GB822337A - Improvements in or relating to discharging devices for flour and like powdery materials - Google Patents

Abstract

822,337. Conveyers unloading storage chambers from below. CONVEYORS (READY BUILT) Ltd. Oct. 31, 1956 [Oct. 31, 1955; Feb. 28, 1956], Nos. 31086/55 and 6226/56. Classes 78 (1) and 78 (4). Flour is discharged from a hopper 12, Fig. 2, on to a platform 23 along which it is moved to a discharge opening 26 by an endless scraper conveyer 27. The shaft 32 is driven from a shaft 50, Fig. 5, through a crank 49, connecting rod 48, bell crank 41 and rods 36, 37 carrying pawls 34, 35 which are held by freely pivoted arms 38, 39 in engagement with a ratchet wheel 33 keyed to the shaft 32. The effective lengths of the arms 40, 45 of the bell crank are variable, and either of the pawls 34, 35 may be disengaged from the wheel 33, giving a wide variation in speed ratios between shafts 50 and 32. Three pawls 54, mounted on a single shaft and slightly staggered, hold the wheel 33 in any position when it is not being driven. The shaft 50 is driven from an electric motor, which may be variable in speed. The hopper may be fed from a bin through a vibratory disturber as described in Specification 711,612, and means (not described) may be provided for keeping constant the level of flour in the hopper. The scraper flights 27 may be slightly staggered laterally or vertically so that alternate flights touch opposite sides of the passage in which they run. The conveyer may be replaced by a wheel with flight plates mounted on it, and the discharge opening 26 may have an adjustable discharge plate.