US2408191A - Pulp washer - Google Patents

Description

H. M. BARNETT ET AL Sept. 24, 1946.

PULP WASHER Filed March 27, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 JNVENTORS eonzer mas/1::

- JBY 1 Sept. 24, 1946.

H. M. BARNETT ET AL PULP WASHER Filed March 27, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 m i H NW N v mm R 0 WO 5 A \N.\ m N W W a 4 8 a mn h xv.

\Q E \W .5 a Q5 Q m rllll Q vfih Q hm Patented Sept. 24, 1946 Harold M. Barnett,

Long Beach, and-Rupert G'.

Masher, Downey, Calif.; saidMo'shfer assignor to said Barnett Application March 27, 1944, Serial No; 528,248

'6 Claims, (01. 100-37) 'I his invention relates. to-a machine. for washing out enmeshedv particlesfrom vegetable pulp and the like. I

:Ou-r'machine is particularly adapted for washing out carotene-containing particles from pulpedicarrots and. the: like." The carotene of V carrots: and. of other? carotene-containing vegetables, is, for the most part, segregated inthe vegetable in concentrated particlespor crystals, enmeshediinthe. cellular plant. structure. When the fibrous cellular structure of, the carrot is to'the' accompanying drawings forming part of f these specifications in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of one form of our machine;

Fig; 2 is a; side-elevation of the same;

Fig. 3 isa side elevation from the opposite side from Fig: 2, with certain details omitted to bett'ei'; show the arrangement" of driving means;

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional' View taken on the liner-+4 of'Fig. 2';

5 is a cross s'ectionaljview' taken on the line 5-5 ofFig. 2; t Fig, 6' is. a cross-sectiontof a portion of the foraminous belt showingw details-thereof.

In general our machine consists of a horizontal foraminous conveyor belt upon which a pulpedi vegetable material is delivered from a mill-, .with rollers. for successively squeezing out the liquid naturally in the pulp and also that which issprayed upontthe pulp as it passes on the belt intermediatethe rollers, with means for turning over and agitating the pulp, and for collecting liquid.- with suspended solids. which pass through the belt. Referring to the drawings-the foraminous belt l l is supported in horizontal' position on end rollers [land i3 mounted onrshafts l4 and 15. The shaft I4, at the discharge end of the machine, is supported by bearings 11 attached to end vertical members 18 and 19' of the-main frame of the machine, and the. shaft is extended for mounting drive pulleys-26 and. 21 as detailed below. The shaft 15, at-the'feed. end of the belt is supported in bearings 22.- arranged to be adjustably attached to themain'vframe side members 2!} and 21 by means of the ;belt tightener-means 23; with tightenin screws 24. The shaft 15 is also extended for mounting thedrivepulley 25. v

The upper run rstretch of the foraminous belt 11 is supported by-rollers 28, 29, '30, 31 mounted onbearings: fastened to the main frame sidezmembers- Z1, and disposed so that support roller-23 is: near a press roller 35 near the dischargeend of the; machine; support rollers 29 and 38' areon eitherside of intermediate press roller 35; and support roller 31 is near feedpress rol;1er,31. The pressrollers 35, 36, and 31 bear down on top of the upper stretch ofthe-belt II and are. supported on the top frame members 40- by shafts '4 I 42, and 43, respectively, 1 mounted inbearings-M. I

The-mainbelt'll is driven by a motor 48 having} a drive pulley 49 with belt 5!] toa speed reducingpulleyfil which in turn by belt drives thepulley; 21 attached to the shaft 14 of the roller [-3 which carries the foraminous belt II at thedischarge end. Press roller 35 is driven through its attached pulley 52- by crossed belt 53q.-from pulley; 26'on the'shaft M of: roller l3, The feed; end roller 12 isdriven by the main belt 11-, and. the; pulley 25 onits shaft 15 drives the press roller 31 through its. attached pulley 41 by crossedbelt 53. The intermediate press roller 36 is. driven by the pulley 46 on its shaft 42 by belt 54;,from: another pulley 56 on. the shaft 43 of. the feed end press roller 31-.

