1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fabrics employed in web forming equipment such as papermaking and non-woven web forming equipment, and, more particularly, to forming fabrics in web forming equipment or papermaking machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paper is manufactured by conveying a paper furnish consisting of a slurry of cellulose fibers, water and appropriate additives onto a forming fabric or between two forming fabrics in a forming section of a paper machine. The sheet is then passed through a pressing section and ultimately through a drying section of a papermaking machine. In the case of standard tissue paper machines, the paper web is transferred from the press fabric to a Yankee dryer cylinder and then creped.
An essential part of the performance of a fabric is drainage and fiber retention. Currently, triple layer woven structures are employed for these applications due to their high dewatering capacity, fine forming surface, and high degree of width stability. New tissue making technologies associated with through air drying (TAD) place ever increasing demands on the forming fabric. Another approach to drying, offered by Voith Paper under the name ATMOS, and more completely described in International Patent Application Publication WO 2005/075736 A3 places even greater demands on the fabric. In this system, the fibrous web is carried around a partial arc of a drum and exposed to vacuum to remove water from the fibrous web.
Current triple layer woven forming fabrics are cross-machine direction bound which forms an impediment to the high drainage needed in such applications and the very fine forming surface needed for sheet formation. In other words, the sheet form needs to be well filled in, have a uniform basis weight distribution and minimal pin holes.
Thus, there exists a need in the art to provide a forming fabric that has increased width stability, drainage and fiber support means.
Furthermore, a need exists for ever increasing capacity and stability with respect to these parameters as paper forming technologies impose demands of ever increasing speed.
The invention, in one form, is directed to a paper machine for drying a paper or fibrous web. The paper machine has at least one station where the paper or fibrous web has its moisture content reduced. A forming fabric carries the paper or fibrous web at least to the station. The forming fabric has a plurality of paper side weft and warp yarns interwoven to form a fabric contacting the paper or fibrous web. A plurality of machine side weft and warp yarns are interwoven to form a machine side layer for the forming fabric. A plurality of binder yarns are interlaced with a plurality of the paper side and machine side yarns to form a multiple layered forming fabric. The weft yarns in the machine side layer are greater in diameter than the warp yarns for maintaining with stability of the fabric.
An advantage of the present invention is the provision of a forming fabric having increased width stability while at the same time allowing for superior drainage and fiber support.
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplifications set out herein illustrate embodiments of the invention and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
Referring now to the drawings,
There is a significant increase in dryness with the belt press 19. The belt 31 should be capable of sustaining an increase in belt tension of up to approximately 80 KN/m without being destroyed and without destroying web quality. There is roughly about a 2% more dryness in the web W for each tension increase of 20 KN/m.
The dewatering system shown in
Referring now to
An additional set of warp yarns 18 and weft yarns 20 are interwoven with each other and form an additional layer which ends up being the machine facing side 22. The machine facing side 22 usually abuts a drive drum or guide roller (not shown to simplify the discussion of the present invention) to move the belt 10 through a prescribed path. The interwoven weft and warp yarns 14 and 12, respectively form a paper side layer 24 and the weft and warp yarns 18 and 20 form a machine side layer 26. Layers 24 and 26 are connected by binder yarns 28, illustrated by dashed lines extending beyond the illustrated perimeter of the fabric 10. Only a portion of the binder yarns 28 are shown to simplify the understanding of the present invention. As shown in
The yarns making up the paper side layer 24 and the machine side layer 26 are interwoven in such a way that the permeability of the fabric 10 is broadly between about 300 cfm and about 1000 cfm. A preferred range is between about 450 cfm and about 1000 cfm, but the most preferred range is between about 525 cfm to about 700 cfm to maximize drainage. The void volume is between about 40% to about 80% and preferred is about 60% to 80%. The most preferred void volume is from about 65% to 80%. This high void volume is needed to handle the very high dewatering rate of the fabric 10.
The yarns making up the paper side layer 24 and the machine side layer 26 are also interwoven so that the surface open area is between about 20% to about 60% with a preferred open area being from about 30% to about 60%. The most preferred is from about 35% to about 45%. The high surface open area is needed for very fast dewatering demand.
The fabric is also interwoven in a way to achieve certain levels of Beran's Fiber Support Index (FSI). As used herein, the FSI, is defined in Robert L. Beran “The Evaluation and Selection of Forming Fabrics” TAPPI, April 1979, Volume 62, Number 4, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The FSI for the resulting fabric is the range of from about 100 to about FSI 250 with a more preferred FSI being about 125 to about 250. The most preferred FSI is from about 150 to about 250. A high FSI value is needed for fiber retention, sheet formation and to minimize pin holes that result from excessively fast dewatering with insufficient fiber support. This in turn results in fiber being pulled through the fabric and sheet holes resulting therefrom.
The fabric shown in
The weaves shown in
Referring to
The above structures while exemplary provide a forming fabric that has superior ability to eliminate water from the web carried by the fibrous web side. This superior water capacity minimizes, if not eliminates, the need for supplemental vacuum operations in the paper machine of
While this invention has been described with respect to at least one embodiment, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles. Further, this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains and which fall within the limits of the appended claims.
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