An apparatus for contacting fused solid materials with solid, liquid or gaseous materials, including active ingredients, having different specific weights, and for extracting vegetable materials, comprising, in combination:
- an outer rotary drum having a longitudinal axis, an interior wall and longitudinal baffles along beams that extend axially within said wall;
- said drum being supported for rotation;
- coaxially fixed consoles joined in a liquid- and gas-tight manner to respective faceplates of said drum;
- said consoles lodging a feeding mechanism and a removing device;
- a diverter baffle system mounted from said consoles throughout the interior of said rotary drum, constituted by an inner stationary drum also having an interior wall;
- a slanting lapping being formed in a section of said stationary drum, resting on said consoles, following the topmost generatrix of said interior wall of the stationary drum;
- pivotable diverting baffles arranged along said lapping;
- an open-bottom trough disposed above said diverting baffles for collecting the processed materials in an intermediate stage of the contacting process;
- an inverted V-shaped baffle plate dividing the stream of the materials descending from said trough between and through said diverting baffles;
- a removal line forming part of said removing device;
- said diverting baffles being mounted on said stationary drum, in which the diameter of a cylindrical portion is nearly identical with that of a rotational envelope constituted by outer edges of said longitudinal baffles, an upper edge of said lapping being near said topmost generatrix, while its lower edge is above a liquid level, determined by the location of said removal line, at a distance equal to at least that between two adjoining ones of said longitudinal baffles;
- means for producing a horizontally and vertically continuous curtain-like material advancement of a substantially uniform thickness, along the entire inner drum length, to allow the active ingredients to be atomized onto the curtain-like material, constituted by parts of said longitudinal baffles that successively apply the materials, said trough in which the materials are collected in the intermediate stage, said diverting baffles that allow a uniform material stream to be produced, and of said baffle plate where the material stream is divided;
- means for forcing the materials to follow a path conducive to intimate contacting and intermixing regardless of their different specific weights, during the continuous curtain-like advancement, and for forcing them below said liquid level with each revolution of said rotary drum, the materials being prevented from exiting from between said longitudinal baffles, constituted by parts of the latter closely contacting said stationary drum, said lower edge of said lapping above the liquid level leading the materials to reach the spaces between said longitudinal baffles, to force them to drop below said liquid level;
- and means for guiding the moistened materials to slide down on said lapping, on account of gravity, and on axial pushing by said longitudinal baffles, constituted by the arrangement of said upper edge of the lapping near said topmost generatrix where said longitudinal baffles are given a vertical position.