US3794177A

US3794177A - Continuously operating centrifugal hydroextractor provided with a mechanical timer

Info

Publication number: US3794177A
Application number: US00232400A
Authority: US
Inventors: B Lega; G Cecchi
Original assignee: TEXFLUID SNC DI G CECCHI
Current assignee: TEXFLUID SNC DI G CECCHI
Priority date: 1971-03-23
Filing date: 1972-03-07
Publication date: 1974-02-26
Anticipated expiration: 1991-02-26
Also published as: GB1360913A; FR2130723A1; JPS5112749B1; FR2130723B1; BE781115A; DE2213688A1

Abstract

A centrifugal hydroextractor for fibrous material processing, comprising a rotating basket and a dispensing member for the material to be processed, which is rotatably mounted coaxially with and internally of said basket. The dispensing member is provided with material guide paths from the center to the side walls of the basket; at least one disc valve, closing the basket at the top, is fast with said dispenser and has a central aperture for the material supply and a number of peripheral ports corresponding to said paths. Drive means provided for rotating said basket and dispensing member with different angular velocities.

Description

United States Patent 1 1 I [111 3,794,177

Lega et a]. Feb. 26, 1974 [5 CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING 3,707,235 12/1972 Talley, Jr. 210 377 CENTRIFUGAL HYDROEXTRACTOR' 2,752,043 6/1956 Van Riel 210/377 X PROVIDED WITH A MECHANICAL TIMER P E F k A s J rzmary xammerran ear, r. [75] Inventors: Berlando Lega; G annanglolo Assistant calvgtti Cecch" both of Flrenze Italy Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Harvey B. Jacobson; Clar- [73] Texfluid S.n.c. di G. Cecchi e B., enCe OBricn Lega, Firenze, Italy 221 Mar. 7, 1972 I [571 ABSTRACT [21] A 1 No 232 400 A centrifugal hydroextractor for fibrous material propp 'cessing, comprising a rotating basket and a dispensing member for the material to be processed, which is ro- [30] Foreign Application Priority Data tatably mounted coaxially with and internally of said Mar. 23, 1971 Italy .I 22121 71 basket The dispensing member is Provided With material guide paths from the center to the side walls of the [52] us. Cl. 210/377 at least one disc valve, closing the basket at [51] Int. Cl B01d 21/26 the p is fast with said dispenser and has a al 58 Field of Search 210/78, 377 aperture for the material pp y and a number of P ripheral ports corresponding to said paths. Drive [56] References Ci d means provided for rotating said basket and dispens- UNITED STATES PATENTS ing member with different angular velocities.

3,483,991 Humphrey 2l0/377 15 Claims, 14 Drawing Figures 50' 50 4 76' 5 27 52 o I a a. 06!; on :0 [7! 0 g 6, Z/ W a id PATENIEDFEBZB 1974 SHEET 2 OF 4 PAIENTEB FEBZS I974 SHEET 3- BF 4 PATENTEMazsmu 3,794,177

sum u (If 4 CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING CENTRIFUGAL HYDROEXTRACTOR PROVIDED WITH A MECHANICAL TIMER This invention relates to a centrifugal hydroextractor capable of being upstream supplied by a continuous flow of material to be processed, and downstream supplying a continuous flow of centrifuged material, without it being required to stop the machine for material loading and unloading and without any stop for the material flow within the machine. The present invention is particularly adapted to centrifugation of general fibrous material, either natural or artificial, such as textile staple.

Centrifugal hydroextractors hitherto used in textile industry are discontinuous machines essentially comprising a perforate cylindrical basket, internally of which the material is placed. When the machine is loaded, the basket is rotated, so that the soaking liquid on being subjected to the centrifugal force will exit from the basket holes.

The shortcomings exhibited by this type of machines are as follows: substantial labour for loading the material, thus closing and starting up the machine, then following centrifugation unloading the material; high current drains due to frequent full load startings; low productivity due to the high rate of dead times in loading and unloading; material stop because of using a discontinuous machine in an otherwise continuous processing cycle; moisture disuniformity in the processed material due to the high amount of the material in the machine upon centrifugation; substantial foundation structures required by a machine operating under heavy unbalanced loads and high speed of rotation.

