Fibre collection apparatus

Claim 1

Fiber collection apparatus comprising a plurality of sheetlike arrays of wire runs defining walls of a fiber collection chamber having front and rear ends, the front end being open, rear wire support means supporting said arrays of wire runs at the rear end of the chamber such that the arrays are flat and are in closely spaced parallel relationship at the rear end of the chamber, front wire support means supporting said arrays of wire runs at the front end of the chamber such that at said front end the arrays are of trough configuration and disposed in mouth-to-mouth relation to define the open front end of the chamber, said wire runs extending in straight lines in side-by-side relationship between the front and rear support means such that said arrays change from the trough configurations at the front end of the chamber to the flat configurations at the rear end of the chamber and are portions of endless wire circuits, means to drive the wire through the endless circuits such that all said runs travel from the front end to the rear end of the chamber, and means to apply suction through the gaps between the runs, whereby gas borne fibers directed into the chamber will be collected on said wire runs and brought together into a mat of fibers discharged from the chamber between the flat wire arrays at the rear end of the chamber.