The'pressv-rollers 35, 36;;31 arepreferably made of; wood; and doctor or scraper blades 89,-: 51 and 58 areprovided for each to remove material which sticks'totheir surfaces. A distributor 59 is-providedbehind press roller 31 tocollect t itfinto lumpsand; redistribute it towardthe cencaked'pulp scraped off the roll and break ter f the: main belt ll; likewisea distributor filhisprovidedbehind press-roller 36 for'the same purpose. The relatively drymaterial scraped from press roller 35 drops onto the end of belt Ill. and isremoved by a scraper 6| placed'adjacent-the-b elt as. it passes. over the eroller- 13.

Pulped" vegetable materiaL. produced in the grinder shownaconventionally as 62,: driven by the motor 63;, is carried to the foraminous belt I-l bythe' separate conveyorwhich is shown for illustration as an inclined. belt (54 011 an upper drum $5 rotated through the pulley 66 and the belt 61 andthe drive pulley 69 of the motor mounted on the main frame at the feed end. A-scraper 10 is'provided to remove the pulp from gl'e. clolnveyor belt/6 1 and drop it on to the main lt r.

Nozzles. are arranged to. distribute water or 3 other liquids on the pulped material as it travels along with the main belt I I. As shown, fresh water from pipe 1| is sprayed on to the material following the intermediate roller 36 through nozzles 12 and 13, and is collected beneath the belt I! (top run) by a collecting pan 14 which drains to a pump 75 which discharges into the pipe line 15, which carries the washings or fresh water or a mixture of them, to spray nozzles 11 and 18, valves 19, 88, 8|, and 82 being provided for regulating the flow of liquid. to the several sprays. Collecting pans 83 and 84 are provided beneath the belt II for collecting the liquid from press rollers 31 and 36, and from the portion of the belt II between them, and a reservoir 85 is provided for storage of the liquid from which it may be pumped, as required, by pump 86 to other vessels, not shown.

The main belt Il may consist of any suitable foraminous material which has openings of proper size to let the desired fine particles go through, but fine enough to hold back the undesired larger particles of pulp. We have used various kinds of woven metallic screens but prefer a relatively coarse wire cloth belt 8'! with a cotton filter cloth covering 88 as shown in Fig. 6. This provides a non-stretching belt base having sufiicient strength to permit the rollers to be pressed against it to squeeze out the liquid from the pulp, and the cotton of other fibrous fabric may be selected for suitable fineness of openings. The fabric may be easily'renewed.

The operation of the machine will be illustrated by its use in removing carotene-containing particles from carrot pulp, which isdropped onto the main-foraminous belt II from the conveyor belt 64 leading from the grinder 62, and much of its liquid content is squeezed through the belt and collects in the pans 83 and 84 below. The pulp is caked by the squeezing action between the belt H and the press roller 31, and if the latter i of Wood, or has a wood surface, as we prefer, the pulp adheres to the roll surface until scraped offby a doctor'blade. It falls back in lumps onto the main belt, and water or dilute washings (from later stages) is forcibly sprayed through nozzle 18 on the lumps as these are forced toward the center portion of the belt by the distributor 59. The other nozzles, represented as 11, are'directed toward the oncoming lumps of more or less saturated pulp, the direction of impingement and amount of liquid being adjusted to avoiddrivin the pulp down against the cloth cover 88 of the belt thereby forming a filtering bed. The colloidal or semi-colloidal particles containing the'carotene must be mechanically disentangled from the pulp and separated therefrom by being forced through the belt; any compacting of the pulp on the cloth is to be avoided, because the colloidal particles will be held in the matted material.

The combined effects of forming a compressed pulp solid adhering to the wooden rollers which is broken up into lumps followed by further breaking down these lump with water jets to effect a maximum mechanical washing out of the emneshed colloidal particles bearing the carotene, without forming a filtering mat on the foraminous belt are important to the success of this process for separating carotene.

