Claims
- 1. A creping blade for creping a cellulosic web from a rotatable cylinder in a creping process, the creping blade comprising:first and second side faces, said first side face being at least substantially opposite to said second side face; an upper surface not orthogonal to at least one of said first and second side faces; and a plurality of notches, each of the notches having a bottom portion and an open end, the bottom portion being at least substantially parallel to the upper surface and the open end being defined by at least a portion of the upper surface, the notches being configured to increase the caliper of the cellulosic web when the creping blade crepes the cellulosic web from an outer surface of the rotatable cylinder.
- 2. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein the upper surface is planar.
- 3. The creping blade of claim 2, wherein the notches are configured so that the bottom portion of each of the notches is at least substantially in a plane, said plane being at least substantially parallel to the upper surface.
- 4. The creping blade of claim 3, wherein said plane is spaced from the upper surface by a distance of from approximately 0.010 inch to approximately 0.050 inch.
- 5. The creping blade of claim 2, wherein the bottom portion of at least one of the notches is in a first plane, the bottom of at least another of the notches is in a second plane, and the upper surface is in a third plane, the first, second, and third planes being at least substantially parallel to one another and a distance between the first and third planes being different from a distance between the second and third planes.
- 6. The creping blade of claim 5, wherein the spacing of the notches along the blade is not uniform.
- 7. The creping blade of claim 6, wherein at least one of the notches has a cross-section different from another of the notches, in a plane parallel to at least one of said first and second side faces of the creping blade.
- 8. The creping blade of claim 2, wherein the upper surface is beveled with respect to at least one of said first and second side faces at an angle from approximately 0° to approximately 35° with respect to a plane perpendicular to at least one of said first and second side faces.
- 9. The creping blade of claim 8, wherein the upper surface is beveled at an angle of approximately 10° to approximately 25° with respect to a plane perpendicular to at least one of said first and second side faces.
- 10. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein an effective notch depth of each notch is defined by the distance between the bottom portion and the open end in a direction along a wear angle of the creping blade, the effective notch depth remaining substantially constant when contact between the creping blade and the rotatable cylinder wears the creping blade, and wherein caliper and strength of the cellulosic web creped by the creping blade are substantially unaffected by wear of the creping blade.
- 11. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein the creping blade includes a plurality of protrusions adjacent to the notches and extending from at least one of said first and second side faces, and wherein at least a portion of the protrusions defines at least a part of the creping blade that contacts the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder.
- 12. The creping blade of claim 11, wherein the protrusions are formed from portions of the creping blade displaced when the plurality of notches are formed.
- 13. The creping blade of claim 11, wherein outer faces of the protrusions are dressed to an angle with respect to at least one of said first and second side faces approximately equal to a wear angle of the creping blade when the creping blade is positioned on the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder.
- 14. The creping blade of claim 13, wherein the wear angle is from approximately 5° to approximately 25°.
- 15. The creping blade of claim 14, wherein the wear angle is from approximately 9° to approximately 18°.
- 16. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein a cross-section of each of the notches in a plane parallel to at least one of said first and second side faces of the creping blade is one of substantially V-shaped, substantially U-shaped, substantially crescent-shaped, substantially rectangular-shaped, substantially truncate-V-shaped, and substantially dovetail-shaped.
- 17. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein each of the notches includes first and second side walls, said side walls extending from the bottom portion of the notch to the open end and being tapered between the open end and the bottom portion.
- 18. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein the bottom portion of each of the notches is substantially linear.
- 19. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein the bottom portion of each of the notches is planar.
- 20. The creping blade of claim 19, wherein the bottom portion of each of the notches is tapered between a first end of the bottom portion adjacent to said first side face and a second end of the bottom portion adjacent to said second side face.
- 21. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein the number of notches is from approximately 6 notches per inch to approximately 40 notches per inch.
- 22. The creping blade of 1, wherein at least one of the notches has a cross-section different from another of the notches, in a plane parallel to at least one of said first and second side faces of the creping blade.
- 23. The creping blade of claim 22, wherein the spacing of the notches along the blade is not uniform.
- 24. The creping blade of claim 1, wherein the spacing of the notches along the blade is not uniform.
- 25. A system for creping a cellulosic web, the system comprising:a rotatable cylinder; and the creping blade of claim 1, the creping blade being positioned with respect to the cylinder so that the creping blade is capable of creping the cellulosic web from an outer surface of the cylinder when the web is on the outer surface and the cylinder is rotated.
- 26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a pivot member coupled to the creping blade, the pivot member being configured to maintain the creping blade in contact with the outer surface of the cylinder when the creping blade becomes worn.
- 27. The system of claim 25, wherein the rotatable cylinder is part of a dryer configured to heat the outer surface of the cylinder.
- 28. The system of claim 27, wherein the dryer is a Yankee dryer.
- 29. In a method of manufacturing paper, the improvement comprising:creping a cellulosic web from an outer surface of a rotatable cylinder with the creping blade of claim 1, wherein caliper and strength of the creped web is substantially constant when contact between the creping blade and the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder wears the creping blade.
- 30. The improvement of claim 29, further comprising positioning a cellulosic web that includes from about 30% to about 70% moisture by weight on the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder, wherein the cellulosic web is wet creped from the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder when the cellulosic web includes from about 15% to about 60% moisture by weight.
- 31. The improvement of claim 29, further comprising positioning a cellulosic web that includes from about 30% to about 70% moisture by weight on the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder, wherein the cellulosic web is dry creped from the outer surface of the rotatable cylinder when the cellulosic web includes from about 2% to about 15% moisture by weight.
- 32. The improvement of claim 29, wherein the cellulosic web includes recycled material.
- 33. The improvement of claim 32, wherein the recycled material includes ash.
Parent Case Info
This application relies on the benefit of priority of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/158,024, filed Oct. 7, 1999, the entire disclosure of which is incorporation herein by reference.
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Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60/158024 |
Oct 1999 |
US |