Product density control apparatus
AssigneeOakes Machine Corporation
InventorKenneth Kress
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus comprising a continuous mixer adapted to receive dry and wet ingredients and a gas to provide a homogeneous output mix, a gamma ray density detector positioned to sense the density of the output mix from the mixer, valve means for controlling the flow of gas into the mixer, and servo means responsive to signals from the detector for automatically controlling the valve means to provide an output mix of substantially uniform density.
Claims8
In mixer apparatus, the combination of a mixer having a gas inlet port, an ingredient inlet port and a mix outlet port, valve means for controlling the supply of gas to said gas inlet port, conduit means connected to receive the mix form from said outlet port, radiation sensitive densitometer means disposed to monitor the density of the mix flowing through said conduit means, and means responsive to said densitometer means for controlling said valve means to control the density of the mix flowing through said conduit means by varying the amount of gas mixed therewith.
A method for controlling the density of a liquid product comprising the steps of continuously feeding the product to a mixing zone, continuously feeding a gas into the mixing zone, intimately mixing said liquid product with the gas in said mixing zone, discharging said intimately mixed gas and liquid product through a conduit, subjecting said mixed product in said conduit to radiation, sensing a characteristic of said radiation representative of the density of said mixed product, and controlling the gas fed into said mixing zone in response to said sensed characteristic to control the density of said mixed product by varying the amount of gas mixed therewith.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.