Roll mill for feeding material to the roll gap

Abstract

A roll mill has sealing devices pressed against the ends of the rolls to seal the roll gap so that material being processed is not squeezed out (such as oil seed during treatment for flaking). The sealing devices include flow guides (such as recesses therein). A curtain of material, wider than the rolls are long, falls onto the roll gap, and so much of it as exceeds the width of the rolls is guided by the flow guides into the roll gap from beyond the ends of the rolls outwardly of the roll ends. This happens because the flow guides themselves extend near the roll gap but stop short of the roll ends. The sealing devices may include a sealing pin surmounted by an elongate wedge member, the two having communicating recesses which together form the flow guide. The mill may have provision for hydraulically pressing the rolls towards each other during flow of material and separating them while such flow is absent; a hydraulic connection then presses the sealing pins towards the roll ends while the rolls are compressed and lifts them away from the roll ends while the rolls are separated.