Metering device

Abstract

There is disclosed a metering device for metering finely divided material which is capable of handling both free-flowing powders and non-free-flowing powders. The device comprises an upright mixing chamber or reservoir having an axially-disposed stirrer therein. Adjacent thereto is a motor-driven shaft having a metering disc attached thereto with a portion extending into the mixing chamber. The motor-driven axial shaft of the metering disc is connected to the axial shaft of the stirrer by a gear train. Each shaft has replaceable gears attached thereto, adapted to mesh with an idler gear. The idler gear is mounted on an adjustable arm so that the position thereof can be changed when one or both of the replaceable gears is replaced by a gear of different size. In one form of the invention, the stirrer comprises radially-disposed arms projecting from the rotatable shaft, each arm of which is angularly displaced with reference to the arm above or below it and is curved away from the direction of rotation. In another form of the invention, the metering disc comprises a composite disc which is replaceable with another composite disc having a different metering capacity.