US678119A - Switch-valve for pneumatic conveyers. - Google Patents

Description

No. 678,ll9. Patented July 9, I90l. '1'. LEE.

SWITCH VALVE FOR PNEUMATIC CONVEYEBS. 7

( Application filed Nov. 13, 1899.)

(No Model.)

In; M am Farms (10'. mom-um! wnsnwarougIu. r.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

THOMAS LEE, OF HOME CITY, OHIO.

SWITCH-VALVE FOR PNEUMATIC CONVEYERS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 678,119, dated July 9, 1901.

Application filed November 13, 1899. Serial No. 736,778. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS LEE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Home City, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Switch-Valves for Pneumatic Conveyors, &c., of which the following is a specification. I

This invention relates to switch-valves for pneumatic conveyers, 850., being designed for use more particularly in connection with such conveyers as are used, for instance, in the feeding of shavings, sawdust, and the like to boiler and other furnaces. It is customary in apparatus of this type to provide two diverging conduits, one of which leads to the furnace and the other to the shavings or dust room, a valve being located at the j unctionof these conduits with the main conduit, so that the material may be directed to the furnace when it is desired to feed the same, and by shifting the valve the material may be diverted from the furnace to the dustroom. Such valves as usually constructed consist of a plate pivoted at one of its margins at the point of meeting of the two conduits and swinging outward at its free margins toward either one of the conduits which it is desired to close. It has been found in practice that valves of this type are apt to become clogged by reason of the catching or lodging of shavings on the free margin of the valve, and thereby preventing it from closing. It has also been found that such valves are so acted on by the suction of the passing blast that when the valve is closed on the furnace side it will be open sufficiently to permit an induced current from the furnace to the dustroom, which current is apt to carry sparks from the furnace to the dust-room, and thus start a fire therein.

It is the object of my present invention to overcome the difiiculties attendant upon such valves as heretofore constructed; and to this end my inventionconsists in certain novel features which I will now proceed to describe and will then particularly point out in the claim. I

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a structure embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a similar view, partly in elevation, taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 5 is a plan view.

ln the said drawings, 1 indicates a suitable casing, having an inlet 2 at its top, at which point it is adapted to be connected with the main conduit through which the materialis fed. Below its top the casing 1 diverges to form two outlet- passages 3 and 4, the former of which is connected with a conduit leading to the furnace, while the latter is connected with a conduit leading to the dust-room or other. suitable point of discharge. Within the inlet-opening of the casing is located a collar 5, two sides of which are bent up, as indicated at 6, to meet the walls of the easing and form stop-flanges against which the valve may bear. The remaining two sides of the collar are offset from the adjacent walls of the casing, as indicated in Fig. at of the drawings, and extenddownward in a tapering or V shape, forming guards 7, between which and the walls of the casing the side plates of the valve move.

8 indicates the valve proper, which is a plate of about twice the length of the ordinary= valve, said plate being pivoted at its middle at the junction of the passages 3 and 4.. I prefer to provide a pivotal axis in the form of a flat bar 9, secured to the valve-plate by the guard-plates 7 and the body of the casing,

as hereinbefore pointed out.

It will be observed that my improved valve swings in a direction opposite to that in which the ordinary valve swings. In other words, to close either one of the passages my improved valve swings away from that passage, while to open it it swings toward it. By reason. of this mode of operation the valve in closing the mouth of one of the conduits moves against the incoming current and is therefore not likely to have any shavings or the like find lodgment on its edge, as they will do when too the valves move along with the current in closing the passage. The stop-flanges 6 serve as abutments against which the valve may be closed, making the closure of the passage practically air-tight. It will be observed that in the position of the parts shown, in which the valve is so arranged as to close that one of the passages which leads to the furnace, the suction due to the passage of the blast tends to close the valve more firmly instead of tending to open it, as is the case with the ordinary valve, and the danger of sparks from induced currents is thereby done away with. The side plates and theirguards serve to guide the valve during its movement and prevent any clogging of the same by the accumulation of shavings or dust.

Images