CA1179643A - Hydraulic bean cleaning process and apparatus - Google Patents
Hydraulic bean cleaning process and apparatusInfo
- Publication number
- CA1179643A CA1179643A CA000403035A CA403035A CA1179643A CA 1179643 A CA1179643 A CA 1179643A CA 000403035 A CA000403035 A CA 000403035A CA 403035 A CA403035 A CA 403035A CA 1179643 A CA1179643 A CA 1179643A
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- water
- tank
- bean
- beans
- feed stock
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- Apparatuses For Bulk Treatment Of Fruits And Vegetables And Apparatuses For Preparing Feeds (AREA)
Abstract
HYDRAULIC BEAN CLEANING
PROCESS AND APPARATUS
ABSTRACT
A hydraulic bean cleaner for removing rocks from beans has a hopper for gravity-feeding uncleaned beans down an inner cylindrical tube into a cylindrical separator tank. The inner tube has a bean discharge opening centered just above the bottom of the tank. An outer cylindrical tube concentrically surrounds the inner tube, providing an annular passageway therebetween and a water discharge opening surrounding the bean discharge opening. A first vibrator vibrates the tubes as a unit to help feed the beans down the inner tube. A second vibrator vibrates the hopper independently of the tubes to aid in feeding the beans to the inner tube. The beans drop into the bottom of the tank and water is expelled downwardly into the tank around them.
The water entrains and fluidizes the beans, carrying them laterally away from the bean discharge opening and buoy-ing them upwardly. The turbulent flow of water agitates the beans. Agitation of the fluidized beans creates spaces between the beans through which rocks can sift downward to the bottom of the tank against the upward flow of the water. Near the top of the tank the beans and water overflow across a spillway into a colander. The colander strains the water into a sump. A pump recirculates the water in the sump back to the outer tube.
PROCESS AND APPARATUS
ABSTRACT
A hydraulic bean cleaner for removing rocks from beans has a hopper for gravity-feeding uncleaned beans down an inner cylindrical tube into a cylindrical separator tank. The inner tube has a bean discharge opening centered just above the bottom of the tank. An outer cylindrical tube concentrically surrounds the inner tube, providing an annular passageway therebetween and a water discharge opening surrounding the bean discharge opening. A first vibrator vibrates the tubes as a unit to help feed the beans down the inner tube. A second vibrator vibrates the hopper independently of the tubes to aid in feeding the beans to the inner tube. The beans drop into the bottom of the tank and water is expelled downwardly into the tank around them.
The water entrains and fluidizes the beans, carrying them laterally away from the bean discharge opening and buoy-ing them upwardly. The turbulent flow of water agitates the beans. Agitation of the fluidized beans creates spaces between the beans through which rocks can sift downward to the bottom of the tank against the upward flow of the water. Near the top of the tank the beans and water overflow across a spillway into a colander. The colander strains the water into a sump. A pump recirculates the water in the sump back to the outer tube.
Description
69~3 HYDRAULIC ~EAN CLEANING
PROCESS AND APPARATUS
The invention relates generally to a process and apparatus for hydraulically separating object of differing specific gravities, and more particularly to hydraulic removal of stones from beans and other legumes.
In the preparation of dried beans for use in chili, tacos and other human foodstuffs, it is very important to remove all stones to avoid dental injuries.
Stones commonly become mi~ed with beans during harvest. The beans are customarily "field-cleaned" after harvest using air separation and screening apparatus resembling that disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,080,069 to Lyng.
However, air cleaning only removes light materials and screening does not remove stones having sizes equal to or smaller than the size o the beans. On the average, a 100 pound sack of beans includes about 200 stones aEter screening. Conse~uently, further cleaning is reqtlired to remove the remaining stones beEore the beans can be prepared for consumption by humans.
It is known that vegetable matters and stones have differing specific gravities. Accordingly, apparatus for hydraulically separating or cleaning foodstuffs by specific gravity have been proposed in United States ; patents to Cleveland, No. 2,422,657; Olney, No. 2,945,589;
Rakowsky, No. 2,879,889; Wallace, No. 3,792,772; and Peterson et al, No.4,111l798. However, these devices do not reliably separate stones from beans. Both beans and .
,., -1- ~
~7~6q~3 stones have a specific gravity yreater than water or brine, and the specific gravity of the stones is greater than, but often very close to that of beans. Existing hydraulic separation methods and apparatus are too inaccurate to separate objects of such close speciic gravities with complete reliability.
Exposure to water during separation softens the dried beans, making it necessary to cook them promptly after separation. Conseuqently, separation must or-dinarily be accomplished at the location where the beansare to be cooked. This presents no difficulty for large-scale commercial food processors, but effectively pre-cludes small-scale users, such as restaurants, from using existing hydraulic separation devices. Existing devices generally tend to be rather complicated, bulky and expensive, rendering them unsuitable for small-scale users. Consequently, such users must either buy pre-cooked beans or separate stones from dried beans manually. HoweYer, the proce~sed beans cost much more than dried beans and manually separating stones from beans is not only expensive because of the high labor cost involved, but also unreliable because the percen-tage of stones among the beans is small and the stones are easily overlooked.
Thus, restaurants and other small-scale users of dried beans and the like continue to need a compact, inexpensive and highly reliable means for removing stones , 6~3 on the premises immediately prior to preparing the beans for human consumption.
The concept of hydraulically separating objects of different specific gravities has also been applied more broadly, for example, in placer mining for gold.
One example of such apparatus is disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,151,722 to Schiechel. Schiechel teaches khe use of an upward current of water to buoy lighter particles of sand upward to separate them from the heavier metallic particles, and pulsating the cur-rent to hydraulically agitate the particles to assist in their separation. However, this apparatus is more com-plicated than necessary, requiring pressurized sources of both water and air. In addition t feed ~tock is added at the top of the apparatus. This results in mixlng of the feed stock into the upwardly flowing sand and water so that some oE the heavier metallic particl~s are pre-vented from sinking, and, thus, are not rel1ably epa-rated.
One broad aspect of the invention is a method of separating objects having slightly differing specific gravities, comprising discharging a ~eed stock in a continuous column downwardly from a first outlet into a lower portion of a tank having a closed bottom and con-taining a single liquid separating medium having a , - 3 -~7g~3 specific gravity less than that of the feed stock.
Additional separating medium is discharged ~rom a second outlet into the tank at the level of said ~irs~ outlet in a continuous downward flow closely surrounding and parallel to the column of feed stock to entrain said objects in the downward flow of said medium. This down-ward flow is reversedl for example, by the bottom of the tank, to esta~lish an upward flow of separating medium around the column. ~The rate of discharge of separating medium is controlled to produce a high velocity turbu-lent downflow such that the feed stock is agitated and drawn downwardly and laterally away from the first out-let and objects of a lesser specific gravity are borne upwardly by the medium while objects of greater specific gravity sink ~o the bottom against the upward flow.
