Continuous cyclindrical wood pulp refiner

Abstract

A continuous cylindrical wood pulp refiner comprising a rotor disposed in a housing having a plurality of structural members. At least one refining plate is mounted to a holder portion of each member such that the entire periphery of the rotor is exposed to refining plates. The pulp to be refined continuously flows axially along the periphery of the rotor. The members define two shells which are pivotally mounted to the refiner base such that the shells may be pivoted away from each other to provide access to the interior surface for changing the refiner plates. Each holder portion has a pair of bores which are parallel to the axis of the rotor. A cam portion of a cam shaft is disposed in each bore. Rotating the cam shaft causes the cam portion to engage the surface of the bore thereby moving the holder portion radially towards or away from the rotor whereby the gap between the refining plates and the rotor can be adjusted. A gear is mounted on an end portion of each cam shaft which extends longitudinally outward through an orifice in the housing. First and second chains engage each gear mounted to the cam shafts which are disposed in the first and second shells, respectively. One of the gears mounted on a cam shaft disposed in the first shell engages one of the gears mounted on a cam shaft disposed in the second shell. A gear motor actuates movement of one of the chains wherein the movement of all of the cam shafts is coordinated to synchronize movement of all of the holders to uniformly adjust the gap.