Process and assembly to make crinkled strands for indoor sports artificial turf has jet impinging on moving polymer strands

摘要

In a process to make artificial turf, a feed of polymer strands passes between a pair of heated galettes (11, 12) where it is tautened and texturized prior to release to a chilled galette (14) and wound onto a drum. The texturizing process takes place in a jet chamber (13) immediately prior to the chilled galette. The air jet impinges on the heated polymer strand as it emerges via a guide channel from the chamber. The guide channel has apertures through which cooling air is drawn. The wind-on speed is 100-500 m/min, and the extrusion speed is 5-35% higher than the wind-on speed. The strands are stretched by 5-20% between the two galettes. The polymer is e.g. a polyamide, polypropylene, or linear low-density polyethylene. The polymer strips are 0.5-1.5 mm wide and have a linear density of 250-1200 dtex. also claimed is a suitable artificial turf processing assembly.