US1370647A - Vegetable-fiber composition and process of making same - Google Patents

Description

G. A. HENDERSON. VEGETABLE FIBER COMPOSITION AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME. APPLICATION FILED NOV; 30, I915.

1,370,647, Patented Mar 8, 1921.

CNITEDAKSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A. HENDERSON, OF S'1.'ALBANS, WEST VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR TO '1. S. CLARK,

OF CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA. I

. VEGETABLE-FIBER COMPOSITION AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Batented' Mar. 8, 19212 Application filed November 30, 1915. Serial No. 64,285.

7 all whom it may concern:

. appertains to make and use the same.

The primary object in view is the effective impregnation of ve etable fiber with preservative material or producing a durable and eificient compound especially well adapted for paving and like purposes. 7

A further object in view is the expanding of the voids or interstices of vegetable fiber by the actions of cooking, heating and treating the fiber, and of driving out the moisture ,therefrom closely followed by the introduction thereinto of a preserving material of a binding nature whereby such fiber is caused to be impregnated to its maximum capacity therewith.

These and other objects, such as will hereinafter in part be set forth and in part become obvious, are attained in the carrying out of the process hereinafter specified; which process may most readily be disclosed in conjunction with a statement of operation of an apparatus especially adapted for the carrying out of the process, such as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which, I

'Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of such apparatus, I

Fig. 2 is a cross section taken on the planes indicated by line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Fig, 3 is an enlarged, detail, fragmentary plan view of the conteyer belt and trough, parts of the belt being broken away for disclosing the trough, and intermediate por tions of each being broken out for the saving of space. I 1

' Referring to the drawing by numerals, 1 is a cooker or boiler, heated by steam pipes 2 and having a hopper bottom terminating in a discharge opening controlled bythe rotary gate 3 which is adapted to deliver material from the container 1 into the trough 4 and onto the endless conveyer belt 5."

t appropriate points in the length of the trough 4 there are arranged presser rollers 6, 6 beneath which material from tank 1 is designed to be conveyed for having moisture expressed therefrom prior to the discharge of such material from the terminus of conveyer 5. The trough4 andconveyer belt 5 are fdraminated for allowin liquid, pulp and fine solids such as would produce impalpable powder to pass therethrough and to fall into atank or container 7 arranged beneath the trough 4. A draining plate 8 extends from tank 7 for the balance of the length of trough 4 beyond the tank. Attached to the under side of cooker or boiler 1 may be a drainage pipe (not shown) for removal of the sap and essences from the cooker from time to time.

- A heater is provided consiming of a housing 9 having a' stack or exhaust opening 9' at its upper portion and at its'lower portion havin a gas or other appropriate furnace 10. ested within the housing 9 is a hollow vat or container 11 which is spaced from the walls of the housing 9 and arranged just above the furnace 10 so that the-products .of combustion therefrom are designed to. pass freely allabout the container 11. The container or drum 11 is open ended, having an intake opening 12 at one end into which is delivered the materials discharging from the end of the trough 4, which intake opening may be equipped with a rotary gate such as gate 3 in Fig. 1. Stationed between intake opening 12 and belt 5 and delivery chute 13 may be measuring tanks for the purposes hereinafter de- -throughout the drum 11. .Propeller blades 16 are carried-by the shaft, said blades being fixed to the shaft at intervals along the same in position for slowly feeding the material within the -drum along the same from the intake 12 toward the discharge end thereof. Gearing 17 driven'by motor 18 is provided for actuating the shaft 15 and its propellers. At the upper part of the discharge end of drum 11, the vapor discharge .pi e 20 communicates with the drum, and a lower or fan 19 is arranged in pipe 20 and is adapted to be actuated for drawing steam or other gas from within the drum 11 and for effecting a forced discharge thereof, thus tending to create a vacuum within the drum 11. A discharge chute 21 is arranged to receive material discharged cube whose thickness is that of the particles up to three quarters of an inch in length,

and approximately one quarter of an inch wide, the object of this operation being the uniform impregnation, and uniform heating of each article without interfering substantially with the grading of the particles, into various sizes from those the size of a cube from drum 11 and the end of the drum is formed with an opening for permitting discharge of material into chute 21. "A door 22 is adapted'to close said opening when ever it is desirable to prevent discharge of material temporarily.

In carrying out my process, tank 1 is supplied with water and maintained in a boiling condition. Vegetable materials are supplied to the tank and retained therein a length of time sufiicient for exhausting sap,

pith and all soft and pulpy substances from the vegetable materials, so that the fibrous material is left with the pores or interstices expanded and cleared, but filled with water. The vegetable materials may be of such rsof.

