Cominco, Ltd.

Ronald N Honey

Clifford J Krauss

Robert E Manwell

Richard Deane

Douwe Ybema

An insulator for supporting a spooled electrode contact bar and head bars of removable, alternating cathodes and anodes in an electrolytic cell. The insulator comprises an elongated body formed of a synthetic material having a longitudinal outwardly and downwardly sloping upper surface extending from a center line to the side edges of the body, a row of equi-spaced shoulders formed longitudinally on each upper surface adjacent to the said center line offset relative to each other, each row of shoulders having a transverse channel formed between each pair of adjacent shoulders for draining liquid towards a side edge of the body, a longitudinal V-shaped groove formed between the two rows of shoulders for supporting the spooled electrode contact bar between the rows of shoulders and a cavity formed in each upper surface opposite each shoulder between the shoulder and the respective edge of the body for receiving an insulating block therein for supporting one end of the electrode head bars.

Cell top insulator

A contact bar of novel design is provided for use in electrolytic cells of the type which have alternating, equally spaced, anodes and cathodes. The electrodes each have header bars, and each header bar has an extending end portion which is notched on its underside. The contact bars of the invention are useful in such cells when employed in the electrolytic recovery of metals such as copper, cadmium, cobalt, lead, nickel, silver and zinc. The contact bars are generally cyclindrical, and have cylindrical end sections and a spooled central section. The spooled central section is created by forming a plurality of alternately identical grooves with center lines equally spaced along the length of the spooled central section. The sidewalls of the grooves are sloped and form right frusto-conical walls which face one another on opposite sides of the groove. This spool-shaped contact bar provides excellent electrical contact via the notched portion of the header bars, the weight of the electrodes insuring high pressure contact between the notched header bars and points located on the sidewalls of the grooves. The contact which is created may aptly be described as a 'sloping-tangent contact'.

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Rossland, Canada

Ronald N Honey