall surface on the downstream side along the transfer direction, of a wall surface that forms the blast opening has a curved surface configured with curved lines having a center of curvature thereof located on an opposite side of a surface that contacts the hot air, and a tangential direction of the curved surface at a location of the blast opening forms the angle that is 30 degrees or less with respect to the transfer direction.
According to such a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabrics, the tangential direction of the wall surface and the transfer direction of the nonwoven fabric can be made close to parallel at the blast opening position since the hot air flows in a manner being guided along the wall surfaces forming the blast opening. Hereby, the angle between the direction in which the hot air is blasted and the nonwoven fabric transfer direction is made small thereby allowing the bulk of the nonwoven fabric to recover efficiently.
It is preferable that the nonwoven fabric bulk recovery apparatus further includes a hot air supply device that supplies the hot air into the case member, wherein the hot air supply device recovers the hot air discharged from the discharge opening to resupply into the case member.
According to such a bulk recovery apparatus for nonwoven fabrics, some energy can be reused while suppressing negative effects to other proximate semimanufactured goods when the hot air is discharged from the case member.
Further, there will be made clear a method of recovering a bulk of a nonwoven fabric by blowing hot air and heating the nonwoven fabric that is transferred in a transfer direction, including: when an entrance is provided to an opening on one end side in the transfer direction to transfer the nonwoven fabric and an exit is provided to an opening on an other end side in the transfer direction to transfer the nonwoven fabric, in a case member that has both end portions thereof in the transfer direction opened, blasting in a direction in the transfer direction or a direction opposite the transfer direction and into a space inside the case member the hot air from a blast opening that is provided to a wall surface that is along the transfer direction and located between the entrance and the exit of the case member; discharging the hot air from the space inside the case member from a discharge opening that is provided to the case member, at a part on a downstream side along a direction in which the hot air is blasted; and allowing the hot air to flow from the blast opening toward the discharge opening while coming into contact with one face of two faces of the nonwoven fabric in the space inside the case member.
According to such a bulk recovery method for nonwoven fabrics, the adjustable range of the hot air flow rate can be widened.
The bulk recovery apparatus 20 and the bulk recovery method for nonwoven fabric 3 according to the present embodiment aims to processes the nonwoven fabric 3 which becomes the top sheet 3 of the pee pad 1 for pets.
The pee pad 1 is used to catch excrement of animals such as dogs and cats and is used by placing the pee pad 1 on the floor and the like, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
The back sheet 5 is, for example, a film material such as polyethylene (hereinafter, PE), polypropylene (hereinafter, PP), polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter, PET) and the like. However, it is not limited to such and any liquid permeable sheet may be used.
The top sheet 3 is made of a nonwoven fabric 3 material. In this example, one face 3b of the two faces 3a, 3b of the nonwoven fabric is in an approximately flat plane, but the other face 3a is in a corrugated shape. In other words, linear grooves 3t and linear bumps 3p are formed alternately. These bumps 3p, 3p . . . are formed by having the fibers originally existing at the grooves 3t blown sideways to be raised by a well known air blowing process (see such as Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2009-11179), with the fibers in loose states. And hereby, this nonwoven fabric 3 as a whole is made bulky. Further, a plurality of through holes 3h, 3h . . . penetrating in the thickness direction may be formed to the grooves 3t, as in this example.
The average basis weight of this nonwoven fabric 3 is, for example, 10 to 200 (g/m2), the average basis weight at the center parts of the bumps 3p is, for example, 15 to 250 (g/m2) and the average basis weight at the bottom portions of the grooves 3t is 3 to 150 (g/m2).
Further, it is preferable that the fiber of the nonwoven fabric is a composite fiber type having a so-called core-sheath structure which is configured of a core and a sheath made of different materials, however, fiber having a side-by-side structure may be used or a single fiber type made of only thermoplastic resin may be used. The properties of the nonwoven fabric 3 will differ depending on the members configuring the nonwoven fabric 3 when the fiber thereof is a composite fiber type made of a core-sheath structure, and this will be explained later.
