US2713998A - Means for emulsifying sizing and the like products - Google Patents

Description

S T C U D O R P E K I EL Mm Nmm El Kw ls RAM W W Hwn n NS m M E R O F m 5 E 5 M 9 1 am 2 .w H J Filed April 29, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 26, 1955 HENRI EICKEN 2,713,998

KNOWN AS ESTIENNE MEANS FOR EMULSIFYING SIZING AND THE LIKE PRODUCTS Filed April 29, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 2,713,998 lfatenied July 26, 1955 fifice IllEANS FOR EMULSIFYENG SHZHJG AND THE LIKE PRQDUCTS Henri Eicken, known as Estienne, Lyon, France Application April 29, 1954, erial No. 426,42ll Claims priority, applicationFrance May 18, 1953 4 Claims. ((Il. 25995) The sizing methods generally resorted to in weaving plants consist in coating the threads forming the warp of the fabric which is to be woven by means of a thin and yielding film of an adhesive product with a view to increasing the mechanical resistance of the thread.

According to the nature of the textile material to be sized, products of various origins may be used, but in all 7 cases it is of the utmost importance to obtain a perfect emulsion.

it is already difiicult to obtain emulsions which are fully satisfactory for the sizing of textile materials other than cotton and the like fibres, but it is almost impossible in the case of the sizing of cotton warps to obtain such emulsions because the basis of the adhesive used in such cases is always potato starch, rice starch or the like product.

As a matter of fact, the preparation of the size containing said products requires first, during the baking operation, the use of mechanical mixing and stirring apparatuses and further, the obtention of very fine and stable emulsions being extremely important, it is necessary to make the adhesive pass after the baking step through homogenizing means with a view to mechanically breaking up the particles of starch which have not been dissociated. All this requiresresorting to a comparatively intricate and costly machinery which does not even yield an entirely satisfactory product.

Furthermore, an adhesive, it well prepared, always assumes a tendency, when it has been transported into the sizing vats of the machine, to decompose and to form clots, a phenomenon ascribable to the structure of the product and to the fact that it has been broken mechanically. This results obviously in a detrimental action on the sizing procedure, however carefully the preparation of the size has been carried out.

The arrangement forming the object of my invention is adapted to remove very simply the above drawbacks, while cutting out the arrangements required nowadays for baking and homogenizing the adhesive and thereby obtaining for the sizing procedure, whatever may be the components of the sizing material, perfect suspensions at all stages including, of course, the stage corresponding to the actual operation of the sizing machine.

To this end, a portion of the emulsifying bathis caused to pass through a conical nozzle ending with a parallelsided slot directing the bath onto a plate extending in the direction of the liquid stream inside the actual body of the bath, whereby the liquid jet passing out of said nozzle and impinging on said plate produces in the latter supersonic resonance waves which are transmitted to the'actual bath.

My invention will be readily understood from the reading of the following disclosure, reference being made to accompanying diagrammatic drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic showing of a plant for the execution of my improved method of preparation of sizing suspensions;

Fig. 2 illustrates diagrammatically an arrangement for use on the actual sizing machines with a view to maintaining a perfect and stable homogeneity of the sizing suspension;

Figs. 3 and 4 are longitudinal cross-sections in two planes at 90 from each other showing the detail of the actual means producing the supersonic waves;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale of the nozzle forming part of said means, the section being made through line 55 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 6 is an end view, partly sectional, of the said nozzle through line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

In Fig. 1 is shown the wall of a vat 1 serving for the preparation of the size, said vat being connected through the pipe 5 with the auxiliary container 2. Inside the container 2 is housed the arrangement 3 producing the supersonic waves. A pump 4 inserted in the pipe 5 is connected therethrough on one hand with the vat 1 and on the other hand with the container 2. A valve 6 allows adjusting the pressure of the liquid delivered by the pump to the container 2. A shunt pipe connects the output of the pump 4 with the arrangement 3 producing the supersonic waves, which arrangement opens into the mass of liquid carried inside the container 2.

As shown in Fig. 2, the arrangement 3 is secured inside the size-containing vat of a sizing machine and the pump 4 inserted in the pipe 5 is connected through the latter respectively with the vat 1 and with the arrangement 3 to feed the latter. A manometer allows reading the pres.- sure in the pipe 5 and a by-pass provided with a valve 6 is adapted to divert an adjustable throughput of liquid away from the nozzle of the arrangement 3. This. nozzle is carried in both cases (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) by two flanges 8 (Figs. 3 and 4) which are adapted to hold between them the wall of the container 2 in the case of Fig. l, or else,

that of the vat 1 in the case of Fig. 2. These flanges serve in both cases as carrier guides for a tubular member 9 which extends through the wall of the vat or of the container and the rear end 10'of which is threaded. A tapped ring 11 allows adjusting the distance d between the actual nozzle 12 at the front end of the tubular member 9 and the vibratory plate 18 described hereinafter. The front end of the tubular member 9 forms the conical nozzle 12 which is provided with a slot 13 having parallel sides and the lateral ends of which are closed by tongues 14 (Fig. 6). A nut 15 allows closing said nozzle against the elasticity of the two sections separated by the slot 13 or else it allows its expansion through its actual elasticity, whereby said nut it adapted to adjust the breadth of said slot and consequently the output of the nozzle, a frusto conical ring being fitted between the nut and the nozzle.

To the sleeve 16 rigid with the flange 8 and-extending inside the vat 1 or 2 are screwed two plates 17 carrying between them a rectangular plate 18 lying in the plane defined by the jet passing through the slot 13. Said plate 13 is secured to the plates 17 by projections 19 and 29 extending through elongated openings 21 and 22 provided in the said plates 17, said projections 19 and 29 being rigid with the longitudinal sides of the plate 18 and lying in the plane of thelatter. The screws 23 (Fig. 4) acting laterally on the plate 18 allow adjusting it transversely with reference to the carrier plates 17 and consequently in a direction perpendicular to the slot 13.