The wetted pulp is then passed through the intermediate press roll 36, squeezing out the Water and the suspended colloidal carotene particles, which are collected in the pan 84; the pulp is again caught up by the wood roller and scraped off, and the broken lumps sprayed by fresh water from nozzle 12. The lumps are steered toward the center of the belt II by the distributor 60, and further forcibly sprayed, as before, by water jets from nozzles l I. The water is finally squeezed out by passin the pulp under press roll 35, the semi-dry pulp cake being scraped off the wooden roll by scraper 89, and then dropped onto the belt H, and finally removed by the scraper 6| as the belt passes over the discharge roller l3. The liquid which goes through the belt ll between press rolls 35 and 36, and that which is squeezed out by the press roll 35, is collected in the pan 14, and since this is usually dilute in carotene suspension, it may be recirculated by the pump 15 to pipe line 16, where it again is used to wash out carotene from the fresher material. It is important ,in the subsequent concentration of carotene that it be associated with a minimum amount of water. In starting, or at other times, as may be desired, fresh water may be used in all or a selected portion of the spray nozzles.

While we have described a preferred form of our invention, we do not wish to be limited to the particular embodiment described, but restrict our invention only insofar as required by the prior art and the spirit of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a vegetable pulp washing machine of the class described, the'combination of a foraminous conveyor belt, end pulleys for said belt, upper and lower pressing rollers extending across the top run of said belt adapted topress therebetween vegetable pulpucarried on its surface, scraping distributors-following each of said upper rollers except thelast one adapted to break up the caked pulp and to redistribute it on said belt, and hydraulic sprayers disposed between said upper rollers adapted to hydraulically agitate and to wash the pulp on said belt.

2. In a vegetable pulp washing machine of the class described, the combination of a foraminous conveyor belt, end pulleys for said belt, upper wood-surfaced rollers extending across the top run of said belt adapted to press upon vegetable pulp carried on its surface and to pick the caked pulp off the belt, means to scrape the cake off said upper rollers, distributors following each of said rollers except the last one adapted tobreak up the caked pulp and to redistribute it on said belt, and hydraulic sprayers disposed between said upper rollers adapted to hydraulically agitate and to wash the pulp on'said belt.

3. In a vegetable pulp washing machine of the class described, the combination of a foraminous conveyor belt, end pulleys for said belt, upper rollers extending across the top run of said belt adapted to press upon vegetable pulp carried on its surface, distributors following each of said rollers except the last one adapted to break up the caked pulp and to redistribute it to the center portion of said belt, hydraulic sprayers disposed between said rollers adapted to hydraulically agitate and to wash the pulp on said belt, and means to collect the liquid passing through the top run of said belt.

4. In a vegetable washing machine of the class described, the combination of a foraminous conveyor belt, end pulleys for said belt, upper woodsurfaced rollers extending across the top run of said belt adapted to press upon a vegetable pulp carried on its surface and to pick the caked pulp off the belt, means to scrape the cake off'said rollers, distributors following each" of said rollers except the last one adapted to break up the caked pulp and to redistribute it to the center portion of said belt, hydraulic sprayers disposed between said rollers adapted to hydraulically agclass described, the combination of a foraminous conveyor belt, end

pulleys for said belt, upper wood-surfaced rollers extending across the top run of said belt adapted to press upon a vegetable pulp carried on its surface and to pick up the caked pulp off the belt, means to scrape the cake off said rollers, distributors following each of said rollers except the last one adapted to break up the caked pulp and to redistribute it to the center portion of said belt, hydraulic sprayers disposed between said rollers adapted to hydraulically agitate and to Wash the pulp on said belt, pans to separately collect the liquid through selected portions of the top run of said belt, and pumping means adapted to recirculate the liquid 6 collecting in some of said pans through a of said sprayers.

- 6. In a vegetable pulp washing machine of the class described, the combination of a foraminous" belt, end pulleys for said belt, upper wood surfaced rollers extending across the top run of said belt adapted to press upon, a vegetable pulp carried on its surface and to pick the caked pulp off the belt, means to scrape the cake off said rollers, distributors following each of said rollers except the last one adapted to break up the caked pulp and to redistribute it on said belt, liquid sprayers disposed between said rollers adapted to-hydraulically agitate and to Wash the pulp on said belt, pans to separately collect the liquid passing through the top run of said belt in the feed portion and in the remaining discharge portion of the belt, hydraulic means to deliver fresh water to said sprayers other hydraulic means to recirculate the liquid collected in said discharge end pan to said sprayers over said feed end pans.

HAROLD M. BARNE'IT.

RUPERT C. MOSHER.

portion over the discharge end pan, and

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