A further aspect oE tha method provides for a~itating the feed stock entrained in the medium ~uE~i-ciently to creat~ gaps between the ob~ects in a lower portion of the tank so that object~ of greater speclfic gravity can sink under the influence of gravity against ~he upward flow of said medium through said ~aps; accu-mulating said entrained objects in an upper portion of the tank to slow the upward movement and dampen the agitation of ~aid objects so that any objects of greater specific gravity borne upwardly by the medium lose the.ir : - 4 -momentum and begin to sink; and continuously overflowing from said tank a portion oE th~ medium and objects accumulated in the upper portion of the tank.
A second aspect of the invention is an appara-tus suitable for carrying out the foregoing method.
Such an apparatus comprises a separator tank having a - closed bottom, a feed stock conduit extending downwardly into the tank and having a downwardly directed feed stock discharge opening in a lower portion of the tank, a liquid conduit having a downwardly directed liquid discharge opening surrounding the feed stock discharge opening and positioned at the same level as the feed stock discharge opening, means for introducing a feed stock of said objects into the feed stock conduit, means for introducing liquid separatiny medium into the liquid conduit, and means for controll.ing ~he rate at which said medium is introduced into the liquid conduit to produce a downElow of medium surrounding the feed stock and having a high velocity, so that the Eeed stock and liquid separating medium are simultaneously discharged downwardly froln their respective openings into a lower - portion of the tank to become mixed together and to establish an upward flow of said medium around the co~-duits which bears a lighter fraction of said feed stock toward said spillway to overflow from the tank while a ~, - 5 -~7~69~3 heavier fraction of said feed stock sinks against said upward flow toward the bottom of the tank. The feed stock discharge opening is spaced above the bottom wall a distance greater than the dimensions of objects com-posing the feed stock to be cleaned.
The downwardly expelled water entrains or fluidizes the feed stock and carries it away from the re~ion beneath the feed stock conduit. The bottom and side walls of the tank deflect the water and entrained fe~d stock laterally and then upwardly causing an upward flow of water which counteracts the tendency of the l;ghter weight feed stock elements to sink. The rate of upward flow is adjusted so that the lighter elements are borne upwardly while the slightly heavier elements are allowed to sink.
The feed stock and liquid conduitæ are preEer-ably cylindrical tubes concentr~cally positloned in the tank and s,oaced apart such that liquid passagew~y has a narrow radial width, for example, between about one-eighth and one-quarter inches. The side wall of ~he separator is likewise preferably cylindrically concen-tric with the tubes and spaced laterally from the outer tube a distance less than the outside diameter of said outer tube. The discharge openings are preferably spaced above the bottom wall of the tank a distance that is less than the inside diameter of the inner tube but suEficient to allow the feed stook to pass laterally 6~3 be~ween the ends of t'ne tubes and the bottom wall of the tank. The feed stock conduit can include a vibrator ~onnected for vibrating the feed stock and water con-duits as a unit independently of the separator tank.
The feed stock conduit can be movably connected to the hopper so that it can ~e vibrated relative to the bottom opening of the hopper, The bottom and side walls can be configured to produce a roiling action or turbulence in the water as its downward flow is r~versed. Such turbulence creates spaces between the beans through which any stones can sift downwardly toward the bottom of the tank. The upwardly-borne feed stock thus accumulates free of the heavier elements in an upper portion of the tank; there, the lighter feed stock and water overflow a spillway into a colander which strains the water into a sump~ A
pump recirculates the water back to the second conduit mean~.
The tank can have vertical side walls and a flat horizontal bottvm defining corners to create eddies in the flow of water for catching and holding stones.
The tank and conduit means can be concentriGally cylin-drical so that separation occurs uniformly around the tank.
~1 179~3 The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which proceeds with reference to the drawings.
In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a hydrau-lir bean cleaner according to the invention, portions being cut away to show details of interior construction.
Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevational view of a portion of the apparatus of Fig. 1, substantial por-tions being shown in vertical cro~s-section.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3-3 in Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a partlal cross-sectional view taken along line 4-~ in Fig. 2.
Fig. 5 is a partial cross-sPctional view taken along line 5-5 in Fig. 1.
Fig. 6 is a ~ide elevational view of ~he sepa-rator tank and conduits oE Fig. 1 while in use, theseparator tank, but not the conduits, being shown in cross section.
Detailed descripti _ of a preferred embodiment Referring to Fig~ 1 a bean cleaner 10 according ;43 to the present invention has a hopper means 12, a sepa-rator tank 14, a bean conduit 16 and a water conduit 18.
The separator tank has a spillway 20 for overflowing water and beans into a colander 22 for straining the water, but not the beans, into a sump 24. Pump means 26 connects the sump to the water conduit .18 for recirculating the water. A vibra~or 28 is connected to the hopper 12 and another ~ibrator 30 is connected to the bean and water conduits 16, 18. The foxegoing eleme~ts are all assem-bled on a frame 32 supported on wheels or casters 34.
The hopper means 12 is positioned uppermoston the frame. Its principal elements are a.~olding hop~er feed tray 36 and hopper 38. The feed tray is connected abo~e the hopper by pivot 40 between two vertical frame members 42, only one of which appears in the drawings.
The hopper is connected by four flexible mounts 44 between two parallel frame members 46 extending horizon-tally from frame members 42. The hopper has a square cross-section and its lower portion 48 de~ines an inverte~ pyramidal funnel. At the end of the funnel is a short cylindrical tube 50 defininy a bottom opening of the hopper. Vibrator 28 is mounted on portion 48.
The water and bean conduits 16, 18 are mounted on the horizontal leg 58 (Fig. 2~ of an L-shaped bracket 52 and extend downwardly into tank means 14.
The bracket is connected by flexible mounts 54 to two _g_ ~L7~3 horizontal cross frame members 56. Vibrator 30 is con-nected to the vertical leg 59 of bracket 52 for vibrating the bean and water conduits as a unit independently of the separator tank.
Referring to Fig. 2, the horizontal leg 58 of bracket 52 is flat and is sandwiched between flat mount-ing plates 60, 62. The bean conduit includes an inner cylindrical tube 64 extending vertically through bracket leg 58 and mounting plates 60, 62, and connected to upper plate 62. Tube 64 is aligned coaxially beneath tube 50 and has an upper extension 65 flexibly connected to the outlet of tube 50 by a flexible rubber or plastic funnel 66. The flexible funnel enables vibrator 28 to vibrate the hopper independently of the bean and water conduits.
The water conduit includes an outer cylindri-cal tube 68 concentrically surrounding tube 64 and spaced therefrom to define an annular passageway 69. The radial width of passageway 69 can vary depending on -the water flow rate required, which in turn, depends on the di-mensions of the separator tank, the specific gxavities of the objects to be separated and the liquid separating medium. Typically, this radial width is between about 1/8" and 1/4". The outer tube is connected to lower plate 60. Plates 60, 62 form a water-tight fit about bracket leg 58.
~10-6~L3 A water connector 70 connects passageway 69 to a source of water. Referring to Fig. 3, connector 70 includes two collar portions 72, 74 clamped together just below plate 60 by bolts 75 for a water-tight fit around tube 68. A bore 76 extends horizontally through collar portion 72 and tube 68 to connect passageway 69 with the bore of a water pipe 78 connected to pump means 26. Pipe 78 includes a hand val~e 79 for adjusting the rate of water flow into the separator tank 14.
