Sugar cane mill facilities for the extraction of sugar from sugar cane

A system for the extraction of sugar from sugar cane, which comprises a battery of sequentially arranged sugar cane mills each including an inlet roller, an outlet roller and an upper roller resiliently biased towards the inlet and outlet rollers, the upper roller defining inlet and outlet openings with the inlet and outlet rollers, respectively, wherein the sugar cane is crushed into bagasse in the openings and juices are extracted from the bagasse in the openings;

• permeable conveyors arranged between successive ones of the mills for feeding the bagasse from mill to mill in a feeding direction;
• means for directing the juices extracted in each one of the mills to the bagasse fed on the conveyors to a preceding one of the mills, except for a first one of the mills, for imbibing the bagasse with the extracted juices from the succeeding mill;
• one of the mills being a mill comprising a frame, an inlet roller and an outlet roller mounted on the frame, an upper roller resiliently biased towards the inlet and outlet rollers, the upper roller defining inlet and outlet openings with the inlet and outlet rollers, respectively, a support and a pivot extending parallel to the inlet and outlet rollers and pivotally mounting the support on the frame, a fourth roller mounted on the support forwardly of, and at about the same level as, the upper roller and above the inlet roller, the fourth roller having about the same diameter as, and defining an opening with, the upper roller, means acting upon the support for resiliently biasing the fourth roller mounted thereon towards the upper roller, adjustable stop means arranged to prevent the fourth roller resiliently biased towards the upper roller from contacting the upper roller, a trash plate placed between the fourth roller and the inlet roller, the trash plate being mounted on the support, a screen mounted on the trash plate and extending between the fourth roller and the inlet roller for preventing juices extracted in the opening between the fourth roller and the upper roller from dripping onto the inlet roller and for guiding said juices towards an inlet end of the one mill, a pivoting gate mounted on the support for movement between two selected positions with respect to the screen, a main juice collector arranged to collect juices received from the inlet and outlet openings, a separate juice collector arranged to collect juices from the opening between the fourth and upper rollers, and the gate guiding the juices into a respective one of the collectors in a respective one of the selected positions;
• and further comprising means for recycling the juices extracted in the nip between the fourth roller and the upper roller of the one mill for imbibing the bagasse fed to the one mill.

A system for the extraction of sugar from sugar cane, which comprises a battery of sequentially arranged sugar cane mills including rollers defining openings wherein the sugar cane is crushed into bagasse and juices are extracted from the bagasse in the openings;

• one of the mills being a mill comprising a frame, an inlet roller and an outlet roller mounted on the frame, an upper roller resiliently biased towards the inlet and outlet rollers, the upper roller defining inlet and outlet openings with the inlet and outlet rollers, respectively, a support and a pivot extending parallel to the inlet and outlet rollers and pivotally mounting the support on the frame, a fourth roller mounted on the support forwardly of, and at about the same level as, the upper roller and above the inlet roller, the fourth roller having about the same diameter as, and defining an opening with, the upper roller, means acting upon the support for resiliently biasing the fourth roller mounted thereon towards the upper roller, adjustable stop means arranged to prevent the fourth roller resiliently biased towards the upper roller from contacting the upper roller, a trash plate placed between the fourth roller and the inlet roller, the trash plate being mounted on the support, a screen mounted on the trash plate and extending between the fourth roller and the inlet roller for preventing juices extracted in the opening between the fourth roller and the upper roller from dripping onto the inlet roller and for guiding said juices towards an inlet end of the one mill, a pivoting gate mounted on the support for movement between two selected positions with respect to the screen, a main juice collector arranged to collect juices received from the inlet and outlet openings, a separate juice collector arranged to collect juices from the opening between the fourth and upper rollers, and the gate guiding the juices into a respective one of the collectors in a respective one of the selected positions;
• permeable conveyors arranged between successive ones of the mills for feeding the bagasse from mill to mill in a feeding direction;
• and means for recycling the juices extracted in each one of the mills, except for a first one of the mills, for imbibing the bagasse fed on a respective one of the conveyors to the respective one of the mills and for directing the juices extracted in each one of the mills succeeding the first mill to the bagasse fed on the conveyors to a preceding one of the mills for imbiding the bagasse additionally with the extracted juices from the succeeding mill.