Furthermore, the nonwoven fabric 3 may include crimped fiber. Here, crimped fiber is fiber in a crimped form such as a wavy form, a pinched form, a helical form and the like.
And the fiber length of the fibers included in the nonwoven fabric 3 is selected from the range of, for example, 20 to 100 mm and the fineness is selected from the range of, for example, 1.1 to 8.8 (dtex).
The pee pad 1 is manufactured in a pee pad 1 manufacturing line and the nonwoven fabric 3 used as the top sheet 3 is brought into this manufacturing line in a nonwoven fabric roll 3R (
However, as aforementioned, there is a possibility that the bulk of the nonwoven fabric 3 would be flattened when in the nonwoven fabric roll 3R. For such reason, this manufacturing line is provided with a bulk recovery apparatus 20.
As illustrated in
By the way, similar to the bulk recovery apparatus 20, the various devices (not shown) on the manufacturing line are arranged on this line supported by an appropriate support member. And in this example, a so-called faceplate (not shown) is used as an example of this support member. The faceplate is a plate member provided to stand vertically on the floor portion of the manufacturing line and this faceplate includes a vertical plane (a plane whose normal direction faces the horizontal direction) and the various devices are supported by this vertical plane in for example, a cantilevered state.
And in the following description, the direction normal to this vertical plane will be called the “CD direction”. Here in
The transfer portion 30 includes a plurality of transfer rollers 32, 32 . . . which define the transfer path of the nonwoven fabric 3 and a supply device 35.
The transfer rollers 32, 32 . . . are rotatably supported about the rotating shaft which comes along the CD direction and hereby the nonwoven fabric 3 is transferred in a position having the width thereof facing the CD direction. Some of the transfer rollers 32, 32 among the transfer rollers 32, 32 . . . are drive rollers 32u, 32d which are driven to rotate with the servo motor which acts as the drive source. And the other rollers 32, 32 . . . are follower rollers which do not have a drive source in other words, are rollers that are rotated by the rotating force caused by coming into contact with the nonwoven fabric 3 being transferred.
The drive rollers 32u, 32d are provided to the positions on the two sides of the heating portion 60 (specifically, the later described heating unit 61) at the transfer path. And the transfer state of the nonwoven fabric 3 at the heating portion 60 can be adjusted by controlling the rotational movement of the upstream side drive transfer rollers 32u and the downstream side drive transfer rollers 32d.
The supply device 35 is a device which supplies the nonwoven fabric 3 from the nonwoven fabric roll 3R and includes a rotating shaft which is arranged along the CD direction. And the nonwoven fabric roll 3R is rotatably supported by this rotating shaft. The rotating shaft is driven to rotate by, for example, a servo motor (not shown) which serves as the drive source and hereby, the nonwoven fabric 3 is supplied from the nonwoven fabric roll 3R. Here, a plurality e.g. two) of the supply devices 35 may be provided to have a plurality (two) of the nonwoven fabric rolls 3R alternatively used by switching. That is, the configuration may be such that while one of the supply devices 35 is supplying the nonwoven fabric 3, the other supply device 35 is in a waiting state and when the nonwoven fabric roll 3R of the one of the supply devices 35 is used up the supply device 35 in a waiting state may start supplying the nonwoven fabric 3. Note that, the detailed description of this supply device 35 is omitted since the supply device 35 is well known.
Further, an accumulator device and a tension control device (both not shown) may be equipped, to the transfer portion 30, between the supply device 35 and the upstream side drive transfer roller 32u. The accumulator device is a device which deliverably accumulates toward the downstream along the transfer direction the nonwoven fabric 3 supplied by the supply device 35. For example, when one supply device 35 among the two supply devices 35 supplies all the nonwoven fabric 3 from the nonwoven fabric roll 3R and the supply device 35 stops when switching to the other supply device 35, the accumulator device itself delivering the accumulated nonwoven fabric 3 can avoid effects to the downstream caused by stopping the supply by the supply device 35. The tension control device is a device which adjusts to a predetermined target value (N) the tensility (N) of the nonwoven fabric 3 to be transferred.
