Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Slinger or splasher; or deflector rotated relative to effluent – Disc impeller type or bowl-like slinger or deflector
Patent
1989-10-16
1990-12-18
Huppert, Michael S.
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Slinger or splasher; or deflector rotated relative to effluent
Disc impeller type or bowl-like slinger or deflector
239214, 239222, B05B 504
Patent
active
049780697
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for dividing a liquid into droplets. More particularly, the invention relates to droplet formation methods and apparatuses of the type where droplets are slung from a droplet formation apparatus by centrifugal action.
One application of the invention is the formation of nonyielding spherical granules from a liquid material, such as a melt, during which the droplets formed according to the invention are slung by centrifugal action in the nonsolidified state from a droplet formation apparatus and are subsequently subjected, for example in a descending motion, to a solidification process in a solidification zone.
The term melt is used hereinafter for all types of substances in liquid or semiliquid form, optionally containing suspended or dispersed particles capable of solidifying (for example by changes in temperature, drying or chemical processes) into spherical granules during their subsequent passage through a solidification zone.
In other applications of the invention, the droplets are formed of a liquid which does not undergo solidification after the droplet formation. One such application is, for example, gas purification of the type in which the gas to be purified is caused to pass through a "cloud" of liquid droplets removing impurities from the gas. Another application is painting/spray painting. Furthermore, air-drying and the distribution of fuel in burners may be mentioned as examples of conceivable applications of this invention.
The prior art technique within the first-mentioned application of the invention, i.e. the formation of spherical granules from a melt, comprises for example the production of urea for fertilizers, carbamide and ammonium nitrate, where it is desired to have a final product in the form of small spherical granules. A great many droplet formation methods and apparatuses have been developed for this purpose, the main object of which was to produce uniform size spheres, i.e. uniform size droplets of the melt. Such droplet formation apparatuses are usually mounted in the upper part of a so-called prilling tower through which a cooling air flow is directed upwards against the descending droplets.
A more uniform diameter relationship of such droplets implies a number of production and environmental improvements. Spreading the droplet diameter, on the other hand, implies that the material must be remelted to a large extent. Furthermore, undersized droplets could give rise to undesired air pollutants because the undersized droplets are carried along in the form of aerosols by the exhaust air and cause odour problems in the surroundings, fallout, and other environmental hazards.
Many known production methods and droplet formation apparatuses are based on the principle that a melt is supplied to a perforated and, optionally, rotating cylindrical surface or the like which they leave in the form of droplets. Obviously, such a technique requires a constant flow to each perforation of the surface and a constant flow leaving each such perforation, and obviously this known technique depends heavily upon a uniform size hole diameter across the entire perforated surface at a given viscosity.
SE 7206000-7 proposes, for example, that the passages in a droplet-forming disk should be coated with a layer of epoxy plastic to prevent clogging of the droplet-forming passages.
SE 7402820-0 discloses the use of a rotating perforated container from which a melt is slung out through radial holes in the container wall and thus is divided into droplets. According to this patent, the liquid material is supplied in the form of annular laminar flows, each individual flow being conducted towards vertically spaced apart areas comprising rows of holes.
NO 170,270 endeavours to solve the above-mentioned clogging problem by means of a centrifuge for spraying liquid material, such as a melt, through a rotating perforated wall, the container of the centrifuge accommodating a body which presents rotation symmetry and whose surface facing the centrifuge wall
REFERENCES:
patent: 1506226 (1924-08-01), Dick
patent: 3017116 (1962-01-01), Norris
patent: 3171600 (1965-03-01), Eckey
patent: 3197143 (1965-07-01), Norris
patent: 3452931 (1969-07-01), Knowles
patent: 4458844 (1984-07-01), Mitsui
Andersson Alf
Andersson Ralf
Huppert Michael S.
Trainor Christopher G.
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