US2879950A - Multi-stage roll crusher - Google Patents

Description

HF CLPOLLITZ v MULTI-STAGE ROLL CRUSHER March 31, 1959 ZSheets-Sheet 1,

Filed Aug. 24. 1954 1 I I f Harold a Pal/Hz March 31, 1959 v H. c. POLLITZ MULTI-STAGE ROLL CRUSHER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 24. 1954 v ,Haro/d 'Pollj/tz United States Ptlttifo MULTI-STAGE ROLL CRUSHER Harold C. Pollitz, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, assignor to Iowa Manufacturing Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a corporation of Iowa Application August 24, 1954, Serial No. 451,819

9 Claims. (Cl. 241-143) The present invention relates to apparatus for reducing the size of crushable materials and is concerned, more particularly, with the provision of a highly compact multistage roll crusher providing a maximum material reduction with an absolute minimum number of rolls.

Rock crushing apparatus of the roll type has been in general use for many decades and has taken many forms. In the past years a great deal of development work has been done in connection with improvement of such apparatus, both from the point of view of simplification of design and in an attempt to obtain greater capacity from apparatus occupying less space and requiring fewer operators. While various roll crusher structures have been proposed for replacing the heretofore commercially used plurality of separate different sized crushers, these proposed constructions have fallen short of commercial; demands inmost cases.

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terial size without limitingthe capacity of the machine other than as necessitated by the first stage crusher pass dimensions.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide novel multiple pass, multi-roll material crusher having a large cmshing capacity limited by the capacity of the first crushing pass.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a novel four-roll crusher providing a first stage crushing pass and three reduced size second stage crushing passes.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-roll material crusher having an adjustment V for varying the relative positions of all of said rolls and having an overload release associated with each crushing pass to prevent damage to the machine by tramp iron.

Still a further object of the present invention is to pro- "vide a multi-roll, multi-stage crusher having a minimum number of rolls while having a capacity limit determined 'by the capacity of the first crushing stage.

A feature of the invention is the provision of four crushing rolls positioned in resilient adjusted association to provide a single first crushing stage and three second :stages. 7

Another feature of the invention resides in the provi- :sion of adjusting means associated with the second stage For example, it has been proposed in the art to manurfacture rock crushers having a plurality of roll passes per machine, on the theory that large chunks of crushable material might be fed in the top and that suitably crushed and sized material withdrawn from the machine at the outlet. Heretofore, however, multi-roll or multi-stage: crushing machines have proved unsatisfactory in actual! practice. This is true since it has been found that the: limit of the capacity of the machine is determined by the: capacity of the last and smallest crushing passageway=.. The net result of this is that while it is possible to pro vide a single machine capable of reducing crushable material from large sizes to a final small size, the capacity of the machine is no greater than the capacity of the:- small final passageway thereby requiring the machine to operate at a capacity far less than the capacity of theinitial crushing rolls. Under such circumstances it has-- been found much more satisfactory to provide separate machines as in the earlier systems such that the output from a single coarse crusher is conveyed to a plurality of separate fine crushers.

The present invention will, however, operate to crush. material through a plurality of stages with a minimum of crushing rolls while at the same time the capacity of the crushing machine is limited solely by the capacity of the initial crushing passage, within ordinary commercial crushing size ranges. provision of a pair of first stage crushing rolls operating. with a pair of secondary rolls cooperatively engaged with. the first stage rolls to provide three second stage crushing: passages. Thus, although the crushing passages in the second stage are substantially smaller than the initial stage crushing passage, in order to provide a further reduction. in material size, nevertheless by providing the plurality of a multi-stage crusher whereby material flow through the second stage may be controlled to provide a maximum crushing efficiency without at the same time permitting a backing up of material in the first stage of the crushing machine.

Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a crushing machine having a primary crushing stage and a plurality of secondary stages the latter of which may be adjusted to different widths whereby blending for the correct gradation of material may be accomplished.

Still other and further objects and features of the present invention will at once become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the attached :sheets of drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown by way of illustration only, and

of'second stage passes or passageways for each individual.

first stage passageway the second stage passageways are-g capable of handling all of the material leaving the first. stage.

mitting a substantial range of crusher adjustment for ma-- 'Wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view. of a crushing appaatatus constructed according tothe present invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of a crushing apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention and illustrates the opposite side of the machine from that shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic elevational view of the crushing rollers utilized in the present invention and illus trating the action thereof.

