GB2218411A

GB2218411A - Fibrous material supply apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2218411A
Application number: GB8911160A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Keith James Hunter Anderson; Jeremy John Fairfax Robson
Original assignee: Instafoam & Fibre Ltd
Current assignee: Instafoam & Fibre Ltd
Priority date: 1985-12-04
Filing date: 1989-05-16
Publication date: 1989-11-15
Anticipated expiration: 2009-05-16
Also published as: GB2183612A; GB2218411B; GB8529879D0; GB8618860D0; GB2183612B; GB8911160D0

Abstract

Chopped fibrous material to be supplied e.g. for cavity wall insulation is loaded into a hopper (14) and enters a supply chamber (12) where it is agitated and advanced by a series of blades (44) on a shaft (32) towards a pair of symetrically arranged outlet ports (18a). Conduits may be coupled to the outlet ports to supply the material to pumps (22) for delivery under pressure to outlet nozzles (26). The blades have a pitch to enable them to advance the material towards the ports (18a). A further port (16) is also supplied with material via differently pitched blades. <IMAGE>

Description

MATERIAL SUPPLY APPARATUS This invention relates to apparatus for the supply of chopped fibrous material such as chopped glass fibres, cellulose fibres or rock fibres manufactured from a material such as Basalt for example ior use in cavity wall and roof insulation.

The use of fibrous materials such as glass or other mineral fibres or cellulose fibres as a cavity or roof insulating material has become widespread. A typical existing arrangement comprises a supply chamber or hopper into which fibrous material of a greater or lesser degree of compaction is loaded, there being a rotatable shaft or shafts within the supply chamber to tease and expand the fibres. The apparatus will also be provided with a shaft carrying blades, which may or may not in themselves have an additional agitating function, which blades are arranged to direct the fibrous material towards an outlet port. The outlet port is connected to the input side of an air pump.

The outlet side of the pump is connected by a flexible hosing to a nozzle through which the fibrous material may be injected e.g. into wall cavities. In some such systems the nozzle is provided with means for the operator to control and shutdown the flow of fibrous material by control of the pump. In other arrangements a valve is provided adjacent the nozzle simply to close off the discharge, the generated air pressure dissipating through the system as a whole.

This type of apparatus needs to be vehicle borne and for economic and operational reasons the vehicle size needs to be minimised. The existing types of apparatus have as a result had their maximum throughput and therefore speed of operation restricted.

It is an object of the present invention to produce apparatus for the supply of fibrous and/or particulate material, for example for supply of chopped glass or other mineral fibres, which apparatus is of substantially similar size to existing apparatus but with the facility for considerably increased throughput and therefore operational speed. It is an object to provide apparatus of this type with the greatest degree of compatibility with existing apparatus and the minimum increase of complexity thereby building on the reliability and simplicity of the existing systems.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for the supply of chopped fibrous material comprising a supply chamber and a shaft rotatably mounted in the chamber, the chamber having at least two outlets in the vicinity of one end of the shaft, the shaft having a series of elongate blades extending radially into the chamber, at least some of the blades being inclined with a pitch arranged to direct material towards the two outlets at the end of the shaft, upon rotation of the shaft, and in which, at the outlet end of the shat, more than two inclined blades are arranged on the shaft to rotate in substantially the same plane.

In the most preferred form of the invention the apparatus is for supply of chopped glass fibre material, and the invention will henceforth be described in relation to apparatus for this purpose.

Preferably there are two outlet ports and these are disposed on respective sides of a vertical plane through the axis of the shaft. They are preferably disposed in an end wall of the chamber, symmetrically relative to the plane.

The radially extending protrusion or blades are preferably located rigidly on the shaft for rotation with the shaft. The shaft may have a plurality of different types of blade some of which act simply as agitators of the fibrous material which some will impart axial movement to fibrous material within the chamber.

