Melt spinning process

Claim 1

A PROCESS COMPRISING EXTRUDING A SYNTHETIC MOLTEN FIBER-FORMING POLYMER THROUGH A PLURALITY OF ORIFICES, SAID ORIFICES FORMING A PATTERN IN WHICH THE CENTERS OF THE ORIFICES ARE POSITIONED AT THE CORNERS OF CONTIGUOUS QUADRILATERALS FORMED BY LINES CONNECTING THE CENTERS OF ADJACENT ORIFICES, EACH SIDE OF EACH QUADRILATERAL BEING BETWEEN ABOUT 0.005 AND ABOUT 0.125 INCH IN LENGTH, ALL INSIDE ANGLES IN EACH QUADRILATERAL BEING AT LEAST 30*, SAID POLYMER BEING EXTRUDED AT THE RATE OF AT LEAST 4 G./MIN./CM.2 OF SPINNERET FACE AREA WITHIN THE QUADRILATERALS, DIRECTING A STREAM OF A QUENCHING FLUID AGAINST EACH FILAMENT AT A VELOCITY OF AT LEAST 0.6W2+150 FEET PER MINUTE, WHEREIN W IS THE RATE OF EXTRUSION OF THE POLYMER IN G./MIN./SQ. CM. OF EFFECTIVE SPINNERET FACE, WITHIN 1 INCH OF THE SPINNERET FACE AT AN ANGLE BETWEEN 45* BELOW AND 45* ABOVE THE HORIZONTAL TO COOL THE EXTRUDED FILAMENTS TO A TEMPERATURE BELOW ABOUT 15*C. BELOW THE MELTING POINT OF THE POLYMER PRIOR TO A POINT 2 INCHES BELOW THE SPINNERET, THE EXTRUDED FILAMENTS BEING UNDER A TENSION OF AT LEAST 0.003 GRAM PER DENIER IMMEDIATELY BELOW THE SPINNERET.