US2227758A - Lint conveyer system - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 7, 1941.

INVENTOR GEORGE C. 6/? N A TTORNE Y5 G. C. MORGAN LINT CONVEYER SYSTEM Filed Nov. 16, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR GEORGE C. MORGAN ATTORNEYS Jan. 7, 1941.

Patented Jan. 7, 1941 PATENT OFFICE LINT CONVEYER SYSTEM George C. Morgan, Birmingham, Ala., assignor to Continental Gin Company, a corporation of Delaware Application November 16, 1939, Serial No. 304,681

4 Claims.

My invention relates to a manifold conveyor system adapted to take the lint, in bat form, from the several individual condensers of a battery of gins, and break up or disrupt all lint masses so as to restore the lint to like free fiber form in which it reached the gin condensers, before commingling it and delivering it to the battery condenser.

Considering my invention as applied to the handling of lint from a battery of linter gins, but not thereby intending to limit my invention to that particular use, I find that the lint, in free fiber form, is borne by an air current of substantial volume from each linter gin to its respective condenser and there the practice is to separate from the lint this air current along with a sub-' stantial amount of dirt, trash and foreign matter, and discharge such separated matter through a manifold system to a centrifugal separator where the dirt and other matter, in suspension in the air currents derived from the several gins of the battery, is separated therefrom and disposed of.

The individual gin condensers collect the lint in bat form and the customary practice heretofore has been, by either mechanical or pneumatic conveyers, to collect such lint in broken bat or mass form, by a manifold conveyer system and deliver it in such form to the battery condenser, where in being restored to bat form it was again cleaned and separated from the air current that bore it to the condenser.

It is obviously of prime importance that the bat lint should be presented to the battery condenser in the most suitable form for the efiicient separation of air, dirt and trash therefrom and for its conversion into a bat of uniform characteristics, free of agglomerated masses of lint which envelop within them a substantial amount of dirt and trash and which disturb the uniformity in characteristics so desirable in the ultimate bat produced on the battery condenser.

My present invention is particularly directed to a method and means for handling the individual w condenser bats so as to break them down into :lree fiber form and eliminate the presence of agglomerated masses of fiber representing undisintegrated bat fragments before they reachthe battery condenser. I propose to accomplish this reduction of the lint bats from individual condensers back into free fiber form by the controlled action of air current thereon and to do this without requiring an excess volume of air in the conveyer system beyond that required to move the lint, as that would be objectionable in that it would impose additional duties on the battery condenser and unnecessary cost on the air handling system.

The essential basis of my invention lies in subjecting the lint, dofied or collected in bat form from an individual condenser drum, to the action of an individual air current, admitted preferably with the lint bat but so controlled as to produce a forceful whirl in the lint collecting lateral for such individual gin capable of breaking up thelint masses or lumps or the sections of the bat and of resolving them into their component parts, namely, lint fibers, dirt and trash.

A furtherimportant object is to produce, with the minimum possible volume of air, a whirl having the capacity and disruptive force required to disintegrate the bat sections and to furnish a fluid medium or carrier in which the lint and foreign matter can be suspended until delivery into the trunk line which collects and commingles the lint from the several gins of the battery and delivers same to the battery condenser.

The preferred means for accomplishing this end is the provision at each battery condenser of a lateral suctionpipe so disposed and arranged, with reference to a hopper or chute, that the lint and air entering such chute will be delivered tangentially, and at the requisite high velocity, into the suction duct so as to produce a vortex whirl therein, which in the manner described, will disrupt the bat sections and restore the lint to free fiber form. A suitable hopper and lateral suction pipe is shown in a copending application, Serial No. 239,182, but there, however, no provision is made for any disrupting and centrifugal separating efiect on the lint, dirt and foreign matter entering the suction lateral.

My invention is illustrated in its preferred embodiment in the drawings, in which: i

Fig. 1 shows in plan view a portion of a battery of linter gins having a conveyer system for the lint embodying my present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged end view of an individual gin condenser, broken away to show in vertical transverse cross section the lateral suction pipe and the hopper arranged for the tangential delivcry of a restricted air current bearing the lint bat fragments into such pipe, with the arrows showing the disrupting and separating air whirl produced in the suction pipe.

Fig.3 is a front element of the condenser looking to the left of Fig. 2, and showing the lint passing in bat form into the suction hopper.

Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

As illustrated, each of the linter gins 5 of a battery has its individual condenser 6 by which its lint is collected in the form of a continuous bat 7 (Fig. 3) While the air and dirt that is separated therefrom is conducted by a lateral suction pipe 8 to the trunk line 9 of a suction conveyer system and delivered to the blower fan I!) which forces same into a centrifugal separator ll, all this being in accordance with common existing practice.

