US2669488A

US2669488A - Granular material handling device

Info

Publication number: US2669488A
Application number: US242225A
Authority: US
Inventors: Barton S Snow
Original assignee: T W SNOW CONSTRUCTION Co
Current assignee: T W SNOW CONSTRUCTION Co; T W SNOW CONSTRUCTION COMPANY Inc
Priority date: 1951-08-17
Filing date: 1951-08-17
Publication date: 1954-02-16
Anticipated expiration: 1971-02-16

Description

Feb. 16, 1954 Filed Aug. 17, 1951 FILE. 1

B. S. SNOW GRANULAR MATERIAL. HANDLING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jarfon: 5 \srzozz/ Feb. 16, 1954 Filed Aug. 17, 1951 FIE- E B. s. SNOW 2,669,488

GRANULAR MATERIAL HANDLING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 16, 1954 GRANUIJAR MATERIAL HANDLING DEVICE Bartonrsasnom Chicago, Ill;,\ assignortto '1. W.

Snow-Construction Company, Inc., a corporationof Illinois 1 ApplicafidliAuguit'll 1951, Serial N0. 242,225

svfilaimsw (Cl. 302-41) This invention relates to La. devices'fon transporting-granular material andhmorexparticularly' toua mobile unit for blowing.suchmaterialirom.

one. place to-another. 0

There ware many industrial uses of granular material handling equipment suchaas the .handling of dry sandin railroad yards for use in both: steam and diesel loco-motives. The sand is an especially dried sand which is generallystored in. bins buildingsaor tanks: (until itis. to be used. 1

This sand is transported to the railroad yardin boxcars and the use of. this invention isparticularly directedto the unloading ,of such boxcars.

The primary object of this invention is. to provide aneffective, inexpensive device for transportingygranular material with a minimum of.

manual labor.

Another objector the invention is to provide; a device fortransporting granular. material.

which is operated by compressed air.

Arfurther object is the provision of a device of the characterdescribed which may be used to unload a storage bin, boxcar or. the like, of prac tically all granular material containedtherein.

One embodiment of the invention is illustrated in. the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. .l. is a side elevational view of the device with certainparts cut away to show the interior thereonand Fig. 2 is a top planviewof the .de- Vice shownin Fig. 1 asviewed from a plane .paral lelto the screw conveyor.

Dry sandras used to fill the sandboxes 011000,

motives mustbe transported or carried insome mannerfromboxcars inwhich itis .supplied to therailroads toastorage facility. Ordlnarily a boxcar will contain about 40. tons of sand which willbeusedfromtime to time inthe locomotives, with the storagefacility being used to store the sand until it is actually used. Compressedair isusually available around railroad yards and provides an economical and readily available source of motive power for conveying the sand from one place to anotherthi'oughpipe lines. One system for conducting sand to a storage facility,and. alsofrom the facility to locomotive filling tanks is shown in my copending application. Serial No. 125,908, filed November 7, 1949, now Patent No. 2,614,002. The system therein disclosed utilizes asandpressure drum for blowing the sand from one place to another.

.In the past a great amount ofhand laborphas been:used for bringing the dry. sand from a boxcarzto .thetsand drum or other storagecdevice; The sandwas generally shoveledinto awheelbarrowandrmanually moved out of the boxcartto the drum. The present invention provides a device-:for automatically conveying the sandfrom the :boxcar to the drum from which. it. may then.

be transported entirely by .air pressure in pipe lines to other locations. The device picks up the a sand by meansof a screw conveyor which'delivers it to a hopper, and. an air jet is used to blow the sand-through a discharge line to a point distant from the boxcar.

The device in its preferred form, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, has a main frame utilizing a hopper 3 made of cylindrical pipe with wheels 4 securedto the lower portion thereof for mov ingthe device from place to place. The hopper 3 is closed on its bottom end by a plate 5 and may be-open upwardly or closed by a top plate 6 which extends;rearwardly from the hopper 3 andjoins rear framing plate I to which. handle 8 is attached. flanges 9 of a;discharge nozzle [0. The nozzle [0 has an outer cylindrical casing II and an inner liner l2 telescoped therein to reduce abrasive wear ofthe granular material thereon. I'he structure thus far described comprises the base frame of the device.

Sand or other granular material is conveyed into the hopper 3 by means of a screw conveyor having a helical screw member [3 mounted loosely within a cylindrical housing l4 secured to the front of the hopper 3 and extending upwardly ing supports a scoop H which has parallel sides lflrjoinedby a-bottom IE] to form an upwardly open generallyrectangular scoop. A screen 20 l is positioned over the open end of the scoop to exclude-material which will not pass the screen.

This scoop issecured tothe housing I4 1by co-. operating brackets 2i and. 22' which arebolted; or otherwiseesecured to thehousing The bottom l91of the scoop is slightly curved so that the.

device mayrest on-the wheels A and the bottom In this manner the device may be of the scoop, pushed from place to place within a boxcar and clean out substantially all of the sand therein.