The separator tank 14 has a cylindrical, vertical side wall 80 and a flat, horizontal bottom wall 82 defining a closed tank bottom. The tank is preferably made of transparent material such as clear plastic to enable viewing the separation process and to monitor the level of stones collected in the tank. The tank is connected to frame members 42 by a U-shaped bracket 84 and is positioned so that side wall 80 concentrically surrounds kubes 64, 68. The tank is removably mounted on bracket 84 by two pairs o vertical mounting pins 86 received in holes 88 in two mounting plates 90 connected, one spaced above the other, to side wall 80.
Tubes 64, 68 lead downwardly into the separator tank. Their lower ends are spaced above bottom wall 82 a distance which is less than the inside diameter of tube 64d but greater than the lengths of the beans to be cleaned~ The lower ends of the tubes are cut off substantially square and are open to provide a central ~L7~643 bean discharge opening 92 and an annular water discharge opening 94 surrounding opening 92. This configuration enables introducing the bean feed stock into the tank as close as possible to the tank bottom without the beans backing up and jamming the bean conduit.
Spillway 20 is positioned in a rectangular opening (not shown) through an upper portion of side wall 80. The spillway has vertical, parallel slde walls 96 and flat bottom wall 98 extending at a downward incline from side wall 80 into colander 22.
Both the tank and tubes 64, 68 are vertically elongated and laterally proportioned to provide an annular vertical passageway between the outer tube 68 and tank side wall 80. The passageway is relatively narrow so as to constrict the water flow sufficiently to maintain enough upward velocity to buoy the beans upward. In one operable example, the vertical distance from bottom wall 82 to the bottom wall 98 of the spillway :Ls about 1-2/3 times the inside diameter of the tank, such diameter being about 2-1/2 times the outside diameter of tube 68.
Thus/ the radial width of the annular passageway is approximately 1/4 its vertical length.
Referring to Fig. 5, the colander 22 has a cylindrical vertical side wall 101 and a horizontal per-- forated bottom wall 102 for straining the water from the beans. The colander is removably mounted on sump 24 (Fig. I) for collecting water strained through perfora--:L2-~7~36~3 tions 103 in the bottom wall o~ the colander.
The sump means has a top wall 104, a bottom wall 106, side wall 108, 110 and end walls 112, 114. The top wall includes a large circular opening 115 beneath the colander. Surrounding the opening is a rim 116 for centering the colander. Spanning the opening are two horizontal crossed members 118, 120 ~or supporting the ; colander. Bottom wall 106 is inclined downwardly in the direction of end wall 114. Wall 114 has an outlet 122 at its lower end.
Pipe 124 connects outlet 122 to pump means 26 for drawing water from the sump. The pump means include~ an electric motor (not shown) drivingly connected to a water pump 126.
Both the pump means and the sump are supported at the bottom of frame 32 between four hoxizontal frame members 128 defining sides o a rectangle. Four wheels 34 are connected to the frame, one at each corner formed by the interconnections of frame members 128.
~he bean cleaners can be of small size to enable easy storage and use in small areas, such as restauxant kitchens. In one example, the bean cleaning apparatus has an overall height of five feet and lateral dimensions of two feet by thxee and one-half feet. In such example, the separator tank has a diameter o~ 511 and the ~ertical distance along side wall 80 from bottom ~L7~6~;~
wall 82 to the bottom wall 98 o over~low means 20 is 8~'. The inner tube 64 has a diameter of 1~1/2" and outer tube 68 has a diameter of 2", passageway 69 hauing a radial width of about 1/8". The lower ends of the tubes are spaced about 3/4" above bottom wall 82. The tubes are preferably made of stainless steel, as is the colander, for processing of human foodstuffs.
The bean cleaner of the foregoing example was tested by manually removing "all" stones from loo pounds of beans, "salting'i the beans with eight stones, and cleaning the beans in the bean cleaner operated as described below. After cleaning such beans, 15 stones were recovered from the sepaxator tank.
operation of Apparatus The bean cleaner is prepared for use by pivoting feed tray 36 to a horizontal position and placing a sack 132 of beans 134 (E'ig. 6) thereon with its openirlg 136 positioned above the hopper's top opening 138. The sump 2A is filled with water .lA0 and the pump means 26 is turned on. The beans are then dumped into the hopper and vibrators 28 and 30 are turned on.
Vibrator 28 vibrates the hopper on its flex-ible mounts 44 so that the beans descend in a continuous flow through tube 50, as indicated in Fig. 2 by arrows 142. The beans flow downwardly in a continuous stream through flexible fannel 66 into tube 64 and descend to ~79~3 central opening 92, as indicated by arrows 144. The beans then drop from opening 96 toward the bottom of the separator tank, as indicated by arrows 146. Vibrator 30 shakes tubes 64, 68 to help maintain a continuous down-flow of beans through tube 64.
Meanwhile, pump 126 (Fig. 1) pumps water from the sump through pipes 124 and 78 to connector 70. Such water enters the connector through bore 76 and is distri-buted within annular water passageway 69. The water descends, under pressure, through the passageway to annular opening 94, as indicated by arrows 148. The water is expelled downwardly from annular opening 94 toward the bottom of tank 24 at high velocity, as indicated by arrows 150, entraining the discharged beans in the re-sulting turbulent flow of water. The water a.nd beans are deflected laterally, ~hen upwardly, by tank bottom and side walls 80, 82, effecting a flow reversal.
The water thus fluidizes the heans as they enter the tank through opening 92, conveys them later-ally away from opening 92 and buoys them upward, as indicated by arrows 152. The lateral, then upward, flow of the water produces eddies E in the corner 154 defi~ned by sidewall 80 and bottom wall ~2. The abrupt reuersal of the water flow also roils the water-bean mixture considerably in the lower portion 153 of the separator tank and to a progressively decreasing extent ~l17~6~3 proceeding toward upper portion 155 o the tank.
Referring to Fig. 6, this roiliny action or turbulence jostles or vibrates the beans and, thus, tend to produce spaces between the beans 134 in lower tank portion 153. Stones 154, discharged into the tank with the beans, travel laterally with the flow of beans~ Some of the stones are then initially conveyed upwardly by the beans and water, while others are caught in eddies E.
The stones conveyed upwardly do not travel far before losing momentum, typically less than half the vertical distance to the spillway 20. They are slowed down by the influence of gravity and by collisions with the more densely packed beans in the upper region 155 of the tank and, thus, begin to sift downward through -the spaces between the beans toward the bottom of the -tank, as indicated by arrows 156. Eventually the stones settle along tank bottom wall 82.
The water flow rate is adjusted using valve 79 to assure that the stones are rel:iably separated from the beans. If the flow rate is too high, some stones may be borne upwardly with the beans to the spill-way 20. If too low, both stones and beans will settle to the bottom of the tank without being separated. The correct flow rate is determined by visually observing the action of the beans and stones in the separator tank.
