The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

George V Chinchar

Robert Calevich

A slurry feeding assembly (A) feeds a mixture of water and rubber pellets to a comminuting region defined between a rotor (74) and a stator (66). As an electric rotor motor (70) rotates the rotor relative to the stator, a power monitor (114) monitors of a control circuit (D) the amount of electrical power drawn thereby. The control circuit controls a pressure regulator (C) to increase and decrease the pressure between the rotor and stator in such a manner that the power drawn by the electric rotor motor remains substantially constant. The control circuit further initiates operation of various components of the comminuting apparatus in a preselected order. Specifically, the control circuit first starts the feed of water or other fluid to the rotor and stator. Thereafter, the electric rotor motor is started, followed by enabling of the pressure regulator assembly. Finally, a pellet feeding assembly (10) is initiated such that a progressively increasing concentration of pellets is introduced into the slurry until steady state operating conditions are attained. Under steady state conditions, the pellet feed rate is selectively varied to adjust the concentration of pellets in the slurry in such a manner that the power drawn by the rotor motor remains generally constant.

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Mentor, OH, United States of America

George V Chinchar