Commercially available machines include also some types of centrifugal pulse operating hydroextractors, essentially comprising a rotating perforate cylindrical basket which is continuously loaded, and a disk which, upon axially moving from the bottom to the opposite edge of the basket, causes the centrifuged material to be ejected.

Such centrifugal hydroextractors are used to a low extent in textile industry because of the following main reasons: squeeze rollers have to be installed ahead of these hydroextractors since the efficiency of the latter would be unacceptable when supplied with a material too rich in soaking liquid; thus, the centrifugal pulse 7 operating hydroextractors would take up a function complementary to that of the squeeze rollers, and the installation assembly would reach such costs that in most cases suggest to give up to using this type of machines; substantial drains in driving power due to recipbeing used alone in textile industry only when a low degree of dehydration is deemed acceptable, substantially cannot yet replace in common use the discontinuously operating hydroextractors, and this notwithstanding the disadvantages in the latter.

The object of the present invention is to provide a centrifuge or hydroextractor overcoming the above mentioned disadvantages.

According to the invention, a continuously operating hydroextractor, particularly for fibrous material processing, is characterized by comprising a rotating basket and a dispensing member for the material to be processed rotating coaxially and internally of said basket; the side walls of said basket being substantially shaped as a frustrum of cone, the basket also having a bottom wall, while said dispensing member is provided with guide surfaces defining paths from the center to the side walls of the basket for the continuously fed material; a disc valve fast with the dispensing member closing said basket at top; the disc valve having a central aperture for loading and at least two side apertures for unloading the processed material; the hydroextractor also comprising means for rotating at different speeds said basket and said dispensing members and disc valve, whereby the material to be processed, as fed centrally of said dispensing member, is radially guided by the latter to the side walls of the basket so that the centrifugal force action can cause the material to naturally slide on said guide surfaces.

The invention will now be more fully described with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical section of the entire hydroextractor according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view showing a first type of machine with the omission of the picker;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view similar to that in FIG. 2, but for a second type of machine having a reversed relative motion with respect to the hydroextractor in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to that in FIG. 4, but for a third type of machine fitted with a double disc valve;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 77 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary schematic sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 9, showing an epicyclic controller train for the hydroextractor according to the invention;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line 9-9 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a scheme showing the circulation of the mechanical power;

FIGS. 11 and 12 are fragmentary sectional views showing the hydroextractor and epicyclic controller train as constructed according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary hydroextractor provided with a three-blade dispenser; and

FIG. 14 shows a modified form for the dispenser blades.

Now referring to FIGS. 1 3 of the drawings, it will be seen that the hydroextractor according to the invention substantially comprises an outer rotating basket 15, internally and coaxially of which a dispensing member 16 rotates, the latter being partially shown in FIG. 1 and more fully described in the following.

The basket 15 has frustro-conical side wall having holes 17 for the passage of water therethrough and a bottom wall 18 made integral with a hollow shaft 19 pivoted by suitable bearings and passing through the bottom of a trough 20 which, in turn, is carried by spring suspensions 21 from a base 22 for resting on the ground. Similarly, the dispenser 16 comprises a lower disc 23, kept slightly apart from the bottom wall 18 of the basket and made integral with a drive shaft 24 reent hereinafter. If desired, the holes 17 could also be omitted and the water emerge from the slit between the edge of basket and said disc valve 33.

As shown in FIG. 1, the trough is closed at the top by a bonnet or cylindrical structure, the bottom portion 27 of which embraces the basket 15 and along with the underlying trough 20 defines a chamber 27 for collecting the water from the basket 15 due to the centrifugation of the material within said basket. This chamber 27' comunicates through an outlet 28 on the bottom of trough 20 with a discharge piping 29 emerging laterally of the machine base 22. The top portion 30 of the closing bonnet for said trough forms a collecting chamber 31 of a picker for the centrifuged material. This picker substantially comprises the portion 30 of said bonnet and a rotating bottom formed of the disc valve 33 and is sidewise provided with a discharge outlet 32. The portion 30 of said bonnet at its central zone also forms a hopper 30 for introducing the material to be centrifuged and admitted, for example, by a conveyor belt, not shown.