The flow rate should be high enough that the aforemen-tioned roiling action occurs in at least the lowerquarter of the separator tank below the spillway. The flow rate should not be so high that the roiling action extends to the surface of the water and beans. It is preferable to have the roiling action encompass approx-imately the lower one-half to two-thirds of the tank, the flow rate beiny adjusted accordingly. Operated in this range, the bean cleaner reliably removes all stones from dried beans.
Vibration of conduits 16, 18 by vibrator 30, as indicated by arrows 158, appears to aid in separating the rocks from beans as well as shaking the beans down ~ube 30 by jostling the fluidized beans in the tank to help produce spaces between the beans.
The upwardly-borne beans accumulate rock-free in the upper portion 155 of the separator tank. Once the tank has filled to the level of the bottom wall 98 of the spillway 20, the bean~ and water welling upwardly from beneath cause the beans and water in upper portion 155 to over~low in a continuous stream into the colander 22. The beans are retained in the colander while the water passes through the perforations 103 and openiny 115 into sump 24 to be recirculated.
The level of rocks in the tank is visually monitored through the transparent walls of the tank.
When sufficient stones have accumulated to nearly cover the bottom of the tank, or when a sack of beans has been cleaned, the pump is turned off, the tank is lifted from pins 86 and the stones are removed. The tank is then re-mounted on the pins. Colander 22 ls usually emptied of beans at the same time. Thereafter, the bean cleaner can resume operation.
When use of the bean cleaner is compl te, it can be unplugged, and tray 36 pivoted to a down position.
The apparatus can then be rolled on wheels 34 to a suitable storage location.
Bean cleaning method Following is a description of the preferred method of separating beans according to the invention.
The foregoing bean cleaning apparatus, operated as described above, performs the steps of this method.
However, other apparatus may be used as well.
In the first step, beans are fed in a con-tinuous column downwardly through conduit 64 ancl drop through bean discharge opening 92 onto -th~ bottom wall of separator tank 1~ ~arrows 144, 146). The beans 134 are discharged near the bottom of the tank to avoid mixing them with previously cleaned beans above.
5econd, a continuous flow of water is dis-charged downwardly under pressure in an annular pattern from water discharge opening 94 surrounding opening 92, as indicated by arrows 150. The beans are entrained in the water and, thus, become fluidized.
~79~L~3 Next, the downward ~low of water is reversed to create a lateral and then upward flow of water as indicated by arrows 152. Being entrained in the water the beans are conveyed laterally away from bean discharge opening 92 and then born upwardly by the water.
Simultaneously with reversing the downflow of water, a roiling action or turbulence is imparted into the water flow in the lower portion 153 of the tank. This action includes inducing eddies E adjacent the bottom of the tank along side wall 80 for catching and holding relatively heavier objects such as stones 154. The turbulence jostles or agitates the beans as they flow upwardly, creating spaces between them for the stones to sift downwardly between the beans.
The rate of water flow into the tank is adjusted so that the beans, but not the stones, are borne upwardly in the tank. rrhis adjustment can be made by adjusting the velocity of the upward flow rate of water to a rate greater than the velocity at which beans sink in still water, giving the beans a net upward velocity. For a tank of given cross-sectional area, the upward flow rate is controlled by adjusting vĂ lve 79.
The upward flow of beans is then slowed, but not entirely halted, by accumulating beans in an upper portion 155 comprising about one-third to one-half of the tank. Slowing the upward flow allows any stones 154 ~ ~'7~6~L3 initially borne upwardly by the water and beans to lose momentum and begin to sink. Such stones sift downwardly through the spaces between the agitated beans in the lower portion of the tank and eventually come to rest on the bottom of the tank.
Next, the beans and water accumulated in the upper portion of the tank overflow the tank in a con-tinuous stream (arrow 160)~ Finally, the water is strained from the rock-free beans -(arrow 162~. The water is collected in sump 24 and recycled by pump 126 back to the water discharge opening 94.
Ha~ing illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention may be modified in arrangement and detail. We claim as our invention all such modifications as come within the scope of the followiny claims.
PROCESS AND APPARATUS
The invention relates generally to a process and apparatus for hydraulically separating object of differing specific gravities, and more particularly to hydraulic removal of stones from beans and other legumes.
In the preparation of dried beans for use in chili, tacos and other human foodstuffs, it is very important to remove all stones to avoid dental injuries.
Stones commonly become mi~ed with beans during harvest. The beans are customarily "field-cleaned" after harvest using air separation and screening apparatus resembling that disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,080,069 to Lyng.
However, air cleaning only removes light materials and screening does not remove stones having sizes equal to or smaller than the size o the beans. On the average, a 100 pound sack of beans includes about 200 stones aEter screening. Conse~uently, further cleaning is reqtlired to remove the remaining stones beEore the beans can be prepared for consumption by humans.
It is known that vegetable matters and stones have differing specific gravities. Accordingly, apparatus for hydraulically separating or cleaning foodstuffs by specific gravity have been proposed in United States ; patents to Cleveland, No. 2,422,657; Olney, No. 2,945,589;
Rakowsky, No. 2,879,889; Wallace, No. 3,792,772; and Peterson et al, No.4,111l798. However, these devices do not reliably separate stones from beans. Both beans and .
,., -1- ~
~7~6q~3 stones have a specific gravity yreater than water or brine, and the specific gravity of the stones is greater than, but often very close to that of beans. Existing hydraulic separation methods and apparatus are too inaccurate to separate objects of such close speciic gravities with complete reliability.
Exposure to water during separation softens the dried beans, making it necessary to cook them promptly after separation. Conseuqently, separation must or-dinarily be accomplished at the location where the beansare to be cooked. This presents no difficulty for large-scale commercial food processors, but effectively pre-cludes small-scale users, such as restaurants, from using existing hydraulic separation devices. Existing devices generally tend to be rather complicated, bulky and expensive, rendering them unsuitable for small-scale users. Consequently, such users must either buy pre-cooked beans or separate stones from dried beans manually. HoweYer, the proce~sed beans cost much more than dried beans and manually separating stones from beans is not only expensive because of the high labor cost involved, but also unreliable because the percen-tage of stones among the beans is small and the stones are easily overlooked.
Thus, restaurants and other small-scale users of dried beans and the like continue to need a compact, inexpensive and highly reliable means for removing stones , 6~3 on the premises immediately prior to preparing the beans for human consumption.
The concept of hydraulically separating objects of different specific gravities has also been applied more broadly, for example, in placer mining for gold.
One example of such apparatus is disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,151,722 to Schiechel. Schiechel teaches khe use of an upward current of water to buoy lighter particles of sand upward to separate them from the heavier metallic particles, and pulsating the cur-rent to hydraulically agitate the particles to assist in their separation. However, this apparatus is more com-plicated than necessary, requiring pressurized sources of both water and air. In addition t feed ~tock is added at the top of the apparatus. This results in mixlng of the feed stock into the upwardly flowing sand and water so that some oE the heavier metallic particl~s are pre-vented from sinking, and, thus, are not rel1ably epa-rated.
