GB1588282A - Hopper for the distribution of a granular and/or powdered product - Google Patents

Description

(54) HOPPER FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF A GRANULAR AND/OR POWDERED PRODUCT (71) We, SERVAL S.A., a French Company of La Creuse de Sainte Eanne, 79800 La Mothe Saint-Heray, France, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a Patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The present invention relates to a hopper for the distribution of a granular and/or powdered product, particularly for the distribution of a caking product such as powdered milk.

Such a hopper finds application more particularly in equipment intended for the quasinatural feeding of young animals particularly calves or lambs.

It is indeed known that plant exists which make it possible to feed young animals by means comparable with those of a natural udder. The nourishing food sought by calves and lambs from teats secured to boxes or containers is a milk resulting from powdered milk and water being blended and brought into solution in a mixing bowl.

In such installations, the powdered milk is contained in a hopper placed directly above the mixing bowl. The water needed for mixing generally emanates from a reservoir within the said plant. Pipes carry the milk obtained by mixing and dissolution of the powder in the water from the mixing bowl to the teats which constitute the only elements accessible to the young animals.

Finally, it is advantageous to dispose in such installations, between the hopper constituting the reserve of milk powder and the mixing bowl, a device permitting of distribution of the milk powder to the bowl in specific quantities.

It is known moreover that there are two types of powdered milk: powdered milk which is re-enriched by a dry method and powdered milk which is re-enriched by a wet method.

The first type of milk is obtained by spraying a mist of fatty matter onto the grains of powdered milk falling into an installation consisting essentially of a vertical shaft; each grain of powder is thus enveloped with fatty matter by a dry method, such milk which has been re-enriched dry.

The other type of powder on the other hand is obtained by evaporation of the water from a mixture of milk and fatty matter: in such a case, in contrast to the foregoing product, it is the powdered milk which envelopes a mass of fatty matter.

It is known moreover that the presence of vegetable fats is particularly desirable in powdered milk, vegetable substances having the advantage of being more easily digestible by young animals and furthermore of providing a better quality of meat as well as a better life of the meat in cold rooms.

In the process of producing powdered milk which is re-enriched dry, the envelope of fatty matter surrounding each grain of milk consists of a mixture of animal and vegetable substances.

The incorporation of vegetable fats into powdered milk which is re-enriched by the wet method is however impossible because these vegetable substances burn during the very high temperature drying of the mixture of fats and milk. The most interesting type of milk therefore is without any possible doubt powdered milk which is en-riched dry.

It is however found that the use of this type of powdered milk is particularly difficult, because above a temperature in the region of 300C, the grains of powder become caked to one another, this type of agglomeration being due to the coming together of the coatings of fatty substances which commence to liquefy.

If the grains of powder stick to one another and form agglomerates, this has the unfortunat result of producing poor properties in relation to the flow of material both in the hopper forming the reserve of milk powder and in the device for volumetric dispensing of this powder disposed downstream of the hopper and upstream of the mixing bowl.

In the hopper, the product becomes agglomerated, bridges and does not fall. If a scraper device is added to stir the mass of powder, it turns together with the scraper, driven by the same movement, without falling as far as the volumetric dispensing means. Since the product does not fall, it has been attempted to urge it downwardly, that it to say towards the dispensing device, for example by means of an Archimedean screw. In such a case, although the downward transport of the product is sucessfully effected, a fresh drawback is created due to the fact that the additional pressures exerted on the powdered milk lead to fresh caking: therefore, blockages occur at the level of the dispensing device.

On the evidence, the poor distribution of powdered milk has a drawback from the point of view of concentration of the food which it is desired to form in a mixing bowl. Indeed, such a concentration could not be stable since the bringing of the powdered milk into solution varies at each distribution by the volumetric dispenser according to the degree of agglomeration of the powdered milk. Therefore the young animals absorb a food in which the quantity of milk is somewhat indeterminate.

In other words, whereas it would be desirable always to use dry reenriched powdered milk for its nutritional properties, it becomes necessary in practice to abandon this type of milk in favour of powdered milk which is re-enriched by the wet method as soon as it ceases to flow suitably and normally from the hopper to the mixing bowl: such a substitution of products is necessary as soon as it becomes hot, that is to say in summer and sometimes even from the spring onwards.

An object of the present invention is to aleviate the aforesaid drawbacks by providing a hopper which will permit the distribution of a granular and/or powdered product and in particular the distribution of a caking product such as dry re-enriched powdered milk.

According to the present invention there is provided a hopper for the distribution of a granular and/or powdered product, particularly a caking product such as powdered milk, the said hopper consisting of an upstanding reservoir constructed in the form of a regular truncated pyramid which narrows at the bottom and which comprises between six and twelve lateral faces.