fibrous substances as straw, corn stalks or stigar cane, but I prefer to emplby themore nearly solid vegetable materialssuch as'the hard-woods,.the softest being chestnut. In instances where I use such 'hard wood as beech, quebracho, fustic, maple and like woods of such density and close grain, I prefer to shear the logs into thin sheets, as hereinafter described, in which operation, as a modified procedure in my process, the logs of wood are boiled in water a predetermined length of time before being sheared into sheets, then ground into particles as hereinafter described, and in such-instances I rely, .for expansion. of the pores of, the particles,

and for thorough impregnation by abinding preservative, upon first heating the particles, to expand them, then introducing the particles into a bath of hot asphalt, and maintaining them in such heated condition. until further expanded by such heat, and until' the open pores of the particles have become saturated. with the asphalt or other preservative binder. Whatever the material, the

' vegetable substance is comminuted before introduction into the tank 1, and in the instances ofv the use of the harder woods, I

preferably rotatea log positionedin en-' gagement with a knife for shearing off thin sheets, after the manner customary in making veneer, and then grind up the thin sheets thus produced into fragments of irregular lengths and breadth, and say an average ofa thirty-second of an inch in thickness.

whose thickness .is that of the particles up to approximately three quarters of an inch in length, by the use of screens, not shown in the drawings, so that the smaller particles will, as nearly as may be, fill the voids between the larger ones, thus insuring further density of the completed, compressed product. Y

In the instance where theifibrous substances have their pores and interstices filled with water from the cooker, they are discharged "by gate 3 onto belt 5, and the'pulpy substances removed from the fiber by boiling or saturation are delivered also onto belt 5. The fiber is carried along the belt and discharged into intake 12, but some of its moisture, impalpable dust and pulpy matter is drained through the belt and trough 4 down into tank 7 The rollers 6 serve to express most of the moisture from the fiber before its remaining moisture driven out, which results in expanding and opening the pores or interstices in the particles which had just previously beensomewhat contracted by the pressure rollers 6; Just as the moisture is discharging as steam from the fiber, the asphalt or other preservative and adhesive material in drum l1 enters the expanded and expanding pores of the fibers and fills the .sameonly in sufficient quantity to cause the fiber, (when subsequently contracted as hereinafter explained, and compressed) to become thoroughly saturated with the perserving binder, and with just such excess thereof as may be sufficient to act'as a binder of the im-' pregnated and coated particles, care being The comminuted particles are of uniform thickness but vary in length and breadth quite materially, say from those the size of a,

taken that the percentage of preservativebinder shall be such that whenthe heated mixture has been compressed, and the particles of fiber have been contracted to approxi- This heating operation may be an i mate normal size, as a result of the affinity of the molecules of asphalt or other heavy. preservative, for, each other, dur ng cooling,

there shall exist in the completed, combetween the particles, in their compressed condition, and to bind them to each other. Hence. depending upon the character of the wood or other vegetable matter, and the impregnating and cementing agency selected, excellent results from my process are obtained by the adoption ,of the proportions of such particles and agencies, as follows: (the percentages, by volume being taken on the basis of the completed product), viz:

Pr'eservative and binder, by

' volume to 40% Fibrous material, by volume 60% to 7 5% These proportions can be accurately deter- I mined for any particular fiber by examination of the finished material, for determining if the fiber is impregnated to its full capacity without, however, carrying excess or waste asphalt or like material. a They may be like,- wise determined accurately by measuring first the voids and pores in the dry, uncon tracted, uncompressed fiber, secondly the degree of contraction and compression, and thirdly adding sufiicient quantity of preserving and binding material to bind the particles together after they have exhausted their absorbing efiiciency measured by their contracted, compressed size.

The materials are slowly but thoroughly agitated within the drum 11, and the steam discharging from' the fibrous "particles is drawn out of pipe 20 by the action of the fan 19.

Fromtimeto time, door 22 is opened, and the hot material is run out through chute 21 totrucks for delivery to the previously constructed street base, whereit is preferably spread at a thickness of approximately twice the expected finished thickness. That is, for example, it may be spread three inches thick, and it is then rolled, by ordinary steam rollers, down to approximately an inch and a half in thickness. In thus compressing the material, it is preferable to use a light steam roller, and then follow with a sufficiently heavy roller for comp eting the desired amount of compression. The thus completedproduct may be finished off with any desired sealing or other coat.

In the event the material fed through the chute 21 is not to be used at once, it is preferable to form the material into blocks of convenient size for handling, by slight compression applied to an ordinary baling press; The blocks thus produced mav be stored for future use, and when used are broken up manually or otherw se and then reheatedto a plastic state to facilitate spreading the same sand, cement or other filler of a fireproof nature, or it may be subjected to a solution of fireproof nature, before the same has cooled; or, in the event the material is not to be used at once, after emission from the chute 21 it may be baled as aforesaid, and then, after being broken up, it may be placed within areheating machine, and in this op.- eration, sand, cement, or other material may be added, to give the product added density, if desired.

What I claim is 1. The herein described process of treating fibrous material which consists in subjectingthe same to a cooking or boiling operation, removing the material from the cooker or, boiler and extracting moisture from thematerial, then subjecting the material to the action of a hot binding and preservative agent in a vat to convert the reing fibrous vegetable material which consists in subjecting the same to a cooking of" boiling operation in the presence of water, for a pre-determined period, then removing the material from the cooker or boiler, then while the material is hot extracting moisture from the same, then subjecting the material to the action of a hot binding and preservative agent in a vat to convert the remaining moisture in the-material into steam and to impregnate the pores made "acant by the escape offthe moisture from the material with the binding and preservative agent,

, drawing the steam vapors out of the vat during said impregnation, and finally removing the impregnated material from the vat.