One broad aspect of the invention is a method of separating objects having slightly differing specific gravities, comprising discharging a ~eed stock in a continuous column downwardly from a first outlet into a lower portion of a tank having a closed bottom and con-taining a single liquid separating medium having a , - 3 -~7g~3 specific gravity less than that of the feed stock.
Additional separating medium is discharged ~rom a second outlet into the tank at the level of said ~irs~ outlet in a continuous downward flow closely surrounding and parallel to the column of feed stock to entrain said objects in the downward flow of said medium. This down-ward flow is reversedl for example, by the bottom of the tank, to esta~lish an upward flow of separating medium around the column. ~The rate of discharge of separating medium is controlled to produce a high velocity turbu-lent downflow such that the feed stock is agitated and drawn downwardly and laterally away from the first out-let and objects of a lesser specific gravity are borne upwardly by the medium while objects of greater specific gravity sink ~o the bottom against the upward flow.
A further aspect oE tha method provides for a~itating the feed stock entrained in the medium ~uE~i-ciently to creat~ gaps between the ob~ects in a lower portion of the tank so that object~ of greater speclfic gravity can sink under the influence of gravity against ~he upward flow of said medium through said ~aps; accu-mulating said entrained objects in an upper portion of the tank to slow the upward movement and dampen the agitation of ~aid objects so that any objects of greater specific gravity borne upwardly by the medium lose the.ir : - 4 -momentum and begin to sink; and continuously overflowing from said tank a portion oE th~ medium and objects accumulated in the upper portion of the tank.
A second aspect of the invention is an appara-tus suitable for carrying out the foregoing method.
Such an apparatus comprises a separator tank having a - closed bottom, a feed stock conduit extending downwardly into the tank and having a downwardly directed feed stock discharge opening in a lower portion of the tank, a liquid conduit having a downwardly directed liquid discharge opening surrounding the feed stock discharge opening and positioned at the same level as the feed stock discharge opening, means for introducing a feed stock of said objects into the feed stock conduit, means for introducing liquid separatiny medium into the liquid conduit, and means for controll.ing ~he rate at which said medium is introduced into the liquid conduit to produce a downElow of medium surrounding the feed stock and having a high velocity, so that the Eeed stock and liquid separating medium are simultaneously discharged downwardly froln their respective openings into a lower - portion of the tank to become mixed together and to establish an upward flow of said medium around the co~-duits which bears a lighter fraction of said feed stock toward said spillway to overflow from the tank while a ~, - 5 -~7~69~3 heavier fraction of said feed stock sinks against said upward flow toward the bottom of the tank. The feed stock discharge opening is spaced above the bottom wall a distance greater than the dimensions of objects com-posing the feed stock to be cleaned.
The downwardly expelled water entrains or fluidizes the feed stock and carries it away from the re~ion beneath the feed stock conduit. The bottom and side walls of the tank deflect the water and entrained fe~d stock laterally and then upwardly causing an upward flow of water which counteracts the tendency of the l;ghter weight feed stock elements to sink. The rate of upward flow is adjusted so that the lighter elements are borne upwardly while the slightly heavier elements are allowed to sink.
The feed stock and liquid conduitæ are preEer-ably cylindrical tubes concentr~cally positloned in the tank and s,oaced apart such that liquid passagew~y has a narrow radial width, for example, between about one-eighth and one-quarter inches. The side wall of ~he separator is likewise preferably cylindrically concen-tric with the tubes and spaced laterally from the outer tube a distance less than the outside diameter of said outer tube. The discharge openings are preferably spaced above the bottom wall of the tank a distance that is less than the inside diameter of the inner tube but suEficient to allow the feed stook to pass laterally 6~3 be~ween the ends of t'ne tubes and the bottom wall of the tank. The feed stock conduit can include a vibrator ~onnected for vibrating the feed stock and water con-duits as a unit independently of the separator tank.
The feed stock conduit can be movably connected to the hopper so that it can ~e vibrated relative to the bottom opening of the hopper, The bottom and side walls can be configured to produce a roiling action or turbulence in the water as its downward flow is r~versed. Such turbulence creates spaces between the beans through which any stones can sift downwardly toward the bottom of the tank. The upwardly-borne feed stock thus accumulates free of the heavier elements in an upper portion of the tank; there, the lighter feed stock and water overflow a spillway into a colander which strains the water into a sump~ A
pump recirculates the water back to the second conduit mean~.
The tank can have vertical side walls and a flat horizontal bottvm defining corners to create eddies in the flow of water for catching and holding stones.
The tank and conduit means can be concentriGally cylin-drical so that separation occurs uniformly around the tank.
~1 179~3 The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which proceeds with reference to the drawings.
In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a hydrau-lir bean cleaner according to the invention, portions being cut away to show details of interior construction.
Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevational view of a portion of the apparatus of Fig. 1, substantial por-tions being shown in vertical cro~s-section.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3-3 in Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a partlal cross-sectional view taken along line 4-~ in Fig. 2.
Fig. 5 is a partial cross-sPctional view taken along line 5-5 in Fig. 1.
Fig. 6 is a ~ide elevational view of ~he sepa-rator tank and conduits oE Fig. 1 while in use, theseparator tank, but not the conduits, being shown in cross section.
Detailed descripti _ of a preferred embodiment Referring to Fig~ 1 a bean cleaner 10 according ;43 to the present invention has a hopper means 12, a sepa-rator tank 14, a bean conduit 16 and a water conduit 18.
The separator tank has a spillway 20 for overflowing water and beans into a colander 22 for straining the water, but not the beans, into a sump 24. Pump means 26 connects the sump to the water conduit .18 for recirculating the water. A vibra~or 28 is connected to the hopper 12 and another ~ibrator 30 is connected to the bean and water conduits 16, 18. The foxegoing eleme~ts are all assem-bled on a frame 32 supported on wheels or casters 34.
The hopper means 12 is positioned uppermoston the frame. Its principal elements are a.~olding hop~er feed tray 36 and hopper 38. The feed tray is connected abo~e the hopper by pivot 40 between two vertical frame members 42, only one of which appears in the drawings.
The hopper is connected by four flexible mounts 44 between two parallel frame members 46 extending horizon-tally from frame members 42. The hopper has a square cross-section and its lower portion 48 de~ines an inverte~ pyramidal funnel. At the end of the funnel is a short cylindrical tube 50 defininy a bottom opening of the hopper. Vibrator 28 is mounted on portion 48.
The water and bean conduits 16, 18 are mounted on the horizontal leg 58 (Fig. 2~ of an L-shaped bracket 52 and extend downwardly into tank means 14.
The bracket is connected by flexible mounts 54 to two _g_ ~L7~3 horizontal cross frame members 56. Vibrator 30 is con-nected to the vertical leg 59 of bracket 52 for vibrating the bean and water conduits as a unit independently of the separator tank.
Referring to Fig. 2, the horizontal leg 58 of bracket 52 is flat and is sandwiched between flat mount-ing plates 60, 62. The bean conduit includes an inner cylindrical tube 64 extending vertically through bracket leg 58 and mounting plates 60, 62, and connected to upper plate 62. Tube 64 is aligned coaxially beneath tube 50 and has an upper extension 65 flexibly connected to the outlet of tube 50 by a flexible rubber or plastic funnel 66. The flexible funnel enables vibrator 28 to vibrate the hopper independently of the bean and water conduits.