As shown on the drawings:

As may be seen from a consideration of Figures 1 and 2, the crushing apparatus of the present invention comprises generally a frame member 10 supporting four rotatable crushing rolls 11, 12, 13 and 14 of subsantially the same transverse length. As may be seen, the roll 11 is mounted in a fixed bearing 15 supported in the bearing support 16 which is in turn rigidly secured to the frame 10. For purposes of simplification, the frame comprises a pair of substantially identical side frame members 10 having horizontal top rail 10a, vertical end rails 10b and horizontal bottom rail 100. The two frames 10 may be secured to each other through any suitable means, such as for example the cross beams shown in dotted lines at 17 in Figure 1. A suitable base is provided'for the frame by means of brackets 18 welded to the horizontal bottom frame member 10c.

By rigidly securing the bearing supports 16 to the frame members 10, the axle 19 of the roll 11 is prevented from movement other than rotation thusproviding a .fixed drive axis for the remaining rolls. As may be seen, the axle 19 is fitted with a gear 20 which cooperates with the drive pinion 21 rotated by means of the pulley 22 operating under power supplied through belt 23.

In order to eliminate complete rigidity in the system, the remaining rolls 12, 13 and 14 are each mounted for both adjustment and resiliency. Thus, the roll 12 is supported by means of its axle 24 in bearing blocks 25 adjustably positioned by means of set screws 26 and resiliently maintained in the adjusted position by means of the coil springs 27. Since the bearing support 16 carries the member 25 in slidable connection therewith, the resiliency provided by the spring 27 permits the axle 24 to move horizontally toward and away from the axle 19 of the first roll 11, under overload conditions which will be described below. Likewise, the adjustment 26 permits the gap 23 between the rolls 11 and 12 to be adjusted for the desired degree of crushing.

Immediately below the rolls 11 and 12, the rolls 13 and 14 are counter-rotatively mounted on respective axles 29 and 30. The axles 29 and 30 are rotatably mounted in the pivotally mounted bearing supports 31 and 32 carried respectively by the pivots 33 and 34. As viewed in Figure l, the supports 31 and 32 are urged in clockwise and counterclockwise direction respectively by means of the springs 35 and 36 having adjustable tension controls 37 and 33. Movement resulting from the action of the springs 35 and 36 is limited by means of the adjustable stops 39 and 40 which determine the operating clearance or gaps 41 and 42 between the pairs of rolls 11, 13 and 12, 14. justed by means of the stops 39 and 40 and a resilient overload release is provided by means of the springs 35 and 36 in the same manner as the overload release is provided for the roll 12 by means of the spring 27.

A lateral adjustment in the horizontal direction is provided between the rolls 13 and 14 by means of adjustments 43 and 44 for the support posts 45 and 46 carrying the pivots 33 and 34, respectively. By providing threaded nuts 47 and 48 fixedly secured to the bottom rails ltlc of the frame, the support posts 45 and 46 may be caused to slide along the bottom rail to provide the adjustability above described. It will be noted that in view of the relatively large diameter of the rolls 11, 12, 13 and 14, a single adjustment may be provided in one of the posts 45 or 46 if desired wtihout causing a substantial variation in the gaps 41 and 42 during adjustment in the transverse or horizontal direction. Such an arrangement would, of course, decrease slightly the cost of the apparatus and may under certain circumstances therefore be desirable. that adjustment of the rolls 13 and 14 along the horizontal plane be accomplished equally thereby maintaining the gaps 41 and 42 substantially identical.

In "iew of the resiliency of the roll supports, finger gears or the like having a substantial amount of play are utilized for transmitting the drive from the main gear 20 to the individual rolls. The drive is accomplished through these finger gears to the respective rolls by means of finger gears positioned as may be seen from a comparison of Figures 1 and 2 showing opposite sides of the crusher apparatus. As may be seen, the gear 20 which is positioned on the front of the machine as shown in Figure l is driven from the main drive gear 21 and causes the roll 11 to rotate by means of the driving connection between the axle 19 and the gear 20. On the eel: side of the machine a finger gear 50 is provided for making engagement with the finger gear 51 on the roll .12 and with the finger gear 52 fixedly secured to the axle 529 of the gear roll 13. 'From the above interconnection, it will be apparent that power is directly applied to the rolls 12 and 13 from the main driving roll 11.

