The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 25, 1982
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1980
Calice G Courneya, Alexandria, MN (US);
Other;
Abstract
Apparatus for high-efficiency drying of material includes a vacuum drying chamber (40) maintained at a low pressure by a vacuum pump (56). Material to be dried is introduced to the drying chamber through an air lock valve (36) and is transported through the drying chamber by an auger (45). In the preferred embodiment a second interconnected drying chamber (50) includes a further auger (52), and material that has been dried is removed from the drying chamber by another air lock valve (55). Microwave energy sources (30) apply energy to vaporize liquid from the material, and air inlets (72, 73) are provided at the processed ends to introduce air for sweeping generally across the material to the outlet (55) to the vacuum pump. The sweep of cool air causes an aerosol mixture to form, which is removed by the vacuum pump. Heat is reclaimed by separating liquid and vapor, with the liquid being passed through hollow shafts (60, 51) of the augers to heat the material in the drying chamber, and the vapor being sent through a heat exchanger (15) in thermal contact with a preheat zone (13) so that heat from the vapor removed from the drying chamber, including latent heat of vaporization, is transferred to the material prior to introduction to the drying chamber.