US1032167A - Continuous press. - Google Patents

Description

S. J, VERNSTEN.

commuous PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 25, 1912.

1,032,167, Patented July 9, 1912.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60.. WASHINGTON, n. C.

rare

SWAN J. VERNSTEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CONTINUOUS PRESS.

Application filed January 25, 1912.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SWAN J. VERNsTnN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Continuous Presses, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

My invention is concerned with presses for expressing the liquid from solids, and is designed more especially to be applied to continuous presses of the type shown in my Patent No. 921,921, dated May 18, 1909.

In carrying out my invention, as shown in the aforesaid patent, I found that with the construction of the perforated belt therein shown, with some kinds of material, such, for instance, as sugar beets, some of the juice squeezed from the pulp and supposed to fiow through the belt and into the lower drums, and to escape therefrom at the bottom of the drums so as not to fall back into the squeezed pulp, in fact, flowed back through the perforations in the drums and belts as soon as the pressure was released, and as a consequence was discharged into the pulp co-nveyer trough, instead of into the troughs or conveyers for the juice. To remedy this diflicult-y, I have made two improvements which may be embodied in presses of the type shown in my prior patent: In the first place, I place the apertures, heretofore radially directed, in the curved surfaces of the drums at such an angle to their former direction that the juice tends to flow through them into the drums by gravity at the place where the pressure is the greatest, and so that gravity will not tend to cause the juice to flow out again until the surface of the drum through which the flow can take place has moved from over the pulp conveyer trough at least to a point where it is over the juice conveying trough or receptacle, so that the action of gravity insures the juice being properly separated from the pulp, instead of being discharged back into it after having been squeezed out of it. In the second place, for the simple, finely perforated screen covering the belt sections to prevent the pulp from passing through the belts into the drums, or even into the belts, I substitute a screen of a peculiar construction that permits sufficient of the pulp to enter into the outer face of the belts (but not to pass through them) so Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Julyt), 1912.

Serial No. 673,397.

that said pulp which passes into the face of the belts acts somewhat like a screen cloth to prevent the juice from falling back through it by gravity, while notofiering any serious obstacle to its flowinoforward through the pulp and into the di ums when the squeezing pressure is applied.

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto a sheet of drawings, in which the same reference characters are used to designate identical parts in all the figures, of which,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the lower half of a press embodying my invention, and corresponding to Fig. 1 of my aforesaid Patent No. 921,921; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of one end of one of the belt sections, with the various layers making up the screen broken away to more clearly show the construction; Fig. 3 is a sectional view, say on the line AA of Fig. 2; Fig. 4: is a sectional view through the screens, on a lar er scale; Fig. 5 is a plan view of the portion of the screen plate having the large perforations; Fig. 6 is a similar view of the screen plate having the small perforations; and Fig. 7is a similar view of the spacing member or wire mesh interposed between the screen plates shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

In presses of' this type, a pair of horizontal rollers (not shown) at the top of the press are spaced apart a greater distance than the pair of hollow rollers or drums 53 and 53, seen at the bottom of Fig. 1, and these drums are driven in any suitable manner, as by the worm 17 shown, meshing with the worm 18 secured on the shaft 20 of the drum 58. Cooperating with these rollers and drums are a pair of belts made up of sections 58, the complete belts moving in the paths indicated by the dotted lines 58 and 58, these belts gradually converging so that the space between them is gradually reduced so that solids fed between the belts will have the liquids therein expressed, the pressure increasing until the solids reach the level of the shafts 20 and 21, at which point the pressure is the greatest. The liquid expressed from the solids flows through the belts and through the apertures 68 into the interior of the drums, which'drums carry the liquids to the bottoms thereof, where the bulk of its flows out through the openings 69 in one end of the drums and out through the opening 70 in the framework 12, which opening will, of course, be provided with a spout to carry the liquid wherever it may be desired. The solids passing between the drums and belts have the pressure released after they pass below the horizontal level of the shafts 20 and 21 and fall into the trough 66, which is preferably provided with the Worm 83 to carry the solids to any desired point of discharge. Beneath the greater portion of each of the drums 53 and 55 is a trough or receptacle formed of the two inclined portions 80 and 81, and this trough is provided to catch whatever drippings there may be from the drum and belt which are not properly discharged through the openings 69 and 70.