Power is applied to the secondary roll 14 'by means of the gear 53 secured at the opposite end to the axle 29 from gear 52, as shown in Figure 1. As is there illustrated, the gear 53 is in drivingconnectionwith gear 54 on the Thus, the gaps 41 and 42 may readily be ad- However, it is preferred 1 axle 30 of the roll 14. Since all of the gears 50, 51, 52, 53 and 54 are ofthe same diameter and number of teeth, the speed of rotation of all of the rolls 11, 12, 13 and 14 will be identical. It will be understood, however, that in some cases it may be desired that the speed of the rolls 13 and 14 be different from the speed of the rolls 11 and 12 and that in such cases in view of the direct drive between the rolls 13 and 14 through the gears 53 and 54 such a speed change could be effected through a modification ofthe number of teeth on the gears 50 and 51. In operation, material to be crushed is placed in the hopper 55 and from thence passes between the crushing rolls 11 and 12, as shown in Figure 3. The material passing between the rolls 11 and 12 is crushed to a maximum dimension equal to the width of the passage 28 between the rolls and is discharged into the space 56 immediately therebelow. A second reduction in material size is then effected by means of the second stage rolls 13 and 14 operating in cooperation with the first stage rolls 11 and 12 and also simultaneously in cooperation with each other. As shown in. Figure 3, the coarsely crushed material collected in the interim space 56 may proceed in any one of three directions. In view of the counterrotation, or opposed rotation, of the rolls 13 and 14, which is provided by clockwise rotation of the roll 13 and counterclockwise rotation of the roll 14 as viewed in Figure 3, there is a tendency for the rolls 13 and 14 to force the material collectedin the space 56 outwardly to the right and to the left through the passages 41 and 42, crushing the material between the rolls 11, 13 and 12, 14, respectively. However, a gap 57 is provided between the rolls 13 and 14 and is, preferably, of the same dimension as the passages 41 and 42. As a result, material having a dimension smaller than the dimension of the gap 57 will drop downwardly, through the passage 57 onto a discharge conveyor. Material having a dimension greater than that which will pass through the secondary gap or screening passageway 57 will be alternatively carried through one or the other of the secondary crushing passages 41 and 42 in which the material will be crushed to the same size as that passing through the passage 57. In this manner, three separate discharge paths are provided for handling the crushed material from the single first stage crushing passage 28.

In actual operation,.as an example, it has been found that a first or primary stage of crushing wherein a passage dimension of approximately 2-2/2 inches is provided at 28, is very satisfactory. Under such circumstances it is preferred that the second stage passages 41, 42 and 57 have a dimension of approximately /8-% inch. Using a crushing apparatus with a roll diameter of thirty inches stone or similar crushable material having an externalv diameter of approximately 44% inches may be crushed to /s% inch in a single pass through the crushing apparatus, a total ratio of reduction of approximately six to one, at a crushing rate dictated solely by the amount of stone or similar material capable of acceptance by the first stage rolls 11 and 12. This will remain the case as long as the combined area of the three second stage passages 41, 43 and 57, does, not fall below the area of the first passage 28.

It has been found desirable during the crushing opera-- tion to adjust the positions of the respective rolls so that the crushed output from the second, stage passages 41, 42 and 57 is at a rate just below that rate at which the material beginsto. back up in the space 56. By providing such adjustment, to diminish the dimensions of the passages 41, 42 and 57, a crushing pressure is applied to themassof materialin the space 56 causing the material to be forced under a positive, though slight, pressure through the crushing passages 41 and 42. It will be understood that while conventional rolls have been herein described as the crushing apparatus, nevertheless the presentinvention includes within its scope other rotating types of crusher apparatus such as for example, the impact type wherein the rotating members carry projecting impact implements for reducing the dimensions of the material.

being crushed.

As was pointed out above, each of the passages 28, 41 and 42, at which crushing pressure is applied to the, material, is provided with an overload relief in the form of a yielding spring controlling the position of the roll axis. Thus, the passage 28 may be enlarged momentarily upon an overload by forcing the axle 24 toward the left against the spring 27 as viewed in Figure 1 and, likewise, the passages 41 and 42 may be momentarily enlarged upon compression of the springs 35 and 36, respectively. This provision for yielding upon overload is primarily for purposes of permitting tramp iron or other miscellaneous uncrushable materials to pass through the crushing passageway without damage to the crushing apparatus. The springs 27, 35 and 36 are, however, sufficiently strong to prevent opening of the passages 28, .41 and, 42, respectively, except to pass such items as stray pieces of metal or the like and effectively prevent the passage of large size uncrushed, although crushable, chunks of material. It will be apparent, of course, that the passage 57 need not be yielding in nature since the action of the rolls 13 and 14 is such as to urge the material being crushed upwardly into the crushing passages 41 and 42 and away from the passage 57. Thus, only particles that will fall freely through the passage 57 against the counter action of the rolls themselves, will pass therethrough. Thus tramp iron of a size larger than the passage 57 will be carried by the roll 13 or the roll 14 upwardly into the yielding passage 41 or 42, respectively.

