JPS6364557B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention involves steaming a material to be processed, such as wood, bagasse, or chip-like fibrous materials such as feed, for a while under high pressure, and then rapidly releasing the pressure to produce fibers. This invention relates to a high-pressure continuous supply device for materials in an automatic hydrolysis device that dissociates materials.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

This kind of high-pressure continuous supply equipment for materials can be broadly classified into Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 53-111102 and 53-111982.
There is a technology without a plug described in the publication, and a technology with a plug as shown in FIG. These prior art methods sequentially consolidate the materials, purge the air between the materials, expel the moisture inside the materials, and
Includes technology for transporting to autoclaves, etc.

That is, in the case of the former plugless technology, the first stage consolidation is performed by a screw conveyor, and the final stage consolidation is arranged so that the shaft center is the same as that of the screw conveyor and can be slid in close contact with the outside thereof. This is done by moving the annular ring back and forth.
As a result, in order to ensure pressure resistance against the high pressure received from the autoclave, the material itself becomes a plug with a sealing function by consolidating the material at the final stage of transportation.

However, this plugless technology has the following two major problems. The first point is that during the initial consolidation process until the material forms a pressure-tight plug, it is subjected to back pressure from the autoclave that prevents consolidation, and for this reason, it is necessary to increase the internal pressure of the autoclave and use a high-pressure continuous supply device for the material. Advanced know-how is required to perform the initial operations in conjunction with each other, and if the types of objects to be treated and pretreatment methods are different, the know-how must be acquired individually, which greatly reduces the ease of operation. There are some drawbacks. Second, when the plugged material is ejected into the ejection chamber, it tends to be delivered to the autoclave as an agglomerated block rather than in a defibrated form.
In this case, the central part of the block is not sufficiently steamed in the subsequent steaming process, and is removed as a product with degraded quality without being sufficiently hydrolyzed.

On the other hand, in the latter technology with a plug, as shown in FIG.
A steam pressure equalizing pipe E is provided in the supply cylinder A at a position between the tip of the pipe and the spout D to the spout chamber C,
In addition, the spout D uses equipment that is sealed with a flat plug H at the tip of the rod G of the cylinder F, pressurizes steam from the steam pressure equalization pipe E, and releases it from the autoclave through the compressed material. It helps the opening/closing force of the plug against the counter pressure and also causes the material to be ejected from the ejection port D. However, this technique has a problem in that the steam from the steam pressure equalization pipe tends to swell the material during the consolidation process, which reduces the consolidation effect and prevents the squeezing out of moisture, etc. held within the material. Moreover, as with the non-plug technology, when ejected, the agglomerated blocks tend to be supplied to the autoclave.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-16845 discloses a modification of the technology with a plug, in which a plug is arranged opposite to the outlet of the first screw conveyor so that it can be adjusted in the axial direction by a servo motor. At the same time, the material mass discharged by opening the plug is guided through the container to a second screw conveyor below it, and is transferred toward the outlet of this second screw conveyor, at which point it is transferred to the opposite crushing circle. A technique is shown to dissociate the material mass into fibers between the plates.

However, since this device is intended to dissociate a type of material, it is thought that the plug only primarily adjusts the degree of compaction in relation to the first screw conveyor. As stated in the same publication, since this plug is substantially separated from the high-pressure container by a valve, the material is always plugged under almost atmospheric pressure or pressure close to atmospheric pressure. In addition, since the material is not subject to pressure fluctuations caused by the pressure increase operation in a high-pressure autoclave, once the material reaches the desired degree of compaction by the servo motor, the plug is separated from the first screw conveyor and the second screw conveyor is moved. It is thought that the only function is to drop the material mass onto the screw conveyor.

However, in the case of the present invention, in which pressure fluctuations are applied to the back surface of the plug as the pressure is increased in a high-pressure autoclave, the technique in the publication cannot be applied in order to always obtain the required degree of compaction. . In other words, some kind of means is required that takes into consideration the above-mentioned pressure fluctuations.

