Manufacture of spun-bonded nonwoven from continuous filaments

An apparatus for making spunbonded nonwovens has a spinneret for emitting continuous thermoplastic filaments in a filament-travel direction, a cooling chamber downstream in the direction from the spinneret for cooling the spun filaments with cooling air, two manifolds on opposite sides of the cooling chamber opening transversely of the direction into the cooling chamber, and a respective conduit having a conduit cross-sectional area and connected to each manifold for feeding cooling air thereto. The conduit cross-sectional area increases toward the manifold to a manifold cross-sectional area, and manifold cross-sectional area is at least twice as large as the conduit cross-sectional area. At least one flow straightener is provided upstream from the cooling chamber in each manifold for orienting air flow in an air-flow direction, and at least one perforated planar homogenizing element is provided in each manifold for homogenizing the cooling air flow.