The hopper may include at least one scraper arm mounted on a shaft which is adapted for rotary movement, which shaft extends substantially on the axis of vertical symmetry of the hopper. In such a case, the scraper arm may form with the shaft on which it is mounted an indeformable quadrilateral; advantageously, this quadrilateral is a trapezium, the two bases of which are formed by the first and third sides respectively of the scraper arm, the said bases extending at right-angles to the shaft, the second side of the arm being parallel with the lateral wall of the hopper. Thus, the second side of the scraper arm may be inclined on the shaft at an angle equal to half the angle at the notional apex of the pyramid shape of the hopper.

In order that the object of the present invention may be the better understood, and purely by way of illustrative and non-limitative example, an embodiment of a hopper according to the present invention will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of the hopper with the lateral wall broken away at the bottom to show the inside of the hopper; Figure 2 represents a side view in longitudinal section of the hopper of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawings, it will be seen that reference numeral 1 generally denotes a hopper in the shape of an inverted truncated pyramid.

This hopper, which is essentially upright and upwardly divergent, has six to twelve and preferably eight lateral faces 2 having exactly the same configuration, since the cross-section of the hopper is constituted by a regular polygon, in this case an octagon.

Along the vertical axis 3 of the hopper 1 is a shaft 4 on the upper end of which a ring 5 is force-fitted. This ring, through the medium of flange 6 thereupon (Figure 2), is supported by a bearing 7 within which the ring 5 freely turns.

Four radial arms 8 welded to the outer lateral face of the bearing 7 make it possible to regulate the aforesaid assembly, that is to say bring its vertical axis of symmetry over the axis 3.

To this end, the arms 8 are disposed at 900 to one another and their free ends are each provided with a screw-threading which passes through the wall 2 via a radially bored block 9, and cooperates with a nut 10, which when tightened to a greater of less degree, provides a means of accurately regulating the rotating assembly upon the axis 3.

In its lower part, the shaft 4 is centred by bearings 11 and is arranged to be driven by a motor reduction unit (not shown) connected to a frame of apparatus (not shown) intended for feeding of animals. The connecting means between the aforesaid system and the motor reduction unit, indicated diagrammatically by an arrow 12, is provided by a flexible coupling.

At the junction of the hopper 1 and frame (not shown) of the apparatus is placed a cup 13, the bottom of which is cut out at 14 over a segment of approximately 600, a chute 15 welded to the said bottom and framing the cutout extending downwardly to convey the product to be distributed from the hopper 1 to the mixing bowl. A flange 16 is welded on the lateral wall of the cup 13, at the upper part of this latter, and is associated with a flange 17 of the same configuration welded to the bottom part of the hopper on the lateral wall thereof.

A plate 18 is interposed between the flanges 16 and 17 and the assembly 16 - 17 - 18 is finally made rigid by nuts and bolts (not shown) passing through bores such as 19. The plate 18 is open over its entire area located over the bottom of the cup 13 except in the area 20 which is located over the cut-out 14 in the bottom, i.e. open over an arc of 300 . In other words, a cut-out in the plate 18 corresponds to every solid zone in the bottom of the cup and vice versa. Above the plate 18 there is fixed on the shaft 4 by means of a key 21 a ramming means 22 consisting of six blades 23 extending radially from a central ring 24 at the level of which is effected.

Between the plate 18 and the bottom of the cup 13 there is mounted on the shaft 4 likewise by means of a key 25 a chambered volumetric rotary dispenser comprising a central cylindrical ring or hub 26 from which six plates 27 regularly disposed about the ring 26 extend radially below the blades 23, the said plates defining, when considered in pairs, compartments or chambers intended to contain the measured quantity of powdered milk, which, when required, is to be conveyed to the mixing bowl. The ramming means 22 and the volumetric dispenser rotate with one and the same movement on either side of the plate 18 upon rotation of the central shaft 4.

The measured quantities of powdered milk therefore flow one by one according to a perfectly well determined and constant quantity at each rotation of one-sixth of a turn of the shaft 4. In this respect, it should be noted that the particular disposition of the plate 18 and of the bottom of the cup 13 creates a kind of chamber, the purpose of which is fundamental with regard to the constancy of the measured quantities of milk distributed.

Moreover, associated with the hopper 1 is a scraper arm 28 mounted on the shaft 4. This scraper arm is composed of a first side 29 at right-angles to the axis 3, welded on the ring 24, a second arm 30 parallel with the side wall 2 and a third arm 31 parallel with the arm 29 and welded on a ring 32 fixed by a pin 33 on the shaft 4, the arm being completed by a tube 34 enclosing the shaft 4 and extending from the ring 24 to the ring 32, attachment to each of the two rings being achieved by welding.