Thus, the picker 30-33 assumes an annular shape and communicates with the basket 15 through suitable apertures in the disc valve 33 making up the bottom of the picker, as described hereinafter. Thus, the centrifuged material from the inside of basket 15, after passing the disc valve 33 as set forth in the following, will discharge in the picker, where the material turns either by inertia or because of rotation of the entire bottom 33 until encountering the discharge outlet 32, exiting therefrom at such a speed that it is routed to a next machine arranged for a processing subsequent to centrifugation process.

At the zone underlying the bottom of trough 20, an electric motor 34 is supported and by means of a hydraulic clutch 35 rotates the pair of driving pulleys 36, 37 (FIG. 1) which are rigidly interconnected. This hydraulic clutch is effective to facilitate both the machine startings and counter-current braking thereof. A pair of

belts

38, 39 connect the

pulleys

36, 37 to a second pair of

independent pulleys

40 and 41 controlling an epicyclic controller train 42 to be described hereinafter.

The different diameters of the four pulleys establish the difference in the speed of rotation of

pulleys

40 and 41. This difference in speed of rotation between the

pulleys

40 and 41,. as reduced by means of said epicyclic controller train, designated at 42 in FIG. 1, is transmitted to the above mentioned pair of

coaxial shafts

19, 24.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, showing a single disc valve machine, a more detailed description will be now given for the construction features of said despensing member and disc valve making up, as a whole, a timing device, the function of which is to retain the material to be processed for a predetermined time within the basket so as to carry out the desired degree of dehydration of the material.

Referring to the above figures, it will be seen that the dispensing member comprises a flat base or plate 23 and a pair of

vertical blades

25, 26 opposite to and spaced apart from each other, conjunctly defining paths leading the fed material from center to walls of basket 15, so that, due to the centrifugal force, the material will slide naturally on the surface guides of said blades. Thus, as shown in FIG 2 where it is assumed that the absolute speed of rotation for the blades is lower than the absolute speed of rotation for the basket, so that the direction of the relative motion for the blades is reversed to that for the basket 15, each of the blades have a first

straight length

25, 26 parallel arranged to a diameter of basket 15, followed by a second curve length 25", 26" which is bent in an opposite direction to that of the relative motion of the blade.

When comparing FIG. 2 with FIG. 4, in which maintaining the same direction of rotation for the basket and timer, as shown by the arrow 45 in both figures, but varying the absolute speed of rotation for the timer, it will be seen that mutually reversed directions of relative motion for the timer are obtained; particularly in FIG. 2, the timer rotates anticlockwise at a lower speed than basket 15 and hence the relative direction of rotation of said timer indicated by arrow 46, corresponds to the clockwise direction of rotation of said timer, while in FIG. 4, being the speed of rotation for the timer slightly higher than that for the basket, the relative motion direction for the timer is reversed or anticlockwise, as shown by arrow 47. By explanatory way, it is specified that this difference in speed of rotation between the basket and timer is extremely small and in the order of fractions of a turn as a result of the centrifugation period required by the material. For example, it is specified that the basket is rotated at about 1,000 r.p.m. and the dispenser is rotated at about 999.25 r.p.m. In addition, the curvature of the blades should be such that the material paths are so directed that the material never impinges the outlet edge of the blades and impales between said edge and the inner basket face.

The difference between the embodiment of FIG. 3 and that of FIG. 4 also lies in the different position the

discharge ports

48 and 49 on the edge of the disc valve 33 for the material outlet assume relative to the

corresponding blades

26 and 25, respectively.

