US2119997A - Means for increasing the separating capacity of grain separating cylinders - Google Patents

Description

June 7, 1938. H MQYER 2,119,997

MEANS FOR INCREASING THE SEPARATING CAPACITY OF GRAIN SEPARATING CYLINDERS Filed Sept. 21, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 flown/20 /7. Mo YER j/W/wvm? June 7,1938. H, ER 2,119,991

MEANS FOR INCREASING THE SEPARATING CAPACITY OF GRAIN SEPARATING CYLINDERS Filed Sept. 21, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 [mkezzfor flow/420 fiMoyee.

ATTOENEYJ Patented June 7, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MEANS FOR INCREASING THE SEPARATING CAPACITY OF GRAIN SEPARATING CYL- INDERS Application September 21, 1935, Serial No. 41,613

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in grain separators commonly used in the flour mill and grain trades for separating grains from one another and from impurities. The main object is to increase the separating capacity of the cylinders, and the capacity is increased by practice of my invention about fifty per cent.

I am aware that various attempts have been made to increase the separating capacity of these cylinders, but none of the devices known to me or which I have seen in use accomplish to any appreciable degree this much desired result. For example, no device with which I am acquainted so handles the grain that a greater number of pockets is made effective as for example by so handling the cascading grain as to cause it to be carefully and nicely delivered into empty pockets which are approaching the grain load or grain wallowing zone of the cylinder. Moreover, in all devices known to me, the cascading grain is allowed to fall back upon the load or wallowing grain, whereby separation is interfered with, partly because of the size and weight of the load.

In the practice of this invention, the wallowing load is, so to speak, split in half by intercepting the cascaded material and supporting it by means other than the cylinder wall, and then returning it to that part of the cylinder which is approaching the load.

In the present device, means is also provided to facilitate the feed of the cascaded load, toward the tail end of the machine and means is further provided either in combination with the aforesaid means or separately therefrom to move or feed the wallowing load, or the load in the wallowing zone, toward the tail end of the machine.

Features of the invention include all details of construction relating to the function of increasing the separating capacity of the cylinder, along with the broader ideas of means inherent in the disclosure.

Objects, features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description of the drawings forming a part of this application and in said drawings Figure 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic longitudinal section on line l-l of Figure 2 showing my invention operatively related to a separating cylinder and its assocated trough;

Figure 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Figure 1 showing upper and lower longitudinal-feed flights on the cascaded-load carrying plate;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 in which the lower set of feed flights are omitted;

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 2 in which the lower flights are omitted and in which a guard plate is provided on the tail end of the cascaded-load carrier;

Figure 5 is a modification showing the invention applied to an adjustable trough spiral-feed type of separator, with the cascading load plate secured to the trough for movement with the trough when the latter is adjusted; and

Figure 6 is a transverse section on line 6-6 of Figure 5.

Figure 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic longitudinal section through a separating cylinder showing one form of the invention. Numeral I indicates the cylinder; numeral 2 the indentations; numeral 3 the trough and numeral 4 the spiral conveyor for the trough.

Referring also to Figure 2: The device of this invention, in this embodiment, has the form of a flat plate In normally stationary and suitably supported as by terminal rods H--l2, journaled in immovable supports l3. In this way the plate can be angularly adjusted and after adjustment the plate is held by set screws M. A handle or equivalent device [5 can be used for rotating the plate for adjustment. There is, of course, no intention to be entirely limited to a fiat plate, nor to a plate of any particular shape or size.

The plate is thus arranged within the cylinder and below the axis of the cylinder and the trough, and is spaced from both the cylinder and the trough. The cylinders are from fourteen to twenty-eight inches in diameter. The plate I0 is from about seven to fourteen inches wide and extends to about the full length of the cylinder..

It is ordinarily arranged at a slight angle to the horizontal. The longitudinal edges of the plate are spaced about three-quarters of an inch from the inner face of the cylinder. This plate is adapted to intercept cascaded material and according to its angular adjustment to more or less slowly move the material transversely across the cylinder and deliver it to that part of the cylinder which is approaching the wallowing zone. By this means the material is prevented from falling directly on the top of the load and the amount of the wallowing load is practically halved and therefore a more efficient separation occurs than when the material is cascaded back upon the top of this load.

With a cylinder fourteen inches in diameter and thirty-six inches long, the maximum capacity for separating oats and other impurities from wheat is about fifty bushels per hour. By the use of this invention, the capacity sometimesJl reaches one hundred bushels per hour, for the same machine.

The adjustment of the trough to dispose the lip 5 conformably to the speed of the cylinder regulates the thoroughness of the separation for any given set-up. This adjustment is, of course, made about the axis 4 of the feed screw.

The plate may be said to be related to the cylinder substantially as a chord to its arc, the plate of course having opposite longitudinal edges spaced sufficiently from the cylinder to allow the material to rise and be cascaded and be delivered to the trough. The area of the plate is relatively large as compared with the area of the inside surface of that portion of the cylinder below it. In these rapidly revolving cylinders, the body of grain which wallows in the bottom is generally carried by centrifugal force well to the right of the center line. In ordinary cylinders this leaves the space at the left of the center line with the indents largely unfilled. In the present device, the cascading grain is carried over and deposited in these vacant or partly filled indents so that they are practically all completely filled.

