US1387219A - Composite fibrous product - Google Patents

Description

H. F. WEISS.

COMPOSITE FIBROUS PRODUCT.

APPLICATION FILED lAPR. 25. 1919.

Patented Aug. 9, @EL

(a) (Qooopoqomoooogq G) unirse ares.

Howaan FREDERICK WEISS, or MADISON, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOB. .To c. r. Bunn-ESS mnoaaroarns, ,or MADISON, WISCONSIN, A. CORPORATION-OF WISCONSIN. Y

COMPOSITE FBBJOUS ERODUCT.

Application med April 25, 1919. Serial No. 292,677.

To allfwho'mz't may concern:

Be it known that I, HOWARD F. Weiss, residing at Madison, in the county cf Dane, State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Composite Fibrous Products; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled inthe art to whiclirit appertains to make and use the same.

vThis invention relates to composite librous products, and has forrits objects the provision of improved methods for making the same, as well as the provision of new articles of manufacture resulting from the practice of the method of the invention. rlhe presentl invention more particularly relates to composition roofing material, such, for example, as composition shingles and the so-called ,asphalt shingles. In this connection, the invention contemplates the provision, as a new article of manufacture, of a new and improved composition roofing material, and more particularly a new' and improved composition shingle, as well as a new method of making the same.

The lmethod in general practice at the present time of producing roofing -felts and so-called asphalt shingles -consists in first 'heating rags into a pulp, and then forming the pulp i-nto a felt in a paper machine.

The felt thus formed is then dipped into a tank containing a hot saturating material, usually a coal tar, or asphalt, product. rl`he excess of the saturating material is removed by passing the saturated felt through squeeze rolls. In certain types of roofing, saturated felt is coated with a weather-rep sisting coating Of either' coal tar pitch, or

asphaltum, and on this is sprinkled a coating of powdered or crushed mineral matter. ln the manufacture of shingles,this sheet of saturated and coated felt is passed through a cutting machine which cuts the shingles to any desired form or shape.-

There are several objects to this present method of manufacturing roofing material and shingles. Unlessga very -good grade of rags is used and considerable care taken in beating them to form'A them into a felt, the

felt will break when passing through the sat' uratingv machine, thus causing considerable delay and trouble. On the other hand,- good Specicaticn of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug.y a, rear.

grades of rags are expensive and cannot be economically used for this purpose. Again, in order to saturate the felt, it is necessary to use a saturant of low melting point. rllhis, in turn, tends to soften theweathering layer deposited on the saturated felt, causing the roof surface to creep, especially when the pitch of the roof is sharp. Shingles made in the manner described .are ofsubstantially the same thickness throughout, thus giving a rather at and unartistic appearance to the roof. Furthermore, shingles` made in this manner have a tendency to curl and lift up in strong winds, thus causing the roof to leak, and this diiculty is especially true when the pitch o f the roof is small.

The present invention contemplates a new method of manufacture composition roofing material and shingles', .in which the procela mixture of suitable fibrous material and a binding agent, preferably coal tar pitch or asphalt, while in a substantially dry and solid condition, is formed into the desired shape by compression. The compressed mixture `is then preferably warmed, and, while warm', is impregnated with a suitable saturant, such as coal tar pitch, or asphalt. The exposed surface of the thus saturated and compressed material is then preferably coated with a film of pitch of higher melting point .and then with crushed mineral material, and the product may then be cut into thedesired shape and size.

In carrying out the invention, the fibrous material and binding agent, mixed in the proper proportion, and both being in a dry and solid condition, are introduced into a shredding machine. The shredder separates the liber in the fibrousmaterial andl pulverizes the binder, and at the same time produces an intimate mixture of both fiber Afine articles of the substance, and give what When a brittle, Anon-fibrous, .f

is ca led a powder. Under the same impact a fibrous material tears apart rather than pulverizes because of its fibrous structure.

\ Y airendy mixed, or they can ely by means of two conveyer shredding engine so disintee aste produce a thorough mixbinder. operation, the mixture ot and binder is screened, in spar the particles which are ce coarse a condition tor the sub- 'Ihe coarse particles 1- .turned to the shredder. The 'ma- Through the screen is ot .and is conveyed to a storage ci it passes through a vibratis depositedcn a moving belt ble Wein-viver. When the mixner and pulverized binder den iii del osited to 'form a layer of ed thickness, it is compressed, r hetween squeeze rolls, at room When making sheet' rooting deposited layer et mixed ber may he oil substantially uniform ss, whereas when making shingles, to so control the deposition of the inmune to maire the compressed article or one-end than at the other. y compresses the ber and binder c a sheet or met. This is then warmed 30@ llpor over, and' while warm, a film oi2 deposited upon'the upper surface oit niet. This .tilm is quickly nhsorhed by the mat, which thus has all of its coated by the saturant and all of are iilled. The mat-is then cooled slightly, sitter which it is coated with a second hlm, this heing of higher melting the dormer and serving as a weathering layer. @n this is siited some or crushed mineral matter to give .-ian sartene. After sucient cooling has ocnrred, the mat, saturated and.

