FR2646399A1 - Apparatus for filling a container with a divided solid product - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus for filling a container 100 with a divided solid product. It is characterised by a dispersion head including plates 7, 6, 5 and 4 which rotate about an axis 3, the rotation dispersing in the container, at various distances from this axis, the particles of solid which flow over the plates.

Description

 The filling of the containers with solid particles (granular solids) is generally carried out by transferring the solid by means of a hopper and / or a sleeve, either manually, mechanically or by pneumatic transfer.

 As a general rule, it is of major interest to introduce the maximum of product in a given volume, and this as well to reduce the cost of storage, as for other specific reasons, such as for example homogenize this storage or decrease the volume of air or gas from the container. The object of the present invention is to define an apparatus which makes it possible to achieve an increase in the quantity of solid introduced into a certain volume, as well as the method for producing this filling.

 Usual storage is for cereal grains (silos), food products for consumption or livestock, food, fertilizers, chemicals, plastic granules, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other solid products. divided (grains or dragees, or extruded granules, tablets, agglomerates, crushed, etc.). Their other field of application is constituted by chemical containers or reactors intended to be filled by solid particles: catalysts, adsorbents, reagents, packings, various fillings, etc.

 In this case, it is almost always advantageous to place the maximum of solid product inside the reactor to increase the activity per unit of volume and thus the efficiency and the service life (cycle time or duration of operation). life).

 A suitable method is to use the apparatus described in French Patent No. 2431449. But the apparatus of the present invention has other advantages, and particularly particular advantages that will be better understood in the description which follows.

FIG. 1 illustrates the invention. The apparatus consists of a stationary feed hopper (1) preferably containing at its center a motor (2), for example a pneumatic motor, possibly supplied with a gas (air by example). This motor is integral with the hopper. The motor (2) drives a shaft (3) which rotates a dispersion head to which the shaft is attached. This dispersion head compote at least two trays, preferably at least three or four trays. Sure
FIG. 1 shows four plates (4), (5), (6) and (7), generally integral with each other, for example by means of a suppon, for example the rod (19) on the figure 1.

 The powdery solids flow by gravity up and down through a series of tubes (at least two tubes, and preferably at least 3 or 4) concentric and whose diameter decreases from top to bottom. Thus the solids flow first into the tube (9) and into coaxial concentric tubes (10), (11) and (12) of smaller and smaller diameter. These tubes can be dismountable and slidable if necessary.

 At each change of tube, at least a portion of the granular solids fall on one of the trays (7), (6), (5) and (4). The plate (7) rotates around the tube (10) and is fed by the down tube (9), preferably fixed and itself connected to the bearing (8). The other descent tubes solids (10), (11) and (12), fixed or moved with a small rotational movement preferably, and smaller and smaller diameter, create concentric annular spaces allowing the grains or the granular solids feed the trays (6), (5) and (4) respectively. The plates (6) and (5) rotate respectively around the tubes (10), (11) and (12), the plate (4) rotates around the shaft (3) and, under the effect of the centrifugal force, the solid particles are projected into the volume to be filled.The trays (7), (6), (5), (4) can be equipped (see Figure 2) with at least one deflector.When using several deflectors, those may be identical or different, flexible or hard (such as (14), (15), (16) in Figure 2, whose use is to promote the dispersion and projection of grains).

Figure 2 shows a plateau, here the plateau 7, in perspective. These baffles will have varied and adequate forms adapted to the shape of the powder particles. The shelves of the trays may be adjustable, that is to say increased or decreased to create or to increase the width of the solids ring projected to the bottom of the container (eg crowns El, E2, E3 and E4 in FIG. ). There are thus easily adaptable or modifiable trays for preliminary filling tests. The trays may have a continuous or discontinuous surface. FIG. 3 illustrates a plate on the following 4 cases: deflector (18) of FIG. 2, deflector (16) of FIG. 2, plate with straight or curved striations, plate with corrugated surface (for better bonding of solids).

 The lower plate ((4) in FIGS. 1 and 4) can be equipped with a self-regulating system of flow (with automatic opening) adapting to the speed of rotation or filling (weights (13) in FIG. ). The same principle will be able to equip the other trays.