Further, in the above-mentioned technique, the first screw conveyor only plugs the material, and disassembly is performed by a separate crusher. but,
When the previously formed material mass is transferred by the second screw conveyor, if the compaction density is small, the transfer will be smooth, but if the compaction density is increased in order to increase the crushability of the fibers, The transfer itself on the second screw conveyor becomes difficult, and even if it is assumed that the transfer is possible, the spacing between the crushing disks cannot be set to zero for small pieces of material that have become smaller to a certain extent when they are dissociated between the opposing crushing disks. Therefore, it simply falls out, resulting in the undefibrated material being sent to the autoclave. Therefore, there are fundamental drawbacks to such a two-step operation.

Furthermore, Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-15882 discloses that while the material is compressed by a screw conveyor, the compressed body is cut into pieces by a rotating knife at the outlet thereof. However, although at first glance it may seem similar to the present invention, which will be described later, in the same publication, since it does not have a plug, it is impossible to obtain a high-density compressed body. is not for defibrating, but as shown in the same publication (column 3, line 35 to column 3, line 2), compressed bodies can be shaped into disks, short cylinders or rods, bricks, or small balls. It is obtained by steaming it as it is. As mentioned above, if such a block is steamed as it is, its steamability will be poor.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention solves all of the above-mentioned conventional problems at once, and the main purpose of the invention is to eliminate the need for special training even when using different types of materials, and to reliably release the eruption. It is an object of the present invention to provide a high-pressure continuous supply device for materials that can be used under conditions of high pressure and that can also be expected to achieve the desired consolidation effect.

[Summary of the invention]

To achieve this object, the present invention provides a screw conveyor for sequentially consolidating the fibrous material supplied into the supply cylinder, which communicates with the ejection chamber directly connected to the high-pressure chamber in which steaming is performed under high pressure. and a plug having the same axis as the supply cylinder, which is capable of sealing the jet nozzle serving as the outlet of the supply cylinder, and is compatible with different types of materials; A cutting edge for defibrating the material is provided on the front surface of the gill, and the plug is rotatable around the axis by a rotation drive means, and the rotation drive means and the plug are supported to resist the consolidation force of the screw conveyor. A plug closing force adjustment cylinder is provided that seals and holds the plug in the spout until the upper limit of the material's compaction is reached, and when the upper limit of the material's compaction is exceeded, it moves away from the spout and retreats to the spout chamber position. A pressure regulator is placed in the action system,
and a pressure gauge is disposed in the front jetting chamber, the screw shaft of the screw conveyor is movable in the axial direction so that the distance between the tip position and the jetting port can be adjusted, and the signal of the pressure gauge is used to adjust the pressure. The present invention is characterized in that the upper limit value of the counterforce applied to the container to counteract the compaction force of the adjustment cylinder is variably set.

In other words, the main feature of the present invention that is not found in the conventional examples is that, in view of the fact that in any of the conventional examples, the material tends to form agglomerated blocks when ejected, the present invention mechanically loosens the blocks. Therefore, the plug is provided with a cutting edge and is rotatable.

On the other hand, in particular, in the second invention, in addition to the above-mentioned configuration, in order to consolidate the plug with a desired degree of consolidation when there is a change in the type of material, etc., the plug is equipped with a pressure receiving means for adjusting and changing the closing force of the plug. It is installed in the pressure system.

Furthermore, the degree of compaction of the material between the tip of the screw conveyor and the front face of the plug influences the degree of defibration by the cutting edge of the plug, and the degree of consolidation, that is, the pressure distribution, in the axial direction of the plugged material also influences the degree of defibration. greatly influences. Therefore, according to the present invention, by making the screw conveyor freely movable in the axial direction and changing the distance X described below depending on the material, it is possible to give the plugged material a desired pressure distribution, which is excellent. It is possible to obtain a defibrating effect.

[Specific examples of the invention]

The present invention will be explained below using specific examples shown in the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an overall view of the device of the present invention and its arrangement. In the figure, 1 is a supply tube, and a screw conveyor 3 driven by a motor 2 is disposed inside the supply tube. Supply tube 1
A hopper 4 is provided at the upper part of the base of the hopper 4, from which the stored material M at approximately atmospheric pressure is transferred to the supply tube 1.
It's starting to be put inside.

