Andritz Sprout-Bauer, Inc.

Sprout-Bauer, Inc.

Metso Minerals Industries, Inc.

The Young Industries, Inc.

Svedala Industries, Inc.

James D Foresman

Heinrich F Muenster

A pallet construction for an annular cooler forms a gas permeable surface for supporting and transporting material during processing thereof. The pallet construction includes a pallet deck having a series of substantially parallel rows of spaced apart elongated slots. Each of the rows of slots are staggered with respect to the slots in an adjacent row in the series. The slots define apertures through the pallet construction. The pallet construction also includes a support frame supporting the pallet deck and having at least one angular brace oriented at an acute angle with respect to the series of rows of slots.

Annular cooler pallet construction

A method and apparatus for supplying air to a ported rotary kiln involves the use of butterfly valves and a mechanical valve actuation system for introducing air into the kiln at axially and circumferentially spaced locations along the kiln length. The valve actuation system selectively and sequentially opens and closes the butterfly valves such that port air is introduced into the interior of the rotary kiln. The valve actuation system of the present invention is incorporated with a butterfly valve having a valve housing with an air passageway and including an air inlet and an air outlet, a valve disc rotatable within the housing to open and close the passageway, and a valve stem defining an axis of rotation and connected to the valve member for rotation therewith. The valve actuation system includes an assembly mounted on the valve stem to rotate the valve member between its open and closed positions. The valve actuator assembly includes an actuator base connected to the valve stem for rotation therewith, a lever assembly mounted coaxially with the actuator base and valve stem to freely rotate relative to the actuator base and valve stem, and a lost motion mechanism interconnecting the actuator base and the lever assembly for transferring torque from the lever assembly to the actuator base as the lever assembly rotates.

Butterfly valve actuation system for ported kiln

An extended life traveling grate side plate having a heat transfer opening formed in a front portion of the side plate. The side plates are attached to the lateral side surfaces of each chain in a traveling grate conveyor. The front portion of each side plate overlaps the back portion of the preceding side plate such that the back portion of each side plate is covered and prevented from radiating heat away from the side plate. The heat transfer opening formed in the front portion of each side plate facilitates greater heat transfer from the overlapped area of the side plate. The front portion of the side plate is generally planar and does not include any gussets, thereby eliminating the heat transfer properties of the gussets and creating a more uniform thermal expansion of the side plate.

Extended life traveling grate side plate

A method and apparatus in the context of a pellet former (10) that is integral to an annular gap extruder/expander (11). A housing (30) is disposed around the annular gap extruder outlet end. Material is received from annular gap (37) on the face of a rotating disc (14) and, upon expansion, is directed into a roller area (43) by feed plows (23) or a screw flight (42). Pellet rollers (24) rotatably mounted on the disc push the material through a ring pellet die (22) disposed around the roller area. Cut off knives (25) attached to the disc cut the material into pellets as it exits the pellet die.

Annular gap expander pellet former and process of using same

A method and apparatus in the context of a rotating conveying screw situated within a cylindrical housing which has an inlet port on one end of the cylinder and a discharge opening on the other end of the cylinder. A resistance plate is mounted transversely to the conveying screw near the discharge opening for corotation with the screw. The plate is mounted to define a discharge gap between the opening and the plate. A sleeve on the housing is employed to adjust the size of the gap between the plate and the opening. A process controller positions the sleeve by means of a pair of screw jacks. The controller adjusts the discharge gap width to maintain feed material temperature within a predetermined band. Alternatively the controller adjusts the discharge gap width and feed screw speed to maintain a predetermined specific energy input into the feed material. The helical screw is preferably supported at both ends by a bearing means. Breaker bars are mounted on the transverse plate and extend over the gap between the discharge opening and the plate. Breaker bars may also be mounted to the cylindrical sleeve and extend over the gap between the sleeve and the plate.