coated in the manner described, is ted into a cnt-ting which ents it into pieces, fier example shingles, ot the desired size 1 ci the accompanying draw- Y is dingrammatically illustrated @iteration or an apparatus for carrying om method et the present invention; 2 is o, view ot a similar apparatus pmffhc'nharly al `fior the manufacture ai? ofi tnperedsectionlligf is a elevation et a sgle made in accondense with the invention; and Figs. t

t3 @grticnlly illustrate a modie155 apparatus..

".dhe a Y diairrammatically- .illusia rigs; inane has a een (rait-i9) et a width a ,approximately equal to the length or a say, fior` example, about 13 lit ismore economical to provide the apparatus a heit several shingle This can he done by mul-- After the shred- This isernia A 'upryng the maar of uw. un a Severn Shingle lengths, and longitudinally cutting or slitting the finished product, as will be morey fully. explained. in connection with Fig. t

'oi the drawings. v y l Referring to lFig. 1 ofthe drawings, the

brous material and binding agent, each-'in a substantially 'dry and solid condition, are fed into the hopper 5 of the shredder 6. From the shredder the mixed materials tall onto the screen 7, from whence the coarse particles are returned by a conveyer or elevator 8 to the ho per 5, while the mixture of nely divided blnder and shredded fiber is blown through a conduit 9 by a fan 10 into a storage bin 11. From thestorage bin the suitably proportioned mixture ot fiber and binder is fed onto a vibrating screen 12, from whence it is deposited onto a belt or conveyer 13. When a la er ot mixed fiber and binder of sucient epth has been obtained, it is passed through the compression rolls 14 which squeeze it into a compact mass of mat-like form. The compact mass4 A then .passes onto a conveyor 15 `and thence to a heatin chamber 16 wherein a temperature of a out 200 l". Iis maintained, as, i

for example, by meansof heatingvpipes 17. While still warm, andY preferably While lstill heated to a temperature ot 200 1F. or

over, a hlm of saturant is depositsdnpon the upper surface of the compact ina'ss by means of a spray pipe or coating roll 18 or any equivalent apglying means. By use ot the term spraying mean to include all such means. As the satur` nt l may use coal tar pitch, asphalt, or the like. rllhe saturant may, ofcourse, be hot, if desired, in order to increase its fluidity and its penetrating power. 'lhe thus saturated mat is cooled sli htly While being carried along by asuit- 4 ab e belt or conveyer 19.- A coating agent of substantially the same general vcharacter as` the saturant, but preferably of a higher melting point, is then sprayed on the mat by means ot a pipe 20 or spread by means of a coating' roll. A surface layer ot powdered or crushed mineral matter is then ldeposited on the 'mat by means of a vibrating screen 21 or ,other suitable device, whereupon the product is fed to an appropriate cutting machine.

l l may use fibers oft any suitable kind, preferably having. absorptive properties, and ll have secured good results from fbersot sulhte, sulfate and ground Wood pulps, and pa- Y pers and also from bark and moss. However it will,` of course, be understood that the invention is not restricted to thespeciic kinds of fibers just mentioned, since numerous other brous'materials may be used. rlhe function oii the fibers is to act as a reinforcevIn making shingles by the method of the invention, I prefer to use much less binder in the thin 'end of the shingle than in the thick end up tothe time the mixture of fiber and binding agent is compressed. I have found that 20% binder to 80% fiber by weight is satisfactory for the thin end of.

the shingle, whereas for the thick end this proportion can be reversed. This treatment produces a shingle having a flexible thin end and a rigid butt endf Furthermore, in coatproduced by using screens of different debration.

grees of fineness -and different rates of vi- Thus, in Fig. 2 of the drawings, I have represented three screens 12, 12b ard 12c for depositing the mixed fibrous material and binder on the belt conveyer 13. The mesh of the screen 12 is coarser than that of the screen 12a, while the screen 12b is of an intermediate mesh. Moreover, the screen 12`is arranged to be vibrated more rapidly than the screen 12", the `latter is arranged to be vibrated more rapidly than the screen1'2a. In this manner a deposit of unequal thickness is formed on theconveyer 13.