The respective outlet ports may each be connected to the inlet of an air pump from which the fibrous or particulate material may be delivered through appropriate flexible hosing to a dispensing nozzle through which the material may be injected into a wall cavity or whatever is required.

The individual blades are preferably located in pairs disposed substantially diametrically opposite one another on the shaft, each pair comprising blades of substantially equivalent pitch. As stated, there is provided at the end of the shaft adjacent the chamber wall, again preferably rigidly affixed to the shaft, a number of blades rotating in substantially the same plane. That number is preferably greater than two and may for example be six. These blades are arranged to sweep over substantially the entirety of the area of the adjacent outlet port at a greater frequency than the pairs of blades referred to above to ensure smoothness and evennes of flow of the fibrous or particulate material into the ports and thereby ensure smooth and even flow of the material to the dispensing nozzle.

The supply chamber may also be provided with a further agitator shaft. In a preferred form of the invention that agitator shaft may be provided with substantially radially extending protrusions of uniform section i.e. they have substantially no pitch or tendency to impart axial movement to the material through which they pass.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for supplying chopped fibrous material comprising loading the material into an apparatus as described above, and rotating the shaft to agitate and move the material towards the two outlet ports.

It will be appreciated that in each aspect of the invention further ports may be provided and indeed if required that the shaft may be separated between the two sets of protrusions or blades e.g. by a flexible connection or appropriate angular gearing.

Another aspect of the invention provides a material supply system comprising apparatus as described above together with at least two pumps coupled to respective outlet ports for delivering the material to respective outlet nozzles, in combination with a drive motor for rotating the shaft, the motor and pumps being coupled to receive electrical power from at least one electrical generator.

Attention is drawn to the present Applicants' copending application, published under no 2183612, from which the present application is divided, and in which there is claimed an apparatus for the supply of chopped fibrous material comprising a supply chamber and a shaft rotatably mounted in the chamber, the chamber having at least one outlet in the vicinity of each end of the shaft, the shaft having a series of elongate blades extending radially into the chamber, at least some of the blades on each axial half of the shaft being inclined with a pitch arranged to direct material towards the outlet at the corresponding end of the shaft upon rotation of the shaft.

The invention may be performed in various ways and one embodiment will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a simplified side view of supply apparatus outside the scope of the present invention but generally illustrating its principles; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the interior of the supply chamber; Figure 3 is a simplified side view of supply apparatus in accordance with the present invention; and Figure 4 is a cross-sectional. view taken along line X-X of Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 1, there is shown at 10 supply apparatus for fibrous material. The apparatus 10 comprises a supply chamber 12 having an open top 14 and outlet ports 16 and 18 at opposite ends of the lower part of the supply chamber 12. A lid not shown may be provided over the opening 14 of the supply chamber.

Each of the outlet ports 16 and 18 is connected through hosing of a suitable diameter to a respective one of two air pumps 20 and 22. The pumps suck air and entrained fibrous matter from the chamber 12 through their respective outlets 16/18 and then deliver that material through further suitable conduit to outlet nozzles 24 and 26. Each of the outlet nozzles 24 and 26 is provided with a shut-down valve 28 which may be moved from an open position allowing discharge of the fibrous material and air through the relevant nozzle to a closed position preventing such discharge.

The supply chamber has two shafts 30 and 32 mounted for rotation in bearing assemblies carried on the chamber walls. The shaft 32 is driven directly by a motor 36, shaft 30 being driven by a belt, chain, gearing or other appropriate expedient 37 from a take- off point at the end of shaft 32. The connection between the shafts 32 and 30 may be such that they rotate at the same or different speeds.

The shaft 30 is provided with agitator protrusions 38. These are substantially symmmetrical rods welded or otherwise affixed to the shaft 30 to extend radially from the shaft 30. Any suitable number of them may be provided at appropriate intervals along the shaft 30, their length and position being determined by the need for them not to interfere with other parts of the apparatus 10 as they rotate. Each of the protrusions 38 is preferably substantially symmetrical in section.