The supply cylinder 1 has a spout 7 and faces a spout chamber 6 communicating with the autoclave 5 . This spout 7 can be closed by a plug 8, as will be described in detail later. Consolidation with the plug 8 is performed by the screw conveyor 3 in the supply cylinder 1, and the material loosened by the cutting blade 81 of the plug 8 after ejection is charged into the autoclave 5 as will be described later. autoclave 5
The material is steamed under high pressure while the motor 9
The screw conveyor 10 driven by the screw conveyor 10 transfers the liquid to the discharge device 11. The material in the discharge device 11 is transferred to the cyclone 1 through a ball valve 13 that is opened and closed by a discharge air cylinder 12 at a predetermined timing in a sequence.
Transferred to 4. Here, as the ball valve 13 opens and closes, the material in the discharge device 11 placed under high pressure is transferred to the cyclone 14 by the pressure release energy when the pressure is released, and at the same time, it causes explosive fragmentation when the pressure is released. The fibers are loosened and decomposed. In the cyclone 14, the exhaust gas 15 and the blasted material 16 are separated, and the blasted material 16 is stored in a receiving tank 19 by a discharge conveyor 18 driven by a motor 17. 20 is high pressure steam to the autoclave 5.

Such a configuration is generally known.
The present invention is characterized by the plug 8 and the means for operating it.

The plug 8 is attached to the tip of the support rod 21,
A driven pulley 22 is integrally provided at the base of the support rod 21, and the output of a rotary drive motor 23 causes the support rod 21 and therefore the plug 8 to rotate around the axis via a driving pulley 24 and a pulley belt 25. It is supposed to rotate. Also support rod 21
penetrates the plug housing 26, the seal material 28 disposed in the seal material housing 27, and the seal retainer 29, and the support rod 21 has a structure for dissipating the heat generated by pressurizing the material. A heat sink 30 is provided.

Further, the support rod 21 is engaged with an upward U-shaped support frame 31 via a rotating joint 32. Support frame 3
1 is provided on a slide 34 of a base 33, and its back is connected to a rod 36 of a plug closing force adjustment cylinder 35 attached to the base 33. A compressed air source 37 is connected to the adjustment cylinder 35, and a pressure regulator 38 is provided in the compressed air system. A limit switch 39 is disposed opposite to the base end of the support rod 21 to detect the plug position, and is associated with the rotary drive motor 23.

On the other hand, on the surface of the plug 8 facing the screw conveyor 3 (the left side in FIG. 2), cutting blades 81 are arranged radially at intervals of 120 degrees, as shown in detail in FIGS. 3 and 4. , 81, 81 are fixed.
Furthermore, the plug 8 is adapted to tightly fit into the end surface of the supply tube 1 in order to close the jet port 7 of the supply tube 1 in the initial state.

Regarding the apparatus configured in this manner, the operations from supplying the material to ejecting the material will be mainly described in detail.

Material M supplied from the hopper 4 into the supply cylinder 1
are sequentially transferred to the right in FIG. 2 by the screw conveyor 3. On the other hand, in the initial state of operation, as shown in FIG.
The nozzle 7 is blocked. As a result, the materials that are sequentially transferred are consolidated within the supply tube 1. As the consolidation progresses, the material becomes a plug, and when the pressure reaches a predetermined pressure, the plug 8 is pushed back and retreated by overcoming the pressing force of the plug 8 against the end face of the supply cylinder 1.

Here, the timing at which the plugged material pushes back the plug 8 is determined by applying a reference pressure previously set depending on the type of material, etc. to the pressure regulator 38 provided in the compressed air system to the adjustment cylinder 35.

The plugging material moves the plug 8 a predetermined distance L (Fig. 5)
When pushed back, the limit switch 39 is operated on the base end surface of the support rod 21, and based on this operation, the rotational drive motor 23 is started, and the support rod 21 and the plug 8 are activated.
Rotate around the axis. As a result, the plugged material ejected from the ejection port 7 into the ejection chamber 6,
A cutting blade 81 fixed to the plug 8 disintegrates the material and drops the material in the disintegrated state into the autoclave 5.

Therefore, in the conventional example, the material tends to be supplied to the autoclave 5 in the form of an agglomerated block, but in the present invention, the material can be supplied in an loosened state, so that the steaming in the autoclave 5 is uniformly performed. Further, since the degree of consolidation of the material can be set and changed via the pressure regulator 38, the optimum degree of consolidation corresponding to the type of material etc. can be automatically obtained.

