Drainage device for particulate material
AssigneeS.A. Block & Concrete (Proprietary) Limited
InventorJohann B. Pfeffer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drainage device for particulate material in liquid suspension is in the form of a rotating wheel having circumferentially spaced foraminous buckets scooping out liquid and suspended particulate material from a vessel. Rotation of the wheel about its axis takes place in arcuate steps by the operation of a pair of axially spaced plunger and cylinder assemblies engaging alternately in cyclic fashion with shoulders circumferentially spaced about the wheel axis.
Claims10
A drainage device for scooping liquids and solids in suspension and separating the solids from the liquid by drainage of the liquid comprising
- a bucket wheel having a plurality of foraminous buckets through which the liquid can drain, spaced circumferentially about its axis;
- drive means to rotate said bucket wheel in a plurality of successive arcuate steps with high torque moments applied cyclically in succession on said bucket wheel at positions about and radially spaced from its axis, said drive means including
- a pair of axially spaced plunger and cylinder assemblies, each having a head arranged to engage cyclically on working strokes by means of up thrust high torque moments with mating formations which are fast with said bucket wheel and spaced circumferentially about the axis of said bucket wheel,
- and means to thrust each plunger of said plunger and cylinder assembly on its working stroke, interconnected with the operation of the other of said plunger and cylinder assemblies in alternate successive movements of said plungers.
The method of separating solids from liquids by scooping the liquids and solids in suspension and draining the liquid therefrom by rotation of a plurality of foraminous buckets spaced circumferentially about the axis of a bucket wheel comprising the steps of
- applying a high torque moment in an upthrusting direction cyclically on the bucket wheel at circumferentially spaced positions about and radially spaced from its axis,
- applying a successive intervening high torque moment, in an upthrusting direction, cyclically on the bucket wheel at circumferentially spaced positions axially spaced from the position of said previous application, and radially spaced from the axis of the bucket wheel,
- each of said steps of applying a high torque moment controlled to take place in conjunction with the operation of the prior step in alternate successive and repeated applications.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.