The heating portion 60 includes a heating unit 61 which blows hot air to heat the nonwoven fabric 3 to be transferred at the inside and a hot air supply device 67 which supplies hot air to this heating unit 61.
The heating unit 61 includes a case member 62 having both end sections along the longitudinal direction opened and a plurality of guide rollers 64, 64, 64 which are provided outside the case member 62 to allow the nonwoven fabric 3 to be guided and reciprocate inside the case member 62. And an outgoing route and a return route of the transfer path of the nonwoven fabric 3 are linearly formed inside the case member 62 by the guide rollers 64, 64, 64. Additionally, as illustrated in
Of the two wall surfaces 63wa, 63wb of the partitioning member 63 the wall surface 63wa (hereinafter, outgoing route wall surface 63wa) which is adjacent to the outgoing route space SP62a, and of the two wall surfaces 63wa, 63wb the wall surface 63wb (hereinafter, return route wall surface 63wb) which is adjacent to the return route space SP62b are respectively arranged parallel to the transfer direction and the CD direction. Hereby, the outgoing route wall surface 63wa and the return route wall surface 63wb are respectively made substantially parallel with the faces of the nonwoven fabric 3. And the upstream side part along the transfer direction of the outgoing route in the outgoing route wall surface 63wa has provided thereto a blast opening 63Na in a slit form long in the CD direction and the upstream side part along the transfer direction of the return route in the return route wall surface 63wb also has provided thereto a blast opening 63Nb in a slit form long in the CD direction. And the blast opening 63Na blasts into the return route space SP62b hot air supplied from the pressure chamber R63a formed inside the partitioning member 63. Similarly, the blast opening 63Nb blasts into the outgoing route space SP62b hot air supplied from the pressure chamber R63a formed inside the partitioning member 63. Description of the hot air blasting operation will be given later.
Further, the downstream side part, at the outgoing route wall surface 63wa, along a direction in which hot air is blasted from the blast opening 63Na has provided thereto a discharge opening 63ha which opens to the outgoing route space SP62a. In the case of
The hot air supply device 67 includes an air blower 67b and a heater 67h. And hot air is generated by heating with the heater 67h wind generated with the air blower 67b, and this hot air is supplied to the pressure chambers R63a, R63b of the partitioning member 63 inside the case member 62 of the aforementioned heating unit 61 through an appropriate tube member 67p. Thereafter, hot air is blasted out from the blast openings 63Na, 63Nb through the pressure chambers R63a, R63b.
The air blower 67b includes, for example, an impeller 67i which is rotated by using a motor as the drive source and an inverter (not shown) which adjusts the rotational speed (rpm) of the aforementioned motor. And hereby, the VVVF inverter control with the controller (not shown) can be performed so that as a result the air volume (m3/min) can be adjusted to any value through changing of the rotational speed (rpm) of the impeller 67i.
Here, as illustrated in
Here, an electric heater which heats using electricity (kW) can be employed as the above heaters 67h, 67ha, 67hb. However, it is not limited to such and any device may do as long as it can heat air which forms wind.
And in this example, the “wind” indicates flows of air but includes in a broad sense, flows of gas such as nitrogen gas and inactive gas besides flows of air. In other words, nitrogen gas and the like may be blown out from the blast openings 63Na, 63Nb.
Further in the present embodiment, each exit portion of the discharge openings 63ha, 63hb has one end sides of the recovery tube member 69 connected and the other end sides of the recovery tube member 69 communicate with the suction side part 67bs of the air blower 67b. Hereby, the hot air flowing through the spaces SP62a, SP62b are recovered to be returned to the suction side part 67bs of the air blower 67b. The recovered hot air is heated with the heater 67h by applying outside air and then supplied again to the heating unit 61. Recovery of the hot air allows reusing of a part of the energy while suppressing negative effects to the other proximate semimanufactured products when the hot air is discharged in the heating unit 61.
