US1630638A - Hull and cotton separator and cleaner - Google Patents

Description

J. A. STREUN HULL AND COTTON SEPARATOR AND CLEANER May 31, 1927. 1,630,638

Filed Sept. 16. 1925 JQHN MNULD STREUN, F

SHERMAN, TEXAS, ASSIGNOREU HARDWIC-ETTER CUM- IE, 0h SHERMAN, TEXAS.

HULL AND COTTQN SEPARATUR AND CLEANEE.

Application and September is, was. Serial No. taste.

My invention relates to an apparatus for breaking up the hulls of cotton and separating the same from the fibre and cleaning the cotton before it is fed to the gin. lln the ginning-of cotton, as it comes from the field, it is a common difiiculty that the cotton is very uneven in quality. Some of it is fairly clean and open, while in others the bolls are closed and have to be broken to loosen the cotton therefrom. Some of the cotton is not entirely ripe, and furthermore, it may be filled with dirt and chad.

llt is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus which may be employed on all grades of cotton as it comes to the gin, and to adequately break up the bolls of cotton, separating the bulls and chaff therefrom, and cleaning the staple before it is fed to the gin.

ln carrying out this invention, the improvements he in the construction and an rangement of the parts, as will be hereinafter set'forth, and for a better understanding of which reference is made to the accompany ing drawings, wherein Fig. l is a side elevation of an apparatus embodying my invention, the side of the housing enclosing the apparatus being removed to show the position of the parts, the housing of the refuse conveyor being in vertical section. Fig. 2 is a somewhat. diagrammatic view illustrating the arrangement of the agitator rolls whereby thccotton is fed to the saw so as to re move the fibre. Like numerals of reference are applied to like parts in both the Views.

in carrying out my invention, 1 provide an upper chamber 1 which is enclosed by housing 2 shaped to enclose and support the operating rollers, which will be described. Aninlet pipe or chute connects with the forward part of the housing and.

acts to conduct the cotton into the chamber. (In the lower side of the chamber 1 is a suction tan indicateddiagrammatically at 4, and this fan. is connected through a pipe 5 a with the lower chamber 6 of the housing.

The chambers l. and 6 are connected together, the space between the lower sup porting beams 7 of the upper housing being open to allow the passage of air therethrough. The operation of the suction. fan 41, therefore, acts to create a draft inwardly through the pipe 3 drawing the cotton into the chamber 1.

The cotton entering this chamber is ea gaged with some force by the radial blades of the beater 8. Said heater is mounted on a shaft 9 supported at its ends in the side walls of the housing. it rotates in the direction of the arrow and strikes the bolls of cotton, breaking them up somewhat and throwing them downwardly againstthe breaker rolls 10. i

There is a plurality of breaker rolls 10 mounted in a row at the lower side of the casing. l have shown four of these breaker rolls, each being mounted on a shaft 11 supported at its ends in the walls of the housing. lhese rolls are cylindrical and have radial spikes 12 thereon to-engage the cotton. The forward one of the series is mounted closely adjacent the concave 13, which consists of a plate with projecting teeth 14 thereon interfitting with the teeth 12 of the breaker rolls. The cotton will, therefore, be engaged by the rolls, and as these rolls are rotated in such direction as to carry the cotton towardthe concave 13 the bolls and hulls will be carried downwardly against the concave 13 and will thereby be broken up. It is contemplated that the concave 13 may be adjusted in the usual manner.

below the-breaker rolls is a foraminated screen 15 which is supported in position closely adjacent the lower sides of the breaker rolls and is curved to conform to the curvature of the rolls, as clearly shown in the drawing. The dirt and chad will be allowed to pass downwardly through the screen, and this operation will be assisted somewhat by the suction oft-he fan 4. The cotton will pass from the breaker rolls into contact with the blades of a vacuum fan. This fan comprises a shaft 16 having approximately radial blades, the outer edges of which are provided with flexible baffles 17 which contact with the p upper and lower walls 18 of the chamber in which the fan is mounted This fan will engagethe cotton and carry it under said fan and discharge it into a chute l9 Said chute 19 may discharge into either of two pipes 20 or ill, and a movable valve 22 at the mouth of the chute 19 may be employed to divert the cotton into either of the two pipes 20 or 21. lit the cotton is comparatively free of unbroken bolls, the valve will be drawn to the right so as to divert the cotton through pipe 20 to the chamber where cotton will be sub jected to a further cleaning,

