US1351352A - Emulsifier - Google Patents

Description

n. H.' SITEVENS.

EMULSIFIER. I APPLICATION FILED MAR. I1, 1920.

Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

Indian-6am M Qdm ROBERT E. srEvEE's, or mncnmon'r, NEW YORK, ASSIG-NOR r0 STEVENS BROTHERS,

OF NEW Y0 EMULSIFIER.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

Application filedMarch 11, 1920. Serial No. 365,099

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT H. STEVENS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Larchmont, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Emulsifiers, of which the following is a specificat-ion..

The invention relates to apparatus for intimately mixing or combining various ingredients or. materials in producing emulsions, and the object of the invention isto provide an apparatus of this character in which the operations of preparing the rough mixture, emulsifying, and cooling the emulsion,

are all performed in the same vessel or container.

Another important object is to provide means for traversing and returning the mixture through the zone of agitating action and for mechanically breaking up the moving mixture into minute particles thereby insuring the production of a smooth stable emulsion. Y

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction and arrangement'of parts, in conjunction with the method of operation, by which the above objects are attained, to be hereinafter described and claimed.

The accompanying drawings form a partof this specification and show an approved form of the apparatus.

Figure 1 is an axial vertical section of the improved apparatus, partly in elevation.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a plate employed to promote the mingling of the mixed n1aterials.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section through a portion of the apparatus, taken on the line 3-3 in Fig. 1.

'Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures.

A is a cylindrical container having at the upper end transverse beams B, only one of which is shown, supporting a frame C in which are vertical bearings C C. The upper bearing C is arranged to suspend a vertical shaft D extending axially downward into the container and equipped at its lower end with an agitator D preferably in the form of a screw propeller.

On the shaft D between the bearings C C is a beveled gear-wheel D in mesh with a beveled gearwheel E on a horizontal radireceived in suitable sockets G in a circular plate Gr resting upon the bottom of the'container.

From the upper contracted end of the shell F extends a cylindrical tube H forming a continuation of the shell.

Inclosing the lower portion of the container and extending nearly to the top thereof is a casing J closed at the upper end and joined to the container, forming a jacket for the latter and having inlet and outlet orifices J J 2 through which a heating or a. cooling medium may be circulated through the jacket to raise or lower the temperature of the contents of the container as required during the emulsifying process.

Brackets J J on the casing J provide means for mounting the whole upon beams or other supports, not shown.

.The plate G is shaped'to' conform to the dished bottom of the container and carries a plurality of concentric series of lugs or interrupted vertical ribs G having their upper edges in the same horizontal plane, forming a multiplicity of barriers or bafiies with the lugs of one series opposite the spaces between the lugs of the succeeding series, and thus producing staggered paths from the center to the periphery. At the center is an opening 9 in communication with a centrally located pipeKextending downwardly water, a parts of soap, and? parts of parafin wax. The water is first supplied and heated by the admission of steam to the jacket until the temperature of the water is raised to between 20 and C. above the melting point of the wax; agitation is then commenced by rotating the propeller, and the soap added and mixed with the water until dissolved therein; while still agitated, the wax is introduced in a molten condition and the agitation continued for a suflicient time, as from fifteen to thirty" minutes. After such period of continuous agitation the temperature is lowered by the introduction of a cooling medium to the-jacket until the temperature of the mass is-reduced to about 5 C. below the melting point of the wax. The process is then complete and the emulsion discharged through the pipe K.

The propeller is turned inthe direction to induce a rapid downward flow through the shell F, and the effect of the stationary vanes F is to conunteract the tendency of the stream of liquid passing through the shell, to rotate or swirl, the action bein fully set forth in Letters Patent to Alfred Stevens,

' dated Feb. 12, 1918, No. 1,255,944, and by driving the propeller at the proper rate of speed the liquid mass is caused to strike upon the plate G in a direct column-like stream without eddies or rotary movement.

Upon striking the plate G the liquid mass escapes circumferentially in all directions through the space between the skirt of the shell and the plate, and is subdivided into a number of lateral streams which follow the devious paths between the concentrically arranged staggered lugs G the effect of which is to break up the soap and wax into infinitesimal particles so small as to remain in fixed mechanical suspension in the water, and so coated or isolated as to preclude subsequent combination or coalescence.

The agitated mass rises in the annular space exterior to the shell, enters the tube H and is again driven downward in a stream against the plate G and the operation continued until the mixture. is homogeneous and satisfactorily emulsified.

Modification may be made in the forms and proportions of the parts as may be found necessary or desirable in the treat-- ment of various materials, without departing from the principle of the invention, and the structure of the plate 'G may be varied to conform to the action of agitators differing in type from the screw propeller D forth, a container means to agitate and induce an axially directed stream in the contents of said container, .and means located in the path of such axially directed stream and at substantially right angles thereto, to battle the outward movement of such stream.

3. In an apparatus of the character set forth, a container, means therein to agitate contents of said container, and a multiplicity of battles located in the path of such streamand arranged in a plurality of concentric circles.

5. In an apparatus of the character set forth, a container, agitating means therein adapted to induce a directed stream in the contents of said container, and a plate located in'the path of such stream, and having a multiplicity of lugs arranged in staggere relation to each other.

6. In an apparatus of the character set forth, a container, agitating means therein adapted to induce a directed stream in the contents of said container, and a plate located in the path of such stream, and having a multiplicity of lugs arranged in staggered relation to each other in a plurality of concentric series.

7. In an apparatus of the character set forth, a container, a shell therein, a screw propeller in said shell adapted to induce a stream through said shell in the contents of said container, and a plate located in the path of such stream atthe mouth of said shell, and having a multiplicity of lugs arranlged in staggered relation to each other.

8. n an apparatus of the character set forth, a container, a shell therein, a screw of said container, a plate located in the path of such stream at the mouth of said shell and having a multiplicity of lugs arranged in staggered relation to each other, and vanes in said shell adapted to counteract the rotation of such stream due to the action ofsaid .propeller.

9. In an apparatus of the character set forth, a container, a shell therein disposed vertically and axially thereof, a horizontally disposed screw propeller arrangedaxially within said shell, spirally disposed vanes on the interior of said shell, a plate separated from and below said shell and disposed at a right angle to the axial line of the latter, and a multiplicity of vertical lugs on said plate, arranged in staggered relation to each other in a plurality of concentric series.

10. The apparatus described'comprising a container, a jacket inclosing said container and adapted to permit the circulation of mediums therethrough for heating or cooling the contents of said container, an axially located vertically disposed shell in saidcontainer, a horizontally disposed screw propeller arranged axially within said shell, spirally disposed vanes on the interior of said shell, aplate separated from and below said shell and disposed at a right angle to the axial line of the latter,"'and a multiplicity of vertical lugs on said plate arranged in staggered relation to each other in a plustream to swirl abruptly changing the direction of and subdividing such stream, and causing such subdivisions to follow devious and impeded paths.

' 12. In an emulsifier, a container, a vertically disposed hollow member within the same, a propeller in said member, a plurality of baflles beneath said member, and means between said baflles and propeller to counteract thetendency of the stream of liquid passing "through said member to ro-- tate or swirl.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I afiix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

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