By the way, in the case of
The heating unit 61 in the examples of
The hot air flow inside the case member 62 of the heating unit 61 and the bulk recovery operation of the nonwoven fabric 3 will be specifically described with reference to the figures.
Firstly, the hot air supplied from the hot air supply device 67 is supplied to the pressure chamber R63a provided to the partitioning member 63. The sectional shape (the shape at the section having the normal direction thereof directed in the CD direction) of the pressure chamber R63a is in a tapered shape becoming substantially narrower toward the downstream side of the transfer direction with the wall surface R631a and the wall surface R631b, and the pressure chamber R63a comes into communication with the outgoing route space SP62a at the tip end portion of the tapered shape so to thereby allow the tip end portion function as the aforementioned blast opening 63Na.
According to such blast opening 63Na, hot air is blasted toward the downstream side along the transfer direction and is directed to form an acute angle θ with respect to one of the two surfaces of the nonwoven fabric 3. It is preferable that the angle θ of the hot air blasting direction with respect to the transfer direction of the nonwoven fabric 3 at the location of the blast opening 63Na is within the range of 0 to 30 degrees and more preferably within the range of 0 to 10 degrees (see
As indicated with thick arrows in
Further in the present embodiment, some of the surrounding air (exterior of the case member 62) is sucked in to enter into the outgoing route space SP62a when the transferred nonwoven fabric 3 enters from the entrance 62ain into the interior of the case member 62. And the sucked air forms an accompanying flow which flows in the transfer direction by moving along with the transferred nonwoven fabric 3. Since this accompanying flow flows along the transfer direction, the hot air blasted from the blast opening 63Na is likely to flow along the transfer direction so as to be made to flow by this accompanying flow.
Since the hot air blasted inside the case member 62 flows to move along the surface of the nonwoven fabric 3 in this way, the situation of the hot air compressing the nonwoven fabric 3 in the thickness direction of the nonwoven fabric 3 is effectively avoided and hereby the bulk can be smoothly recovered.
Further, the wind speed value Vw (m/min) of the hot air can be made greater than the transfer speed value V3 (m/min) of the nonwoven fabric 3 by adjusting the air volume (m3/min) of the hot air. And in this way, the hot air blasted from the blast opening 63Na would pass the nonwoven fabric 3 swiftly along the surface of the nonwoven fabric 3 to be discharged outside from the discharge opening 63ha in the end. Therefore, this hot air can easily become turbulent based on the relative speed difference between the hot air and the nonwoven fabric 3. And as a result, the heat-transfer efficiency is dramatically improved so that the nonwoven fabric 3 can be heated efficiently allowing quick bulk recovery. Further, since the fibers of the nonwoven fabric 3 are randomly loosened by the hot air turbulence, this also promotes the bulk recovery.
By the way, the wind speed value Vw (m/min) of the hot air is a value obtained by, for example, dividing the air volume (m3/min) supplied to the outgoing route space SP62a by the sectional area (i.e., the area of the section having the transfer direction as the normal direction thereof) of the outgoing route space SP62a.
Further, it is preferable that the magnitude relationship between the aforementioned wind speed value Vw and the transfer speed value V3 is established along the entire transfer direction of the outgoing route space SP62a, however, it need not be established along the entire length thereof. In other words, the functional effect of the aforementioned turbulent state can be relished if the aforementioned magnitude relationship is established at a part of the space SP62a.
Here, the shape of the outgoing route blast opening 63Na is in a rectangular form having the longitudinal direction directed along the CD direction. And the dimension of the outgoing route blast opening 63Na in the CD direction is set to have the same value as the dimension along the CD direction of the outgoing route space SP62a, however, it is not limited to such. For example the blast opening 63Na may be smaller. But, it is preferable that the dimension along the CD direction of the blast opening 63Na is greater than the width dimension (dimension along the CD direction) of the nonwoven fabric 3, and thereby uneven heating along the CD direction can be suppressed.
