US3489358A - Grist mill for wet milling of malt - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 13, 1970 c. LENZ I GRIST MILL FOR WET MILLING OF MALT Filed March 22, 1967 INVENTOR WWW United States Patent 3,489,358 GRIST MILL FOR WET MILLING 0F MALT Conrad Lenz, 2 Annenhofstrasse, 805 Freising, Upper Bavaria, Germany Filed Mar. 22, 1967, Ser. No. 625,210 Claims priority, application2G6ermany, Apr. 4, 1966, 3

Int. Cl. 1502:1/08, 23/00 US. Cl. 241225 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to brewery equipment, and particularly to an improvement in apparatus for converting malt to mash.

It is known to moisten malt prior to milling, to pass the wet and somewhat glutinous malt through the nip between two crushing rollers, and to mix the milled product with additional water to produce mash. A bin for the malt equipped with a water nozzle is arranged above the mill housing which encloses the crushing rollers, and the malt is fed to the mill by gravity through a chute or baffles which guide the material to the nip and prevent it from passing around the rollers. The wet material tends to form an arch between the bafiles or walls of a chute, whereby the gravity flow of malt from the bin to the crushing rollers is interrupted.

The object of the invention is the provision of simple and effective means for preventing the formation of arches in the path of the wet material between the bin and the roller nip.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION With this object and others in view, as will become apparent hereinafter, the invention provides the baflle or chute arrangement in the otherwise known grist mill with a bafile member whose top porition is secured to the stationary mill housing by a hinge in such a manner that the free bottom portion of the baffle member may move arcuately about a horizontally extending axis.

When this axis is vertically aligned with the nip between the crushing rollers, the baffle member is biased toward the nip by gravity. Wet material descending through the chute or baffle arrangement between the movable bafile member and an opposite fixed bafile member cannot form an arch because the movable baffle member yields under pressure transverse to the normal direction of malt movement.

Other features, additional objects, and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the drawing:

FIG. 1 shows a grist mill of the invention in elevation and partly in section; and

FIG. 2 shows a detail of FIG. 1 on a larger scale.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing in detail, there is seen a frame 10 which supports a mill housing 12. The housing encloses two crushing rollers 14, 16 which are journaled in the housing and rotated by a nonillustrated drive motor in the directions indicated by curved arrows. Malt to be crushed between the rollers 14, 16 is fed to the housing 12 through a top aperture 17. A rotary drum feeder 18 flangedly connects the aperture 17 to a bin 20 mounted above the housing 12.

The lower portion of the housing 12 forms a downwardly tapering hopper 22 which leads to the intake of rotary mash pump 24. A flange 26 connects the discharge end of the pump 24 to a pipe 28 which leads to a mash copper in the brewery, not seen in the drawing.

A valve 30 in the pipe 28 permits the material dischanged from the pump to be recycled to the bin 20 through a pipe 32. The pump 24 is driven by a nonillustrated motor by means of a belt 34 and pulley 36. The pump shaft has a vertically upward extension 38, the top of which carries a distributor plate 40.

Water is discharged downwardly against the plate 40 from an elbow fitting 44 arranged in the housing 12 below the rollers 14, 16 at the end of a water line 42 which also supplies a sprinkler in the bin 20 through a branch line 70. The structure described so far is largely known.

The malt fed to the housing 12 at a metered rate by the rotary drum feeder 18 is directed toward the nip 50 between the crushing rollers 14, 16 by two bafile plates 46, 48. In the illustrated inoperative position, the plate 48 extends in a vertical plane passing through the nip 50. The top of the plate 46 is horizontally offset from that plane, and its bottom slopes obliquely toward the plate 48 and the nip 50.

The baffle plate 48 consists of an upper sheet metal member 56 and a lower sheet vmetal member 60. Two eye rings 62, of which only one is seen in the drawing, pass through openings 64 in the bottom edge of the upper member 56 and openings 66 in the top edge of the lower member 60, and form a hinge 58 which connects the two members. An inspection window 54 in the housing 12 is normally closed by a cover 52. The movable baffle member 60 is interposed between the window 54 and the nip 50, and may be swung away for access to the nip by a handle 72.

