Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving material between zones having different... – Including trap chamber having horizontal axis of rotation
Patent
1995-11-16
1997-10-21
Bucci, David A.
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving material between zones having different...
Including trap chamber having horizontal axis of rotation
222368, 406 67, B65G 5346
Patent
active
056789718
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to sluices for feeding or dosing powder material, e.g. from a silo to a pressure container or to a pneumatic transport installation. The purpose is to increase the degree of filling and rpm by means of a novel design of a housing, an inlet and an outlet, to increase the pressure difference and eliminate air leakage between the housing and a rotor by means of a new sealing arrangement, and to reduce the loss between the amount of output and input air by establishing pressure equalization between return and filling sides in the rotor.
A dominating number of previously known such sluices have a cylindrical housing and a rotor with opposite and downward directed inlet and outlet, where the intersection with the cylinder surface is shaped either circularly or rectangularly. There also are known sluices having ball-shaped housings with a circular or square inlet and outlet. Due to matters related to machining and risk of metallic engagement between rotor and housing during operation, ordinary sluices have a clearance of about 0.1 mm which allows a large amount of leakage.
In order to improve the sealing between the rotor and the housing, there exist readjustable sealing plates made of plastic. There also are known self-adjusting gaskets lying in channel-shaped grooves in outer edges of the rotor blades, against the housing wall, and where a radially displaceable gasket pushes toward the housing wall by means of a spring support on the underside of the gasket. In this connection, reference is made to Norwegian Patent No. 141,313. Regarding the difference in the amount of air between feed-out empty rotor and air in the powder which is fed in, this is a loss which is accepted in previously known sluices.
From DE-A-4008407 is previously known (see FIG. 2 and corresponding text) a pressure-tight sluice with lamella of rectangular shape, where the outer lamella edges are equipped with self-adjusting air hose gaskets for sealing against the surrounding housing wall during lamella rotation. Air is supplied to the air hoses via a central hole in the axle. However, this prior art publication discloses a cylindrically shaped sluice, with obvious sealing problems both in the radial and axial directions. Furthermore, the rapid pressurizing/depressurizing of the gasket hoses (see FIGS. 4-6) is governed by means of air pressure pulsing mechanisms which are unnecessarily complicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, the above mentioned deficiencies are remedied by means of a novel geometrical design of the housing and of the inlet and outlet, providing an improved powder flow through the nozzle. Further, the control mechanism for air filling and emptying of the gasket hoses is substantially simplified, leading to a less expensive and more robust construction.
In accordance with the invention there is provided a pressure-tight sluice for feeding powder material, e.g. from a silo to a pressure container or to a pneumatic transport installation, where the sluice comprises a housing having an inlet and an outlet located in opposite to each other. The housing has a rotor with an axle and radially extended lamellae mounted thereon, the lamellae sliding with their outer edges against the inside housing wall in sealing engagement during rotation, thereby providing a number of chambers between the lamellae, the rotor axle and the inside wall. The outer edges of the lamellae are equipped with respective self-adjusting gaskets for sealing against the inside housing wall, and each respective lamellae gasket comprises an underlying, rapidly pressurizable and evacuatable air hose with an elastic wall for rapid control of the gasket pressure against the housing wall. The inside housing wall is shaped substantially like a torus with a superelliptical cross section. Each lamellae has a corresponding superelliptical shape for achieving complementary sealing thereto. One end of each air hose communicates via a hole connection in the axle with a compressed air distribu
REFERENCES:
patent: 2428241 (1947-09-01), Pootjes
patent: 2886216 (1959-05-01), Oholm
patent: 2933208 (1960-04-01), Green
patent: 3446404 (1969-05-01), Mehta
patent: 4180188 (1979-12-01), Aonuma et al.
patent: 4784298 (1988-11-01), Heep et al.
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