Further in this present embodiment, the dimension (the dimension along the direction orthogonal to the dimension along the aforementioned CD direction, indicated as LNa in
<Air Volume (m3/min) Adjustment of Hot Air>
As aforementioned, the bulk recovery apparatus 20 according to the present embodiment realizes an effective and quick bulk recovery by making the wind speed value Vw (m/min) of the hot air at the interior of the case member 62 of the heating unit 61 to be greater than the transfer speed value V3 (m/min) of the nonwoven fabric 3 and become turbulent. In order therefor, the hot air volume (m3/min) blasted out from the blast openings 63Na and 63Nb are adjusted accordingly to make Vw greater than V3. By the way, this hot air volume need to be adjusted to an appropriate volume and does not work well by simply setting to the air volume so to satisfy Vw>V3. This is because a normal bulk recovery may not be achieved when the hot air volume is too large depending on the material of the nonwoven fabric 3 being the target of bulk recovery.
For example, when the core member of the core-sheath structured composite fiber which configures the nonwoven fabric 3 is PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and the sheath member thereof is PE (polyethylene) (referred as type A nonwoven fabric), the melting point of the core member (PET) is approximately 250 degrees centigrade whereas the melting point of the sheath member (PE) is approximately 120 to 130 degrees centigrade. When the bulk recovery heating temperature for such type A nonwoven fabric is about 100 degrees centigrade, the melting point of the sheath part of the nonwoven fabric being at temperature close to the melting point would melt easily whereas the core part being far from the melting point would not. Therefore, type A nonwoven fabric would not have at least the core part stretching easily even when heated.
Meanwhile, when core member of the core-sheath structured composite fiber which configures the nonwoven fabric 3 is polypropylene (PP) and the sheath member thereof is PE (polyethylene) (referred as type B nonwoven fabric), the melting point of the core member (PP) is approximately 160 degrees centigrade whereas the melting point of the sheath member (PE) is approximately 120 to 130 degrees centigrade. When the bulk recovery heating temperature for such type B nonwoven fabrics is about 100 degrees centigrade, not only the sheath part but the core part of the nonwoven fabric 3 being at a temperature close to the melting point are likely to melt easily and so the fiber can stretch easily. Therefore, the nonwoven fabric 3 being transferred in a state under a predetermined tensile force in the heating unit 61, would allow the type B nonwoven fabric itself to be stretched easily in the transfer direction due to the stretching of the fiber.
Thus, normal bulk recovery is performed when the nonwoven fabric 3 being the target of bulk recovery is such as the type A nonwoven fabric whereas normal bulk recovery would be difficult with the nonwoven fabric itself being stretched in the transfer direction before bulk recovery is performed when the nonwoven fabric 3 is such as the type B nonwoven fabric.
In order to deal with such different nonwoven fabric in the present embodiment, the heat quantity per unit time provided to each of the outgoing route space SP62a and the return route space SP62b are adjusted by changing the hot air volume (m3/min) blasted from the blast openings 63Na, 63Nb. Hereby, normal bulk recovery would be performed by appropriately heating the nonwoven fabric 3 and an effective bulk recovery can be realized by increasing the wind velocity value Vw of the hot air inside the case member 62 to be greater than the transfer speed value V3 of the nonwoven fabric 3.
The adjustment of the hot air volume is performed by the air blower 67b, however, there may be a case where the adjustable range is limited by the actual dimension of the blast opening from which the hot air is blasted. But in the present embodiment, a wide adjustment range can be set since the blast openings 63Na, 63Nb for the hot air are respectively provided to the wall surfaces 63wa, 63wb of the case member 62 which are along the transfer direction.
Here, description of the adjustment of the hot air volume with a conventional bulk recovery apparatus as a comparative example will be given.