In short, the invention relates to an apparatus for filling a container with a divided product or divided solids comprising (see FIG. 1): an uemia (1) provided with a motor (2) integral with the hopper, a substantially vertical shaft (3) engulfed by the motor; a dispersing head rotated by said engine, the dispersion head comprising at least one;
two trays, preferably at least 3 or 4 (such as (7), (6), (5) and (4)) substantially parallel and
coaxial, and substantially circular, arranged one below the other and whose radius goes in
decreasing from the upper plate to the lower plate, - a series of at least two tubes, preferably at least 3 or 4, such as (9), (10), (11) and (12)
substantially in the form of concentric, stacked and coaxial cylinders possibly removable
and sliders, in which the divided solids flow by gravity, each cylinder having its
lower end above a plate, each cylinder except the highest having its extremity
higher than the level of the lower end of the cylinder above, the diameter of
each tube being smaller than the diameter of the tube which surmounts it and greater than the diameter of the tube which it
overcomes, each tray being thus associated with a tube around which it turns, the lower plate
rotating around the shaft (3), a portion of the divided solids flowing from each tube into the tube
immediately below, another portion of the solids flowing from each tube on the tray at
above which it debouches, the divided solids which fall on this plate being subjected to a
rotary motion due to the rotation of the tray on which they fell, the centrifugal force
generated by the rotation of the trays to eject the solids at different distances from
the axis of the tree, substantially proportional to the radius of the plateau from which the solids were
projected in enclosure to fill.

 Note that in Figure 2, there is also shown for the plate (7) the rod (19) integral with the plate 7 and comprising in particular a spacer (105), a threaded rod (106) and the support (107) for the rest of the aircraft on the ground.

 As an indication, the speed of rotation of a plate can vary between 15 and 780 revolutions per minute.

 Figure 4 also illustrates the invention. There is shown a container (100) which is to be filled with pulverulent solids using the apparatus according to the invention. The pipe (101) makes it possible to introduce the granular solids into the apparatus according to the invention. The neck (103) (or reactor flange) allows to fix the apparatus according to the invention in the upper part of renteinte (100).

Generally, a grid (104) can facilitate the flow of solids to the apparatus according to the invention. This figure 4 clearly shows that each tray (or stage) water its own crown at the bottom of the container, which fills and gradually homogeneous manner.

 The advantages of such a system are essentially the following: - compactness, - simplicity, - intrinsic safety (the stop of the pneumatic fluid stops the rotation of the trays, therefore the flow), - ventilation of the medium by the shape of the deflector plates and elimination of fines, - homogeneity of the filling and high volume gain, - large possible flow range for the same device thanks to the hopper and tray flexibility, - easy control of the speed of rotation.

 Filling gains of the order of 10 to 35% are thus achieved with respect to the systems of the prior art.

EXAMPLES
The following table gives for various pulverulent solids on the one hand the filling density obtained when the divided solids are poured loose in a container, and on the other hand when they are introduced into the container according to the present invention.

