Farrel Corporation

Douglas E Mosher

Michael R Kearney

William H Swilling, Jr

Joseph R Piccolo, Sr

Douglas V Poscich

Stuart A Sardinskas

Douglas W Poscich

Convenient access for quick and thorough clean-out and maintenance of an openable mixing chamber and both rotors in two-rotor continuous mixers for plastic materials is advantageously achieved by making each rotor in three separate pieces: a drive journal, a rotor body (also called a 'rotor section' or a 'rotor') and a driven journal. These three separate pieces of each rotor are axially aligned, with the rotor body being positioned between the drive journal and the driven journal. Each rotor body is disengageably coupled to its respective drive and driven journals. The drive and driven journals are rotatably mounted in bearing assemblies which are separate from the mixing chamber barrel (also called a 'mixing chamber housing'). Consequently, both rotor bodies can be uncoupled from their respective journals for removal of both rotor bodies from an opened mixing chamber for providing unimpeded access to an entire interior surface of an opened mixing chamber and for providing unimpeded access to both rotors after their removal from the mixing chamber. The two drive journals and the two driven journals desirably may remain in their normal positions in their bearing assemblies during uncoupling and removal of the rotor bodies without disturbing these journals nor disturbing their bearing assemblies. By virtue of such three-piece construction of the rotors, non-split visco seals can be installed as shown encircling an end portion of each rotor body, thereby saving costs and complexity of prior art split components.

Method of making rotors for two-rotor continuous mixers and method of

A coupling mechanism for quickly coupling a rotor body to its drive and driven journals and obtaining radial and axial alignment thereof in a closely confined space is provided. The coupling mechanism includes a split ring collar and a clamping ring securely holding in appropriate placement a chamfered split ring for radially and axially aligning the rotor and the journals, referred to as co-axial alignment.

Coupling mechanism for quickly axially aligning rotor to journals

A coupling mechanism for quickly coupling a rotor body to its drive and driven journals and thereby obtaining radial and axial alignment thereof in a closely confined space is provided. The coupling mechanism includes a split ring collar and a clamping ring securely holding in appropriate placement a chamfered split ring for radially and axially aligning the rotor and the journals, hereinafter referred to as co-axial alignment.

Convenient access for clean-out and maintenance of mixing chamber and

Rotor zone cooling method for channeling liquid coolant flow in rotors in continuous mixers provides for predetermined zones along the lengths of the rotors to be cooled as may be desired and provides for other predetermined zones to remain neutral. A sequence of alternating cooling/neutral/cooling/neutral/cooling/neutral zones can be provided, including zones of various possible lengths, locations and numbers of such zones for tailoring or customizing these zones to optimize temperature conditions along a rotor depending upon mixing requirements and characteristics of plastic materials being mixed. A central coolant feed tube conveys coolant from an entrance into the bore to a discharge end of the feed tube positioned near the bore terminus in a first cooling zone. Coolant flow is diverted into isolation channels within isolation tubing sections spaced inwardly from the rotor bore wall for creating a neutral zone. Coolant flow is diverted outwardly from an isolation channel through ports into a cooling augmentation channel located closely adjacent to the rotor bore wall being confined outside of a cooling booster tubing sections. Coolant is diverted to flow outwardly from an isolation channel into an augmentation channel and thereafter coolant flow is diverted inwardly from the augmentation channel.

Rotor zone cooling method and apparatus for rotors in continuous mixers

A one-piece barrel for a hot-fed extruder extends from drive means at its upstream end to its discharge mouth near the downstream end of the feed screw. This one-piece extruder barrel has a split-level, in-feed opening adapted for connecting a strong, reinforcing converging hopper in close tolerance therewith for feeding molten plastic into the extruder barrel through this in-feed opening. A feed screw propels along the barrel molten plastic fed into the barrel through the in-feed opening. The barrel is a one-piece, integral, strong, cylindrical member with an axial bore whose entire length may be finish machined at one time. Such one-time finishing of the entire bore of a barrel is not possible in prior hot-fed extruder barrels, because they were built up from multiple sections assembled end-to-end to form the whole barrel. A one-piece barrel aligns more easily with the feedscrew and prevents leakage by absence of joints and is less expensive to manufacture than costly machining and time-consuming assembly of prior multiple-part, hot-fed extruder barrels. Moreover, the converging hopper is welded into a strong, integral, box-like unit with strong upstream and downstream mounting flanges. The hopper is assembled with close tolerance reinforcement fitting relationship into the relatively large in-feed opening for strengthening the barrel near this opening. This strong hopper spans across the large in-feed opening serving as a reinforcement bridge for this opening.

One-piece cylindrical extruder barrel assembled with eccentric

Quick-disconnect couplings for three-piece rotors in a two-rotor continuous mixer for plastic materials enable a main rotor section (or 'main rotor body') of each rotor to be uncoupled from a drive journal located at one end of the main rotor section and a driven journal located at the other end of the main rotor section. These quick-disconnect couplings as shown provide the following features: (a) piloted to maintain concentricity, (b) keyed to transmit torque, (c) enable quick assembly and disassembly of three-piece rotors, (d) maintain integrity of couplings bolted onto respective ends of each rotor section, (e) thus, a complete functional main rotor body is assembled with its quick-disconnect couplings at each end, (f) the disengageable interface between each coupling and each journal is supplied with both pilot and key, (g) concentricity and torque capabilities are built into the quick-disconnect coupling assemblies, (h) threaded locking collars captive on the journals serve to lock the disengageable interfaces together, (i) interface joints are pre-loaded by tightening the locking collars using spanner wrenches, (j) threaded locking collars do not become jammed, because torque is carried by keyed engagement at each interface, and (k) for disassembly the locking collars are backed off, and main rotor bodies together with their couplings are conveniently removed by separation at the piloted and keyed interfaces.

Quick-disconnect couplings for three-piece rotors in continuous mixers

Rotor zone cooling apparatus channels liquid coolant flow in rotors in continuous mixers of plastic materials for causing predetermined zones along the lengths of the rotors to be cooled as may be desired and for other predetermined zones to remain neutral, i.e. without significant cooling. A sequence of alternating cooling/neutral/cooling/neutral/cooling/neutral zones can be arranged, including zones of various possible length, various possible locations and various possible numbers of such zones. These zones are tailored or customized for optimizing temperature conditions along a rotor depending upon the mixing requirements and characteristics of plastic materials being mixed. Within an axial bore in a rotor is inserted a novel elongated cooling tubing assembly which rotates with the rotor. For creating a neutral zone, coolant flow is diverted inwardly into an isolation channel within an isolation tubing section spaced inwardly from the rotor bore wall. For creating a cooling zone, coolant flow is diverted outwardly from an isolation channel into a cooling channel located adjacent to the rotor bore wall. Coolant flow in such a cooling channel is located outside of a cooling booster tubing section. Isolation tubing sections and booster tubing sections are shown assembled in a versatile arrangement along a central tube. Rabbeted ring fittings have shoulders overlapping lips on adjacent support rings welded to respective tubing sections and hold seals in contact with the bore wall. A rotary joint near the bore entrance allows the whole coolant tubing assembly to rotate with the rotor.

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Oxford, CT, United States of America

Douglas E Mosher