Similar to the bulk recovery apparatus 20 according to the present embodiment, the bulk recovery apparatus 25 of the comparative example includes a transfer portion 30 (not shown in
It is important to adjust the hot air volume to be in an appropriate range in also the bulk recovery apparatus 25 of the comparative example in order to realize an effective bulk recovery of the nonwoven fabric 3. However, it would be difficult to sufficiently adjust the volume of hot air blasted from the blast opening 63Na with the configuration in
In comparison, the bulk recovery apparatus 20 according to the present embodiment having the blast openings 63Na, 63Nb respectively provided to the wall surface along the transfer direction of the case member 62 allows easy changing of the sectional area of the above blast openings. For example, in
Further, the hot air blasted from the blast opening 63Na and into the outgoing route space SP62a can be quickly discharged from the discharge opening 63ha in the bulk recovery apparatus 20 according to the present embodiment, since a discharge opening 63ha is provided on the downstream side along the flow direction of the hot air. With such a configuration, hot air can flow easily along the transfer direction so that issues of the hot air residing in the space SP62a or the direction of the hot air flow reversing at somewhere along the way is unlikely to be faced. Therefore, hot air can be made to flow along the face of the nonwoven fabric 3 even when the hot air volume blasted from the blast opening 63Na is increased thereby allowing a smooth bulk recovery.
Hereinabove, embodiments of the present invention have been described, however, the foregoing embodiments are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention but not to limit the invention. And it is needless to say that modifications and improvements of the present invention are possible without departing from the scope of the invention, and equivalents thereof are also encompassed by the invention. For example, the following modifications are possible.
In the aforementioned embodiment, the nonwoven fabric 3 for top sheets 3 of pee pads 1 for pets had been exemplified as the target to be processed by the bulk recovery apparatus 20, however, it is not limited to such. For example, nonwoven fabric for top sheets of sanitary napkins and nonwoven fabric for top sheets of diapers may be the targets. Further, the target to be processed by the bulk recovery apparatus 20 is not at all limited to nonwoven fabric 3 for the top sheet 3. In other words, nonwoven fabric of materials of other components which require to be bulky may processed with the bulk recovery apparatus 20 according to the present invention.
In the aforementioned embodiment, as illustrated in
In the aforementioned embodiment, as illustrated in
In the aforementioned embodiment, as illustrated in
For example, the outgoing route blast opening 63Na may be provided at a downstream side part (corresponding to the “exit side part in the case member”) along the outgoing route of the outgoing route wall surface 63wa and the return route blast opening 63Nb may be provided at a downstream side part (corresponding to the “exit side part in the case member”) along the return route of the return route wall surface 63wb. And in such case, both blast openings 63Na, 63Nb for the outgoing route and the return route are formed such that hot air is blasted toward the upstream side along the transfer direction with an acute angle with respect to one face of the two faces of the nonwoven fabric 3. Hereby, the hot air blasted from the outgoing route blast opening 63Na comes into contact with the nonwoven fabric 3 with a component of velocity on the upstream side along the transfer direction, and flows upstream along the surface of the nonwoven fabric 3 as it is, to be finally discharged outside from the outgoing route entrance 62ain located most upstream in the outgoing route space SP62a. Further, the hot air blasted from the return route blast opening 63Nb comes into contact with the nonwoven fabric 3 with a component of velocity of the upstream side along the transfer direction, and flows upstream along the surface of the nonwoven fabric 3 as it is, to be finally discharged outside from the return route entrance 62bin located most upstream in the return route space SP62b.
In the aforementioned embodiment, a solid member which does not include space inside besides the pressure chambers R63a, R63b and the discharge openings 63ha, 63hb had been used as the material of the partitioning member 63, however, it is not limited to such. For example, hollow members including a space inside may be used for the purpose of weight reduction. For example, a member made of a combination of a stainless steel flat plate member (not shown) which forms the outgoing route wall surface 63wa in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-217197 | Oct 2013 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2014/076717 | 10/6/2014 | WO | 00 |