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lltli llltl The chamber 13 is not Connected with the upper chambers 1 or 6. It has its lower wall inclined downwardly toward a trough 24 in which a screw conveyer 25 is mounted. Above the lower wall of the housing are a series of picker rolls 26. l have shown four of these rolls although any desired number may be used. They are arranged in a series inclined upwardly toward the forward side of the cleaner, thus the cotton when discharged through the pipe 20 will be received upon the lower of these picker rolls and will be worked upwardly until it passes the uppermostof the rollers and discharged into the distributing chamber 27. Each of the picker rolls comprises a cylinder having radial pins 28 thereon, said rolls being rotatable in a clockwise direction, as seen in the drawing. Below the picker rolls is a screen 29 which closes the space below the rolls and is curved to conform to the curvature of the rolls, as shown. It will. therefore, be noted that the cotton will be carried downwardly under each of the picker rolls and against the screen 29. This will agitate and break up the cotton and sift the dirt and chaff through the screen 29 down to the con veyer 25 by means of which it will be discharged from the housing. The cotton IS 1t passes from the cleaning chamber to the d15- tributor 27, may be carried to bins for storage, or may be moved directly to the gins for ginning.

In case the cotton is particularly bolly and dirty, it may be subjected to further agitation and cleaning before being dis charged to the cleaning chamber 23. This is accomplished by throwing the valve22 so as to conduct the cotton through pipe 21 to the agitating chamber 30. lVit-hin the said chamber 30 is a saw comprising a specially constructed belt 31 which is the full width of the housing and has on its outer surface a closely arranged series of upward- 1y inclined teeth 32 thereon. This belt is drawn over a pulley 38 at its upper end and a similar pulley 34.- at the lower end of the chamber. Beneath the saw thus provided is a sheet metal wall 55 closing the space below the same. To the right of the saw, as shown in the drawing, is an upper agitator roll 35 having radial teeth thereon to break up the bolls of unopen cotton. This roll rotates in a clockwise direction and tends to carry the cotton downwardly against the series of feeder rolls 35, 37, 38 and 39 mounted in a vertical series below the agitator roll. Each of the feeder rolls is provided with a series of teeth or bristles 4O thereon which are inclined bacltwardly from the direction of rotation. These bristles, as shown in Fig. 2, are arranged spirally upon the roll upon which they are mounted so as to serve as a conveyer to move the cotton laterally along the face of the saw. Each of these rolls is rotatable in a. counter-clockwise direction so as to carry the cotton toward the saw. The arrangement of the bristles upon each t'ceder is such as to carry the cotton in opposite directions relative to the adjacent rolls. Beneath each roll is a. trough 41 of screen, and as shown in Fig. 2. these troughs extend from one end of the roll to a point spaced from the opposite end of the roll leaving an opening 49 through which the cotton may fall on to the roll below. The arrangement of the bristles on the next succeeding roll will carry the cotton in an opposite direction to discharge it over the end of the trough on to the next lower succeeding roll. The lower roll 39 will carry the hulls through an opening in the housing to discharge them from the machine. Thus the cotton will be carried back and forth across the forward side of the saw so that before the bulls are discharged. all of the lint and cotton fibre thereon will be caught by the saw and carried away from the bulls.

The cotton lint caught by the saw will be carried upwardly and over the top of the pulley 33 where it may come in contact with brush rolls 43 and 44. The brush roll 43 directly above the pulley rotates in a counter-clockwise direction. as seen from Fig. l, and is spaced slightly away from the saw and will act to throw back the hulls which may otherwise be carried along with the saw. The brush roll 44. is rotated in a direction opposite to that of the roll 43 and is closely adjacent the saw so as to brush the lint from the saw and throw it forwardly through an opening 45 into the chamber 2:3 where it will be subjected to the cleaning action of the picker rolls 26. and from thence to the distributing chute 27.

