Letter to the editor.DEAR MS. BOTTIGLIERI,My congratulations to you for a lucid exposition. I read with a great deal of pleasure and understanding your article on dryer fabrics ("Pushing performance limits with dryer fabrics," by Jan Bottiglieri, Solutions!, November 2003). I entered the industry as a researcher at the old Albany Felt Company (now Albany International Corp.) in the mid 1960s. At that time, cotton, cotton/synthetic, and cotton/asbestos dryer "felts" (so called then) were fading away Noun 1. fading away - gradually diminishing in brightness or loudness or strength dwindling, dwindling away - a becoming gradually less; "there is no greater sadness that the dwindling away of a family" because yarns made from nylon nylon, synthetic thermoplastic material characterized by strength, elasticity, resistance to abrasion and chemicals, low moisture absorbency, and capacity to be permanently set by heat. After 10 years of research E. I. and polyester polyester, synthetic fiber, produced by the polymerization of the product formed when an alcohol and organic acid react. The outstanding characteristic of polyesters is their ability to resist wrinkling and to spring back into shape when creased. polymers were being developed for use to clothe dryer sections. Your article was interesting for me because of the attention it paid to the air movement associated with dryer fabrics. My associate, F.L.N. Vennos, and I were the first in the industry to measure the air velocities in three dimensions--length-wise, cross-wise, and perpendicular to the fabric--associated with that air flow as the fabric approached the dryer rolls. Our velocity measurements were made at speeds up to about 2,200 fpm (ca. 660 meters per min). The fundamentals still hold. Subsequent to those measurements, Larry Woodside, one of Albany's "marketing icons," suggested the use of grooved groove n. 1. A long narrow furrow or channel. 2. The spiral track cut into a phonograph record for the stylus to follow. 3. dryer rolls in place of plain rolls as a way to reduce the tendency of "air pumping" from one side of the fabric to another and thus reduce the sheet flutter Flutter (aeronautics) An aeroelastic self-excited vibration with a sustained or divergent amplitude, which occurs when a structure is placed in a flow of sufficiently high velocity. Flutter is an instability that can be extremely violent. associated with the operation. We measured the difference on the Albany Dryer Pocket Simulator (1) Software that enables the execution of an application written for a different computer environment. Same as emulator. (2) Software that models the interactions of hypothetical or real-world objects or business processes. . The differences at that time were not dramatic. I was not surprised to read that the same problems face the papermaker at the higher speeds used today. I could go on, but there is too much history to relate in an e-mail. My thanks again for an excellent article, |
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