The operating mechanism of the device secures its motive power from compressed air supplied through a small air supply line 25 which con- .ducts' airl-throughan inlet line 25 to the inlet of an air motor 2?, Ordinarily air is available The plate 1 is secured between the.

around railroad yards at about 90 p. s. i. g. and such air may be used. The outlet 28 from the air motor exhausts air through a line 29 to the lower portion of the hopper 3 and through a jet nozzle 38 directed into the discharge port 10. A discharge line Si is connected to the flange 9 on the discharge port Hi so that the nozzle 30 may blow sand from the hopper through the discharge line 3| to a point outside of the boxcar.

The inlet and outlet to the air motor are provided with suitable valves 32 and 33 and a bypass line 34 extends between the inlet and outlet to the air motor to permit the operator of the device to direct air from the supply line 25 to the nozzle 39 without passing through the air motor. A valve 35 in the by-pass line has a simple push release control whereby the operator may quickly and easily permit air to take a direct path to the nozzle.

The air motor 2? is provided with a small sheave 38 and the shaft I of the screw is provided with a larger sheave 31 connected with the air motor by a V-belt 38 for driving the conveyor. When operating with air at 90 p. s. i. g., an air motor of about 900 R. P. M. capacity, arranged to drive the conveyor screw at about 250 R. P. M. Will exhaust air at about p. s. i. g. to the nozzle 30. Under such conditions about 4 to 5 tons of sand may be conveyed by the device in one hours time. The conveyor should be driven at such a rate as to keep sand within the hopper at least to the conveyor level so that the jet will not blow back into the hopper rather than into the discharge port. If the device becomes clogged, the air motor will slow down and the operator may then permit some air to pass through the by-pass line 36 directly to the nozzle to clear out the clogging.

The device is rather light in weight and easily handled by a single man within a boxcar. Sufiicient lengths of hose or pipes should be provided to permit the discharge line 3| to remain as nearly straight as possible since the sand may more easily be conveyed by the jet if the discharge line is straight. While the invention has been shown and described as embodied in a device particularly adapted to handle sand, it will be readily understood that the device is capable of handling other granular materials as well.

The foregoing detailed description is given for clearness of understanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom, for some modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A granular material handling device, for transporting material, comprising: a material receiving hopper having a material discharge port at its lower portion communicating with a discharge line; a material conveyor extending forwardly of and into the upper portion of the hopper for feeding material into the hopper; an air motor on the device driving said conveyor; a supply line of compressed air connected to said motor; an air jet at said discharge port directed into said discharge line; and an air line connecting said jet with the exhaust of said air motor.

2. A device as specified in claim 1, in which Wheels are mounted on the hopper to facilitate movement of the device, and the front end of the conveyor is provided with a scoop to direct material into the conveyor.

3. A sand handling device, comprising: a sand receiving hopper having a discharge line connected with its lower portion; a screw conveyor extending into the upper portion of the hopper and forwardly therefrom for feeding sand into the hopper; an air motor on the device driving the screw conveyor and having a supply line of compressed air connected to the motor; an air jet within the hopper directed into said discharge line; and an air line connecting the exhaust of the air motor with the air jet.

4. A device as specified in claim 3, wherein the screw conveyor has a housing opening into the hopper a distance above the discharge line not substantially less than the height of sand required to produce a head and provides a head of sand above the jet equal to the jet air pressure.

5. A device as specified in claim 3, wherein a by-pass line connects the air supply line with the air discharge line from the motor and a valve is positioned in said by-pass line whereby additional air may be directed to the jet.

6. A device as specified in claim 3, wherein wheels are provided on the device, and a scoop is provided on the forward end of the conveyor for directing sand into the screw, said device resting on the wheels and scoop whereby the device may be rolled from place to place and the scoop pushed into the sand to be moved.

7. A granular material handling device, comprising: an upwardly extending hopper having a laterally extending material discharge port in its bottom portion communicating with a discharge line; a screw conveyor extending forwardly out of the hopper above the outlet, said conveyor having a housing in which the screw is adapted to turn with the inner end of the screw being positioned within the hopper; a scoop on the forward end of the conveyor adapted to direct material to the screw; a compressed air line; an air motor connected to said air line and driving the screw at a rate to maintain material in the hopper; an air jet directed into the discharge port for blowing material from the hopper into said discharge line, said air jet being connected with the exhaust from said air motor.

8. A mobile granular material handling device, comprising: a closed receiving hopper having wheels mounted thereon; a screw conveyor mounted in a cylindrical housing secured to the upper part of the hopper and extending forwardly of the hopper; a scoop on the forward end of the conveyor housing for directing granular material to the conveyor; a source of compressed air; an air motor on the device coupled with the conveyor for driving the screw thereof, said air source being connected with the motor; a material discharge line near the bottom of the hopper; an air jet within the hopper directed into said discharge line, the exhaust from said air motor being connected with the air jet for blowing material from the hopper through the discharge line; and a by-pass air line from said air supply line to the air jet having a valve controlling admission of additional air to the jet.

BARTON S. SNOW.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 824,461 Zamel June 26, 1906 985,211 Selden Feb. 28, 1911 1,411,072 Wagstaif Mar. 28, 1922 1,860,127 Bernert May 24, 1932 1,991,403 McManamna Feb. 19, 1935