GB924128A - Method of and apparatus for ultra-fine dispersion homogenization, mixing and adding together of solids, liquids and/or gases - Google Patents

Abstract

924,128. Mixing appliances. A. BARICORDI. May 9, 1960 [May 26, 1959], No. 16239/60. Class 86. An apparatus for dispersing homogenizing and mixing particulate solids, liquids and gases comprises a mixing chamber having a rotatable hollow shaft 6, Fig. 1B, around which are mounted on hollow stems 11 hollow bodies 7 composed of polygonal cells. The passages in the stems 11 communicate with that of the shaft 6 and through perforations (see Fig. 4, not shown) with the interior of the cellular body #:7. A stator 5 also of cellular construction surrounds the rotor. There may be a single layer of cells 5, Fig. 1B, or a plurality of layers 5a, 5b, Fig. 1A and Fig. 13. The fluid component is introduced through the hollow shaft 6; the already comminuted solid, entrained in a carrier fluid, enters the mixing chamber axially through conduits 15, 16, Fig. 5A, or tangentially as through conduit 15a, Fig. 2A. Material in the chamber may be urged upward by a helical arrangement of the bodies 7 around the shaft 6, see Fig. 14 (not shown), assisted by vanes 7a, Fig. 2A, and discharged through the conduit 17 which may have a spiral arrangement (not shown) to facilitate the separation of gas and solids. The outer shell of the mixing chamber may have spaced walls 2, 3, between which may be heat exchange pipes 4; the inner wall 3 may be in contact with the stator 5, Figs. 1B, 5A, or be spaced from it, Figs. 1A, 2A. Part of the material may be recirculated through a conduit 13, Fig. 5A, or through the space between the stator 5 and inner wall 3, Fig. 2A. The passage in the shaft 6 may be annular, 6a, 6b, Fig. 1A, there being a single or multistart screw in the annulus to give the incoming fluid a turbulent helical motion. The stems 11 of the hollow bodies 7 are surrounded by a perforated intermediate wall 18, Fig. 7 (the cross-section of which may be a triangle as shown or other polygon with radiused corners, see also Figs. 8 and 9, not shown), over which are fixed rings 18 which carry detachably the outer cellular wall 20, which may be elliptical or hyperbolic in cross-section, or cylindrical or polyhedral, and may taper outwardly from the shaft 6. The cells are arranged in staggered layers in different planes, Fig. 13, of open hollow hexahedrons like an elongated honeycomb, the longer axes of the cells being aligned parallel or perpendicular to the central axis of the apparatus according to whether a tough or soft material is being treated. The apparatus produces a complex of intersecting micro-vortices having a powerful dispersing effect; in an example, precommmuted red oxide of iron of about 700 micron average particle size is dispersed into particles of 0.1 micron average particle size in one operation.