The shaft 32 is provided with further substantially radially extending protrusions 40 and 42 forming blades welded or otherwise rigidly affixed to the shaft 32. The blades 40/42 are arranged such that they have a pitch which may be constant or vary along the length of each blade. The blades 40 are of a pitch such that they impart to fibrous material in the chamber 12 movement towards the outlet port 18. The blades 42 have a pitch such that they direct material in the reverse direction towards the port 16. Each set of blades 40 and 42 comprise a pair of blades diametrically opposed to one another about the shaft axis. It will be seen that the central pair of blades 42 and the central pair of blades 40 are fixed to the shaft at substantially the same point, the blades 40 and 42 in that position being at right angles to one another about the shaft axis.

The shaft 32 is provided with further blades 44 and 46. Each set of blades 44 and 46 comprises six blades disposed symmetrically about the shaft 32 and located adjacent the opposite end walls of the bottom section of the supply chamber 12, the blades 44 and 46 each sweeping over the respective port namely 16 with respect to blades 46 and 18 with respect to blades 44.

The blades 44 and 46 are of like construction to blades 40 and 42 in that they are of substantially rectangular section and have a pitch to direct material to the relevant port. The blades 44 have substantially the same pitch as the blades 40 and the blades 46 have substantially the same pitch as the blades 42.

The blades 40/42 may be of the same length or lesser length than the blades 44 and 46.

At Figure 2 will be seen a view of the lower part of the supply chamber 12 from substantially the direction marked A on Figure 1. As will be seen the lower part of the supply chamber 12 is in the form of a trough having substantially semi-circular section. The axis of shaft 32 is preferably located at or about the axis of the said semi-circle, the length of the blades 40 to 46 being arranged so that they do not interfere with the walls of the chamber 12.

Reference will now be made to Figure 3 which shows a material supply apparatus 100 in accordance with the present invention. The basic construction of this embodiment is similar to that illustrated in Figure 1 and corresponding parts are provided with the same reference numeral. The main difference is in the configuration and arrangement of the outlet ports at the ends of the supply chamber 12. Whereas in Figure 1 a single outlet port 16 and 18 is provided at each end of the lower trough of the supply chamber 12, in the embodiment of Figure 3 two ports 18a and 18b are provided at the right hand end of the lower trough of the chamber 12 and a single port 16 at the left hand end in accordance with the present invention.The arrangements of these ports 18a and 18b is illustrated more clearly in Figure 4 which shows a sectional view along the line X-X of Figure 3. In Figure 4, the semicircular shape of the lower portion of the trough is clearly visible, the circular form being centred at a point P. As illustrated in Figure 4, considered with respect to the centre P, each of the outlet ports 18a and 18b is disposed at an angle A of about 670 from the horizontal. Furthermore, the ports 18a and 18b are disposed radially outwardly from the centre p as far as possible.

It is also of course possible to provide two similar outlet ports at the left-hand end of the trough but the illustrated arrangement with a total of three outlet ports is preferred for reasons which will be explained hereinafter.

In the embodiment of both Figure 1 and Figure 3 the shafts 30 and 32 are driven by an electrical motor 36. Similarly, in Figure 1 the outlet conduits connected to the outlet ports are connected to suction pumps 20 and 22 in Figure 1 and suction pumps 22a and 22b in Figure 3. Naturally port 16 in Figure 3 may also be connected to a suction pump 20 as illustrated in Figure 1. These suction pumps are electrically driven. When the material supply apparatus is used on site, all the electrical pumps and motors are supplied by an electrical generator driven by petrol or propane.

Such generators are commercially available which are sufficiently small and compact to be easily transportable and are rated at 5 kVA. Such generators may be obtained from the Kawasaki Company, for example.