Thus, the material to be centrifuged from the hopper 30', on passing through the central hole 50 in the disc valve 33, will continuously fall down on the underlying dispenser and slide by centrifugal force along the

blades

25 and 26 to the walls of basket 15 where it adheres, while being prevented from exiting out of the basket by the disc valve 33.

Owing to the higher adherence the material exhibits on the basket walls relative to that on the disc valve 33, as a result of the centrifugal force the material is caused to follow the rotational motion of the basket and to creep under the disc valve, so that in connection with the latter, the material moves in the direction of

arrows

51 and 52 in FIG. 2 and respectively 54 and 53 in FIG. 4, respectively to the

outlet ports

49, 48 in FIG. 2 and 49, 48 in FIG. 4 in said disc valve. Thus the centrifuged material emerges after a centrifugation time proportional to the angular spacing between a blade and associated outlet port and discharges into the picker chamber 31, emerging therefrom through the discharge outlet 32 (FIG. 1).

The shape of the

mechanical timer

23, 25, 26, 33, which is an essential element in the invention, is such as to render the hydroextractor capable of also centrifuging the textile staple, which for its fibrous nature tends to wrap about any mechanical member being impinged by a flow of said staple, upon accumulation, stopping said flow and which, offering one of the major merits in the length of its fibers, cannot undergo mechanical strains which would impair its commercial value. Thus, such is the shape of the dispenser that the machine can be loaded along its axis of rotation, where the speeds due to rotation tend to cancel, enabling the material to be collected by the blades without undergoing undue acceleration stresses; then to be gradually accelerated along its path on the blades until being laid on the basket, where it arrives without any possibility of being retained by the unavoidable connection members of the disc valve with the associated driving shaft. The angular spacing between the discharge ports of the valve disc and the outlet edges of the blades is constant in time, and therefore, also because of the constancy in the speed of relative rotation between the basket and mechanical timer, the centrifugation time of the material is constant, thus ensuring the uniformity in dehydration thereof.

In order to increase the centrifugation time for the material under the same production, or to allow for processings of the material as it passes through the machine, such as for example a material washing after a first centrifugation and resulting final centrifugation, a machine provided with a plurality of disc valves could be used.

An exemplary machine having two disc valves is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 of the appended drawings, wherein the unaltered parts are still designated by the same reference numerals.

From FIG. 7, it will be seen that the dispenser is comprised of the disc 55 carrying at the top a pair of vertical blades 56, 57, the construction of which is quite identical to that for the previously mentioned blades, but of a height obviously less than that of the basket, which blades are in turn made fast with a first intermediate disc valve 58. Said intermediate disc valve 58 is provided with a central hole 59 for material loading, outlet ports 60, 61 for discharging the centrifuged material to the upper zone of basket 15, and is made fast with a second disc valve 62 closing the basket at the top. Of course, this disc valve 62 is provided with a central hole 63 communicating through a conduit with the aperture 59 of the underlying disc valve 58 and has

ports

64, 65 for unloading the material into the overlying collecting means (not shown in FIGS. 6 and 7). The location of ports 60, 61 of the first disc valve 58 corresponds to that as shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 4, depending on the direction of the relative motion for the timer relative to basket 15, while the location of

ports

64 and 65 of the second disc valve 62 is angularly offset, with respect to the location of the ports of the underlying disc valve in the same direction the latter are offset with respect to the dispenser blades.

In the particular case of FIG. 6, the material on being left from the blade 56, will follow the broken line path 65 and emerge first through the port 61 of the inner disc valve 58 and then, still following the broken line path in FIG. 6, will move relatively of the overlying disc valve 62 to finally emerge through the port 64.

The flat shape of the disc valve is such that the centrifugal force the material is subjected to is parallel to the valve surface, reducing the adherence of the material to said valve, thus assuring the operation of the machine; as a matter of fact, should as a limit the valve be conical as the basket, but with a tapering opposite to that of the basket, the material would offer a same adherence on the basket and valve and indifferntly could follow the motion of either, compromising the operation of the machine.

