Forming melt spun nonwowen webs

1. A system for forming a spun bond nonwoven web from extruded polymer filaments, comprising:

a spinneret including a plurality of orifices to extrude a plurality of continuous polymeric filaments; and

a pressure quench chamber including a top located proximate and below the spinneret and bounded peripherally by surfaces, the quench chamber including an ingress opening located at the top of the quench chamber to receive filaments from the spinneret and a chamber exit nozzle located at a bottom of the quench chamber, the quench chamber having dimensions and a configuration to avoid substantial contact between the filaments and the surfaces of the quench chamber and a volume sufficient to allow solidification of the filaments within the quench chamber, wherein the chamber exit nozzle comprises a drawing slot at the bottom of the quench chamber extending substantially across the width of the bottom of the quench chamber and in cooperative engagement with the quench chamber to receive the cooled filaments and quench fluid, the drawing slot being formed by lower surfaces of the chamber tapering toward each other in the direction of filament flow through the chamber and terminating at facing edges of two respective knife structures, wherein the drawing slot has no substantial nozzle length in the direction of flow through the chamber exit nozzle.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the nozzle length in the direction of flow is shorter than the spacing between knife edges of the knife structures.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a source of compressed quench fluid at a temperature equal to or lower than the temperature of the filaments in the quench chamber and a pressure no greater than 4 bar; and

an inlet defined in the quench chamber to introduce the quench fluid on at least one side of the filaments and directing the fluid into contact with the filaments to cause cooling of the filaments;

wherein the facing edges of the respective knife structures form an impingement zone of the drawing slot to increase turbulence in a mixture of filaments and quench fluid passing through the impingement zone, and the chamber exit nozzle is further configured such that, within the first few inches after passing through the drawing slot, a turbulent mix stream of filaments and quench fluid is rapidly slowed as velocity energy of the quench fluid is transferred to the fibers and the stream entrains air from the lower pressure environment and expands.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the source of compressed fluid is configured to regulate the pressure, volume and/or temperature of the compressed quench fluid during system operation.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the quench chamber has a spin line height from the spinneret to the egress opening of no greater than about 1500 mm.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the knife structures are movable toward and away from one another to permit selective change of the width of the drawing slot.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein each knife structure is defined between two surfaces having an angle between them in the range from about 15° degrees to about 80°.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a web forming structure positioned below the quench chamber to collect the filaments from the quench chamber for formation into a non-woven fabric web.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the quench chamber includes an exhaust port on each side of the filaments at the top of the quench chamber.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to form at least some of the filaments as continuous bicomponent polymeric filaments comprising two thermoplastic polymers.