Apparatus for producing glass fibers

Claim 1

Apparatus for producing curly fibers from a thermoplastic fiber forming material comprising feeder means for holding a molten body of the material, said feeder means having a plurality of orifices formed therein for issuing at least one row of streams of molten material, blower means including a housing disposed beneath said feeder means having a pressure chamber formed therein and having an elongated walled vertical slot closed by end walls extending through the housing and defining inlet and outlet openings for receiving and discharging such streams of material, said housing having means formed along said slot for the issuance of jets of gaseous fluid from said pressure chamber into said slot, said last named means being so positioned with respect to said slot as to induce an augmented flow of air through said slot inlet by such fluid jets and discharged through said slot outlet with such fluid jets, such fluid jets and augmented air flow attenuating the streams of molten material into fibers, and gaseous fluid expansion means for appreciably decreasing the velocity of and imparting turbulence to gaseous fluid discharged from said slot outlet before the entrained fibers have set, said gaseous fluid expansion means comprising skirt means having two sidewalls curving downwardly and outwardly from adjacent elongated sides of said slot outlet to cause a decrease in the velocity of the attenuated fibers and the fluid discharged from said slot outlet and to impart turbulence to the gaseous fluid discharged from said slot outlet whereby the attenuated fibers take on a random curly configuration as such fibers harden, said skirt means being spaced below said blower means whereby ambient air is induced by the expanding fluid to flow through such spacing and along said skirt sidewalls, such induced ambient air flow preventing the attenuated fibers from striking said skirt sidewalls.