Patent Grant
7165963
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a spinneret having a non-circular cross-section capillary orifice and process for using this spinneret in the production of polyamide yarns having a circular cross-section. In particular, the invention relates to a spinneret for extruding polyamide filaments and forming yarns comprised of the same filaments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacture of polyamide multifilament yarns, especially nylon 66 yarns, the winding of the yarn must be stopped frequently to remove undesirable deposits found around the capillary exit side of the spinneret plate. If not removed these deposits build up to a thickness of a “few millimeters (per) week” according to Fourne (Synthetic Fibers, Chapter 4, page 359, C. Hanser Publishers, Munich 1998.) Such deposits contributed to the filament bending or “kneeing.” The bending of a majority of the filaments, if not remedied, ultimately led to filaments breaks, yarn defects or unscheduled process interruptions and poor efficiency.
A remedy practiced in the art for filament bending or kneeing is to clean these deposits off the extrusion or spinneret plate on the capillary exit face. This cleaning process is also known as “spinneret wiping.” The cycle time between spinneret wiping events, where each event is necessitated by a build up of the undesirable deposits, is the spinneret wipe life. It is desirable from a process efficiency and continuity standpoint to have a longer spinneret wiping cycle or wipe life.
In general, the cross sectional shape of a filament is determined by the cross sectional profiled shape of the extrusion orifice. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,002 a trilobate profile filament yarn is produced by means of a spinneret plate with multiple orifices of trilobate shape. Whereas, a circular profile filament yarn is produced by a spinneret plate, illustrated at 170 in
Applicants have observed that wiping cycles for production of trilobal profile filaments were in general longer times than those times observed for circular profile cross-section filaments. In particular, Applicants have observed that a non-circular cross-section spinneret capillary orifice (or extrusion orifice) with a cross-sectional area substantially the same as the area of a circular cross-section spinneret capillary, but having a perimeter measure greater than the perimeter of a circular cross-section spinneret capillary, provides greater time interval between spinneret plate wiping events. This non-circular cross-sectional shape of the extrusion capillary, when used to extrude filaments of circular cross-sectional shape, extends the spinneret wipe life by lessening the amount of thermal deposits. This thereby extends the time between wipe cycles. As a result of increased wipe life, the productivity of the process is increased.
Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a melt extrusion spinneret plate having at least one capillary orifice for producing at least a single filament of circular cross sectional shape, said capillary orifice having a non-circular shape. Preferably, the capillary orifice has a profiled shape with at least five 5 radially arranged legs, and preferably up to twelve 12 legs. More preferred are eight radially arranged legs.
Further in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a process for making a nylon filament of circular cross sectional shape comprising the steps of: supplying a polymer to a spin beam where the melted polymer is passed to a spin pack and through a spinneret plate having at least a single capillary orifice of non-circular shape, extruding at least a polymer single filament with a jet velocity substantially the same as that jet velocity employed when using a circular cross-section capillary orifice, quenching the freshly extruded filaments with conditioned air, drawing the filament, and winding the filament.
Other objects of the invention will be clear from the following description.
a is a representation in plan view of a prior art spinneret plate having a plurality of circular cross section extrusion capillaries.
b is a representation in elevation view of a prior art spinneret plate having a plurality of circular cross section extrusion capillaries.
a is a representation in plan view of the invention spinneret plate having a plurality of non-circular cross section extrusion capillaries.
b is a representation in elevation view of the invention spinneret plate having a plurality of non-circular cross section extrusion capillaries.
a is a representation of a prior art spinneret plate with a single circular cross section extrusion capillary.
b is a representation of an invention spinneret plate with a single non-circular cross section extrusion capillary.
Throughout the following detailed description, similar reference characters refer to similar elements in all drawings or figures.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising a melt extrusion spinneret plate comprising at least a single non-circular capillary orifice for making a nylon filament of circular cross sectional shape. A schematic representation of a single capillary orifice is shown in
In accordance with the present invention, the non-circular capillary orifice of the preferred melt extrusion spinneret plate has a perimeter measure pc of about 2 to about 10 times greater than either of 2πR and 2πr. The non-circular capillary orifice of the preferred melt extrusion spinneret plate has about 5 to about 12 radially arranged legs.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a process for making a nylon filament of circular cross sectional shape. A schematic representation of the filament spinning process is shown in
The polymer is then extruded through a spinneret plate 170, shown in
G=ρ(melt)D2(capillary)(π/4) v(extrusion) Equation 1.
In this equation, ρ is the polymer melt density (e.g. for melted nylon 6,6@290° C. equal to 1.0 gram per cm3), D (=2R) is the diameter (equal to twice the radius) of the capillary assuming a circular orifice, and v is the velocity of the filament. The extrusion velocity is given by the following equation:
v(extrusion)=G(4/π)D2(capiliary)ρ(melt) Equation 2.