3. The herein'described process of treating fibrous vegetable material, which consists in subjecting the same to a cooking or boiling operation, removing the material fromthe cooker or boiler while hot, then extracting the-moisture from the material while hot, then conveying the material through an open ended vat containing hot binding and preservative agent to convert the remaining moisture in the material into steam and to impregnate the pores'of the material with the binding and preservative agent, and drawing the steam vapors out of the vat during said impregnation.

- 4; Theherein described process of trea'ting fibrous vegetable material, which consists in subjecting the same to a cooking or boiling operation, removing the material ing the from the cooker or boiler while hot, then extracting the moisture from the material while hot, then conveying the material through an open ended vat containing hot binding and preservative agent to convert the remaining moisture in the material into steam and to impregnate the pores of the material with the binding and preservativeagent, drawing the steam vapors out of the vat during said impregnation, and finally compressing the material.

5. The herein described process which consists in moving fibrous material in a moist condition through hot asphalt in a vat so as to convert the moisture in the material into steam and to impregnate the material with the asphalt during the movement of the material through the asphalt, drawing the steam vapors out'of the vat during said impregnation, and after the material has been moved through the hot asphalt and before the impregnated material cools subjecting the same to pressure.

GfIn a process of treating fibrous vegetable material, forming comminuted fibrous particles of substantially uniform thickness,

of irregular lengths and breadths, removing sap. soft, pulpy portions and all matter soluble in water, from the particles, and impregnating the particles with compound of a binding nature, and compressing the same intoshape.

7. In a process of treating fibrous vegetable material, forming comminute'd fibrous particles of exactly uniform-thickness but of irregular lengths and breadths, expandparticles by heat, extracting all moisture from the particles by conveying the same through an open ended vat containing hot binding and preservative agent to expand the pores of the fiber, and to convert the remaining moisture in the particles into steam and to impregnate the pores of the material with a pre-determined quantity of binding preservative agent, drawing the steam vapors out of the vat during said impregnation, and then compressing the mate- .thickness,

breadths, grading the sizes of said particles rial into shape. v 8. In a process of treating fibrous vegetable material forming comminuted fibrous particles of hard wood of exactly uniform but of irregular lengths and from just larger than ifnpalpable dust up to three quarters of an inch in length, and mixing percentages of each size of said particles so that the smaller ones will, as nearly as may be, fill, the voids between the larger particles; then conveying the same through an open ended vat to heat the same, then do; positing the same into a hotbinding preservative agent within the vat, and agitating-the same a sufiicient length of time to .expel from the particles all remaining moisture, and to abnormally enlarge and expand and to bind the eration,

- the material into steam and to impre a preserving I particles,

the pores of the particles, to impregnate the same with a predetermined quantity of binding preservative agent, only sufficient in quantity to completely fill the pores within the fibrous particles, in their subsequently contracted compressed condition, to surround the particles, and fill the voids between the same, I

same together; then while hot, removing the material from the vat,

and while cooling compressing the same into shape.

9. In'a process of treating fibrous vegetable material, forming comminuted fibrous particles of substantially uniform thickness,

in their completed product,

vat during said impregnation, and v pregnated vegetable matter'while the same i is hot, and pressing the same into shape. 10. The herein described process of treat mg fibrous vegetable matter, which consists in subjecting the same to a cooking or boiling operation, removing the material from the cooker or 'boiler, removing the sap and matter soluble in water loosened from the material in the boiler compressingthe material to further remove its moisture content, then conveying the material through anopen-ended vat containing hot binding and preservative agent, deposited on thefibrous material in pro-determined quantities of each, then agitating the mixture in'the presence of heat tothe extent of expelling and expressing all remaining moisture from the vegetable fiber, drawing out of the vat all steam andvapors from the expanded fibers pores and surfaces, simultaneously impregnating the pores of the material with a predetermined quantity of preservative and binding agency, suflicient to fill the pores and voids in and between the particles; then removing the mixture from the vat; then allowing the material to cool; then reheating the material, then mixing a pre-determined quantity of sand and then compressing the mixed material into shape, substantiallyas described.

11. In a table'material, forming comminuted fibrous clearing the pores or interstices process of treating fibrous vegefrom the boiler, then r of the particles of sap and like soft materials, expanding. the pores by heat, impreging, with a preservative compound of a nating the expanded pores, while expandiso binding nature; then contracting the particles by cooling the mass; then reheating the material; then compressing the same,-Whi1e hot, into shape. Y

12. A fibrous composition, comprising Vegetable fiber which has been cleared of sap and soft substances from its pores, and impregnated with preserving material, the fiber being in the form of comminuted par- In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE A.- HENDERSON.

Witnesses J. RICE WARRICK, J. S. TEAY.

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