CLOTHING FOR A MACHINE FOR PRODUCING A FIBROUS MATERIAL WEB

Abstract

A clothing, in particular a seam felt for a machine for producing a fibrous material web, in particular a paper, paperboard, tissue or pulp web, includes a base structure including or being formed of a two-layer laminate structure formed of one or more flat-woven fabrics. The laminate structure has MD threads which form seam loops at the two end sides of the base structure, and the two layers of the laminate structure are connected to one another by the seam loops. The clothing is made endless by connecting the end sides thereof by a seam. The seam is made by interengaging the seam loops of both end sides and introducing an insertion element. The diameter of the seam loops LD and the diameter of the associated MD threads MDYD have a ratio LD/MDYD of between 2.5 and 4, in particular between 2.7 and 3.6.

Claims

1-14. (canceled)

15. A clothing or a seam felt for a machine for producing a fibrous material, paper, board, tissue or pulp web, comprising: a base structure including or being formed of a two-layer laminate structure formed of one or a plurality of flat-woven fabrics, said base structure having two end sides; said laminate structure having MD threads forming seam loops at said two end sides of said base structure, said seam loops interconnecting said two layers of said laminate structure, said seam loops having a diameter LD and said associated MD threads having a diameter MDYD; a seam interconnecting said end sides to make the clothing endless, said seam being formed by interengaging said seam loops of said two end sides and an insertion of an insertion element; and said diameter LD of said seam loops and said diameter MDYD of said associated MD threads having a ratio LD/MDYD of between 2.5 and 4.

16. The clothing according to claim 15, wherein said ratio LD/MDYD of said diameter LD of said seam loops and said diameter MDYD of said associated MD threads is between 2.7 and 3.6

17. The clothing according to claim 15, wherein at least one of said flat-woven fabrics have floats extending over two or a plurality of threads.

18. The clothing according to claim 15, wherein each of said flat-woven fabrics has a first and a second long-side end, said two-layer laminate structure has at least one joint at which two of said long-side ends are interconnected, and said interconnected long-side ends belong to an identical flat-woven fabric or to different flat-woven fabrics.

19. The clothing according to claim 18, wherein said two long-side ends are interconnected by a welded connection or a laser transmission welded connection.

20. The clothing according to claim 18, wherein said at least one joint has an extent in a machine direction of less than 15 mm.

21. The clothing according to claim 20, wherein said extent of said at least one joint in the machine direction is less than 5 mm.

22. The clothing according to claim 18, wherein said at least one joint is made by connecting elements or connecting threads being welded to at least one or both of said long-side ends.

23. The clothing according to claim 22, wherein said connecting elements are connecting threads disposed in a CD direction of the clothing, and at most three connecting threads or at most two connecting threads are provided for a joint.

24. The clothing according to claim 23, wherein one or a plurality of said connecting threads are woven with MD threads of at least one of said long-side ends.

25. The clothing according to claim 15, wherein said MD threads are monofilaments or monofilaments with a round cross section.

26. The clothing according to claim 15, wherein said diameter of said MD threads is between 0.15 mm and 0.7 mm.

27. The clothing according to claim 26, wherein said diameter of said MD threads is between 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm.

28. The clothing according to claim 15, wherein said seam has a loop density of between 64% and 90%.

29. The clothing according to claim 28, wherein said loop density of said seam is between 72% and 86%.

30. The clothing according to claim 15, which further comprises one or a plurality of layers of nonwoven fibers disposed at least on an upper side of the clothing for contacting the web.

31. The clothing according to claim 30, wherein at least some of said nonwoven fibers include or are formed of an elastomer or a polyurethane.

32. The clothing according to claim 15, which further comprises at least one strip-shaped flow-impeding element provided in a vicinity of said seam, said at least one strip-shaped flow-impeding element being configured to cause a permeability for at least one of air or water in said vicinity of said seam to be substantially identical to a remainder of the clothing.