The water conduit includes an outer cylindri-cal tube 68 concentrically surrounding tube 64 and spaced therefrom to define an annular passageway 69. The radial width of passageway 69 can vary depending on -the water flow rate required, which in turn, depends on the di-mensions of the separator tank, the specific gxavities of the objects to be separated and the liquid separating medium. Typically, this radial width is between about 1/8" and 1/4". The outer tube is connected to lower plate 60. Plates 60, 62 form a water-tight fit about bracket leg 58.
~10-6~L3 A water connector 70 connects passageway 69 to a source of water. Referring to Fig. 3, connector 70 includes two collar portions 72, 74 clamped together just below plate 60 by bolts 75 for a water-tight fit around tube 68. A bore 76 extends horizontally through collar portion 72 and tube 68 to connect passageway 69 with the bore of a water pipe 78 connected to pump means 26. Pipe 78 includes a hand val~e 79 for adjusting the rate of water flow into the separator tank 14.
The separator tank 14 has a cylindrical, vertical side wall 80 and a flat, horizontal bottom wall 82 defining a closed tank bottom. The tank is preferably made of transparent material such as clear plastic to enable viewing the separation process and to monitor the level of stones collected in the tank. The tank is connected to frame members 42 by a U-shaped bracket 84 and is positioned so that side wall 80 concentrically surrounds kubes 64, 68. The tank is removably mounted on bracket 84 by two pairs o vertical mounting pins 86 received in holes 88 in two mounting plates 90 connected, one spaced above the other, to side wall 80.
Tubes 64, 68 lead downwardly into the separator tank. Their lower ends are spaced above bottom wall 82 a distance which is less than the inside diameter of tube 64d but greater than the lengths of the beans to be cleaned~ The lower ends of the tubes are cut off substantially square and are open to provide a central ~L7~643 bean discharge opening 92 and an annular water discharge opening 94 surrounding opening 92. This configuration enables introducing the bean feed stock into the tank as close as possible to the tank bottom without the beans backing up and jamming the bean conduit.
Spillway 20 is positioned in a rectangular opening (not shown) through an upper portion of side wall 80. The spillway has vertical, parallel slde walls 96 and flat bottom wall 98 extending at a downward incline from side wall 80 into colander 22.
Both the tank and tubes 64, 68 are vertically elongated and laterally proportioned to provide an annular vertical passageway between the outer tube 68 and tank side wall 80. The passageway is relatively narrow so as to constrict the water flow sufficiently to maintain enough upward velocity to buoy the beans upward. In one operable example, the vertical distance from bottom wall 82 to the bottom wall 98 of the spillway :Ls about 1-2/3 times the inside diameter of the tank, such diameter being about 2-1/2 times the outside diameter of tube 68.
Thus/ the radial width of the annular passageway is approximately 1/4 its vertical length.
Referring to Fig. 5, the colander 22 has a cylindrical vertical side wall 101 and a horizontal per-- forated bottom wall 102 for straining the water from the beans. The colander is removably mounted on sump 24 (Fig. I) for collecting water strained through perfora--:L2-~7~36~3 tions 103 in the bottom wall o~ the colander.
The sump means has a top wall 104, a bottom wall 106, side wall 108, 110 and end walls 112, 114. The top wall includes a large circular opening 115 beneath the colander. Surrounding the opening is a rim 116 for centering the colander. Spanning the opening are two horizontal crossed members 118, 120 ~or supporting the ; colander. Bottom wall 106 is inclined downwardly in the direction of end wall 114. Wall 114 has an outlet 122 at its lower end.
Pipe 124 connects outlet 122 to pump means 26 for drawing water from the sump. The pump means include~ an electric motor (not shown) drivingly connected to a water pump 126.
Both the pump means and the sump are supported at the bottom of frame 32 between four hoxizontal frame members 128 defining sides o a rectangle. Four wheels 34 are connected to the frame, one at each corner formed by the interconnections of frame members 128.
~he bean cleaners can be of small size to enable easy storage and use in small areas, such as restauxant kitchens. In one example, the bean cleaning apparatus has an overall height of five feet and lateral dimensions of two feet by thxee and one-half feet. In such example, the separator tank has a diameter o~ 511 and the ~ertical distance along side wall 80 from bottom ~L7~6~;~
wall 82 to the bottom wall 98 o over~low means 20 is 8~'. The inner tube 64 has a diameter of 1~1/2" and outer tube 68 has a diameter of 2", passageway 69 hauing a radial width of about 1/8". The lower ends of the tubes are spaced about 3/4" above bottom wall 82. The tubes are preferably made of stainless steel, as is the colander, for processing of human foodstuffs.
The bean cleaner of the foregoing example was tested by manually removing "all" stones from loo pounds of beans, "salting'i the beans with eight stones, and cleaning the beans in the bean cleaner operated as described below. After cleaning such beans, 15 stones were recovered from the sepaxator tank.
operation of Apparatus The bean cleaner is prepared for use by pivoting feed tray 36 to a horizontal position and placing a sack 132 of beans 134 (E'ig. 6) thereon with its openirlg 136 positioned above the hopper's top opening 138. The sump 2A is filled with water .lA0 and the pump means 26 is turned on. The beans are then dumped into the hopper and vibrators 28 and 30 are turned on.
Vibrator 28 vibrates the hopper on its flex-ible mounts 44 so that the beans descend in a continuous flow through tube 50, as indicated in Fig. 2 by arrows 142. The beans flow downwardly in a continuous stream through flexible fannel 66 into tube 64 and descend to ~79~3 central opening 92, as indicated by arrows 144. The beans then drop from opening 96 toward the bottom of the separator tank, as indicated by arrows 146. Vibrator 30 shakes tubes 64, 68 to help maintain a continuous down-flow of beans through tube 64.
Meanwhile, pump 126 (Fig. 1) pumps water from the sump through pipes 124 and 78 to connector 70. Such water enters the connector through bore 76 and is distri-buted within annular water passageway 69. The water descends, under pressure, through the passageway to annular opening 94, as indicated by arrows 148. The water is expelled downwardly from annular opening 94 toward the bottom of tank 24 at high velocity, as indicated by arrows 150, entraining the discharged beans in the re-sulting turbulent flow of water. The water a.nd beans are deflected laterally, ~hen upwardly, by tank bottom and side walls 80, 82, effecting a flow reversal.
The water thus fluidizes the heans as they enter the tank through opening 92, conveys them later-ally away from opening 92 and buoys them upward, as indicated by arrows 152. The lateral, then upward, flow of the water produces eddies E in the corner 154 defi~ned by sidewall 80 and bottom wall ~2. The abrupt reuersal of the water flow also roils the water-bean mixture considerably in the lower portion 153 of the separator tank and to a progressively decreasing extent ~l17~6~3 proceeding toward upper portion 155 o the tank.
