Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 17
Claim 1
Independent Claim
12 words
A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein said polymer is polypropylene.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
29 words
A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein the number of orifices per square inch of effective spinning area is in the range of about 35 to about 100.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
32 words
A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein the quenched filaments withdrawn from said body of quench liquid have a denier per filament in the range of about four to about 600.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
29 words
A process in accordance with claim 4 further comprising drawing said withdrawn quenched filaments to achieve a denier per filament in the range of about one to about 300.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
69 words
A process in accordance with claim 1 wherein the number of orifices per square inch of effective spinning area is in the range of about 40 to about 75, the withdrawn quenched filaments have a denier per filament in the range of about 60 to about 500; further comprising drawing said withdrawn quenched filaments to achieve a denier per filament in the range of about 15 to about 100.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
44 words
A process in accordance with claim 6 wherein the total number of orifices per spinneret die is at least 500, further comprising collectively passing the at least 500 drawn filaments in the form of a tow through a crimping zone to crimp said tow.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
15 words
A process in accordance with claim 7 further comprising cutting the thus-crimped tow into staple.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
13 words
A process in accordance with claim 6 wherein said thermoplastic polymer is polypropylene.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
22 words
A process in accordance with claim 6 further comprising maintaining the surface tension of said quench liquid below 55 dynes per centimeter.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
22 words
A process in accordance with claim 6 wherein said airgap distance is in the range of about one-eighth inch to one-half inch.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
38 words
A process in accordance with claim 11 wherein said quench liquid is water, and wherein the surface tension of the water is maintained below about 40 dynes per centimeter by the addition of a surfactant to the water.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
123 words
A process in accordance with claim 12 wherein said airgap distance is in the range of about three-sixteenths inch to about one-fourth inch. 14 Apparatus comprising at least one substantially horizontally positioned spinneret having at least 100 spinning orifices per spinneret with at least 25 spinning orifices per square inch of effective spinning area, means for extruding molten melt spinnable polymer downwardly through said spinning orifices to form a plurality of filaments, means for positioning a body of quench liquid immediately below said spinneret so that the distance between the lower face of said spinneret and the upper surface of said body of quench liquid is less than one inch and means for withdrawing the quenched filaments from said body of quench liquid.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
28 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 14 wherein each spinneret has at least 500 spinning orifices with at least 35 spinning orifices per square inch of effective spinning area.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
110 words
Apparatus iN accordance with claim 14 further comprising means for removing quench liquid from said body of quench liquid in accordance with the level of the upper surface of said body of quench liquid, means for adding relatively cool makeup quench liquid to said body of quench liquid in accordance with the temperature of said body of quench liquid, and means for adding at least one surfactant to said body of quench liquid in an amount which is responsive to the amount of makeup quench liquid added to said body of quench liquid to thereby maintain the surface tension of said body of quench liquid below 65 dynes per centimeter.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
28 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 14 wherein the number of orifices per square inch of effective spinning area is in the range of about 35 to about 100.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
24 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 17 further comprising means for maintaining the surface tension of said body of quench liquid below a desired value.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
24 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 18 wherein said means for maintaining comprises means for adding a metered amount of surfactant to said quench liquid.