In the above example, the closing force of the plug 8 to the supply cylinder 1 is the pressure from the autoclave 5 plus the pressing force from the adjustment cylinder 35, so
Since the closing force changes depending on the pressure in the autoclave 5, a pressure gauge 40 is provided facing the ejection chamber 6, and the set pressure value of the pressure regulator 38 is changed according to the pressure value. do it like this.

Incidentally, the distance X between the tip of the screw conveyor 3 and the end face of the plug 8 or the spout 7 is an extremely important factor in consolidating the material with uniform pressure distribution in the cross section. When handling one type of material, the distance In order to do this, a slide base 41 for adjusting the position of the screw conveyor 3 is provided,
It is assumed that the motor 2 is moved along this line.

Further, in the above example, the degree of consolidation of the material is set using the adjustment cylinder 35 and the pressure regulator 38, but simply as shown in FIG. 43, and the biasing force may be changed by an adjustment nut 44.

Further, the cutting edge provided on the front surface of the plug 8 is not limited to the above example, and may be in the form of scattered points, and in short, any cutting edge that can mechanically defibrate the plugged material may be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, under the background of plug technology, when the plugging material is ejected from the ejection port, it is defibrated while being peeled off from one end surface of the cylindrical compacted body. Steaming block-shaped items prevents them from burning and improves their steamability. Also,
Since plugging and fibrillation are performed at almost the same location, the apparatus is compact. Furthermore, since the compacted body (usually hard like stone) that has been sufficiently consolidated by the plug is defibrated by the cutting blade, the defibrating effect is high, unlike the case of defibrating without being sufficiently consolidated. In this aspect as well, it has excellent steaming properties.

On the other hand, the device of the present invention is premised on handling different types of materials, and for this purpose, a pressure regulator is provided in the fluid pressure system of the plug closing force adjustment cylinder, and the plug is placed in an autoclave (high pressure chamber). A pressure gauge is installed in the ejection chamber so that it is directly visible. As a result, the desired degree of compaction can always be obtained regardless of the type of material and pressure fluctuations associated with pressure raising and lowering operations in the high pressure chamber.
Therefore, stable steamability can be obtained in this respect as well.

On the other hand, since the screw shaft of the screw conveyor is movable, different types of materials can be consolidated with uniform pressure distribution in the cross section.

In this way, since various conditions are taken into consideration, automation is possible without requiring any skill in handling the amount of operation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of the main part showing the consolidation ejection part in the conventional technology with a plug, Fig. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the device of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a side view of the plug, and Fig. 4 is a view of the ejection port. FIG. 5 is a front view of the main part of the plug in the closed state, and FIG. 5 is a front view of the main part of the plug in the pushed-back state. 1... Supply tube, 3... Screw conveyor, 5... Autoclave, 7... Spout, 8... Plug, 23...
Rotary drive motor, 35... Plug closing force adjustment cylinder, 38... Pressure regulator.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A screw conveyor is provided in a supply cylinder that communicates with an ejection chamber that is directly connected to a high-pressure chamber that performs steaming under high pressure, and that sequentially compacts the fibrous material supplied into the supply cylinder, and The apparatus is capable of handling materials of different types, and is equipped with a plug whose axis is the same as that of the supply cylinder, which is capable of sealing a jet nozzle serving as an outlet of the supply cylinder; A cutting blade for defibrating the material is provided, and the plug is rotatable around the axis by a rotational drive means, and the rotational drive means and the plug are supported to resist the consolidation force of the screw conveyor and reduce the degree of consolidation of the material. A plug closing force adjustment cylinder is provided that seals and holds the plug in the spout until the upper limit, and when the upper limit of the compaction density is exceeded, moves away from the spout and retreats to the spout chamber position. Arrange a regulator,
and a pressure gauge is disposed in the front jetting chamber, and the screw shaft of the screw conveyor is movable in the axial direction so as to adjust the distance between the tip position and the jetting port, and the signal of the pressure gauge is used for pressure adjustment. 1. A high-pressure continuous supply device for materials, characterized in that the upper limit value of a counterforce applied to a container to counter the consolidation force of an adjustment cylinder is variably set.