US2809400A - Apparatus for producing feather fibres - Google Patents

Description

9 7 M. s. MALTENFORT 2,809,400

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FEATHER FIBRES Filed July 23, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1

Martin S. Molten for! INVENTOR.

Oct. 15, 1957 M. s. MALTENFORT 2,809,400

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FEATHER FIBRES Filed July 23, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Marrih S. Malren for! Y INVENTOR.

Oct. 15, 1957 M. s. MALTENFORT APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FEATHER FIBRES 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 23, 1954 Martin S. Maltenforf INVENTOR.

BY all to. @S s APPARATUS non PRODUCING mama FIBRES Applieation July 23, 1954, Serial No. 445,259

3 Claims. (Cl. 19-4) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in apparatus and methods for producing feather fibres and is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No. 267,796, filed January 23, 1952, now abandoned.

An important object of the present invention is to provide a machine for producing feather fibres which is constructed and operable to effectively shear and tear feathers placed therein without chopping and pulverizing the feathers so as to provide a product containing only a small percentage of sharp quill particles and dust.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for producing feather fibres by means of which the percentage yield by weight of fibres from a given weight of feathers is many times greater than it has been possible to obtain heretofore by conventional apparatus and methods employed for producing feather fibres.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel apparatus and method for producing feather fibres by means of which a product of considerably higher quality than heretofore is obtained.

A still further aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for producing feather fibres that is simple and practical in construction, strong and reliable in use, efiicient and durable in operation, inexpensive to assemble, disassemble and service, and otherwise well adapted for the purposes for which the same is intended.

Other objects and advantages of the invention reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

Figure 1 is a side view of the hammer mill forming part of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a front elevational view of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken substantially on the plane of section line 44 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 3 but with parts broken away and shown in section for the convenience of explanation;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the hammer holder used in the invention with a hammer pivotally attached thereto;

Figure 7 is a vertical sectional View taken substantially on the plane of section line 77 of Figure 6 and showing a portion of the screen unit under the hammer, and

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic view, partly in section and partly in elevation to show the entire apparatus forming the invention.

Figure 9 shows a modified hammer unit.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, wherein for the purpose of illustration, there is disclosed a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the numeral 10 2,809,400 'Patented Get. 15, 1957 ice represents generally a feather fibre machine made according to the invention and having an inlet 12 at its upper end portion and an outlet 14 in its lower end portion and at one side.

The housing 10 is supported upon a suitable frame 16 having a power means, such as an electric motor 18, mounted thereon. The armature shaft of the motor is coupled to one end of a driven shaft 2t) that is rotatably supported in bearings 22 and which shaft, 20, extends through the housing 10.

A suitable number of collars or sleeves 24 are held on the shaft 29 by set screws or the like. Each of the sleeves fixedly supports a pair of rings or flanges 26 having circumferentially spaced apertures 28. The apertures in one ring of each pair register with the apertures in the other ring of each pair and registering apertures receive pins 3t) that extend through the transverse sleeve portions 32 of hammers 3 The heads 36 of the hammers are provided with smooth surfaced ribs 38 and rounded outer edges 40 for the purposes hereinafter described.

A screen 42 is removably supported within the lower portion of housing 10 by any suitable means. Screen 42 is constructed or woven from heavy round wire to form a lattice. The wire intersections are filled with metal, as at 4-4, to provide a screen having entirely smooth surfaces with no spaces at the crossings of bars or rods which would accumulate feathers. This construction of the Wire screen is necessary because of the pressure of feathers being driven across a regular wire screen drives fibrous material between pairs of wires forming the intersections and the pressure between the wires is strong enough to trap material between the wires so that the fibrous product extends into and covers the open area of the screen to an extent that such a screen becomes so clogged in a few minutes that fibres cannot pass through it. In addition, the pressure drop is so great that the passage of air through the machine is almost stopped.

However, by galvanizing or using a similar process in which the woven wire screen is dipped into a fluid material which subsequently hardens, the intersections of the wires are coated with the material which forms smooth unbroken surfaces at the intersections of the wires thereby eliminating open spaces at the junctions of the wires so that the fibrous materials do not become caught or trapped between the intersecting wires, and the open area of the screen does not clog. For example, woven wire screen galvanized as described above ran for a period of eight hours without clogging, while an identical woven screen not so treated clogged and became unuseable within only five minutes.

in accordance with the present invention the shaft 20 is driven to rotate the hammers 34 in the counterclockwise direction with respect to Figure 4 as indicated by the arrow and in order to increase the shearing action on feathers entering the housing 19 through its inlet 12, there is provided a smoothly ribbed concave 56 at the upper Wall of the housing. By providing this smoothly ribbed concave 55 at the upper wall of the housing, a substantial shearing and reduction of the feathers and quills introduced into the machine through inlet 12 is accomplished before the feathers and quills are caused to traverse the screen section 42 which acts not only as a sieve to screen out a substantial portion of the feathers after but a single pass through the machine, but also acts as a rough shearing surface by virtue of its coarse woven construction.

