Singulated, crosslinked cellulose fibers from a wet pulp sheet

Abstract

A hammermill process for singulated, cellulosic fibers from a wet pulp sheet comprising a cylindrical housing, a feed slot with a breaker bar positioned therein and a rotor mounted for rotation in the housing. Feed rolls are provided to feed a sheet of pulp into the feed slot upstream of the breaker bar. A plurality of hammers are mounted on the rotor. Air is introduced into the hammermill housing tangentially downstream from the second feed slot. An air outlet is positioned tangentially on the housing downstream from the air inlet to allow air and singulated fibers to escape. Fibers produced by the hammermill from a wetted pulp sheet have a low knot content.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:  
     
         1 . Singulated, crosslinked pulp fibers made from a sheet of debonded pulp fibers, said fibers having a Pulmac wet knot content of less than 0.5%.  
     
     
         2 . The pulp fibers of  claim 1  having a Pulmac wet knot content of less than 0.1%.  
     
     
         3 . The singulated pulp fibers of  claim 1  having a Pulmac wet knot content less than or equal to about 0.05%.  
     
     
         4 . Singulated, crosslinked pulp fibers made from a sheet of debonded pulp fibers, said crosslinked fibers having a 2× sonic knot content of less than 2%.  
     
     
         5 . The singulated pulp fiber of  claim 4  having a 2× sonic knot content of less than 1%.  
     
     
         6 . Singulated, crosslinked pulp fibers made from a sheet of non-debonded pulp fibers, said crosslinked fibers having a 2× sonic knot content of less than 14%.  
     
     
         7 . The pulp fibers of  claim 6  having a 2× sonic knot content less than 12%.  
     
     
         8 . Singulated, crosslinked pulp fibers made from a sheet of non-debonded pulp fibers having a Pulmac knot content of less than 4%.  
     
     
         9 . The pulp fibers of  claim 8  having a Pulmac knot content of less than 2%.