GB734944A - Improvements in or relating to separating and sorting devices - Google Patents

Abstract

734,944. Sifting apparatus. HINDS, G. A. Nov. 12, 1953 [Oct. 8, 1952], No. 25239/52. Class 117. For separating hop petals and stalks from hop flowers, for example, a plurality of endless cables &c. are arranged side by side, supported by a number of similar groups of pulleys on each of two parallel shafts, the diameters of the pulleys in each group varying. In the embodiment described, endless wires 20 are supported on sets of pulleys carried on shafts 10, 11. The four similar groups of pulleys 12 . . . 15 on shaft 10 each comprises pulleys, the daimeter of which progressively decreases from one side of the group to the other. The inner groups 12, 13 are arranged with their largest pulleys adjacent and are driven by the shaft 10 while the outer groups 14, 15 each have their smallest pulleys adjacent the inner groups and are rotatable on the shaft. The pulley groups 16 . . . 19 on shaft 11 are similarly arranged but the outer groups 16, 19 are driven by the shaft and the inner groups 17, 18 are rotatable thereon. Shaft 10 is driven at a lower speed than shaft 11. A mixture from a hop picking machine is fed to the device and as it travels along with the moving wires the strigs become aligned with and, together with hop petals, fall through the spaces, on to a tranverse conveyer 23. The remainder of the mixture is discharged over the pulleys at the remote end for further treatment, for example on a similar arrangement with differently spaced wires.