GB1196154A - Improvements in or relating to a Drying Apparatus for Granular Products - Google Patents

Abstract

1,196,154. Drying granular material. SERMIA (Soc. D'Etudes et de Recherches de Materiels Industriels et Agricoles). 30 Aug., 1967 [31 Aug., 1966; 23 June, 1967], No. 39647/67. Heading F4G. An apparatus for drying granular products (e.g. cereal grain and grass seeds) comprises at least one column having two apertured lateral walls, drying air entering the column through one of the apertured walls and exhausting out of the other wall, and the or each column being divided by at least one apertured partition wall into two or more compartments, and regulating means at the base of the or each column to vary the rate of descent of the products in each of the compartments such that the products in each compartment are dried to approximately to the same extent. In one embodiment (Fig. 1) the apparatus comprises two drying columns 1a, 1b each having two lateral perforated walls 21, 24 and being divided into two compartments by an apertured partition 26. The apertures of walls 21, 24 and 26 are respectively smaller and larger than the granular material. Each partition has a flap valve 27 for regulating the flow of material out of the compartments. Rotary paddles 4 discharge the material leaving the compartments into trough 5. In use drying air and cooling air is passed through the walls 21 into the compartments and out through the walls 24 in sections 12 and 17 respectively. To obtain uniformity of drying the rate of travel of material through the compartments adjacent air inlet walls 21 is greater than that of the material through the compartments adjacent the air outlet walls 24. In other embodiments the columns may be provided with two partition walls, each wall having a flap valve; and rotary valves 55, 56 (Fig. 7) may replace the flap valves.