Referring to Fig. 6, this roiliny action or turbulence jostles or vibrates the beans and, thus, tend to produce spaces between the beans 134 in lower tank portion 153. Stones 154, discharged into the tank with the beans, travel laterally with the flow of beans~ Some of the stones are then initially conveyed upwardly by the beans and water, while others are caught in eddies E.
The stones conveyed upwardly do not travel far before losing momentum, typically less than half the vertical distance to the spillway 20. They are slowed down by the influence of gravity and by collisions with the more densely packed beans in the upper region 155 of the tank and, thus, begin to sift downward through -the spaces between the beans toward the bottom of the -tank, as indicated by arrows 156. Eventually the stones settle along tank bottom wall 82.
The water flow rate is adjusted using valve 79 to assure that the stones are rel:iably separated from the beans. If the flow rate is too high, some stones may be borne upwardly with the beans to the spill-way 20. If too low, both stones and beans will settle to the bottom of the tank without being separated. The correct flow rate is determined by visually observing the action of the beans and stones in the separator tank.
The flow rate should be high enough that the aforemen-tioned roiling action occurs in at least the lowerquarter of the separator tank below the spillway. The flow rate should not be so high that the roiling action extends to the surface of the water and beans. It is preferable to have the roiling action encompass approx-imately the lower one-half to two-thirds of the tank, the flow rate beiny adjusted accordingly. Operated in this range, the bean cleaner reliably removes all stones from dried beans.
Vibration of conduits 16, 18 by vibrator 30, as indicated by arrows 158, appears to aid in separating the rocks from beans as well as shaking the beans down ~ube 30 by jostling the fluidized beans in the tank to help produce spaces between the beans.
The upwardly-borne beans accumulate rock-free in the upper portion 155 of the separator tank. Once the tank has filled to the level of the bottom wall 98 of the spillway 20, the bean~ and water welling upwardly from beneath cause the beans and water in upper portion 155 to over~low in a continuous stream into the colander 22. The beans are retained in the colander while the water passes through the perforations 103 and openiny 115 into sump 24 to be recirculated.
The level of rocks in the tank is visually monitored through the transparent walls of the tank.
When sufficient stones have accumulated to nearly cover the bottom of the tank, or when a sack of beans has been cleaned, the pump is turned off, the tank is lifted from pins 86 and the stones are removed. The tank is then re-mounted on the pins. Colander 22 ls usually emptied of beans at the same time. Thereafter, the bean cleaner can resume operation.
When use of the bean cleaner is compl te, it can be unplugged, and tray 36 pivoted to a down position.
The apparatus can then be rolled on wheels 34 to a suitable storage location.
Bean cleaning method Following is a description of the preferred method of separating beans according to the invention.
The foregoing bean cleaning apparatus, operated as described above, performs the steps of this method.
However, other apparatus may be used as well.
In the first step, beans are fed in a con-tinuous column downwardly through conduit 64 ancl drop through bean discharge opening 92 onto -th~ bottom wall of separator tank 1~ ~arrows 144, 146). The beans 134 are discharged near the bottom of the tank to avoid mixing them with previously cleaned beans above.
5econd, a continuous flow of water is dis-charged downwardly under pressure in an annular pattern from water discharge opening 94 surrounding opening 92, as indicated by arrows 150. The beans are entrained in the water and, thus, become fluidized.
~79~L~3 Next, the downward ~low of water is reversed to create a lateral and then upward flow of water as indicated by arrows 152. Being entrained in the water the beans are conveyed laterally away from bean discharge opening 92 and then born upwardly by the water.
Simultaneously with reversing the downflow of water, a roiling action or turbulence is imparted into the water flow in the lower portion 153 of the tank. This action includes inducing eddies E adjacent the bottom of the tank along side wall 80 for catching and holding relatively heavier objects such as stones 154. The turbulence jostles or agitates the beans as they flow upwardly, creating spaces between them for the stones to sift downwardly between the beans.
The rate of water flow into the tank is adjusted so that the beans, but not the stones, are borne upwardly in the tank. rrhis adjustment can be made by adjusting the velocity of the upward flow rate of water to a rate greater than the velocity at which beans sink in still water, giving the beans a net upward velocity. For a tank of given cross-sectional area, the upward flow rate is controlled by adjusting vĂ lve 79.
The upward flow of beans is then slowed, but not entirely halted, by accumulating beans in an upper portion 155 comprising about one-third to one-half of the tank. Slowing the upward flow allows any stones 154 ~ ~'7~6~L3 initially borne upwardly by the water and beans to lose momentum and begin to sink. Such stones sift downwardly through the spaces between the agitated beans in the lower portion of the tank and eventually come to rest on the bottom of the tank.
Next, the beans and water accumulated in the upper portion of the tank overflow the tank in a con-tinuous stream (arrow 160)~ Finally, the water is strained from the rock-free beans -(arrow 162~. The water is collected in sump 24 and recycled by pump 126 back to the water discharge opening 94.
Ha~ing illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention may be modified in arrangement and detail. We claim as our invention all such modifications as come within the scope of the followiny claims.
Claims (12)
AS FOLLOWS:
1. Apparatus for hydraulically separating stones from beans and the like, comprising:
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a water-filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
the water discharge opening being sized and positioned near said bottom wall so as to dis-charge the water in a high velocity downflow against said bottom wall all around the bean dis-charge opening;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of water and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a water-filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
the water discharge opening being sized and positioned near said bottom wall so as to dis-charge the water in a high velocity downflow against said bottom wall all around the bean dis-charge opening;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of water and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
2. Apparatus for hydraulically separating stones from beans and the like, comprising:
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a water-filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, a first vibrator connected for vibrating the bean and water conduits as a unit independently of the separator tank, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of water and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a water-filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, a first vibrator connected for vibrating the bean and water conduits as a unit independently of the separator tank, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of water and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
3. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the separator tank has a vertical side wall and the bottom wall is substantially normal to the direc-tion of down flow of water from the water discharge opening.
4. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the bean and water conduits are centered in the tank and the tank has a vertical side wall spaced laterally from an outer wall of said conduits above said openings a distance that is less than the lateral width of said conduits.