The lint that is collected by the individual gin condensers is handled by a separate pneumatic conveyer system, comprising the trunk line 12 and lateral connections I3 which lead therefrom to each individual gin and there are connected each to a suction pipe 14 (Figs. 2 and 3) which collects the lint from its respective individual condenser 6 and the commingled lint from the several condensers is delivered, by the action of the blower fan l5, through a pipe 16 to the battery separator H, where it is taken off in bat form l8 and the air, along with any entrained dirt, trash and foreign matter separated from the lint, is delivered by the duct IQ for final treatment in the centrifugal separator l I.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 2 and 3, the individual condenser may be of any ordinary construction, that shown being of the rotary drum type comprising a rotating gear driven screen element 26, which receives the air and lint from its respective gin through the connection 2| and on which the lint is collected and pressed by the roll 22 into the form of a hat I. The condenser is shown as having heads 23, in which the dust outlet pipe 8 is mounted, and as being mounted upon a suitable base or support 24.

It is my object to collect the bat 1, after it has been formed on the drum 20, in any convenient way which will enable it, and the necessary air to convey it, to enter tangentially into the suction pipe l4, whatever its shape or wherever it may be placed. The simplest arrangement for collecting the bat is to provide a chute or hopper 25 and place it under, and on the downgoing side of, the drum 20 opposite a portion thereof that is open and free of any suction action within the drum that would tend to hold the bat on the drum. When the hopper is so disposed the bat is freeto be doffed thereinto both by the action of gravity thereon and by the inrush of the air current utilized as the medium for conveying this lint into the pneumatic manifold system. The hopper 25, as shown, is of a flaring type closed at its ends and having its upper wall edges juxtaposed to the drum surface so that the bat, as it falls away from the drum, will drop into and slide down this chute, being accompanied by an air current flowing principally between the drum and the outer hopper wall which serves as a chute. This hopper is sharply contracted and has a restricted port of uniform cross section extending along suction pipe M for the full length of the condenser with the hopper chute wall arranged so as to force this air current to enter at high velocity and flow uniforrnly and tangentially into the suction pipe 14 throughout the length of the hopper.

In Fig. 2 the bat is shown as if it were passing in a continuous sheet downwardly from the drum through hopper 25 into the suction pipe 14, but as a matter of fact the bat in this passage will be broken up into fragments or lint masses which are carried by the rapidly accelerating air current and they are broken up or disrupted, in part even before, and fully when, they enter the suction pipe l4, where the whirling action of the air at high velocity not only chsrupts all of the lint masses, bat fragments and lumps of lint, but reduces same to the form of free lint fibers. It also accomplishes another object, namely, of centrifugally separating the heavier foreign matter from the lint which tends to flow off along the vortex or axis of the whirl while the dirt or foreign matter proceeds more slowly in the outer belt of the whirl with a spiral direction of travel and enters the pipe l2 substantially separated from the lint.

My object, therefore, is summarized in the statement that I restore the lint by the action of the air in pipe I4, to the same free state as that in which it entered the individual condenser through the connection 2|, and in this form, free of lumps and agglomerated masses which will hold within themselves dirt, foreign matter, etc., the lint passes through the manifold system into the fan l5 wherein it is further agitated and beaten and blown to the battery condenser ll whence it passes in bat form IE to the trampers for baling. The dirt, trash and air separated from the bat lint IS in the separator I! are delivered by pipe l9 to the separator l l for further separation and disposal.

Attention is called to the fact that the energy created by the air whirl in the suction pipe I4 is suflicient to overcome any tendency of the suction to work with unbalanced effect lengthwise of the pipe M. This enables the port, that admits air tangentially into the pipe Hi to be kept of uniform size whereby the volumetric flow of air also can be kept uniform lengthwise of the suction pipe Is and restricted to the minimum amount required to disrupt the lint bat and bear it into the main l 2.

While I have shown my invention in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible of various changes and modifications, without departing from the spirit thereof, and I desire, therefore, that only such limitations shall be placed thereupon as are imposed by the prior art or as are specifically set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a pneumatic system for the collection of lint from a battery of gins having individual condensers, a main leading to a battery condenser, suction means to induce the flow of a current of air through said main, suction laterals leading from said main to the individual condensers for the several gins, and means to deliver the lint in bat form from said gin condensers along with an air current tangentially into the respective lateral suction pipe of each gin in a manner to produce an air whirl therein having sufficient inertia to disrupt the lint bat and restore it substantially to free fiber form.

2. The combination, with a condenser for an individual gin having means to form the lint collected thereon into bat form, of means comprising a suction pipe, means for drawing an air current thereinto tangentially at a velocity to produce a forceful Whirl, and means to introduce the lint in bat form into said air whirl which is adapted to reduce it by its disruptive action from mass form to substantially free, separated fiber form.

3. The combination of elements according to claim 2, in which the means for delivering the air current tangentially into the suction pipe, is a hopper disposed to receive the lint bat from said condenser.

4. The combination of elements according to claim 2, in which the suction pipe extends lengthwise of the condenser and has an air and lint intake port uniform in cross section, and restricted in width sufficiently to enforce an equalized air inflow thereinto lengthwise of said pipe.

' GEORGE C. MORGAN.

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