The concave 56 may be removably secured to the housing by fasteners or form an integral part of the housings removable top wall. The ribs of concave 56 are spaced radially outwardly from the hammer heads 36 and the screen unit is also spaced radially outwardly from the hammer heads to reduce pulverizing of the feathers to the feed chute and pass into the mill chamber.

- 3 a minimum while providing shearing action.

The outlet 14 of the housing is connected by a suitable coupling to the intake side 46.0fa suction fan unit 48. This fan unit may be of any conventional form involving a propeller 50 driven by a motor .52. The fan unit '48 also includes an outlet 54 for attachment to a conduit in a manner presently to be described. The outlet end '54 of the fan unit 48 is connected to the inlet conduit 58 of a Willow-typeirotary sifter 68 of known structure. This sifter includes an outlet conduit 62 that is coupled to a ceiling condenser 64 also of'known structure. An exhaust fan unit 66, of any suitable type is connected at its intake side to the outlet of the condenser 64 and the outletof fan unit 66 extends to a dust and air settling room or. cyclone (not shown).

In practical use of the present invention, the upper end of a vertically inclined guide chute or ramp is attached to the upper inlet end of housing and the lower end of the chute is disposed adjacent a pile of feathers.

Air and feathers enter the housing end system through the necessary tearing 'or shaft 2t? is driven at high speed by the motor 18, the T-shaped hammers 34 rotate counterclockwise within the chamber to circulate the feathers therein. The fast moving feathers are sheared across the surface of the liner 56 and the Wire screen unit 42 until the fibres are torn loose from the quill portion and the quill is rolled and crushed until splintering results and a fibrous material is formed.

The shape of the hammer tips or heads 36 permits the As the hammer heads to exert and maintain a heavy pressure on the feathers as they shear across the concave 56 and screen 42, and the fan' unit 48 maintains a strong draft through the screen to pull the fibres or sheared feathers out of the mill housing as soon as they can pass through the openings in the screen unit 42. The strong draft created by fan unit 48 prevents the recycling of fibres which would reduce the capacity and fibre length.

The described features of construction and arrangement are important to provide a machine and method which operates efliciently and satisfactorily to produce feather fibres. Thus, by reason of the smooth rounded ribs on the concave member 56 and the outer faces of the hammer elements as well as the uniform undulations afforded by the woven wire'mesh screen section, no sharp edges exist within the machine with the result that a chopping action on the feathers is substantially eliminated .and there results rather a shearing of the feathers. Chopping is to be avoided because it produces a large number of small sharp pieces of quill and a large quantity of dust, both undesirable. As distinguished from this, the shearing action obtained in applicants apparatus operates to reduce a large percentage of the quills to fibres which can be collected and used along with the feather fibres.

Furthermore, by causing the feathers to be first sheared over the ribbed concave 56 the'feathers and their quills are pretty well reduced to fibres before reaching the screen against the wall of the circular chamber where they are shearedagainst the ribbed concave 56 and then the wire screen 42. In addition, the hammers tend to compress the rotating bed of feathers against the concave 56 and screen 42 and, therefore, increase the amount of shear.

The free swinging feature of the hammers permits the thickness of the bed of feathers to vary without afiecting to any great extent the capacity of the machine, the quality of the product or'the power consumption. For example, as the thickness of the bed of feathers increases the hammers are forced backward in the trailing direction to increase the clearance between the hammer tips and the screen, but the pressure exerted by the hammers on the feathers continues to remain approximately constant.

The broad rounded heads on the hammers provide large surfaces by which pressure is exerted against the bed of rotating feathers without chopping or cutting the feathers, and the corrugations on the hammer tips permit the rotating hammers to get a grip on the bed of feathers and force them through the machine with resulting increased capacity and efiiciency of operation.

All materials passing through the screen 42 are carried to the rotary sifter 60 in which any hard quill particles are removed. The sifter comprises a cylinder 69:: having a perforated bottom 6% in which an agitator 69c rotates at a moderate speed. The heavy quill particles are thrown against the inside'of the cylinder 600 by centrifugal force and circulate until they fall through the perforations in bottom 6%. The fibrous product which is discharged from sifter 60 is almost completely quill free.

The sifted material leaving sifter 6% is then'drawn to the ceiling condenser 64 which removes the air and dust and drops the fibres into a bin (not shown). Condenser 64 is a perforated power rotated drum 64a within which internal suction is maintained by the draft fan unit 66. The fiber-dust-air mixture is blown against the cylinder 64a 'by the fan unit 48. The air and dust are pulled through the perforations in cylinder 64a and the larger fibres form a mat on the outside of cylinder 64a.

As drum 64a rotates, the fibrous bed passes under a compression roll 64b and at the bottom of the cycle a battle breaks the suction and the fibre bed drops off. A rubber fingered beater 64c knocks off any fibres which cling to drum 64a.

