GB737927A - Improvements in or relating to decorticating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

737,927. Decorticating fibrous leaves. BONOMO, P. Dec. 1, 1953 [Sept. 4, 1952], No. 22288/52. Class 120(1). Decorticating apparatus for sisal &c. leaves comprises two rotary beaters 12, 13, a pair of rope wheels 18, 19 disposed between beater drums 12, 13 one above the other for rotation about a common axis, a single endless conveyer rope or band 22 and a plurality of pulleys around which and rope wheels 18, 19, rope 22 passes to grip one end of each leaf against the upper wheel 18 while the other end is decorticated by drum 12 and then to grip the decorticated end against the lower wheel 19 while the untreated end falls into position to be decorticated by drum 13. In an embodiment rope 22 is made of metal, e.g. steel or phosphor-bronze, and is disposed as shown in Fig. 4. Leaves fed along a conveyer 23 are gripped at the butt ends between three strands of rope 22 ; two strands pass from a pulley 24, and the third from a pulley 25 under a guide roller 26. The leaves are conveyed by the rope between upper rope wheel 18 and a wheel 27 where the butt ends are crushed between toothed crowns 28, 29 on the wheels. As the leaves pass around wheel 18 their tips are scutched by beater drum 12, Fig. 2, acting against a saddle member 14. The first two strands of rope pass from wheel 18 to lower rope wheel 19 via wheels 30, 31, while the third strand passes around wheel 18 and a pulley 35. The leaves are thereby released from wheel 18 and their tips gripped by the two rope strands passing around wheel 19 where the butt ends are decorticated by beater drum 13 and saddle 15. The two rope strands convey the fully decorticated leaves to an outlet point X ; one of the two strands then passes around pulley 25 and the other, together with the third strand from pulley 35, passes around a pulley 33, over a tension pulley 34 back to pulley 24. Each drum 12 or 13 is provided with an end ring 16, Fig. 3, and L-shaped knives 17 each having a tapered end-engaging portion d-h, a curved crushing portion h-e, and a straight decorticating portion e-f. The co-operating saddle has two surfaces a-b, b-c, tangential to the corresponding ropewheel ; each saddle may be a block of cast-iron faced with a lining 20 of bronze and provided at its top with a replaceable wearing piece of stainless steel. Drums 12, 13 may be independently driven by motors 51, 38 respectively, Fig. 2, rope wheels 18, 19 and conveyer 23 being driven from a shaft 41 which is in turn driven through a clutch and a belt 39 from motor 38 ; alternatively all the parts can be driven from a single motor 51 or from a shaft 53 driven from an outside power source.