The lower part of the chamber 6 has therein a conveyer roll 46 which catches the dirt and chaff coming through the screen 15 and discharges it into an outlet chute 47. It is understood that the chute 47 may have the ordinary type of canvas valve therein. allowing the discharge of the material which enters the same.

The operating mechanism consisting of pulleys and belts or chains upon the shafts of the various rollers and cylinders has not been shown, it being understood that this arrangement is carried out in the usual manner, and the arrangement thereof constitutes no part of my invention. It is simply necessary to arrange the operating means to rotating the shafts of the various operating parts in the direction indicated.

The action of my device has already been described. It is to be noted that the apparatus can be used upon the ordinary cotton of good quality,in which case the cleaning chamber 23 is used in conjunction with the hrealter chamber 1. If, however, the cotlot) ill

incense ton is belly, having a material proportion of unopened bolls, the cotton after passing the breaker chamber 1 will be discharged into the chamber 30 Where the halls will be eliminated before the cotton is passed to the cleaning" chamber 23, The apparatus is simgole in construction and arranged to most efliciently act upon all grades of cotton so as to feed a minimum amount of bulls and other foreign matter to the gin. [The quality of the cotton thus acted upon is materially improved over the cotton not otherwise cleaned. 7

Having thus described my invention, what l claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. in a device of the character described,

a breaker chamber, rneans to teed cotton thereto, means to break up said cotton, an agitating chamber below said breaker chamber, a belt having saw teeth thereon, a series of vertically spaced conveyor rolls adjacent said belt whereby said cotton may be moved back and forth across said belt, a cleaning chamber, and means to remove the cotton from said belt and discharge it to said cleaning chamber.

2. in a device of the character described, a breaker chamber, means to feed cotton thereto, means to break up said cotton, an agitating chamber below said breaker chamber, a belt having saw teeth thereon, a series of vertically spaced conveyor rolls adjacent said belt whereby said cotton may be moved back and forth across said belt,,a cleaning chamber, means to remove the cotton 'from said belt and discharge it to said cleaning chamber, comprising a brush roll in the upper portion of the agitating chamber, and cleaning rolls in said cleaning chamber.

3. in a device of the character described, a breaker chamber, means to feed cotton thereto, a series of horizontally arranged breaker rolls, a concave adjacent one of said rolls, a beater roll above said breaker rolls, means to discharge said cotton from said chamber, an agitating chamber, a toothed belt thereinl a series of conveyor rolls adjacent saidbelt, troughs below said conveyer rolls allowing the cotton and hulls to pass firom one to the other oi said conveyors, means to remove the cotton from said belt, and means to clean said cotton.

4. in adevice ofthe character described,

a housing, means to break up the bolls out cotton fed therein, an agitating chamber, upper and lower spaced pulleys therein, a belt running on said pulleys, forwardly inclined teeth on said belt, a series of vertically spaced conveyer rolls adjacent said belt,

troughs below each of said rolls, the rolls cotton thereto, laterally spaced breaking rolls in said chamber, a heater above said rolls, said chamber having an outlet opening therefrom, means closing said outlet against the inward passage of air and acting to discharge cotton from said breaker chamber, means to eliminate the hullsirom said cot ton, and means to clean the chaff and dirt from the cotton thereafter.

6. In a device of the character described, an agitator chamber, means to breakup and feed thecotton to said chamber, a belt arranged to run in an approximately vertical direction in said chamber, forwardly inclined teeth on said belt, means to feed the cotton repeatedly back and forth across said belt and discharge the hulls from said chamber, means to remove the cotton from said belt, and means to clean said cotton.

7. In a device of the character described, an agitating chamber, means to feed cotton thereto, a belt in said chamber having inclined teeth thereon, a plurality of vertically spaced conveyor rolls adjacent said belt whereby cotton may be moved back and forth across said belt, and means to remove cotton from said belt and move it from said chamber.

in testimony whereof ll hereunto affix my signature this 8th day of September, A. D. 1925..

JDHN ARNULD till)

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