By the arran ement shown in Fig. 2,'the thickness of t e deposit will increase from the top to the bottom of theconveyer 13. It will, of course, be understood that lit is not necessary-to use both screens of different degrees of fineness and ldifferent rates of vibration, since either expedient alone may Abe sufhcient to produce the desired nonuniformity in the thickness of the deposit on the conveyer 13. It will furthermore be understood that the three separate screens 12a, 12b and 12 may becombined in a single screen in which the mesh varies from one side tothe other. The space between the coperating surfaces of the compression rolls 14 is, of course, suitably adjusted to con-v form to the desired tapered section of the Y shingle. The screen 21 for depositing the crushed mineral matterA on the saturated` product is arranged to extend across about two-thirds of the width of the conveyer 19, so as to coat only about two-thirds the'` length of the shingles from the butt end, as illustrated in Fig. 2. i

Instead of using three separate screensfor giving a variation in thickness I have found that one screen can be used to produce the tapered shingle if the screen is not stretched horizontal and arallel to the surface of the belt on whlch the fibers and binder are deposited. Greatest deposition `of fiber and binder occurs when the surface of the screen is horizontal and least when it is vertical. By properly varying the pitch of the screen the desired variation inthick- Iness of deposit can be secured. Thus, in

Fig. 4 of the drawings, I have shown a screen 12 composed of a plurality of cylindrical vsections .of such configuration and design as to produce ori the belt 13 a deposit of pro ressively varying depth, as illus` trated y reference numeral 30. The finished product will have substantially the same sectional configuration as the deposit] merely illustrative. Thus, in Fig.v 5 ofthe drawings, an uneven deposit of the character indicated at the right end of the fi ure by reference numeral 30 is produce on the belt 13 by a plurality of screens 12 of progressively varying lengths. screens may be mechanically independent or may of course be combinedin one unitary structure, and, in either case, are vibrated in an suitable manner.

A s ingle of tapered section embodying the invention is illustrated in Fig. 3. This shingle is composed of 'a compact body 30 of shredded fibers and pulverized .binding agent impregnated with a suitable h drocarbon saturant, such as coal tar pito asphalt, or the like. The exposed surface of the shingle has a coating 31 of crushed fibrous material extending about two-thirds of its length from the butt end. The thinner end of the shingle contains 25% or less of a binder ofrelatively high melting point, while the .thick end contains 50% or more of the binder.

Other usefull and advantageous applications of these generic features of the lmproved method of the resent invention will occur to those skilled 1n the art. In the appended claims, I, therefore, aim to cover this broad aspect of the invention as well as the particular application of theinvention to the These Ser. No. 279,288, filed February 26, 1919.

e solid condition, fibrous material with a deposting a layer of mineral. matter on said weather resistant layer.

16. In a method of making composition shingles containing fibrous material, which comprises mixing in a substantially dryl'ard 1n ing agent, depositing a layer of the mixture on a movable conveyer, compacting the deposited layer of said mixture, heating the compact product, spraying said product withv a hydrocarbon lsaturant, and' cutting the sheet thus formed into the desired sha es.

1 A method of manufacturing composition rooing material, which comprises mixing, in a substantially dly and solid condi,- tion, fibrous material an a-binding agent,

-depositing said mixture on a support to form a depositof varying depth, and compacting and heating the deposit to form an article of tapered section. l

18. A method of manufacturing. composition shingles which comprises mixing, in a substantially dry and solid condition, ibrous material and said mixture on a support 1n such a manner as to form a deposit of varying depth, com

pacting and heating the'deposit to form an article of tapered Ationv roofing -while thatv of the other a binding agent, depositing article thus formed into the desired shapes. A19. A method of manufacturing composimaterial which comprises making a plurality of diierently proportioned mixturesof Viibrous material and a binding agent, depositing said mixture on asupport in such a. manner that the proportion ofone ingredientprogressively increases'irom one side to the other of the deposit, while that of the other ingredient correspondingly decreases, and 4compacting and heating the deosit; t p 20. A method of' manufacturing composition roofing material which comprises making a plurality of dierently proportioned. mixtures of fibrous material and a binding agent, depositing' said mixtures o n asupport in such a manner section, and cutting the. I

ad'A A' that the proportion of one ingredient progressivelydncreases from vone side to the other ofthe deposit,

spondingly decreases, the de osit'l being of varying thickness, and compa ing the deposit to form anl article of tapered section. v

In testimon HOWA D whereof I'faix my si FREDERICK rss. e

ingredient corre'v ture.Y i

tinganaheat- 1

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