Description

[0076] FIG. 1a shows a single flat-woven element 2 having a first long-side end 21 and a second long-side end 22, in plan view. The points 31 and 32 are the chosen folding points 31, 32, from which the seam loops 41, 42 are formed. FIG. 1b shows the flat-woven element 2 once more in a side view.

[0077] At the folding points 31, 32, one or more CD threads can be removed in each case.

[0078] As shown in FIG. 1c, to produce the base structure the flat-woven element 2 is folded at folding points 31, 32, and the folded parts are again laid on the flat-woven element 2. A two-layer laminate structure 1 is thus produced. The long-side ends 21, 22 can overlap, touch or, as shown in FIG. 1c, have a small distance from each other in the region of the join 20. In various embodiments of the invention, the join 20 can be embodied as a joint 200 at which two long-side ends 21, 22 are connected to each other. An advantageous joining method is welding, in particular ultrasonic and laser transmission welding. To improve stability, in particular during the processing, the two layers of the two-layer laminate structure 1 can be connected to each other, in particular sewn, at fixing points 110.

[0079] FIG. 2a shows a two-layer laminate structure 1 which comprises two flat-woven elements 2, 2a. The seam loops 41, 42 are formed here by the MD threads 10 of the first flat-woven element 2. The second flat-woven element 2a is arranged in such a way that its first long-side end 21a forms a join area with the second long-side end 22 of the first flat-woven element 2, while its second long-side end 22a forms a join area with the first long-side end 21 of the first flat-woven element 2. These join areas 20 can once more be embodied as joints 200.

[0080] To improve stability, in particular during the processing, the second flat-woven element 2a can be connected to the first flat-woven element 2, in particular sewn, at fixing points 110.

[0081] FIG. 2b shows a further embodiment of a two-layer laminate structure 1 which comprises two flat-woven elements 2, 2a. It differs from the structure illustrated in FIG. 2a in that a seam loop 41 is formed by MD threads 10 of the first flat-woven element 2, while the second seam loop 42 is formed by MD threads 10 of the second flat-woven element 2a. The two flat-woven elements 2, 2a can be the same, in particular also equally long. Alternatively, however, provision can also be made for them to differ in one or more features, in particular in length.

[0082] FIG. 2c shows a further embodiment of a two-layer laminate structure 1, which comprises three flat-woven elements 2, 2a, 2b.

[0083] FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a clothing according to one aspect of the invention. Here, nonwoven layers 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, are applied to the two-layer laminate structure 1 from FIG. 1c. These are usually fixed by needling. Otherwise, a further connection of the two layers of the two-layer laminate structure 1 to each other is carried out by the needling.

[0084] FIG. 4 shows a seam loop 42, formed from an MD thread 10. The MD thread 10 is embodied as a round monofilament here. A nonwoven layer 15 is provided on the upper side of the clothing. To determine the LD/MDYD ratio, a circle is inscribed in the seam loop 42. This is the largest circle which can be inserted completely into the seam loop 42. The determination of such circles and their diameters is a familiar geometric practice. In commercially available microscopes, such a measurement is also contained within the functional scope of the operating software. In the clothings according to this invention, the seam loops are also vertical or largely vertical, so that the problem of possible distortion does not occur.

[0085] The diameter of the circle in the case of FIG. 4 is 1200 m. The diameter of the MD thread is around 340 m. The resultant LD/MDYD ratio is therefore 1200/340=3.5. A clothing having such seam loops thus fulfills the feature of the characterizing part of claim 1.

[0086] In FIG. 5, a detail of a joint 200 which is produced by means of laser transmission welding is illustrated by way of example. The transparent joining partners 100, 105 are connected to each other here by means of a connecting element 120. In FIG. 5, the connecting element 120 is embodied by way of example as a black thread 120. The transparent joining partners 100, 105 can be, for example, MD threads 10 of long-side ends 21, 22 of one or two flat-woven elements 2, 2a, 2b. It can be seen that although the connecting element 102 has been deformed noticeably by the welding operation, the transparent joining partners 100, 105 are largely structurally undamaged. Because of this property, connections produced by means of laser transmission welding can also be distinguished from other welded connections.