From the above, it will be apparent that I have provided a novel and unusually efficient crushing apparatus of the multi-stage type which is capable of reducing stone or similar crushable material at a rate far in ex cess of that obtainable by multi-stage crushers of the prior art. By providing a novel interrelationship between the first and second stage rollers, a plurality of second stage crushing paths are provided for each first stage path thereby permitting the passage of the material through the second stage of crushing at a rate at least as great as the rate of discharge of the first stage. As a result, contrary to the operation of crushing apparatus known in the prior art, the apparatus of the present invention is limited in its output solely by the maximum crushing rate of the first stage. By thus eliminating the major bottleneck heretofore experienced in the crushing field, the amount of machinery necessary to reduce stone or similar material fromquarry and pit size to finished size is greatly reduced and the supplemental secondary or second stage crushing apparatus previously necessary in order to operate the first stage crushing apparatus at full speed has been completely eliminated. Further, the conveyors necessary in connection with such supplemental second stage crushing apparatus has been eliminated with the result that the only conveyor equipment now required is a conveyor for loading the hopper 55 and a second conveyor for collecting and discharging the crushed material from the three outlet second stage crushing passages 41, 42 and 57.

Additionally, as will be readily apparent from the drawings and the above description, the secondary passages 41, 42 and 57 are susceptible of independent adjustment. Accordingly, it is possible to blend the final crushed product for correct size gradation. Thus, for example, where it is desired that a final product be no greater than one inch in size with more than half of the product Vs inch or smaller and the rest of a size between and one inch, the secondary passageways 41 and 42 could be adjusted to and 1 inch respectively or vice versa. Thus the material passing through passageway 41 would be less than Vs inch while that passing through passageway 42 would be less than one inch in diameter.

It will be appreciated, of course, that screening passage-1 way 57 may also be adjusted as an additional means for providing a blend of material sizes, thereby providing a crushing machine having three diiferent secondary pas sageways and practically an infinite variety of blends of final material sizes.

It will be appreciated that various modifications and variations may be made to the above described structure without departing from the concepts of the present invention. For example, it will be noted that various types of adjustments may be substituted for the adjustments rather diagrammatically shown in the drawings. Further, it will be understood that side plates may be provided between the ends of the rolls 11, 12,13 and 14 and the frame 10 to confine the stoneor other material being crushed. Such side plates have been omitted in the drawings in order to'more clearly illustrate the relationships between the component parts. In view of the variations possible without departing from the novel concepts herein disclosed, it is my intention that the scope of the present invention be limited solely by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A multiple roll crushing machine comprising a pair of primary crushing rolls positioned for simultaneous counterrotation adjacent but separated from each other and having axes lying in a substantially horizontal plane, means for rotating said rolls to draw material to be crushed downwardly through the primary crushing passage therebetween, and a pair of secondary rolls positioned immediately below said primary rolls for rotation counter thereto, each of said secondary rolls having its surface positioned adjacent the bottom surface of one of the primary rolls but separated therefrom to provide a secondary crushing passage between each secondary roll and its respective primary roll, said secondary rolls being positioned adjacent each other and adjustably spaced apart to provide a third secondary passage therebetween substantially directly below said primary passage, each of said secondary passages having substantially the same dimension and being individually of lesser dimension than said primary passage but collectivelyof larger dimension.

2. A multi-roll crushing machnie comprising two primary rolls and two secondary rolls, said primary rolls being positioned adjacent but separated from each other for rotation in opposite directions about horizontal axes to provide a primary crushing passage through which material is drawn downwardly by said primary rolls, said secondary rolls being positioned adjacent but separated from each other and each being immediately below a respective primary roll, each of said secondary rolls being driven to rotate in opposition to the primary roll there above whereby a laterally directed secondary crushing passage is provided between each secondary roll and the primary roll thereabove, said secondary rolls being adjustably spaced apart for simultaneously providing a secondary screening passage therebetween for passing crushed material of a dimension the same or less than the dimension of said secondary crushing passages whereby three secondary passages are provided for handling the flow of crushed material from said single primary passage.