5. Apparatus for hydraulically separating stones from beans and the like, comprising:
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a water-filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
the bean discharge opening being spaced above the bottom wall a distance that is slightly greater than the lengths of the beans to be cleaned;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of water and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a water-filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
the bean discharge opening being spaced above the bottom wall a distance that is slightly greater than the lengths of the beans to be cleaned;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of water and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
6. Apparatus for hydraulically separating stones from beans and the like, comprising:
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a-water filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
the bean and water conduits being cylin-drical tubes concentrically positioned in said tank;
the tubes being spaced apart such that the water passageway has a radial width between about one-eighth and one-quarter inches;
the side wall of the separator being cy-lindrically concentric with said tubes and spaced laterally from the outer tube a distance less than the outside diameter of said outer tube;
the discharge openings being spaced above the bottom wall a distance that is less than the inside diameter of the inner tube but sufficient to allow the beans to pass laterally between the ends of the tubes and the bottom wall of the tank;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of waker and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
a bean hopper having a bottom opening;
a-water filled separator tank having a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank;
a bean conduit leading downwardly from said bottom opening into the tank and having a downwardly directed bean discharge opening near a bottom wall of the tank;
a water conduit surrounding the bean con-duit to define a water passageway therebetween having a downwardly-directed water discharge open-ing surrounding the bean discharge opening, and water inlet means in said water conduit for introducing water into said water passageway;
the bean and water conduits being cylin-drical tubes concentrically positioned in said tank;
the tubes being spaced apart such that the water passageway has a radial width between about one-eighth and one-quarter inches;
the side wall of the separator being cy-lindrically concentric with said tubes and spaced laterally from the outer tube a distance less than the outside diameter of said outer tube;
the discharge openings being spaced above the bottom wall a distance that is less than the inside diameter of the inner tube but sufficient to allow the beans to pass laterally between the ends of the tubes and the bottom wall of the tank;
whereby introducing water into said pas-sageway and bean feed stock containing stones into said hopper effects simultaneous discharge of water and feed stock from said discharge openings down-wardly into the water in a lower portion of the tank, the feed stock being entrained in the down-ward flow of waker and the downward flow of water being reversed to produce an upward flow of water and beans to the spillway to overflow from the tank while stones fall under the influence of gravity against said upward flow to settle to the bottom of the tank.
7. Apparatus according to claim 4 includ-ing means for controlling the rate at which water is introduced into the water passageway.
8. Apparatus for hydraulically separating objects having slightly differing specific gravi-ties greater than the specific gravity of a single liquid separating medium, the apparatus comprising:
a separator tank having a closed bottom and a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank a feed stock conduit extending downwardly into the tank and having a downwardly directed feed stock discharge opening in a lower portion of the tank;
a liquid conduit extending downwardly into the tank alongside the feed stock conduit and hav-ing a downwardly directed liquid discharge opening surrounding the feed stock discharge opening and positioned at the same level as the feed stock discharge opening;
means for introducing a feed stock of said objects into the feed stock conduit;
means for introducing said liquid separat-ing medium into the liquid conduit; and means for controlling the rate at which said medium is introduced into the liquid conduit to produce a downflow of medium surrounding the feedstock and having a high velocity, so that the feed stock and liquid separat-ing medium are simultaneously discharged downwardly from their respective openings into a lower portion of the tank to become fixed together and to estab-lish an upward flow of said medium around the con-duits which bears a lighter fraction of said feed stock toward said spillway to overflow from the tank while a heavier fraction of said feed stock sinks against said upward flow toward the bottom of the tank.
a separator tank having a closed bottom and a spillway at an upper position along a side wall of the tank a feed stock conduit extending downwardly into the tank and having a downwardly directed feed stock discharge opening in a lower portion of the tank;
a liquid conduit extending downwardly into the tank alongside the feed stock conduit and hav-ing a downwardly directed liquid discharge opening surrounding the feed stock discharge opening and positioned at the same level as the feed stock discharge opening;
means for introducing a feed stock of said objects into the feed stock conduit;
means for introducing said liquid separat-ing medium into the liquid conduit; and means for controlling the rate at which said medium is introduced into the liquid conduit to produce a downflow of medium surrounding the feedstock and having a high velocity, so that the feed stock and liquid separat-ing medium are simultaneously discharged downwardly from their respective openings into a lower portion of the tank to become fixed together and to estab-lish an upward flow of said medium around the con-duits which bears a lighter fraction of said feed stock toward said spillway to overflow from the tank while a heavier fraction of said feed stock sinks against said upward flow toward the bottom of the tank.
9. A method of separating objects having slightly differing specific gravities, comprising:
discharging a feed stock of said objects in a continuous column downwardly from a first outlet into a lower portion of a tank having a closed bottom and containing a single liquid separating medium having a specific gravity less than the specific gravity of said objects;
discharging additional said medium from a second outlet into said lower portion at the level of said first outlet in a continuous downward flow closely surrounding and parallel to said column of feed stock to entrain said objects in the downward flow of said medium ;
reversing said downward flow to establish an upward flow of said medium around said column;
and controlling the rate of discharge of said medium to produce a high velocity turbulent down-flow such that said objects are agitated and drawn downwardly and laterally away from said first out-let and objects of a lesser specific gravity are borne upwardly by the medium while objects of greater specific gravity sink to the bottom against said upward flow.
discharging a feed stock of said objects in a continuous column downwardly from a first outlet into a lower portion of a tank having a closed bottom and containing a single liquid separating medium having a specific gravity less than the specific gravity of said objects;
discharging additional said medium from a second outlet into said lower portion at the level of said first outlet in a continuous downward flow closely surrounding and parallel to said column of feed stock to entrain said objects in the downward flow of said medium ;
reversing said downward flow to establish an upward flow of said medium around said column;
and controlling the rate of discharge of said medium to produce a high velocity turbulent down-flow such that said objects are agitated and drawn downwardly and laterally away from said first out-let and objects of a lesser specific gravity are borne upwardly by the medium while objects of greater specific gravity sink to the bottom against said upward flow.
10. A method according to claim 9 in which discharging said feed stock and said medium includes discharging the feed stock and medium downwardly against the bottom of the tank and closely thereto in a concentric pattern so as to establish symmetrically uniform radially outward and upward flows on opposite lateral sides of the column of feed stock.
11. A method according to claim 9 or 10 including:
agitating the objects entrained in said medium sufficiently to create gaps between the objects in a lower portion of the tank so that objects of greater specific gravity can sink under the influence of gravity against the upward flow of said medium through said gaps;
accumulating said entrained objects in an upper portion of the tank to slow the upward move-ment and dampen the agitation of said objects so that any objects of greater specific gravity borne upwardly by the medium lose their momentum and begin to sink; and continuously overflowing from said tank a portion of the medium and objects accumulated in the upper portion of the tank.
agitating the objects entrained in said medium sufficiently to create gaps between the objects in a lower portion of the tank so that objects of greater specific gravity can sink under the influence of gravity against the upward flow of said medium through said gaps;
accumulating said entrained objects in an upper portion of the tank to slow the upward move-ment and dampen the agitation of said objects so that any objects of greater specific gravity borne upwardly by the medium lose their momentum and begin to sink; and continuously overflowing from said tank a portion of the medium and objects accumulated in the upper portion of the tank.
12. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which the bean conduit is movably connected to the hopper so that the bean conduit can be vibrated relative to the bottom opening of the hopper.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000403035A CA1179643A (en) | 1982-05-14 | 1982-05-14 | Hydraulic bean cleaning process and apparatus |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000403035A CA1179643A (en) | 1982-05-14 | 1982-05-14 | Hydraulic bean cleaning process and apparatus |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1179643A true CA1179643A (en) | 1984-12-18 |
Family
ID=4122787
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000403035A Expired CA1179643A (en) | 1982-05-14 | 1982-05-14 | Hydraulic bean cleaning process and apparatus |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1179643A (en) |
-
1982
- 1982-05-14 CA CA000403035A patent/CA1179643A/en not_active Expired
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