Moreover, in order to increase the dragging effect of the material by the basket, tabs 17' (FIG. 1) could be mounted on the inner surface of the latter and preferably extend along the cone generatrices or maximum slope lines and thus such as not to obstruct the material flow during unloading.

Let us consider again the material when being centrifuged, that is when distributed along the arches 51, 52 (FIG. 2) and, remaining adhering to the basket, creeps under the disc valve. This creeping occurs under the effect of the centrifugal force urging the material to impale between said basket and disc valve, thus establish ing a substantial resisting moment to the relative motion of the two members. Still in the example shown in FIG. 2, it derives that, while the basket is constantly subjected to a substantial braking torque, the disc valve, or the timer having an absolute speed of rotation lower than that of the basket, is constantly subjected to a same torque which would cause it to accelerate its motion. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the torques applied to the rotating members reverse the direction thereof, but the phenomenon is substantially the same. Although said substantial torques are provided by a very slow relative motion, since the two coaxial shafts l9 and 24 have high speeds of rotation, the powers being transmitted by said shafts are very high and of opposite sign. Should, in place of the epicyclic controller train 42, as many pulleys be firmly keyed on the two shafts and connected by belts to the

pulleys

36, 37, also the belts should be capable of transmitting said very high powers, while the coupling of

pulleys

36, 37 would form the closure of the mechanical power circuit substantially capable of cancelling the torque applied to the basket and its drive by the reversed torque applied to the disc valve and its drive.

Thus, the operation of the machine would be assured without any requirement of supplying thereto high powers from the outside, it being however required to proportionate the two drives due to the very high power circulating in the mechanical circuit formed thereby and, should also this be no problem for the two shafts, it would be such a problem for the belts as to render substantially impossible an adoption thereof.

To this purpose, it should be noted that a different type of drive, such as chains, speedy gears, idle shafts or the like, would involve substantial problems in dimensioning, floor space, lubrication and noisiness, then resulting in a remarkable increase in construction and running cost of the machine.

By applying the epicyclic controller train 42 (FIG. 1), an exemplary embodiment of which is shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the result is substantially provided of having therein an almost total cancelling of the accelerating or braking torque applied to the disc valve with braking or acceleratlng torque applied to the basket,

and hence the by-pass of nearly all the circulating power, thus the task being left to the belts and pulleys of providing for transmitting the residual circulating power only which is of such an amount to be readily transmitted by belts, and as well the transmission of the driving power, of course.

It is another function of said epicyclic controller train to enhance the slight difference in speed required for the two shafts to a more substantial difference in speed of rotation between the two

pulleys

40 and 41, thus enhancing the differences in diameters for the four

pulleys

36, 37, 40 and 41.

Thus, the differences between said four diameters become such that the gear ratios are not substantially altered either by the normal errors in pulley machining, or normal errors related to a belt-type drive.

In FIG. 8 it will be seen that the pulley 40, made fast with the outer shaft 19, also forms the carrier for the epicyclic controller train. Thus, three

pins

70, 71 and 72 are firmly coupled thereto at 120 (FIGS. 8 and 9), on each of which two sets of idle bevel pinions 73, 74 and 75, 76 rotate. A gear 77 is keyed on the inner shaft 24 and drives it, while the double

idle wheel

78, 79 and the pinion 80 integrally connected by the cup 81 to pulley 41 idly rotate on the lower portion 24' of said shaft.

The movement from the pulley 41 is transmitted to the pinion 80 comprising the first wheel of the train, the pinion rotates on

pins

70, 71 and 72 the first set of bevel pinions 75, 76 driving the double

idle wheel

78, 79. The latter in turn controls the second set of bevel pinions 73, 74 of each pin and hence the gear 77.

The gear ratios for the several gear couplings may be such as to obtain the required ratio to attain the above mentioned objects.

The circulation scheme for the mechanical power is shown in FIG. 10. By full line 82 the circulating power P1 is indicated as generated by the friction of the centrifuged material 83 diagrammatically shown in FIG. 10.