The system disclosed operates as follows: the liquid to be emulsified which is fed by the pump 4 in the case of Fig. 1, passes through the pipe 5 while its pressure is adjusted by the valve 6 in the by-pass; said liquid is delivered at a more or less considerable speed by the nozzle 12 of the arrangement 3 and produces, as it impinges on the plate 18 edgewise, a resonant vibration thereof. The frequency of said resonancerdepends, on one hand, on the distance d separating the nozzle from said plate 18 and, on the other hand, on the output speed of the liquid delivered by the nozzle. This frequency is given by the quotient aa ans distance d If the distance d and the output speed are suitably with the formula:

The power W required for operation depends on the pressure p in the nozzle 12 and on the volume V, expressed in cubic cm. per second, passing out of said nozzle. Said power is expressed by:

A suitable adjustment of the breadth of the slot 13 in the nozzle, and of the distance d between the nozzle and the plate 18, allows obtaining an optimum supersonic vibratory frequency corresponding to the requirements of the substances used so as to obtain a perfect emulsion.

. As a matter of fact, the pump 4 (Fig. 1) having a large throughput delivers a fraction of the liquid passing through the pipe 5 to the arrangement 3 which operates in the manner disclosed, while another fraction of the liquid is diverted so as to pass into the container 2 to be emulsified as it passes through said container.

In the case of the preparation of a sizing solution for w) the sizing of cotton for instance, it is suflicient to fill the vat 1 with a sufficient amount of water and to incorporate thereto the desired amount of starch so as to obtain, after the pump 4 has rotated a few minutes, a perfectly uniform emulsion, the homogeneity of which is far greater than that obtained through any prior purely mechanical means. As a matter of fact, the emulsion obtained through my improved method is much more stable than an emulsion obtained mechanically. Since the arrangement disclosed may also be mounted directly in the sizing vats of sizing machines, as illustrated in Fig. 2, it is possible to keep the solution used for sizing purposes in a perfect state of emulsification throughout the duration of the sizing procedure while cutting out the production of clots and allowing the size, by reason of its perfectly homogeneous structure, to penetrate more readily into textile fibres with which it is in contact.

Obviously, my invention is not limited to the sole embodiments disclosed of an arrangement for homogenizing sizing baths and it covers all the modifications thereof falling within the scope of accompanying claims.

What I claim is:

1. An arrangement for emulsifying a bath of a sizing product or the like, comprising a container for at least a part of the bath to be emulsified, a tube including a threaded section and a terminal frustoconical nozzle adjacent the threaded section and opening into the bath in the container through a slot with parallel sides, tongues closing the smaller ends of said slots, a nut screwed over the threaded section of the tube, an intermediate frustoconical ring engaged by the said nut for longitudinal motion therewith and fitted over said frustoconical nozzle to adjust the cross-sectional area of the slot in the latter in Iii) 4 accordance with the relative longitudinal position of th ring with reference to the nozzle, means feeding a fraction of the bath to said nozzle through said tube to produce a jet through said slot, a plate immersed in the container in a plane registering substantially with the plane of the jet produced by said rectilinear slot of the nozzle, said immersed plate being adapted to vibrate at supersonic frequency under the action of the jet, the supersonic frequency under the action of the jet the surrounding part of the bath.

2. An arrangement as in claim 1 further comprising means for partly recycling a vibrated part of the bath back as a fraction entering the nozzle-feeding means.

3. An arrangement for emulsifying a bath of a sizing product or the like, comprising a container for at least a part of the bath to be emulsified and provided with an opening in a side wall, a tube including a terminal nozzle opening into the bath in said container through a rectilinear slot, said tube passing through the opening in the sidewall of the container, flanges secured to said tube to either side of the side wall of the container to hold it in position with reference to said side wall, intermediate plates rigidly secured to the flange on the inside of the container and extending perpendicularly to and to either side of the elongated slot in the nozzle, means feeding a fraction of the bath to said nozzle through said tube to produce a jet through said slot, a plate immersed in the container and secured to the intermediate plates perpendicularly thereto in a plane registering substantially with the plane of the jet produced by said rectilinear slot of the nozzle, said immersed plate being adapted to vibrate at supersonic frequency, means for adjusting the pressure and the velocity of said jet to make the supersonic vibrations produced by the plate thus submitted edgewise to the impact of the jet, assume a predetermined value, the supersonic vibrations of the plate being transmitted to the surrounding part of the bath.

4. An arrangement for emulsifying a bath of a sizing product or the like, comprising a container for at least a part of the bath to be emulsified and provided with an opening in a side wall, a tube including a terminal nozzle opening into the bath in said container through a rectilinear slot, said tube passing through the opening in the sidewall of the container, flanges secured to said tube to either side of the side wall of the container to hold it in position with reference to said side wall, intermediate plates rigidly secured to the flange on the inside of the container and extending perpendicularly to and to either side of the elongated slot in the nozzle, means feeding a fraction of the bath to said nozzle through said tube to produce a jet through said slot, a plate immersed in the container in a plane registering substantially with the plane of the jet produced by said rectilinear slot of the nozzle, means for securing said vibratory plate to the intermediate plates and adapted to adjust the location of the vibratory plate in a direction transverse to the plane of the jet, said immersed plate being adapted to vibrate at supersonic frequency, means for adjusting the pressure and the velocity of said jet to make the supersonic vibrations, produced by the plate thus submitted edgewise to the impact of the jet, assume a predetermined value, the supersonic vibrations of the plate being transmitted to the surrounding part of the bath.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED ST TES PATENTS

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