US521824A - Fiber-drier - Google Patents

Description

(No Model:)

F. G. 8a A. C. SARGENT."

FIBER DRIER.

Patented June 26, 1894.

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FREDERICK e. SARGENT PATENT OFFICE.

AND ALLAN o. SARGENI, on GRANITEVILLE,

MASSACHUSETTS.

FIBER- DRIER.

SPEGIFICATICSN forming part of Letters Patent No. 521,824, dated June 26, 1894.

Application filed January 6, 1 894- Serial No. 495,933. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that We, FREDERICK G. SAR- GENT and ALLAN O. SARGENT, of Graniteville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fiber-Driers, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to machines for dry ing wool and other fibers, and consists in certain new and useful constructions and combinations of variousparts of the same substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings:-Figure 1 is a side elevation, showing shaft connections and indicating the interior traveling screen aprons by broken lines. Fig. 2 is a top plan view, the top being partly broken away to show the interior and omitting the belt between pulleys 22 and 23. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section on the line AB of Fig. 1.

1 is the frame of the drier, 2 the boarding or casing, and 3 is a hinged door in the top. This door is or may be the only opening into the drier except the opening for admission and withdrawal of the fiber. The drier has two compartments, D and H, which are of the same height but not of the same length; the drying chamber, D, being very long to accommodate the screens, while the heating chamber, H, being intended to connect the top and bottom of the drying chamber and form a conduit therebetween, is hardly longer than it is wide. These chambers are separated by the upright lengthwise partition, 4, which has an opening, 5, near its top and an opening, 6, near its bottom. Opposite one of these openings, preferably the lower one, as shown,and close to it, is placed a fan or blower, 7, driven by the belt, 32, running from some countershaft over a pulley, 33, on the end of the shaft of the blower, that shaft being journaled in the casing of the drier and projecting through it.

8, 8, is a coil of steam pipes, placed in the heating chamber H in the usual manner.

The operation of the above described parts is quite simple. Let the door 3 be closed and the fan 7 be set running was to blow air from the heating chamber into the drying chamber. This air finds escape through the opening 5 back into the heating chamber, only to be driven again through the drying chamber, and so on indefinitely. This circuaprons in the drying chamber, as shown, and

they are of the endless kindand arranged in a perpendicularv series, each delivering its fiber upon the one below it, and the lowest one bearing the fiber out of the drier. A similar carrier, 37, delivers the fiber upon the top screen apron. The aprons 9,10 and 11, as shown, run over rollers 12, 13, 14., 15, 16, 17, the first four journaled'at each end in the casing of the drier and the last two in brackets, 60, 61, projecting therefrom, and are provided with pulleys '21, 22, 23, 62, 63, 64:, for driving them. The pulley 21 on the farther end of the roller 17 is belted to some countershaft. The pulley 23 on the nearer end of the same is belted to the pulley, '22, on the end of the rollerld. Motion is imparted from this latter roller through the screen apron 11, through the roller 13 and pulley 63, and by the belt 18, to the pulley 62 and its roller 12, thus driving the screen apron 10. The belting as shown will cause the screen aprons 9 and 11 to move in the same direction, while the screen apron 10 will move in the con trary direction. Above the upper screen apron, but below the hole 5 into the drying chamber, is stretched a fixed screen, 65, which prevents the lighterpart of the fiber from being carried through the hole 501' out of the door 3 by the current of airfrom the blower.

The carrier 37, before mentioned, consists of a series of slats, 66, attached at the ends and middle to endless strips, 67, of flexible material running over the rollers 68 and 69, the roller 68 being driven by a belt, 70, running to a pulley 71 on the end of its shaft from a pulley 72 on the shaft of the roller 17.

through the drier in the usual manner, being deposited upon the carrier 37 and borne by that into the drying chamber and let fall upon the screen apron 11. This apron carries it across the chamber and delivers it upon the screen apron 10, which brings it back and lets it fall upon the screen apron 9, which bears it once more the length of the chamber and delivers it outside.

All the parts and operations as thus far described are of the usual kind and not novel.

The novelty and advantage which constitute our invention lie in an improved meth- 0d of conducting the currents of air through the drying chamber. Ordinarily, the current of air from the blower will have to penetrate the screen apron 9 and the screen apron 10 and the screen apron 11, before it can escape through the opening 5 or the door 3. If these aprons are thickly covered with fiber, the circulation will be greatly retarded or wholly stopped, and the air, after forcing its way through the screen apron 9 will flow along and escape upward through the space between the roller 15 and the casing of the chamber; thence along the surface of the fiber on the screen apron 10 and upward again between the roller 13 and the casing and through the fixed screen, 65, and back into the heating chamber II. Thus, while the upper surface of the fiber is well dried, its lower surface remains soggy; because the body of the air between the upper and lower parts of each screen apron is retained there by the lower part, and, after becoming moisture laden, does nothing toward drying the fiber above it. To remedy this defect and supply fresh air to the under side of the fiber, we provide conduits 75, 76, 77, on the outside of the drying chamber (so as not to interfere with the operation of the screen aprons) connecting the space between the upper and lower portions of each screen apron with the spacebetween the portions of the screen apron next above it, and the space between the portions of the top screen apron with the space above the fixed apron. Thus the dead air under the fiber is put into motionand renewed and caused to dry the under surface of the fiber as thoroughly as the upper surface is dried. These conduits are, however, not placed in the same perpendicular line, for then the escape of air would be too rapid and the fiber each side of the conduits would not be dried at all, but they are placed alternately to right and left, as the drawings show, and a winding way is thus provided, so that the air must flow along the under surface of each layer of fiber before finding an escape. The arrows in the drawings fly with the air currents.-

We do not limit ourselves to any particular number of conduits, or screen aprons, but

We claim as new and of our invention- 1. The combination of a drying chamber, two or more screen aprons within it, an inlet below the lowest screen apron, an outlet 5 above the highest screen apron, independent conduits from the space under each screen apron to the space under the screen apron next above, each space having the conduits that open therefrom and thereinto at opposite ends thereof, and means for introducing air through the inlet and withdrawing it through the outlet;

2. The combination of a drying chamber, two or more endless traveling screen aprons within it, an inlet below the lowest screen apron, an outlet 5 above the highest screen apron, a fixed screen between the traveling screen aprons and the outlet, independent conduits from the space between the upper and lower parts of each screen apron to the space between the upper and lower parts of the screen apron next above and from the space between the upper and lower parts of the upper screen apron to the space between the fixed screen and the outlet, each space having the conduits that open therefrom and thereinto at opposite ends thereof, and means for introducing air through the inlet and withdrawing it through the outlet.

FREDERICK G. SARGENT. ALLAN O. SARGEN'IV. Witnesses:

HARRIET R. EVANS, HERBERT V. IIILDRETH.

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