By the dash-dot line 84 and alternate dash-cross line 85 the portions P and P for the power P, are shown as bypassed through the epicyclic controller train; by the dashed line 86 the residual power P3 P1 P2 P2 P"2 is shown; finally the line 87, made of a succession of small triangles, shows the driving power P4 being required to the motor 34 by the several resistances to the machine motion. From the diagram in FIG. 10, it will be apparent that P1 P2 -l- P"2 P3, and that only the residual power P3, but of a considerably reduced value relative to power P1, circulates through the belt drive. Thus, the

belts

38 and 39 can be exclusively proportionated for a power equal to the sum of the residual power P3 and driving power P4.

In FIG. 11 of the appended drawings, a fragmentary longitudinal section has been shown for an actual constructive form of a hydroextractor provided with a disc valve according to the invention, while in FIG. 12 a partly front and partly sectional view has been shown for an actual constructive form of the epicyclic controller train. In these figures, the same reference numerals have been used for the characteristic parts of the machine as those used for describing the preceding figures, while other references have been used for the several parts. Moreover, in FIG. 11 the dispenser has been sectioned on a plane normal to the direction of the blades.

FIGS. 11 and 12 will now be described in brief.

As shown in FIG. 11, the bottom wall 18 of the frustro-conical basket 15 is formed of two parts, of which one is directly attached to the outer hollow shaft 19 and the other is attached to the former by suitable bolts. The edge of the second bottom wall 18 is shaped as a frustrum of cone to form the seating against which the lower edge of basket 15 bears and is secured. A cylindrical wall 90 on the bottom of trough 20 surrounds the basket bottom 18 to prevent the water from entering the mechanical drive of the machine. Moreover, as clearly shown in FIG. 11, the lubrication for the bear ings of the outer shaft 19 is carried out by a pump on the pulley 40, enabling the oil to circulate through the conduit 91 and said bearings.

In FIG. 11 it will be also seen that the dispenser base disc 23 and disc valve 33 have seen made integral to each other by suitable uprights 93 bolted to the ends thereof.

In FIG. 12, a constructive form of the epicyclic controller train has been shown and it will be seen that the carrier comprising the grooved pulley 40 has been made fast with the shaft 19 and that the gear 77 comprising the last wheel for the train has been made fast with shaft 24. It will be also seen that the cup 81 supporting the second grooved pulley 41 has been bolted to a block 96 idly rotating relative to the lower end 24 of shaft 24 and axially supported by thrust bearings 97 from an underlying block 98 directly attached to the end of portion 24' of said shaft. Suitable gaskets provide for a sealing between the rotating parts.

It should be understood that FIGS. 11 and 12, showing an actual construction of the machine according to the invention, have been briefly described as substantially within the inventive priciples above fully set forth and because the constructive details of the machine can be anyhow varied without departing from the covering scope of the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 13, it will be seen that therein a diagrammatic view is shown for a hydroextractor, the dispenser of which comprises three blades 100, 101 and 102 angularly spaced apart from one another by same angles and all of which facing the same direction. Correspondingly, the disc valve 103 has a same number of

discharge ports

104, 105 and 106, each of which angularly offset relative to the associated blade as above set forth. Obviously, the amount of blades could be increased by following the above given teachings.

Reference is now made to FIG. 14, showing an exemplary hydroextractor provided with a two blade dispenser, in which it will be seen that on the back of each blade 107, 108 a curved surface 109 is so provided as to form an air gap with the inner surface of basket 15, this air gap increasing in an opposite direction of the relative motion for the dispenser with respect to the basket, and this to enable any material being supplied thereto to be dragged along by the basket 15. Morevoer, at the rear edge of each discharge port a baffle element 111, 112 has been applied to facilitate the outlet of the material when being unloaded and to prevent the material from inserting between the basket and blade; the term rear should be intended related to the relative motion of the material with respect to the disc valve.

