Apparatus for making net structures

Claim 1

Apparatus for making netlike structures including a plurality of nozzles each being in the form of a sector of a circle and having a pair of flat sides and an arcuate side, said nozzles arranged in spaced groups along each of the opposite sides of a common plane with the nozzles in each of said groups having their flat sides disposed in abutting relationship and along the common plane and their arcuate sides together defining a substantially continuous semicircle, the groups of nozzles along one side of the common plane being paired with like groups of nozzles along the opposite side of the common plane, each of said nozzles having an extrusion orifice, means for delivering flowable strand-forming material to the nozzle orifices for extrusion therefrom as continuous streams, means for setting into strands the streams of flowable strand-forming material extruded from the nozzle orifices, means for relatively shifting the groups of nozzles of the respective pairs of groups in directions parallel to the common plane to rearrange at least some of the groups of nozzles along one side of the common plane into pairs with like groups of nozzles along the other side of the common plane, and means operative alternately with said shifting means for revolving each pair of groups of nozzles about an axis extending centrally thereof and to such degree that some but less than all of the nozzles of each paired groups of nozzles are on the same side of the common plane as that which they occupied prior to the revolving thereof.