Abstract In the process of manufacturing flat fibrous structures from suspensions of fibers by depositing a suspension of such fibers onto a moving permeable surface such as an endless sieve or belt wherein the fibrous suspension has been prepared from fibrous structures formed of a plurality of fibers which have been obtained by drawing a flowing glass melt, followed by chopping of the drawn fibers to form the fiber structures of predetermined length, the improvement in accordance with the invention of preparing the fiber suspension from fiber structures obtained by directing jets of liquid onto the glass fibers drawn from the glass melt and which are being wound onto the periphery of a rotating drum in a parallel arrangement and which after a certain layer thickness thereof has been obtained are cut to a predetermined length with the fibers still being in the moistened state.
A process as defined in claim 1 in which the liquid that is continuously applied to the outer surface of the rotating drum is water.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
26 words
A process as defined in claim 2 in which the liquid into which the cut glass strands are distributed to form a flowable suspension is water.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
27 words
A process as defined in claim 1 in which the liquid that is continuously applied to the outer surface of the rotating drum contains a wetting agent.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
42 words
A process as defined in claim 1 in which the liquid that is continuously applied to the outer surface of the rotating drum is the same as that into which the cut glass strands are subsequently distributed to form the flowable suspension.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
51 words
A process as defined in claim 1 in which the unit consisting of successive layers of parallel glass strands that was peeled from the rotating drum is chopped at such intervals as to produce a unit consisting of successive layers of shorter strands having a length between 10 and 30 millimeters.