3:. A multi-roll apparatus for crushing frangible material comprising, a pair of spaced primary rolls mounted on parallel horizontal axes and rotatable in opposition to provide a force tending to draw material placed on i the top surface of said rolls downwardly into the space therebetween for primary crushing, means for adjusting the width of the space between said primary rolls, a pair of secondary rolls each of which is positioned below one of said primary rolls in spaced relation to the surface thereof and on an axis parallel thereto to provide a pair of secondary passages for moving material from. the; exitof: said primary rolls: laterally for secon'dary crushing, and.meansfor. adjusting the' distance between said secondary rolls to provide an adjustable secondary sieve passageway below the: space between said primary rolls.

4. A multi-roll apparatus for crushing frangible material comprising, a pair of spaced primary rolls mounted on parallel horizontal axes and rotatable in opposition to provide a force tending to draw material placed on the top surface of'said rolls downwardly into the space therebetween for primary crushing, means for adjusting the width of the space between said primary rolls, a pair of secondary rolls each of which is positionedbelowone of' said primary rolls in spaced relation to the surface thereofand on an axisparallel thereto to provide apair of secondary passages for moving material from the exit of said primary rolls laterally for secondary crushing, means for adjusting the width of'each of said secondary passageways, and means for adjusting the distance between said secondary rolls to provide an-adjustable secondary sieve passageway below said space between said primary rolls.

5. A multi-roll apparatus for crushing frangible material comprising, a pair of spaced primary rolls mounted onparallel horizontal axes and rotatable in opposition to provide a force tending to draw material placed on the top surface of said rolls downwardly into the space therebetween for primary crushing, means for adjusting the width of the space between said primaryrolls, a pair of secondary rolls each of which is positioned below one of said primary'rolls in spaced relation to the surface thereof and on an axis parallel thereto to provide a pair of secondary passages for moving material from the exit of said primary rolls laterally for secondary crushing, means for adjusting the width of each of said secondary crushing passages, means for adjusting the distance between said secondary rolls to provide an adjustable secondary screening passageway below said space between said primary rolls, and means yieldably supporting the axes of at least one of said primary rolls and of said secondary rolls whereby non-frangible materials may be passed through the space between said primary roll and said secondary passages. without injury to said apparatus.

6. A' multi-roll apparatus for crushing frangible material comprising, a pair of spaced primary rolls mounted on parallel horizontal axes and rotatable in opposition to provide a force tending to draw material placed on the top surface of said rolls downwardly into the space therebetween. for primary crushing, means for adjusting the width of the space between said primary rolls, a pair of secondary rolls eachof which is positioned below one. of said primary rolls in spaced relation to the surface thereof: andonaniaxis parallel thereto to provide a pair of secondary passages for moving material from the exit of said. primary rolls laterally for secondary crushing, and positive drive means connecting one of said-primary rolls 1 to the-other of said primary rolls to assure simultaneous opposed rotation thereof and connecting said one primary roll to one of said secondary rolls for providing simultaneous rotation thereof with said one primary roll, and means positively drivingly connecting said last named secondary roll to the other of said secondary rolls for simultaneous counterrotation therewith.

7. Thestructureset forth in claim 6 wherein said driving means comprises in each case a pair of finger gears.

8. A multi-roll apparatus for crushing frangible material comprising a pair of spacedprimary rolls having a crushing passagetherebetween of a first large width, and apair of secondary rolls each of which is positioned below one of' said primary rolls and spaced therefrom to provide a secondary crushing passage of a smaller dimension than said primary crushing passage whereby crushed material from said primary passage may be crushed in said secondary passages without limiting the capacity'of said primary passage, and means for adjusting the widths of said secondary passages independently of each other to form said secondary passages with dimensions differing from each other to provide a blended crushed product.

9. A multi-roll apparatus for crushing frangible material comprising a pairof spaced primary rolls having a. crushing passage therebetween of a first large width, and a pair of secondary rollsv each of which is positioned below one of said primary rolls and spaced therefrom to provide a secondary crushing passage of a smaller dimension than said primary crushing passage whereby crushed material fromsaid primary passage may be crushed in said secondary passages without limiting the capacity of said primary passage, said pair of secondary rolls being spaced to provide a secondary screening passage, and means for adjusting-said secondary passages independently of each other to provide a blended product.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 566,992 Manes' Sept. 1, 1896 1,044,832 Wall Nov. 19, 1912 FOREIGN PATENTS 8,424 Great. Britain Apr. 7, 1906 18,256'v Australia: Aug. 5, 1929 78,696 Switzerland Aug. 16, 1918 271,780 Great Britain June 2, 1927 317,132 Italy Apr. 25, 1934

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