The scraper arm 28 therefore constitutes a right-angled trapezium, the bases of which are formed by the first and third sides and the inclined side of which is formed by the second side of the arm which is inclined in respect of the axis 3 by an angle equal to the half angle at the apex of the pyramid.

The apparatus described above functions as follows: when the hopper has been filled with the powdered milk which is to be distributed by the chute 15, the shaft 4 slowly turns according to the requirements of milk producttion in order to feed the young animals. Upon rotation of the shaft 4, the scraper arm 28 rotates likewise since it is rigid with the ring 24 keyed on the shaft 4, the effect of which is to scrape and to mix the milk composition which is contained in the hopper along the eight edges of the truncated pyramid.

In this respect, it should be noted that the polygonal construction of the hopper is fundamental since at each edge defined by two faces of the pyramid, a swirling effect is achieved which leads to breaking up of any lumps which might have had a tendency to form due to caking of the grains of powdered milk. The number of faces of the pyramid is very important in this respect. It must not have more than twelve as otherwise the pyramid would be too close to become a cone and it is well known that no mixing zones can be formed on a cone.

Conversely, if there are fewer than six faces, the mixing phenomenon would be insufficiently repeated and breaking up would not be satisfactory. The chosen number of eight faces represents the optimum.

The dispensing mechanism described hereinbefore in conjunction with the hopper of the present invention is particularly described and claimed in the Complete Specification of our copending Patent Application No. 9229/78 (Serial No. 1588283).

Naturally, the invention is not limited to the form of embodiment nor to the application which has been mentioned hereinabove and various alternatives might well be conceived without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the follow

Claims (16)

ing claims. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A hopper for the distribution of a granular and/or powdered product, particularly a caking product such as powdered milk, the said hopper consisting of an upstanding reservoir constructed in the form of a regular truncated pyramid which narrows at the bottom and which comprises between six and twelve lateral faces.

2. A hopper according to Claim 1, wherein the truncated pyramid has eight lateral faces, the cross-section of the said hopper forming a regular octagon.

3. A hopper according to Claim 1 or 2, which includes at least one scraper arm mounted on a shaft which is adapted for rotary movement and extends substantially on the vertical axis of symmetry of the hopper

4. A hopper according to Claim 3, wherein the scraper arm forms an indeformable quadrilateral figure together with the rotatable shaft on which it is mounted.

5. A hopper according to Claim 4, wherein the quadrilateral figure is a trapezium, the two bases of which are formed by first and third sides respectively of the scraper arm, wherein the said bases extend at right-angles to the shaft wherein a second side of the scraper arm is inclined in relation to the shaft by an angle equal to the half angle of the notional apex of the pyramid.

6. A hopper according to Claim 5, wherein the first side and the third side of the scraper arm are each rigidly secured to rings locked by keys or pins on the shaft with which shaft the scraper arm is arranged to rotate.

7. A hopper according to Claim 6, wherein the two rings rigidly secured to said first and third sides of the scraper arm are joined by a tube which encloses the shaft.

8. A hopper according to any preceding Claim, which further includes a base and, pro vided beneath a predetermined cut out in the base, a chute for discharging the product.

9. A hopper according to Claim 8, wherein the base is circular and the predetermined cutout is in the shape of a sector having a centre angle of 60".

10. A hopper according to Claim 8 or 9, when dependent upon any of Claims 3 to 7, wherein a series of radial walls is mounted about the shaft at a lower portion thereof so as to divide an area of the hopper immediately above the base into a series of rotatable compartments, a stationary plate is provided above the base forming a cover above the cut out in the base so as to define a lid for a said compartment, and a series of radial arms is mounted upon the shaft above said stationary plate and constituting a ramming means for directing the product into the respective compartments formed between the said radial walls.

11. A hopper according to Claim 10, wherein the shaft bears an equal number of radial arms and radial walls.

12. A hopper according to Claim 11, wherein the shaft bears six radial arms and six radial walls, spaced symmetrically thereabout.

13. A hopper according to Claim 11 or 12, wherein each radial arm is radially aligned with a corresponding radial wall.

14. A hopper for the distribution of a granular and/or powdered product, particularly a caking product such as powdered milk, according to Claim 1, and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

15. Apparatus for the quasi-natural feeding of young animals which includes a hopper as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.

16. Apparatus for the quasi-natural feeding of young animals and substantially as hereinbefore described.