Synthetic blown insulation
An insulation material having insulative properties of a synthetic down, while have a fir-tree structure more similar to natural down, and being in a blown form. The blowable insulation material is composed of plural units each having a number of filaments that are fused at one end of the unit and are open at an opposite end.
1 . A device for making insulation, comprising;
means for forming a continuous multifilament material;
means for feeding the material at high speed into a fusing/cutting section;
means for intermittently fusing the material; and
means for cutting the material forming them into discrete units of a predetermined length for use in a blowable form, each unit having a fir-tree configuration, with a number of filaments fused at one end of the unit and open at an opposite end.
2 . A method for making insulation, comprising the steps of:
forming a continuous multifilament material;
feeding the material at high speed;
intermittently fusing the fed material; and
cutting the material into resultant units of a predetermined length for use in a blowable form, each unit having a fir-tree configuration.
3 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein each unit is a dendritic structure having a number of filaments that are fused at one end of the unit and are open at an opposite end of the unit.
4 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the multifilament material is formed by one of twisting of multiple component filaments together, braiding, or twisting over a core filament.
5 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the fusing is performed using a high temperature, low dwell time heat source.
6 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the fusing is performed by coincident laser beams.
7 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the cutting is performed by one of coincident laser beams, or mechanical means.
8 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the fusing and cutting is performed with coincident laser beams by varying one of an energy or time delay so as to initially fuse but subsequently vaporize the material.
9 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the cutting releases a torque on the component filaments so to ensure their subsequent fanning.
10 . The method in accordance with claim 9 , wherein electrostatic effects are used to promote the fanning.
11 . The method in accordance with claim 2 , further comprising the step, after cutting, of drawing off the units using one of air-flow, vacuum, electrostatics, or mechanical means.