The difficulty in the separators used before this invention is that many of the pockets never fill or only receive one berry of wheat While as a matter of fact, the pocket is large enough to carry between three to six wheat berries, the number of course depending upon the size of the berry. In the present invention, the filling of the pockets is much more thoroughly accomplished and in some instances the separation is fifty per cent greater than is possibly obtainable with those machines of the prior art known to me.

Arranged upon the top or receiving face of the plate I0 is means for causing the material to be gradually moved toward the tail end of the cylinder. The cylinders generally have about a ten per cent downward pitch toward the tail. In this instance, this means comprises upstanding fins or flights 20 transversely diagonally arranged as shown, the fins being of relatively small height. These fins or flights are of relatively great value in the upper cylinder (of a two cylinder machine) inasmuch as it is desired to more quickly carry the large impurities to the tail of the cylinder. In the lower or seed cylinder, it is not desirable to carry the material as swiftly to the tail end, and it is intended herein to omit the fins or flights altogether in some cases. In fact, the longer the grain is held in the seed cylinder, the better chance there is of lifting the small impurities by the small indents and depositing them in the adjustable troughs.

It will be noted that near the tail end of the plate and machine the flights or partitions 2|] are arranged at such angles as to have a tendency to carry oats, barley and the larger material with the larger berries of wheat, backwardly toward the head end of the machine (or at least to no longer hasten, but rather impede, the course toward the tail) so that the indents of the cylinder will have more opportunity to pick up the larger berries which might otherwise pass over the tail of the cylinder with the oats.

Under certain conditions, I also use segmental plates 2| arranged on the bottom of the plate l0, and these plates slant in a direction opposite to that of the flights 20 to form with the latter a kind of spiral screw or to obtain a screw action which is indicated somewhat diagrammatically by the arrows. The two flights in any event are arranged at such a pitch that they will readily carry the large impurities to the tail of the cylinder. The outer edges of plates 2| parallel with the inner surface of the cylinder and their upper edges extend the full width of the plate H]. In Figure 3, the plate l0 does not have the segmental plates 2|.

Figure 4 shows a modification in which the tail end of the plate I0 is provided on the lower surface with an arcuate forwardly extending steel plate 25 which also extends the full length of the plate l0, and is advantageous in separating the seeds from the wheat on the seed cylinder since it prevents bouncing of the seeds so that these particles are caused to more readily enter the indents. The leveler 25 is spaced from and is substantially parallel with the inner surface of the drum.

In Figure 6 is shown another modification in which the cylinder l is not run at quite as high speeds. In this instance a trough 45 is used having therein a screw 46 which moves the material toward and into the spout 41. The shaft of the screw is journaled at one end in a bearing 48 carried by the wall of filling hopper 49 and is journaled at the opposite end in a sleeve 50 carried by a part of the tailings discharge spout 5|. It is noted that the spout 41 traverses this same wall. The cylinder is operated in a suitable manner well known to this art.

In this instance, the plate i0 is secured by means of fins 52 to the bottom 53 of the trough and therefore, as shown in Figure 6, the plate In is adapted to move with the trough when the latter is adjusted, and thus a fixed relation is maintained between them. Other fins 54 are also provided which function in a manner similar to fins 20 of Figures 1 to 4.

In the bottom or seed cylinder, it has been found, in some instances, that the separation of seeds is better if flights are not used, or it is better if the flights are all arranged substantially as shown at 20 in Figure l. The angular arrangement can of course be varied and it is the intention to vary this relation for various types of apparatus according to the use to which the apparatus is to be put. It is also contemplated in some instances to eliminate the flights altogether, particularly in seed cylinders. In the upper cylinder the flights are particularly valuable since it is desired to hurry the large impurities to the tail edge of the machine. In the lower cylinder or feed section it is not desirable to move the material as swiftly to the tail end as in the upper cylinder. The longer the grain is held in the seed cylinder the better.

This invention is relatively simple in principle and acts to split or halve or decidedly reduce the load being carried by the cylinder in the wallowing zone. About one-half the grain is cascaded and is thereafter supported by the plate, and moved by gravity to its lower end, to cause the material to be directed into the vacant pockets. In a method of this invention, the cascading grain is caught and moved practically entirely across the cylinder in a substantially horizontal direction. The tilt of the plate is preferably very slight, to slow down the travel of the material and to spread it out to be acted on by a very much larger area of the indented surface of the cylinder.

I claim as my invention:

1. In combination with a separating drum having pockets in its inner periphery, an inclined plate arranged to receive cascaded material and deliver the same to unfilled pockets of the drum which are moving toward the load, and an underlying shield spaced from the drum extending substantially longitudinally of the plate near the delivery side of the same, to prevent bouncing of the load when it is cascaded onto the drum.

2. In combination with a separating drum having pockets in its inner periphery and trough into which grain is delivered by the drum, a plate arranged below the trough to intercept the cascading material and move it transversely across the drum to deliver the same to the unfilled pockets of the drum, a set of upstanding 15 fins on the upper side of the plate, said fins extending transversely of the plate at an inclined angle to the longitudinal edge of the plate and being adapted to advance material during passage across the plate longitudinally towards the tail end of the drum, and a second set of similarly upstanding fins on, and extending transversely of, the upper side of the plate between the first set of fins and the tail end of the drum, the fins of the second set being angularly related to the fins of the first set and being adapted to feed material across the plate without advancing the same longitudinally toward the tail end of the drum.

HOWARD H. MOYER.

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