GB961554A - Hop separating devices - Google Patents

Abstract

961,554. Screening apparatus. F. F. DAUENHAUER. Feb. 13, 1961, No. 5328/61. Heading B2H. A machine for separating hops from extraneous matter includes an inclined endless screen 21 with its upper run moving upwardly and fed with a mixture of hops and foreign matter from a shaker conveyer 13 and under the control of pivoted baffles 16, 18. The conveyer is supplied from a preliminary separator 11 fed from a conveyer 12. Some small stems and leaves pass through the screen 21 and fall to a trash conveyer 45, and other foreign material is carried over the top pulley 41 of the screen and falls to the trash conveyer. Hops and larger leaves, stems &c. move downwardly on to a stationary imperforate plate 22 which retards the movement of the leaves, and the material falls on to a more steeply inclined endless screen 23 with its upper run moving upwardly. As shown in Fig. 2 the plate 22 is parallel to the upper run of the screen 21 and is attached to a lower pulley bracket 44. A deflector 46 controls the fall of hops which separate from the mixture as it leaves the screen 21 and plate 22 so that the hops fall on to the screen at the desired point. The leaves which fall from the plate 22 are blown on to the screen 23 by a blower 61 and are carried over the pulley 58 of the lower screen and fall on to the trash conveyer. Hops pass downwardly over the screen 23 and are received on a multi-slotted surface 70 through which small leaves and stems fall to the trash conveyer ; the hops then pass to a take-off conveyer 68. The lower pulleys of the inclined screens are self-cleaning and are in the form of drums comprising perforated ends 71, 72, Fig. 3, and a central imperforate disc 74 interconnected by spaced rods 78, thereby providing compartments 76, 77. A helix 79 ensures that foreign material which may collect within the drums is conveyed through the ends 71, 72 and falls to the trash conveyer.