<Tb>

<SEP> Density
<tb><SEP> Product <SEP> Form <SEP> Dimension <SEP> Density <SEP> of <SEP> obtained <SEP> according to <SEP> Earnings
<tb><SEP> mm <SEP> repl. <SEP> in <SEP> bulk <SEP> the invention <SEP> of <SEP> volume
<tb><SEP> in <SEP> Kessit <SEP> in <SEP> Kg / liter <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Extruded <SEP> Catalyst <SEP> e <SEP> = <SEP> 1,2 <SEP>
<tb><SEP> reforming <SEP> 1 = 4 to 6 <SEP> 0.65 <SEP> 0.765 <SEP> 22% <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Extruded <SEP> Catalyst <SEP> e <SEP> = <SEP> 1.5 <SEP> 0.58 <SEP> 0.73 <SEP> 26 <SEP>%
<tb><SEP> quadrilobe <SEP> 1 = 7 <SEP> to <SEP> 10 <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Catalyst <SEP> beads <SEP> e <SEP> = <SEP> 2 <SEP> to 4 <SEP> 0.70 <SEP> 0.77 <SEP><SEP> 10% <SEP>
<tb><SEP> hydrogenation <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Extruded <SEP> Granules <SEP> = 3 <SEP> at 4 <SEP> 1.20 <SEP> at 1.93 <SEP> 1.5 <SEP> at2.3 <SEP> 19 <SEP > å <SEP> 25 <SEP>% <SEP>
<tb><SEP> PVC <SEP> 1 = 4 to 6 <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Fertilizer <SEP> Granulated <SEP>#<SEP> = <SEP> 1.5 <SEP> to <SEP> 4.5 <SEP><SEP> 0.85 <SEP> to <SEP > 1.05 <SEP> 0.98 <SEP> to <SEP> 1.21 <SEP> 15 <SEP> to <SEP> 16 <SEP>%
<tb><SEP> Rice <SEP> grain <SEP> e <SEP><SEP> = <SEP> 1.5 <SEP> 0.75 <SEP> 0.94 <SEP> -25 <SEP> qG <September>
<tb><SEP> long <SEP> I <SEP> = <SEP> 8 <SEP> to <SEP> 9 <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Wheat <SEP> grain <SEP> e <SEP> = <SEP> 3 <SEP> 0.76 <SEP> 0.875 <SEP> 15 <SEP>%
<tb><SEP> short <SEP> 1 = where7 <SEP>
<tb><SEP> Oats <SEP> grain <SEP># = 2 to 3 <SEP> 0.56 <SEP> 0.69 <SEP> 23% <SEP>
<tb><SEP> lone <SEP> 1 = 8-10 <SEP>
<tb><SEP> grain <SEP> section
<tb><SEP> Toumesol <SEP> Convex <SEP> convex
<tb><SEP> flat-pointed <SEP> 6 <SEP> x <SEP> 8 <SEP> 0.34 <SEP> 0.39 <SEP> 15 <SEP>%
<tb><SEP> 1 <SEP> = <SEP> 10 <SEP> to <SEP> 12 <SEP> 12
<Tb>
This results in a reduction of the fraction of the intergranular volume from 20 to 50%, thus to the increase of the storage capacity, is added a decrease in the volume of gas contained in the medium, and if applicable a reduction in the consumption of gas necessary to inert the environment.

Claims (9)

1) Apparatus for filling a container with a divided product or divided solids comprising (see FIG. 1): - a hopper (1) provided with a motor (2) integral with the hopper, - a shaft (3) substantially vertical driven by the engine, - a dispersion head rotated by said engine, the dispersion head comprising at least  two trays (such as (7), (6), (5) and (4)) substantially parallel and coaxial, and substantially  circular, arranged one below the other and whose radius decreases from the plateau  upper to lower plate, - a series of at least two tubes such as (9), (10), (11) and (12) substantially cylinder-shaped  concentric, stacked and coaxial (possibly dismountable and sliding), in which the  divided solids flow by gravity, each cylinder having its lower end above a  plateau, each cylinder except the highest having its upper extremity substantially at the level  lower end of the cylinder located above, the diameter of each tube being less than  diameter of the tube which surmounts it and superior to the diameter of the tube which it overcomes, each plate  thus being associated with a tube around which it turns, the lower plate rotating around the tree  (3), a portion of the divided solids flowing from each tube into the tube immediately below,  another part of the solids flowing from each tube on the tray above which it opens, the  solid divides falling on this plate being subjected to a rotary movement due to the rotation of the  plateau on which they fell, the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the trays  to eject the solids at different distances from the axis of the shaft, substantially  proportional to the shelf radius from which the solids were projected into the enclosure to  fill. 2) Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the dispersion head comprises at least 3 trays and at least 3 concentric tubes. 3) Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the concentric tubes are fixed. 4) Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the concentric tubes may have a rotary relative movement relative to the dispersion head being around the same vertical axis. 5) Apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 4 wherein at least one plate is provided with at least one deflector. 6) Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein one can vary the length of the radius of at least one tray. 7) Apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the lower plate is equipped with a self-regulating flow rate system adapted to the speed of rotation or filling. 8) Apparatus according to one of claims I to 7 wherein each of the trays is equipped with the same self-regulating system. 9) Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein said self-regulating system is composed of weights.