UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE COLLECTOR DURING MELT BLOWING

Researchers at the University of Tennessee have previously reported [1-2] detailed on-line measurements obtained at various distances from the die during melt blowing (MB). While obtaining these measurements, the collector was moved far from the die (76cm) to obtain measurements that were relatively unaffected by the collector. This allowed a basic understanding of the MB process to be obtained without considering the influence of a collector.

For the work reported here, we placed a collector at somewhat more normal distances from the die (30–41 cm) to study its influence on the MB process. We assessed fiber motion from on-line measurements obtained near the collector and off-line measurements of web structure. Specifically, we designed experiments to assess the influence of collector shape, die-to-collector distance (DCD) and collector speed on fiber flow direction, fiber speed, fiber entanglement and fiber orientation.