US1550095A - Spray shield for centrifugal machines - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 18, 1925. 1,550,095

E. ROBERTS SPRAY SHIELD FOR CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES Filed March 26, 1923 WWM 3- 7 'Qa/(MW Q U v may.

Patented Aug. 18, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT oF'F C EUGENE ROBERTS, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, ASSIGNOR TO THE WESTERN STATES MACHINE COMPANY, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, A CORPORATION OF UTAH.

SPRAY SHIELD FOR GENTRIFUGAL MACHINES.

Application filed March 26, 1923. Serial No. 627,811.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I EUGENE ROBERTS, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt Lake '5 and State of Utah, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spray Shields for Centrifugal Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the centrififgal machine art as practiced in sugar mills and refineries in whlch, after the liquid content has beencentrifugally extracted from the solid constituent, the latter which is walled u on the interior of the perforated centrifugal basket is subjected to a washing or spraying to further cleanse the solid particles from the adhering syrup.

As this washing or spraying operation is carried on when the machine is revolving at high speed, it produces very strong air currents with the result that a cloud of spray is carried up out of thebasket and wets the operator besides wasting the entrained or dissolved syrup carried with it.\

The present invention overcomes this trouble by providing a spray shield so constructed and arranged as to collect and divert the cloud of spray into the space between the basket'and its surrounding curb as the spray issues from the inside of the basket rim. This constitutes the essential feature of the present improvement, and will be explained in the following specification and will be definedin the claims hereto annexed. v

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a convenient and practical construction embodying the principles of this invention, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view showing the spray shield in operative relation to the sprayer, the centrifugal basket and its surrounding curb.

Figure 2 is a central vertical section of the parts shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of the spray shield detached from the machine.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional detail on the plane indicated in dotted lines on Figure 1.

The centrifugalmachine maybe of'any usual type and as shown comprises the perforated basket 2, suspended from the rotary spindle 1, and having an inwardly turned rim or top ring 3 which serves to prevent the overflow of the solid matter at the top of the basket as it builds in from the peripheral wall, the liquid passing through the peripheral wall itself under centrifugal action. T

The surrounding curb or casing 4, is of usual construction and is surmounted by the usual top ring 5, having an inwardly p-rov jecting ledge 5. On the curb is mounted any preferred form of sprayer mechanism 6, which in this case has an oscillating nozzle 7, arranged to direct acolumn of fine spray across the basket against the wall of sugar on the opposite side of the center.

[The form of spray shield illustrated in the drawings comprises a curved shield of arcuate form 10, extending substantially half way around the basket and having a depending flange 11 at its inner edge located approximately in line with the inside edge of the basket rim except that at its intake or deflecting end. the portionll is carried inward a substantial distance inside the line of the basket rim.

It will be understood that in the apparatus illustrated in the drawing the basket, according to the usual practice, is rotating ina clockwise direction so that successive points of the basket are continually approaching the intake or deflector end of the spray shield and receding from its opposite end. At the intake end of the spray shield .I provide a trough-like member 12, the

trough-being inverted so that its open side is downward astride of the inside edge of the basket rim. The trough preferably is trumpet form, that is, converging in the direction of rotation of the basket. At its receiving end it extends transversely across the arcuate plate 10 approximately radially of the basket so as to form a sort of inverted scoop with a curved wall arranged to deflect the air currents and the cloud of spray downward over the outside of the basket rim into the space between the rotating basket and its surrounding curb. The outer end of the transverse portion 12 of the trough or deflector is closed by means of the peripheral wall at 12".

With this arrangement the wet, sticky spray, instead of spraying over the operator and everything else near the machine, is diverted to the inside of the curb and outside of the basket thereby entirely eliminating what has heretofore been a great nuisance 'in the operation of the machine and conserving the syrup' content that is wasted by thus escaping from the basket since such content is now collected in the bottom of the curb.

What I claim is:

1. The combination with a centrifugal basket and its surrounding curb, of a spray shield mounted upon the curb in position to overhang the basket rim, and formed with a deflector arranged to direct the spray issuing from inside the rim of the basket into the space between the curb and the basket, substantially as described.

2. The combination With a centrifugal basket and its surrounding curb of a spray shield mounted on the curb to overhang the upper edge of the basket for a substantial arc of its circumference and provided with a spray-collecting deflector arranged above the side of the basket which receives the impact of the washing spray when the basket contents are being sprayed, said deflector being shaped to direct the spray into the space between the basket and its curb, substantially as described.

3. A spray shield for a centrifugal basket comprising an arcuate plate constructed to overhang the rim of such basket and provided with an inverted trough-like deflector arranged to overhang and bestride the rim edge of the basket when in operative position in order to direct the spray outwardly and downwardly around the outside of the basket rim, substantially as described.

4. A spray shield for a centrifugal basket, embracing an arcuate body provided at its inner edge with an inverted trough member converging in the direction of rotation of the basket to collect and divert the spray to the outside of the basket when the basket contents are being sprayed, substantially as described.

5. A spray shield embracing in-its construction a plate constructed to overhang the rim of the basket for a substantial part of its circumference and a deflector comprising an inverted trough arranged to extend across the rim of the basket and along its inner edge in order -to collect the spray rising from the basket and divert the same downward over the basket rim, substantially as described.

6. A spray shield for a centrifugal basket embracing a plate formed to overhang the basket rim for a substantial part of its circumference, and having at its inner edge a depending flange and a trumpet shaped inverted trough portion arranged at the receiving end to collect the spray rising from the basket and direct it around the outside of the rim and basket, substantially as described.

7. The combination of 'a centrifugal basket and its surrounding curb, a spraying device mounted at one side of the curb to direct its spray against the opposite wall of the basket, and a spray shield having an inverted trough-like deflector located above the position of im act of the spray to direct the spray rising rom the basket down around the outside of the basket inside the curb, substantially as described.

In witness whereof, I have subscribed the above specification.

EUGENE ROBERTS.

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