The length l of the lower sheet metal member 60 between its hinged connection at the rings 62 and its free bottom edge 68 is such that the edge 68 scrapes the roller 14 when the member 60' is swung clockwise from the position shown in the drawing.

The grist mill described above is operated as follows:

A batch of malt is moistened in the bin 20 with water sprinkled from the branch line 70. Water running through the feeder 18 into the mill housing 12 is returned to the bin 20 by the pump 24 through the valve 30 and the pipe 32. When the malt has absorbed an amount of water sufficient for milling, the feeder 18 and the rollers 14, 16 are started. The crushed malt is further mixed with the spray of water which rebounds from the quickly rotating plate 40, and the mash so formed is discharged from the grist mill by the pump 24 and the pipe 28 to the mash copper.

When most of the malt batch has been fed from the bin 20 to the mill housing 12, and gravity cannot dislodge the small remainder still in the bin, wash water is introduced into the bin through the sprinkler line 70, and the water, carrying some malt, is flushed into the mill housing. The rate of water flow is such that much of the water flows over the rollers 14, 16, but the suspended kernels of malt 3 are retained by the bafiie plates 46, 48, the lower sheet metal member 60 being deflected clockwise, as veiWed in the drawing, by the stream of water until the gap between the edge 68 and the roller 14 is too narrow to pass the solid particles which are thus c1ushed in the nip 50.

When it is desired to inspect or clean the nip between the rollers 14, 16, the cover 52 is removed, and the lower sheet metal member 60 is swung by the handle 72 from the illustrated position.

Although the chute formed by the baffie plates 46, 48 tapers in a downward direction toward the nip 50, the descending wet and somewhat glutinous malt does not form an arch which would interfere with the feeding of the mill. The hingedly fastened lower sheet metal member 60 yields under the transverse pressure exerted by the descending mass of malt and Water so that the pressure necessary for tightly packing the mass into an arch is never reached. As the member 60 swings clockwise from the illustrated position, the material of an incipient arch is dropped into the nip 50 and the member 60 returns toward the illustrated position. The oscillations of the member 60 are transmitted to the descending material and account for the observed fact that the glutinous mass does not even adhere to the obliquely inclined stationary bafile plate 46.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosure relates only to a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a grist mill having a bin for malt to be milled, two crushing rollers arranged in a housing for rotation about respective horizontally spaced axes and defining a nip therebetween, and feeding means for feeding malt from said bin to said nip in a downwardly extending path, the improvement in the feeding means comprising:

(a) two baffie members mounted on opposite sides of said path for guiding movement by gravity of said malt into said nip,

(1) one of said bafiie members having a free bottom edge part; and

(b) hinge means securing said one baffle member to said housing for arcuate movement of said edge part about a horizontally extending axis between a first position adjacent said nip and the other bafile member and a second position remote from said other bafiie member and said nip,

('1) said one bafiie member being biased toward said first position by gravity and free to move outward of said path from said first position toward said second position under the pressure of material moving in said path.

2. In a mill as set forth in claim 1, said hinge means including two eye rings, said one baffle member being formed with openings therethrough respectively receiving said eye rings, and means fastening said eye rings to said housing.

3. In a mill as set forth in claim 1, said free edge part moving between said first and second positions through a third position in which said edge part is contiguously adjacent one of said crushing rollers.

4. In a mill as set forth in claim 3, the other baffie member having a face fixed on said housing opposite said one baffle member, said face sloping obliquely downwardly toward said edge part in said first position of the edge part.

5. In a mill as set forth in claim 1, said housing being formed with an inspection window, said bafi le member in said first position being interposed between said Window and said nip, and in said second position giving access to said nip from said window.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 295,043 3/1884 Ortman 241224 X 301,020 6/1884 Waak 24122S 352,446 11/ 1886 Butter-field 241-225 X 1,014,383 l/19l2 Frazee 241-224 2,560,837 7/1951 Alciati 24l167 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,092,420 11/ 1960 Germany.

ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner D. G. KELLY, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

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