Systems and methods for manufacturing bulked continuous filament
First Claim
1. A multi-screw extruder for use in extruding a polymer melt, said extruder comprising:
- a first satellite screw extruder, said first satellite screw extruder comprising a first satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said first satellite screw;
a second satellite screw extruder, said second satellite screw extruder comprising a second satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said second satellite screw;
a pressure regulation system that is adapted to maintain a pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders below a pressure of about 1.5 millibars as said polymer melt passes through said first and second screw extruders; and
a controller that operates said pressure regulation system to maintain said pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders below said pressure of about 1.5 millibars while said multi-screw extruder is extruding said polymer melt.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) grinding recycled PET bottles into a group of flakes; (B) washing the flakes; (C) identifying and removing impurities, including impure flakes, from the group of flakes; (D) passing the group of flakes through an MRS extruder while maintaining the pressure within the MRS portion of the MRS extruder below about 1.5 millibars; (E) passing the resulting polymer melt through at least one filter having a micron rating of less than about 50 microns; and (F) forming the recycled polymer into bulked continuous carpet filament that consists essentially of recycled PET.
81 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A multi-screw extruder for use in extruding a polymer melt, said extruder comprising:
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a first satellite screw extruder, said first satellite screw extruder comprising a first satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said first satellite screw; a second satellite screw extruder, said second satellite screw extruder comprising a second satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said second satellite screw; a pressure regulation system that is adapted to maintain a pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders below a pressure of about 1.5 millibars as said polymer melt passes through said first and second screw extruders; and a controller that operates said pressure regulation system to maintain said pressure within said first and second satellite screw extruders below said pressure of about 1.5 millibars while said multi-screw extruder is extruding said polymer melt. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A multi-screw extruder for at least partially removing impurities from a polymer melt, wherein said extruder comprises:
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at least six satellite screw extruders, each of said at least six satellite screw extruders comprising a satellite screw that is mounted to rotate about a respective central axis of each said satellite screw; at least one vacuum pump that is adapted to maintain a pressure within said at least six satellite screw extruders below a pressure of about 5 millibars as said polymer melt passes through said at least six satellite screw extruders; a viscosity sensor that measures a melt viscosity of said polymer melt after said polymer melt has assed through said at least six satellite screw extruders; a computer-controller that operates said at least one vacuum pump to maintain said pressure within said at least six satellite screw extruders below said pressure of about 5 millibars as said polymer melt passes through said at least six satellite screw extruders and further operates in a feedback control loop with said viscosity sensor to operate said at least one vacuum pump to further reduce said pressure within said at least six satellite screw extruders in response to using said viscosity sensor to measure an intrinsic viscosity of said polymer melt that is below a predetermined level; and a satellite screw drum that houses said at least six satellite screw extruders orbitally rotates said at least six satellite screw extruders about a main axis as said polymer melt passes through said at least six satellite screw extruders, said main axis being substantially parallel to each said central axis. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus for at least partially removing impurities from a recycled polymer comprising:
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a first satellite screw extruder that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said first satellite screw and adapted to at least substantially melt said recycled polymer into molten recycled polymer; a multi-screw extruder comprising a plurality of satellite screws, each of said plurality of satellite screws being mounted to rotate about a respective central axis, wherein said multi-screw extruder is adapted to orbitally rotate said plurality of satellite screws about a main axis and to separate said polymer melt into a plurality of streams; at least one vacuum pump adapted to maintain a pressure within said multi-screw extruder below a pressure of about 1.4 millibars as said molten recycled polymer passes through said multi-screw extruder; a computer-controller that operates said at least one vacuum pump to reduce and maintain said pressure within said multi-screw extruder below a pressure of about 1.4 millibars during extrusion of said molten recycled polymer through said multi-screw extruder; and a second satellite screw extruder that is mounted to rotate about a central axis of said first satellite screw and adapted to recombine said plurality of streams into a single stream. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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Specification