Improvement of electrospun membrane uniformity by non-circular gear traverse mechanism

In order to improve the poor uniformity in cross machine direction(CD) of the nanofibrous web during electrospinning process,a new linear module structure based on the incomplete gear and rack mechanism was proposed and applied in this study,which is simple and reliable,making the spinneret on it to reciprocate continuously at uniform speeds,and moving stably along CD without a control system.The proposed mechanical structure consists of an incomplete driving gear and a slave bilateral rack box,with the continuous unidirectional movement of the former transforming to the continuous uniform reciprocating traverse motion of the latter,based on the constant transmission ratio which is the feature of gear and rack drive.The results from the electrospinning experiments using the proposed mechanism as linear traverse system indicated its function,validity and reliability,which could improve the CD uniformity of the electrospun membrane from 32.2% to 2.7%,and the strength ratio of MD / CD from2.15 to 1.03.