This power output is in practice sufficient to drive four items such as electrical motors for electrical pumps. Therefore, in the embodiment of Figure 3, electrical motor 36 and three pumps may be driven by two generators. If only two outlet ports are provided as in Figure 1 and 5kVA generators are employed, two generators are nevertheless required but are not used to their full capacity. If two outlet ports were provided at each end of the trough, three such generators would be required. Thus, the use of three outlet ports is economically advantageous.

Of course, if the generator is sufficiently powerful, a single generator may supply all pumps and motors.

It has surprisingly been found that the addition of an extra outlet port at one end of the trough, as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, does not have any significant effect on the supply of material to the second port at that end of the trough. This point will be explained further with reference to Figure 4, in which arrow Z illustrates the direction of rotation of the shaft 32. It would naturally be thought that the port 18a, which follows port 18b in the direction of rotation, might be starved of material since port 18b would suck the rotating material from the trough before it could reach port 18a. However, in practice it has surprisingly been found that the supply of material to port 18a is substantially unaffected. Additional ports may thus be added and material may be supplied effectively to all ports. In particular, four ports may be provided in either end wall.

For effective operation, it has been found that the blades 44 adjacent the end wall having the two or more ports should be spaced from the end wall by a distance of about 5mm to ensure optimum supply of material to the ports.

In operation of the apparatus a supply of fibrous material such as chopped glass fibre is loaded into the supply chamber 12 through the open top 14. With the motor 36 and the pumps 20 and 22 or 20, 22a and 22b activated rotation of the shafts 30 and 32 will simultaneously tease and expand the fibres and deliver them to the respective outlet ports from which they may be carried to the outlet nozzles.

An important feature of the inventive apparatus is the construction of the shaft 32 with its blade copnfiguration and disposition. Material teased and expanded by the shaft 30 and its protrusions 38 fall by gravity into the area swept by the blades 40 to 46.

The fibrous material is further teased and expanded by those blades 40 to 46 and is separated so that material delivered to the middle of the shaft 32 moves from there in opposite directions to the ports 16 and 18.

This enhances teasing expansion and separation enables greater throughput than has previously been achieved with comparably sized apparatus without the inventive arrangement of the present apparatus.

The housing between the outlets 16/18 and pumps 20/22 will in practice need to be free of sharp angled turns or kinks for smooth flow of material.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. Apparatus for the supply of chopped fibrous material comprising a supply chamber and a shaft rotatably mounted in the chamber, the chamber having at least two outlets in the vicinity of one end of the shaft, the shaft having a series of elongate blades extending radially into the chamber, at least some of the blades being inclined with a pitch arranged to direct material towards the two outlets at the end of the shaft upon rotation of the shaft, and in which, at the outlet end of the shaft, more than two inclined blades are arranged on the shaft to rotate in substantially the same plane.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, in which there are two outlet ports and these are disposed on respective sides of a vertical plane through the axis of the shaft.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, in which the said two outlet ports are disposed symmetrically relative to the plane.

4. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 3, in which the outlet ports are disposed in- an end wall of the supply chamber.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the shaft additionally carries agitator members which are not inclined with a pitch.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, in which a further shaft is provided in said chamber and carries agitator members.

7. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 6, in which the further shaft is disposed parallel to the firstmentioned shaft.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the ports are coupled to inlets of respective pumps for delivering the material to respective outlet nozzles.

9. A method for supplying chopped fibrous material which comprises loading the material into an apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim and rotating the shaft, thereby agitating and moving some of the material towards the outlets in response to shaft rotation.

10. A material supply system comprising apparatus as claimed in Claim 8 in combination with a drive motor for rotating the shaft, the motor and pumps being coupled to receive electrical power from at least one electrical generator.

11. A system as claimed in Claim 10, in which a third pump is coupled to a third outlet port and is coupled to receive electrical power from a second generator.

12. Apparatus for the supply of chopped fibrousmaterial constructed and arranged substantially as herein specifically described with reference to and as shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.

13. A method for supplying chopped fibrous material substantially as herein specifically described with reference to and as shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.