US2554082A - Discharge means for cookers - Google Patents

Description

y 1951 R. T. ANDERSON 2,554,082

DISCHARGE MEANS FOR COOKERS Filed Feb. 20; 1948 r I U a .0 [2 N I a 8 a D ,J a (a m 9 l I l N INVENTOR RAYMOND T. ANDERSON M 71 M mm.

ATTORNEYS Patented May 22, 1 951 DISCHARGE MEANS FOR COOKERS Raymond T. Anderson, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to The V. D. Anderson Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application February 20, 1948, Serial No. 9,874 1 Claim. (01. 23-2905) This invention relates to discharge valves for continuous cookers, such as are used for cooking, toasting or otherwise treating or preparing meal or other fibrous proteinaceous material, such as cottonseed, flaxseed or other vegetable seeds, or copra, nuts, or the like. The invention has more particular relation to cookers or vessels in which is treated meal from which the oil has been extracted by means of a volatile solvent, such as hexane. Such meal, after recovery of most of the solvent therefrom, is cooked or toasted in a closed container under pressure, either air or steam pressure, is withdrawn from the container, and after the gases, such as solvent, air and steam have been permitted to expand or escape, is dried and made available for use as an ingredient of stock feed or the like.

The present invention has for its object to provide improved discharge valve means for such a cooker, enabling the process to be carried on continuously, at the desired pressure, without liability of losing the closing plug by sudden expansion of the gases.

Another object is to provide improved discharge valve mechanism for a cooker of the kind described in which the meal itself is used as a closing plug for sealing the container, but is so manipulated as to permit the gases to expand only gradually or progressively, and not by explosive spurts, such as might relieve or reduce the cooking pressure.

Still another object is to, provide improved discharge valve mechanism of the character described embodying separated worm flights in a barrel having a preliminary imperforate portion,

in which a more or less solid closing plug is' formed, and a final perforate portion, through the openings in which the gases are permitted to escape gradually while still retaining or holding back the fibrous material against loss or escape. H

Further objects of the invention in part are obvious and in part will appear more in detail hereinafter.

In the drawings, which represent one suitable embodiment of the invention, the view is a front elevation, with parts broken away and in section to show interior construction.

The cooker itself may be designed with any suitable form and proportions. It is shown as consisting of an elongated cylindrical drum or vessel l0, say five feet in diameter and twentyfour feet long, provided with the usual external jacket to form a steam heating space H through which heating steam may be circulated as is z usual. Within the chamber I! of the vessel is a rotatable agitating shaft I3, arms on which support inclined agitating and material moving vanes, of the usual form. Steam for heating or cooking the material by direct contact may be supplied to chamber l2 in any suitable manner, either by way of moisture contained in or added to the material itself, or by way of pipe I4 hav-.

ing a suitable pressure reducing or' regulating valve or valves l5, to maintain within said chamber any desired steam pressure, say 10 to 30 pounds.

The material to be treated may be of any kind, but here may be assumed to be a vegetable meal remaining after extraction of the oil therefrom witha volatile solvent, say hexane, and the recovery of solvent from the meal. Solvent recovery should be, and usually is, complete, although at times some trace of solvent may remain. The extracted meal is fed continuously to the cooker through a suitable screw type feeder IS with separated worm flights, similar to that used at the inlet to the upper cooker in my Patent No. 2,269,898, granted January 13, 1942 for Treatment of Oleaginous Material, to which reference may be had if desirable or necessary.

The inlet to the cooker is at one end, (the left in the drawing) and the agitator vanes advance the material slowly toward the other end, where the outlet I1 is located. This communicates with the outlet valve mechanism of the present invention.

