Liquid purification or separation – Automatic control
Patent
1984-06-28
1986-11-18
Fisher, Richard V.
Liquid purification or separation
Automatic control
100198, 210225, 210230, 210236, B01D 2515
Patent
active
046234535
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to filter presses, and particularly to such presses having plte separator mechanisms, and to modification kits for conversion of existing filter presses.
Filter presses are well known and widely used pieces of equipment. A popular type consists of a set of filter plates which are arranged in a horizontal stack, i.e. with each plate in a generally vertical plane, and which are held pressed together while liquid to be filtered is introduced into the centre of the stack. Solids from the liquid build-up on the filter plates and eventually filtration has to be stopped to enable the filter cake which has built up on the plates to be removed. This can be a time consuming process.
British Patent Specifications Nos. 844,208, 1,074,643 and 2,040,716 describe and illustrate filter presses. Reference should be had to these specifications for a general description of operation.
In order to save time and labour, mechanisms have been developed for pulling apart the stack of filter plates, plate by plate working from one end, in order to remove the filter cake. British Patent Specification No. 2,042,916A describes and claims such a mechanism. While the mechanism there described assists in operating a filter press, it is not without its disadvantages. In particular, there is no means of guaranteeably removing just one plate at a time from the stack. While often it is only the first plate that is removed from the stack each time the mechanism is engaged with the stack, variations in the plate-to-plate adherence mean that sometimes when using the device described in Specification No. 2,042,916 more than one plate is pulled away from the end of the stack and manual separation of the generally two or three plates so pulled away is then necessary, which takes time. In addition, there is an increasing tendency for the use of lightweight plates in filter presses, and if attempts are made to disassemble a stack of these mechanically, damage to some of them sometimes occurs if they are stuck too well together; the retractor mechanisms simply put too much strain on the plate. This can also occur with the mechanism described in British Specification No. 1,587,474.
British Patent Specification No. 2,047,109 describes a filter press with a plate separation system including a pair of cam dogs which engage between lugs on the first and second plates and pries them apart. This system is better than those described in the specifications noted above, but tends to be inflexible in use and not easily matched to varying operational conditions.
We have now found that the efficiency of plate separation, using an interengaging cam pair system, can be materially improved by mounting both the cams on a common carriage which can be moved to engage the cams between first and second members in the stack respectively and which cams act to separate the plates using a known separating force prior to the first member being pulled away by one of the cams, and by enabling the separating force to be easily adjusted.
Thus, according to a first feature of the invention there is provided a filter press including a set of press plates mounted for movement along a track, the track being longer than the set of press plates, and including a plate separator mechanism and means for reciprocating the mechanism repeatedly to separate a single press plate from the set and move it along the track, wherein the mechanism includes a carriage mounted for reciprocation along the track, a pair of members mounted on the carriage and each adapted to engage a press plate, the members being biasable towards a spaced apart position in which two press plates so engaged are separate from one another, and the members being movable towards one another to enable them each to engage one press plate of a pair of non-separate adjacent press plates, and the carriage including a spring biasing the members apart.
Preferably, the spring biasing may be varied; varying the force pof the spring biasing provides a convenient way of varying the plate parting force effective d
REFERENCES:
patent: 4197199 (1980-04-01), Gribbin
patent: 4461705 (1984-07-01), Gehrmann
Eurotechnik (U. K.) Limited
Fisher Richard V.
Jones W. Gary
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