The ceiling condensenand sifter are commonly being manufactured by the Proctor and'Schwartz Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, therefor, the specific construc tion of these elements 'does not form a part of this invention, nor is the present invention intended to be limited to the structure-shown-and/or described for the condenser and sifter units. V

The feather-fibres produced by the present apparatus are a class of soft, fibrous, resilient materials which are uniform in color, apparently homogeneous, and are not easily recognizable as being derived from feathers. This process converts the bulk of the feather structure into section so that a large percentage of feather and quill fibres will be produced by a single pass of the feathers through the machine as distinguished'from a repeated number of passes of the feathers therethrough. In addition, the construction of the woven wire mesh screen section plays an important part in that the elimination of sharp angles and corners by filling in all such places in the screen section substantially prevents the building up of a bed 'or mat of feathers on the inner surface of the screen. Indeed, experience has shown that if such a screen construction is not used a mat or bed of feathers will build up in a very few minutes on the inner surface of the screen section thereby blocking the interstices and preventing withdrawal of the reduced feather and quill fibres through the screen section.

In the operation of the machine the hammers 34 function to cause the material to be rotated at high speed within thehousing. .Centrifiqgaljforce throws the feathers out fibres of varying lengths. Even the quill portion is subjected to such stress that it is torn into fibre-like particles. The finished product contains only a small percentageof dust, and the few remaining quill pieces are almost entirely free from the fibrous attachments and can be removed from the main mass by simple sifting or air flotation methods.

The feather-fibres have the same chemical and many physical properties of wool and can be used to replace or improve wool in many applications. The soft feather fibres can also be used to improve the texture of coarse wools or employed in. the manufacture of wool felts or blended with synthetic fibres such as rayon, nylon, dynel, etc., to increase warmth properties and to give softness to the yarns. V

Thefibrous materialproduced may also be blended with cotton linters and formed into batts on .garnett machinesfonbedding and .llpholstery purp Qses. to. in reas the resiliency and loft of the finished batts and greatly reduce the flammability.

Strong, light, fireproof wallboard materials have also been successfully produced from the fibrous material and inorganic silicate-type binders. The feather fibres have been used as fillers for plastics and produce finished materials having high impact and tensile strengths as well as excellent electrical resistance properties.

The quill particles removed by sifting or air flotation I represents a valuable lay-product and can be used in the manufacture of plaster retarders and keratin, a protein which is the basis for a synthetic extruded fibre and several amino acids.

The small percentage of dust produced and collected is not a true granular dust, but consists of tiny, soft, homogeneous fibres. This material is an excellent filler for molding compounds and produces light-weight plastics having high impact and tensile strengths as well as electrical resistance properties superior to most other fillers.

Obviously, the number of free swinging hammers carried by the pairs of rings 26 may be increased or reduced. In Figure 9 the hammer unit is composed of spaced rings 26a between which three equally spaced hammers 34a are pivotally attached.

Furthermore, while the invention has been described in connection with the manufacture of feather fibres, the apparatus may be employed efiiciently to produce fibres from other fibrous materials such as, for example, plant barks, jute, hemp, sisal, kenaf, cocoanut hulls, and so forth.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for producing loose fibres from fibrous materials comprising a housing having an inlet opening thereto, a concave member fixedly mounted in the upper portion of the housing and extending continuously therein for a substantial distance from the inlet opening, said concave member having rounded smooth ribs on its inner surface extending in a direction generally crosswise of the housing, an arcuate screen section of woven wire mesh providing uniform undulations on its inner surface mounted below the inlet opening and concave member and defining therewith a substantially cylindrical chamber having its axis horizontally disposed, the joints at the points of contact between crossing wires of said arcuate screen section being filled with a solid filler whereby to eliminate any V-shaped angles or voids in the screen, to the efiect that the tendency of the passing fibers to be caught in said V-shaped voids and to clog the screen is substantially eliminated, a shaft rotatably mounted in' said chamber coaxially thereof, a plurality of similar hammer elements pivotally connected at their inner ends to said shaft at uniformly spaced points thereabout and having enlarged head portions at their outer ends, said head portions of the hammer elements having their outer faces spaced inwardly uniformly from the arcuate inner surfaces of the concave member and screen section and having smooth rounded ribs thereon extending crosswise of the chamber and parallel to the ribs on the concave member, and means to drive the shaft in the direction which causes the heads of the hammer elements to pass the inlet opening and then traverse the concave member and screen section in that order to effectively tear and substantially reduce said fibrous material prior to reach ing the screen section.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1, the inner surfaces of said concave member and of said arcuate screen section and the outer faces of the head portions of said hammers being free of sharp edges in all areas thereof which come in close proximity as the hammers rotate, whereby to avoid cutting or chopping action on the fibrous material being sheared.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1, including further means for creating a substantial suction force at the exterior side of the screen section to draw therethrough the loose fibers produced.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 538,654 Burton May 7, 1895 834,661 Crawford Oct. 30, 1906 1,397,828 Williams Nov. 22, 1921 1,419,089 Williams June 6, 1922 1,620,303 Uhrig Mar. 8, 1927 1,707,697 Ward Apr. 2, 1929 1,828,490 Clement Oct. 20, 1931 2,172,096 Alfred Sept. 5, 1939 2,367,179 Arnold Jan. 16, 1945 2,532,660 Care Dec. 5, 1950

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