GB657644A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for separating and/or extracting stalks and the like from vegetable tissues - Google Patents

Abstract

657,644. Roller mills. CARTER, R. C. Jan. 14, 1949, No. 1135. [Class 59] Also in Group VI] Stalks and the like are separated or extracted from vegetable tissues by passing the material between a pair of parallel toolthed and/or serrated rollers which are connected by a gear train so as to rotate in opposite directions at different speeds, at least one roller being adjustably mounted and spring-urged towards the other roller. Dry tea leaves, either cut or uncut pass from a feed hopper 1, Fig. 1, to a pair of parallel, toothed rollers which detach the black tea from the stalk. The tea and stalk drop on to a shoot 50, the tea passing through a sifter mesh to a shoot 52 for collection. The stalk con-. tinues down the shoot 50, and is preferably returned to the hopper 1 for further treatment. An extraction apparatus 48 as described in Specification 657,645 may be used, in which case a masking plate is removed from the shoot 50 to allow the stalk to drop through a shoot 49 to the apparatus. The rollers 7, 8, Fig. 4, which may be machine from the solid or built up from a number of toothed discs, are provided with peripheral V-shaped grooves 19 and longitudinal rectangular grooves 20 so as to form teeth 21. The roller 8 is journalled in bearings 23 and is driven by a source of power, the drive being transmitted to the roller 7 by gearing 31, 33, 34a, 34b, 32 so that it rotates at a higher speed and in the opposite direction. The roller 7 is journalled in slidable bearing 23, and is urged by a spring 27 into engagment with the roller 8. A distance piece 30 ensures a minimum clearance between the rollers of, say 1/32 The shoots 50, 52 and a feed tray 11 for the hopper 1 are agitated by crank mechanisms driven by pulleys 42, 18.