What is claimed is:

l. A continuously operating hydroextractor, particularly for fibrous material processing, comprising, in combination:

a. a basket rotating about an axis, and including a side wall;

b. a dispensing member rotatably mounted coaxially with and internally of said basket, and provided with at least one material guide surface defining a path from the axis to the basket side wall and arranged for a centrifugal force to be effective in causing material being processed to naturally slide thereon;

c. valve means connected to said dispenser member for rotation therewith and covering the basket at a top thereof, and including at least one discharge port arranged for discharging process material from the basket, the port being arranged at a predetermined angular spacing from the guide surface path for allowing a constant centrifugation time of the material being processed; and

d. means for rotating said basket and dispensing member, and guiding the material being processed along the guide surface to the basket side wall.

2. A hydroextractor as defined in claim 1, wherein the basket side wall is sloped outwardly and the basket further includes a bottom wall, the side wall and bottom wall cooperating to form a frustrum of a cone, there are a plurality of guide surfaces defining a plurality of paths, the valve means is at least one disc valve having a central aperture arranged for supplying material to the basket and a plurality of discharge ports, the ports being side ports disposed at the periphery of the valve disc, and the means for rotating the basket and the dispensing member and disc valve at different speeds relative to one another.

3. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 2, wherein said dispensing member comprises a bottom wall and at least two equiangularly spaced apart blades defining said paths; said blades being made simultaneously fast with said bottom wall and disc valve.

4. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 3, wherein the blades are angularly shifted in advance relative to the corresponding ports in the direction of the relative motion of the blades with respect to the basket.

5. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 3, wherein the dispenser member comprises two opposite blades, each of which having a central straight portion parallel to a same diameter of the basket, and an end portion adjacent the basket wall oriented in an opposite direction to the relative motion of the blades with respect to said basket.

6. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 2, comprising a fixed collecting member placed at the top of said basket and communicating therewith by the ports of the disc valve to collect the processed material and discharge it through a side outlet, said collecting member having a rotating bottom wall.

7. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 6, wherein the rotating bottom wall of said dispenser comprises the disc valve closing the basket at the top.

8. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 2, wherein said dispenser member is fast with a first drive shaft and the basket is fast with a second drive shaft external to and coaxial with said first shaft, said second shaft being fast with the carrier of an epicyclic controller train, while said first shaft is fast with the last wheel of said train; the carrier and first wheel of the train being driven to rotate at different speeds by a common power supply.

9. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 2, comprising a plurality of disc valves made fast with one another, of which a first lower disc valve is fast with said dispensing member and at least one disc valve overlying and spaced apart from the former; each disc valve having a central aperture connected by a conduit to the central apertures of the remaining valves to define a supply path to the dispenser member for the material to be processed.

10. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 2, wherein said dispenser member comprises at least two blades spaced apart from one another by equal angles and defining said paths, the height of the dispenser blades being less than that of the basket.

11. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 9, wherein the discharge ports of an underlying disc valve are angularly shifted in advance relative to the ports of an overlying valve in the direction of the relative motion thereof with respect to the basket.

12. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the side wall of the basket are perforated.

13. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 2, wherein on an inner surface the basket side wall has tabs extending along maximum slope lines of the side wall.

14. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 10, wherein each blade has on its back an additional curved surface gradually approaching an inner surface of the basket in the direction of the relative motion of said blade with respect to the basket.

15. A hydroextractor as claimed in claim 14, wherein the use is provided for a baffle element at the rear edge of each discharge port of a disc valve.

Claims

1. A continuously operating hydroextractor, particularly for fibrous material processing, comprising, in combination: a. a basket rotating about an axis, and including a side wall; b. a dispensing member rotatably mounted coaxially with and internally of said basket, and provided with at least one material guide surface defining a path from the axis to the basket side wall and arranged for a centrifugal force to be effective in causing material being processed to naturally slide thereon; c. valve means connected to said dispenser member for rotation therewith and covering the basket at a top thereof, and including at least one discharge port arranged for discharging process material from the basket, the port being arranged at a predetermined angular spacing from the guide surface path for allowing a constant centrifugation time of the material being processed; and d. means for rotating said basket and dispensing member, and guiding the material being processed along the guide surface to the basket side wall.