GB443292A - Improvements in apparatus for handling granular or lumpy material - Google Patents

Abstract

443,292. Shoots ; spreading material; laying cables on drums during winding. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., Ltd., Magnet House, Kingsway, London, and MARSHALL, C. H., Fraser & Chalmers Engineering Works, Erith, Kent. Aug. 24, 1934, No. 24469. [Classes 78 (i), 78 (iv), and 78 (v)] The apparatus for delivering lumpy material such as coal, described in Specification 429,598, is modified by the omission of the final outwardly-directed shoots. The present apparatus comprises a rotary shoot which delivers for a short initial period through the open bottom until the latter is blocked by the accumulation of heaped material, after which delivery takes place laterally through a side opening in the wall above the level of the bottom. Fig. 1 shows a telescopic shoot having a bottom section adapted to be rotated by worm gearing driven by a motor 8. When delivery is being effected through the side opening, the material received from the inclined shoot 5 rolls gently over the surface of the heap as the shoot rotates. During this period the part of the shoot below the side opening is embedded in the heap of material sufficiently to take up the lateral thrust reaction on the shoot caused by the lateral delivery. An involute wing member 7 may be fitted at one side of the exit opening so that its vertical wall is inclined downwardly at the angle of repose of the material. The impact of the issuing material on this wing member may produce the rotation of the shoot. As the heap grows higher, the shoot is telescoped or raised as a whole by the crane 2. The shoot is supported for tolescoping by three ropes 9 which pass over pulleys 10 arranged at different heights to a common winding barrel 11. The latter is feathered on a driving shaft 12 driven by worm gear from a motor 15 and also has a screw-and-nut connection with the upper bearing of the driving shaft, so that rotation of the latter causes the drum to move axially, proportionately to the raising or lowering of the shoot, so that each cable is laid evenly on its own portion of the drum. The two motors 8, 15 may be operated through flexible leads from controls on the deck of the ship being loaded.