Powder feeder
AssigneeC4 Carbides Limited
InventorsChoon Yen Kong, Pavels Sevcenko
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Abstract
There is provided a powder feeder (10, 10′) comprising a main chamber (12, 12′) with a gas inlet (14, 14′) and a powder outlet (16), at least one secondary chamber (20, 20′) configured to receive powder and a shaver element (22, 40, 50), wherein the shaver element (22, 40, 50) is positioned directly above an opening (26, 26′) in the at least one secondary chamber (20, 20′). The secondary chamber (20, 20′) further comprises a piston (28, 28′) movable towards the shaver element (22, 40, 50) so as to urge powder upwards. Examples of a shaver element include a rotatable screw (22), a conveyor belt (40) and a rotating disc (50) with protrusions (54).
Claims12
A powder feeder comprising a main chamber with a gas inlet and a combined powder and gas outlet, at least one secondary chamber configured to receive powder and a shaver element,
- wherein the gas inlet is connected to gas pressurised between 0.5 to 1 bar in excess of atmospheric pressure, the shaver element is positioned directly above an opening in the at least one secondary chamber and the at least one secondary chamber further comprises a piston movable upwards towards the shaver element to provide an anti-gravity powder feed and to allow the shaver element to remove a thin layer of powder for lateral transfer through the main chamber to exit through the combined powder and gas outlet, in use gas passing from the gas inlet to the combined powder and gas outlet and so assisting with the lateral transfer of the powder to the combined powder and gas outlet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.