Solid material comminution or disintegration – Processes – Cereal and other seeds or seed parts
Patent
1992-08-06
1995-01-03
Lavinder, Jack W.
Solid material comminution or disintegration
Processes
Cereal and other seeds or seed parts
51296, 426483, 241 58, 241 791, B02B 300
Patent
active
053779169
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to apparatus and method for use in the surface abrasive treatment of small objects, for example, seeds, including cereals, legumes, nuts and the like; cleaning aggregate and objects of wood, plastics, mineral or metal.
Apparatus for this purpose is well known, but there is a long standing unsatisfied need for such apparatus which reliably removes and separates the surface material by abrasion without damaging the small objects or heating them to an unacceptable degree.
It is one object of this invention to satisfy this need.
According to one aspect of this invention there is provided apparatus for use in the abrasion of small objects to remove surface material therefrom, comprising: a chamber; means for providing an abrasive moving bottom which passes under a transverse wall of the chamber; an inlet for objects to be abraded, and an outlet for abraded objects, in use, objects recirculating in said chamber and material removed from said objects passing under the transverse wall, the chamber having a top, opposed to the bottom, the top being sufficiently close to the bottom that, in use, pressure is exerted on the recirculating objects to press the lowest objects against the bottom. The means for providing an abrasive moving bottom preferably includes an endless abrasive belt.
The apparatus preferably includes means for restricting the flow of abraded objects from the outlet.
Means are preferably included for drawing a vacuum outside the chamber, to remove material, abraded from the objects, from the means providing an abrasive moving bottom.
The invention also extends to a method of abrading small objects to remove surface material therefrom comprising; supplying objects to a chamber having a top and an abrasive moving which passes under a transverse wall of the chamber, so that objects recirculate in said chamber and material removed from said objects passes under the transverse wall; exerting pressure on the recirculating objects by means of the top to press the lowest objects against the bottom; and removing abraded objects from an outlet to the chamber.
One embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a plan, partly in section, of apparatus embodying the invention;
FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section on A--A of FIG. 1, and
FIG. 3 is a section on B--B of FIG. 1.
The apparatus shown in the drawing illustrates several features which may be utilised together or in the alternative.
A chamber is defined by a rectangular box 1 having elongate side walls 2, 3 and transverse walls 4, 5. A plate 6, defines the bedplate for an endless belt 7 which constitutes an abrasive moving bottom or floor of the chamber. The top or outer surface of the belt 7 has a coating of abrasive sand or grit. The belt passes underneath the end walls 4, 5 and the side walls 2 and 3 with a gap 8 in between. The gap between the transverse wall 4 and the belt 7 may be of the order of 0.254 mm (10 thousandths of an inch). The gaps between the other walls and the belt are not so critical but are preferably of the same order. A lid 11 is present on top of the side walls and end walls. An inlet pipe 12 extends from a hopper (not shown) into the chamber through the lid 11. An outlet is position adjacent the transverse wall to one side of a direct path from the inlet to the transverse wall.
In the present example, in the form of upwardly extending chutes 14, two outlets are spaced laterally from the inlet, one on each side thereof adjacent the transverse wall 4.
In use, small objects having a surface coating to be removed are loaded into the hopper and fed to the inlet 12. By way of example, the small objects may be grains of rice from which the outer layers, part or all of the bran layers, are to be removed. In this example, belt 7 is run at about 60 to 75 meters/min. Rice grains are fed via the inlet 12 into the chamber. The grains are transported by the moving belt 7 to the transverse wall 4 at the end of the chamber.
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patent: 4229486 (1980-10-01), Muller
patent: 4504506 (1985-03-01), Vivier
patent: 4522343 (1985-06-01), Williams
patent: 4747550 (1988-05-01), Jackering
patent: 5097636 (1992-03-01), Crouch
Koolmill Systems Limited
Lavinder Jack W.
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