This comprises a cylindrical barrel 29, of appreciable length, the preliminary or advance approximately half portion 2| of which is imperforate, while the final or remaining portion 22 of the barrel is made perforate in any suitable manner, such as by perforating the cylindrical Wall itself or forming such wall of bars with narrow slots between them in the well-known manner. Within said barrel is mounted a shaft 23 provided with means for rotating it, such as a sprocket wheel 24 external to the barrel. Shaft 23 carries a series of separate form flights 25, several in each portion or section of the barrel. The shaft may increase in diameter toward the discharge end, the larger portion 23a increasing the pressure and reducing the thickness of the layer of material being advanced and assisting in release of gases therefrom. Into the spaces between separate or successive worm flights extend the usual knives or stops 26, to prevent rotation of the meal en masse. At the outer or discharge end of the barrel is a suitable adjustable choke, shown conventionally as the cooking chamber, or if no steam is supplied the moisture in the material becomes steam, as the result of the heated jacket, so that in either case the material is subjected to both heat and pressure while traversing the chamber.

No difliculty is experienced in the way of possible loss of pressure through the inlet valve mechanism which, as soon as it is fully in operation forms and maintains a substantially solid plug of the fibrous material and continuously urges it forward against the pressure within the container.

At the discharge end of the container, the valve mechanism of the present invention also prevents loss or reduction of pressure. Here the fibrous material first enters and fills the imperforate portion of the barrel. Beyond that it fills the perforate portion, being yieldably held back or restrained by the adjustable yielding choke. When the discharge valve is filled, the solid plug thus formed permits no expansion or release of the gases, such as steam, solvent or air, within the meal, until the perforate barrel portion is reached, and then only gradually, because the perforations are of small size. The fibrous material of course is held back and cannot escape through these openings, which, of course, are smaller than the fragments of mate-'- rial being treated. That portion of the solid plug within the imperforate portion of the barrel forms a stopper preventing escape of gas and sudden release of pressure from the chamber of the cooking vessel, while that portion of the plug within the perforate portion of the barrel is open to atmosphere in a limited way through the perforations.

Thus while the material traverses the perforate barrel portion the gases within the material expand or are relieved gradually, but the solid plug within the imperforate barrel portion maintains chamber pressure, avoiding, any possible explosive spurts or plug blowouts which hereto-'- fore have accompanied attempts to operate these cookers continuously. The fibrous material reaching the choke passes the same continuously and is discharged into any suitable container ready for use either immediately or after further treatment as an ingredient of stock feed or for other purposes.

Heating steam for the jacket space H may be supplied by way of pipe 30, the condensate being withdrawn through pipe 31.

While steam may be supplied to chamber i2 through the pipe system [4 such a supply is not always necessary. For example material may be treated which initially contains sufiicient moisture, or to which moisture is added, before it enters the heating chamber. Upon entrance to said chamber the moisture expands into steam, which serves the same purpose as steam otherwise introduced through pipes 14, and which is evacuated at the discharge valve mechanism in the same manner before described.

By the use of the mechanism described meal of any kind, or any other material, may be continuously subjected to cooking under pressure without liability of loss of pressure, thus increasing efficiency of the apparatus.

Other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

Material discharge means for a chambered cooking vessel wherein fibrous proteinaceous material is cooked under suitable pressure and temperature conditions, said discharge means comprising a cylindrical barrel having a receiving; end and a discharge end, passage means establishing communication between said vessel and. the receiving end of said barrel, said barrel having a perforate wall .portion near its discharge end, the wall portion of said barrel near its receiving end being imperforate, a screw shaft mounted for rotation insaid barrel and extending through both portions thereof and provided in each portion with separate, longitudinally spaced worm flights, means for rotating said shaft whereby to advance said material from the receiving end of said barrel toward the discharge end of.

spurts, plug destruction, and loss of pressure fromthe barrel.

RAYMOND T. ANDERSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,059,435 Brownlee Nov. 3, 1936- 2,203,666 Bonotto June 11, 1940- 2,269,898 Anderson 'Jan. 13, 1 942 2,331,910 Holly Oct. 19, 1943 2,355,091 McDonald Aug. 8, 1944*

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