Annular gap expander

A method and apparatus in the context of a rotating conveying screw situated within a cylindrical housing which has an inlet port on one end of the cylinder and a discharge opening on the other end of the cylinder. A resistance plate is mounted transversely to the conveying screw near the discharge opening for corotation with the screw. The plate is mounted to define a discharge gap between the opening and the plate. A sleeve on the housing is employed to adjust the size of the gap between the plate and the opening. The resistance plate can be a flat disc, conical, or other shape, so long as it is effectively attached to and rotates with the screw. The helical screw is preferably supported at both ends by a bearing means. Breaker bars are mounted on the transverse plate and extend over the gap between the discharge opening and the plate. Breaker bars may also be mounted to the cylindrical sleeve and extend over the gap between the sleeve and the plate. In another aspect of the invention, a flow of steam or a hot fluid enters and/or leaves the interior of the screw, through the end of the screw near the discharge opening.

Annular gap extruder

A feed screw housing support includes a support pedestal (46), a spring loaded tie rod assembly (76), and a bearing assembly including pedestal bearing blocks (62) cooperating with mating bearing blocks (66) connected directly or indirectly to the housing. The tie rod assembly provides a resilient hold down force between the housing (32) and the pedestal (46). The interfacing surfaces (74) of the blocks are angled in such a manner that, when viewed from the ends, a line extending from each planar interface of the blocks passes directly through the axis (54) of the feed screw rotor (28).

Canted, spring-loaded feed screw support

A discharging apparatus for a large diameter, generally vertically walled reaction vessel in which a recessed dish or receiving structure having the same diameter as the reaction vessel is mounted beneath the lower discharge end of the reaction vessel. There is an aperture in the floor of this receiving structure and a rotating impeller urges material received from the reaction vessel through this aperture into a smaller diameter recessed receiving structure which is also equipped with a rotating impeller to remove material to a screw conveyor for removal from the system. This screw conveyor can be significantly smaller than would be required using a conventional screw conveyor reaction vessel discharge.

Apparatus for discharging a reaction vessel

An inlet device comprises an inlet chute, an inlet hopper pan and two agitator blades in counter rotation above the flights of a plug screw feeder. The blades are housed in a pan which sealingly connects to a cast plug screw liner which is a U-shaped trough for the plug screw. The agitator blades are driven by shafts supported in pillow block bearings fastened to a main housing. The main housing holds a gear train driven by a right angle gearmotor. The gearmotor is also mounted on the main housing and drives abutting geats in counter rotation above the flights of the plug screw. A storage bin, reservoir, worm conveyor or some type of pulsating feeding arrangement feeds directly into the instant inlet device. The inlet device then feeds into line operations, e.g., a pulp refiner line operation.

Apparatus to uniformly feed plug flow material from storage to line

A sifting and screening mechanism dynamically balanced in all three planes including a base, a screen assembly with an inclined screened frame having a screening surface with an inlet end and an outlet end, a linear bearing, a resilient mount assembly supporting the outlet end of the screened frame on the linear bearing to permit a generally reciprocating motion of the outlet end of the screen frame, a rotating eccentric drive attached to the screen assembly beneath the center of gravity of the assembly to impart a circular motion in a generally horizontal plane to the screen assembly at the center of gravity which, in combination with the linear motion of the outlet end of the screen, creates generally elliptical motion of the screen, a balancing shaft rotatably mounted on the base and spaced apart from the eccentric drive, a belt drive between the eccentric drive and the balancing shaft for maintaining the rate of rotation of the balancing shaft at the same speed as the eccentric drive, and two balance weights rigidly attached in exposed relation to the balancing shaft, apart and separated by a specific vertical distance to provide counterbalancing of all of the forces and reactions created by the screen assembly motion thereby providing a sifting mechanism of any screen slope which is completely balanced and produces increased screen motion at the inlet end to present more screen openings to particles traversing the length of the screen.

Growing community of inventors

Hughesville, PA, United States of America

James D Foresman