Claims
- 1. A method of producing fibers from plant material, the method comprising:stripping woody material from fibers of the plant material to produce decorticated plant material at a first level of fiber purity; providing a plant material scraping area defined by cooperating spikes on a cylinder and associated concave member arranged in a set; feeding the decorticated plant material at the first level of fiber purity to the cylinder and concave member set; rotating the cylinder with the spikes thereon passing the spikes on the concave member with lateral spacing therebetween; carrying the decorticated plant material with the spikes on the cylinder to the scraping area by rotation of the cylinder; scraping woody portions of the plant material from the fibers as the plant material engages spikes on the concave member in the scraping area to minimize shortening of the fibers; producing fibers at a higher level of purity than the first level after scraping and which are at a length that is only slightly shorter than the fibers fed to the scraping area; arranging the spikes on the cylinder and concave member in circumferentially spaced axial rows with spikes in adjacent rows having spikes that are axially offset from each other, and causing the plant material to undergo a back and forth scraping action as the cylinder spikes carry plant material to the scraping area with the plant material successively engaging offset concave member spikes in different rows on the concave member on either side of a cylinder spike.
Parent Case Info
This is a division, of prior application Ser. No. 09/032,903 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,647 filed Mar. 2, 1998 which in turn is a continuation-in-part of prior application Ser. No. 08/986,225, filed Dec. 5, 1997, which issued on May 25, 1999 into U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,030; which in turn is a continuation application of Ser. No. 08/685,453 filed Jul. 19, 1996 which issued on Feb. 24, 1998 into U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,083; which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
US Referenced Citations (7)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/685453 |
Jul 1996 |
US |
Child |
08/986225 |
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US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/986225 |
Dec 1997 |
US |
Child |
09/032903 |
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US |