Method of designing and manufacturing a distributor bar for applying a viscous foamable liquid mixture onto a laminator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10328450-B2
Application number	US-201515509004-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 24, 2015
Priority date	Sep 11, 2014
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

Method of designing and manufacturing a distributor bar for use in a production line comprising a mixing head for providing a viscous foamable liquid mixture, a laminator with a predefined speed of at least 20 m/min, the distributor bar having a central inlet fluidly connected to a number of outlets via a main channel. The method comprises: choosing (3001) a geometry for the distributor bar and defining a set of geometrical parameters; assigning (3002) values to said parameters; creating (3003) a virtual model; simulating (3005) flow in said model by performing a Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation (CFD), taking into account (3004) a non-Newtonian shear thinning model; e) evaluating the simulated flow; building (2007) a physical distributor bar. A distributor bar, a production line, and a computer program product.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A production line comprising:
one or more mixing heads adapted for receiving raw foam materials and producing a viscous foamable liquid mixture;
a laminator having a predefined width and being adapted for running at a line speed of at least 15 m/min;
a distributor bar having (i) a central inlet fluidly connected to said one or more mixing heads for receiving said viscous foamable liquid mixture at a predefined flow rate and (ii) a predefined even number of cylindrical outlets fluidly connected to said central inlet via a main channel for depositing said viscous foamable liquid mixture on said laminator, the cylindrical outlets spaced over a predefined length and the main channel having an inner diameter that linearly decreases from a first diameter D 1 at its center to a second diameter αD 1 at each outer end where α is a constant value in a range of 0.5 to 0.95, wherein the viscous foamable liquid mixture is deposited from cylindrical outlets positioned at each outer end of the main channel directly downward with respect to a direction perpendicular to the laminator and wherein when a ratio of the predefined flow rate entering the central inlet and the predefined length is at least 1.00×10 −4 m 2 /s the viscous foamable liquid mixture will leave each of the cylindrical outlets with an average velocity which is constant for each of the cylindrical outlets within a predefined tolerance margin of at most+/−5%.

2. The production line of claim 1 , wherein the laminator is adapted for running at a line speed of at least 20 m/min.

3. The production line of claim 1 , wherein the laminator is adapted for running at a line speed of at least 25 m/min.

4. The production line of claim 1 , wherein the laminator is adapted for running at a line speed of at least 40 m/min.

5. The production line of claim 1 , wherein the cylindrical outlets have a constant inner diameter.

6. The production line of claim 1 , wherein a is a constant value in a range of 0.75 to 0.8.

7. The production line of claim 1 , wherein the predefined tolerance margin is at most+/−3%.

Assignees

• Huntsman Int Llc

Inventors

• Brennan Mark Joseph

Classifications

• G05B19/4099

  Surface or curve machining, making three-dimensional [3D] objects, e.g. desktop manufacturing · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B33Y10/00

  Processes of additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B29C64/386

  Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B29C64/124

  using layers of liquid which are selectively solidified · CPC title