In the construction of my prlor patent, the metal belt sections 58, which are curved to correspond to the curvature of the periphery of the drums 53 and 53 have perforations (31 passing therethrough, and over the convex or outer side of each section there is secured the screen 62 of finely perforated metal, as best seen in Fig. 6. The object of employing this screen is to permit the liquid to flow freely through the perforations therein and through the apertures 61 in the belt, while not permitting any of the solid material to pass through the belt and into the drums. However, I have found that with some sorts of solids, and notably beet pulp and similar materials from which the juice is to be fully expressed, some of the juice, instead of remaining in the drums until it can be discharged through the openings 69 and 70, almost immediately, once the pressure is relieved, flows back through the apertures 61 and through the screen 62, and falls into the trough 66, with the result that the object of the invention is not attained, as the liquid is not fully separated from the solids. To remedy this difficulty, I have changed the chaarcter of the screens on the belt, and instead of depending solely on the finely perforated screen 62, I have added the coarsely perforated screen 94, best shown in Fig. 5, which is spaced apart from the screen 62 some little distance by some material that has an openwork construction, such, for instance, as the wire screen 95, which has the customary interwoven arrangement of the cross wires, so that the resulting screen acts to separate the screens 62 and 94 for some considerable distance, while not presenting very much solid material in the space thus separating the screens. These three screen members 62, 9a and 95 are all secured in place in the order set out, as shown inFigs. 3 and 4-, by the strips 63 overlapping the edges thereof, and secured in place by the screws 64. The action of this novel screen mechanism upon material such as beet pulp is that when the pressure is applied, a certain amount of the pulp passes through the relatively large apertures in the screen 94 and into the space between the screen 94: and the screen 62, which space is provided by the interposition of the wire mesh screen 95. Of course, the pulp cannot pass through the fine perforations in the screen 62, and as a result, when the pressure is applied, the juice passes freely through the pulp filling of the screen, through the apertures in the drums 58 to the interior thereof, ready to be discharged through the openings 69 and 70. If the juice attempts to flow back by gravity through the screen, the pulp offers sufficient resistance to its flow so that it will not flow out of the drum through the screen by gravity, although, as before said, it flows freely through the screen, belt, and into the drum by the pressure applied thereto.

Another feature of my invention consists in the employment of the apertures 68 in the drums 58 and 53 at substantially the angle shown, and it will at once he noted that the juice squeezed through the belts is free at all point-s up to that of greatest pres sure to flow freely by gravity through said perforations into the drums, and it will further be evident that even after the drums have turned to-carry any particular aperture some little distance below the level of the shafts 20 and 21, its general direction is still upward, so that the liquid in the drum does not tend to flow by gravity out through said perforations or aperture, as is the case in the old radially arranged apertures of my aforesaid patent. It will be noted, in fact, that these perforations do not assume a horizontal position until they have passed over the dividing line between the trough 66 for the solids and the trough or catch basin S0, 81, for the liquid. Consequently, it is practically impossible for the liquids which actually enter the drums 53 and 53 to be discharged back into the solids, and when the belts containing the novel screen mechanism heretofore described are likewise employed it is substantially impossible for any of the liquid once expressed to be discharged into the trough 66, with the result that the efficiency of the press is vastly increased. It will also be understood that the drums with the arrangement of the apertures shown might be employed for ex pressing purposes without the belts.

While I have shown and described my invention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes, it will be understood that it is capable of modifications, and that I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claims except as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

hat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In a press, a hollow squeezing roller or drum having perforations passing thereinto directed at an angle between a radius and a tangent and in the direction of movement of the surface of the roller.

2. In a press, the combination with a hollow squeezing roller or drum journaled on a horizontal axis and having perforations passing thereinto, of an element having a surface with which the roller cooper.- ates to express liquid from substances passed between the roller and element, a discharge trough to receive the expressed solids extending between and beneath the roller and the surface, and a receptacle located directly beneath the greater portion of the drum to receive the expressed liquid falling therefrom, the perforations in the drum passing thereinto in such a manner that expressed liquid cannot flow back therethrough and fall from the drum into the trough for the solids, but must wait until it is over the receptacle for the liquid.

3. In a press, the combination with a hollow squeezing roller or drum ournaled on a horizontal axis and having perforations passing thereinto, of an element having a surface with which the roller cooperates to express liquid from substances passed be tween the roller and element, a discharge trough to receive the expressed solids extending between and beneath the roller and the surface, and a receptacle located directly beneath the greater portion of the drum to receive the expressed liquid falling therefrom, the perforations in the drum being directed at an angle between a radius and a tangent and in the direction of movement of the surface of the drum so that expressed juice cannot flow back therethrough and fall from the drum into the trough for the solids but must wait until it is over the receptacle for the liquids.

4. In a press, an expressing member through which the liquids expressed pass, consisting of a body portion provided with large perforations, a fine-mesh screen secured next to said body portion, a coarsermesh screen secured outside of the fine-mesh screen, and an openwork spacing member between the two screens, for the purpose described.

5. In a press, an expressing member through which the liquids expressed pass, consisting of a body portion provided with large perforations, a fine-mesh screen secured next to said body portion, a coarsermesh screen secured outside of the fine-mesh screen, and a coarse-wire screen acting as a spacing member between the two screens, for the purpose described.

6. In a press of the class described, the combination with an expressing belt made up of a plurality of bars hinged together at their sides, and each consisting of a body portion provided with large perforations, a fine-mesh screen secured next to said body portion, a coarser-mesh screen secured out* side the fine-mesh screen, and an openwork spacing member between the two screens, of a liquid-receiving drum about which the belt passes and having the perforations passing thereinto through which the expressed liquid passes, and an expressing element with which the screened face of the belt cooperates.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal, this fifteenth day of January, A. D. 1912.

SWAN J. VERNSTEN.

Witnesses JOHN HOWARD MoELRoY, MILDRED ELsNnR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

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