In combination, the perimeter increase in the capillary orifice of the present invention with an unaltered extrusion velocity is thought to provide a longer length of time between spinneret plate wiping events. In a preferred embodiment the polymer is extruded at a jet velocity in the range of 20 centimeters per second to 80 centimeters per second.
In the process of the invention, the freshly extruded filaments are quenched with conditioned air in the known manner. In this step, the individual filaments 200 are cooled in a quench cabinet 180 with a side draft of conditioned air 190 and converged and oiled with a primary finish, known in the art, at 210, into a yarn. The yarn is forwarded by feed roll 220 onto a draw roll pair 230 where the yarn is stretched and oriented to form a drawn yarn which is directed by roll 240 into a yarn stabilization apparatus 250, commonly used in the art and here optionally employed as a yarn post-treatment step. Finally, the yarn is wound up as a yarn package at 270, at a yarn speed in the range of 4500 to 6500 meters per minute, and preferably 5000–6000 meters per minute. The yarn RV measured is about 51 to about 54. During the course of winding at these speeds any need to interrupt the process for the purpose of cleaning the exit side face of the spinneret plate dramatically affects the productivity. Essentially all product which could have been wound up is sent to waste while the spinneret plate is wiped.
Using the spinneret plate of the invention, having extrusion orifices of non-circular cross section, to spin filaments of circular cross sectional shape provides a process with a reduced need for spinneret wiping due to bent filaments. The number of bent filaments at the exit side 175 of the face of the spinneret plate 170 with the present invention may be counted directly by observation and recorded for a typical eight-hour shift after spinneret plate wiping. The record is indicative of how robust the process is from a bent filament production rate. Similarly, the spinneret wipe life expressed as the time for 10% of all single filaments in the yarn bundle to appear bent at the exit side of the capillary on the spinneret plate face is also recorded. Measuring the time to 10% bent filaments is performed directly by observation and a direct count by an operator illuminating the spinneret plate face within the quench cabinet.
The yarn produced according to the process represented by
A derived parameter characterizing the superior properties of this yarn is called the Yarn Quality and found by the product of the yarn tenacity (grams per denier) and the square root of the % elongation, as in Equation 3.
YARN QUALITY=tenacity×(elongation)1/2 Equation 3.
The Yarn Quality is an approximation to the measure of yarn “toughness.” As is known to those skilled in the art, the area under the yarn load elongation curve is proportional to the work done to elongate the yarn. Where tenacity is expressed in terms of force per unit denier, for example, and the elongation expressed as a per cent change per unit of length, the load elongation curve is the stress-strain curve. In this case the area under the stress-strain curve is the work to extend the yarn or the yarn toughness. The yarn quality improvement provides an apparel polyamide yarn which is more acceptable in varied applications. These applications may include, without limitation, warp knit fabrics, circular knit fabrics, seamless knit garments, hosiery products and light denier technical fabrics.
Yarn tenacity and the yarn elongation are determined according to ASTM method D 2256-80 using an INSTRON tensile test apparatus (Instron Corp., Canton, Mass., USA 02021) and a constant cross head speed. Tenacity is expressed as grams of force per denier, the elongation percent is the increase in length of the specimen as a percentage of the original length at breaking load.
Yarn Quality derived from tenacity and elongation and is calculated according to Equation 3.
Polymer relative viscosity RV is measured using the formic acid method according to ASTM D789-86.
In an example of the invention, a yarn of 40 denier (44 dtex) and 13 filaments was prepared from a nylon 66 polymer of 51.5 RV which contained 1.5% by weight TiO2. This polymer was melted in an extruder and fed to a spinning machine (shown schematically in
In a comparative example of the prior art, a yarn of 40 denier (44 dtex) and 13 filaments was prepared by treating a nylon 66 polymer (51.5 RV) was melted in an extruder and fed to a spinning machine which was used to prepare the 40-13 yarn, by a process of quenching in conditioned air, converging and treating the yarn with a primary spinning oil, drawing the yarn using unheated godets, stabilizing the yarn with a heated fluid, interlacing the yarn and winding on at a speed of about 5300 meters per minute. The spinneret plate had 13 circular cross-sectionally shaped capillaries, as shown in
As a result of these modifications to the perimeter measure, an increase of about 6 times, and the shape of the spinneret plate capillaries an increased productivity spinning process is realized. Most importantly, the need to interrupt the process continuity is reduced to about 2 times per 24 hour period from that of 6 or more times per 24 hour period.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4221755 | Wellenhofer et al. | Sep 1980 | A |
| 5154908 | Edie | Oct 1992 | A |
| 5432002 | Kramer | Jul 1995 | A |
| 6673442 | Johnson et al. | Jan 2004 | B1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20050093199 A1 | May 2005 | US |
