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US 5,205,496 AGranted
Universal grinder with reciprocal feeder
AssigneeO.D.E. Investments Corporation
InventorsRalph T. O'Donnell, Donald A. Egging, James G. Nickels, William A. Eddy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hammer mill apparatus for comminuting materials such as wood, branches, twigs, leaves, grasses, hay, and the like, features a reciprocating batch feeder for feeding the materials to be comminuted into a rotary grinder. Adjustable and spring biased feed drum and metering roller meters the material into the hammer mill. The positions of a series of adjustable curved grinding teeth changes the sizes of the comminuted particles.
Claims35
Grinder apparatus for comminuting fodder, feed grains, and wood materials, comprising:
- a rotor assembly, including a horizontal main shaft that defines the axis of rotation of said rotor assembly and a plurality of grinding hammers extending radially outward at the periphery of said rotor assembly;
- a main housing partially enclosing said rotor assembly in a milling chamber and leaving a portion of said rotor assembly not enclosed by said main housing:
- rotor drive means connected to said rotor assembly for imparting high angular velocity rotary motion to said rotor assembly;
- and
- reciprocating feed means adapted for mounting on said main housing adjacent said rotor assembly for feeding materials to be comminuted into said milling chamber, said reciprocating feed means including a horizontal feed chute extending radially toward the portion of said rotor assembly not enclosed by said main housing, an adjustable cylindrical feed drum positioned at about the intersection of said horizontal feed chute with said milling chamber for engaging and metering said material into said milling chamber, and a linear reciprocating feed plate slidably mounted in said horizontal feed chute for moving said material towards said adjustable cylindrical feed drum.
2 more elements
Hammer mill apparatus for comminuting materials, comprising:
- a rotor assembly, including a horizontal main shaft that defines the axis of rotation of said rotor assembly and a plurality of hammers in the form of elongated bars extending radially outward at the periphery of said rotor assembly, said hammers being mounted in a plurality of gangs, each gang having a plurality of hammers, said gangs being evenly distributed around the periphery of the rotor assembly to maintain dynamic balance of the rotor assembly, and the hammers of each gang being spaced axially apart from each other;
- a main housing partially enclosing said rotor assembly in a milling chamber;
- rotor drive means connected to said rotor assembly for imparting high angular velocity rotary motor to said rotor assembly;
- reciprocating feeder means adjacent said rotor assembly for feeding materials to be comminuted into said milling chamber, said feeder means including a horizontal floor positioned adjacent the periphery of the portion of said rotor assembly that is not enclosed by said main housing;
- and
- a combination metering and grinding assembly comprised of a plurality of rigid, spaced apart, curved grinding ramps extending from under the floor radially into said rotor assembly, said ramps being aligned so that each of the hammers in a gang can pass between two of said ramps, and an adjustable cylindrical drum feeder comprised of a plurality of rigid, spaced apart grinding teeth mounted adjacent said rotor assembly in the portion of said rotor assembly that is not enclosed by said main housing, said grinding teeth on said drum feeder being aligned so that each of the hammers in a gang can pass between two of said teeth.
3 more elements
Comminuting apparatus for comminuting materials, said apparatus comprising:
- rotary milling means for comminuting the materials;
- and
- reciprocal feed apparatus positioned adjacent said rotary milling means for pushing the material into said rotary milling means, said reciprocal feed apparatus including an elongated chute that has two spaced apart side panels extending upwardly from a substantially horizontal floor panel, a reciprocally moveable feed plate in said chute, actuator apparatus positioned adjacent and extending upwardly to a distance above one of said side panels for manually initiating reciprocal movement of said feed plate and for stopping said reciprocal movement after each cycle of once toward said rotary milling means and once away from said rotary milling means, and drive means for moving said feed plate toward and away from said rotary milling means.
Comminuting apparatus for comminuting materials, comprising:
- rotary milling means for comminuting materials;
- reciprocal feed apparatus positioned adjacent said rotary milling means for pushing the materials into said rotary milling means, said reciprocal feed means including an elongated chute, a reciprocally moveable feed plate in said chute, and drive means for moving said feed plate toward and away from said rotary milling means;
- and
- metering means positioned between said reciprocal feed apparatus and said rotary milling means for metering the materials being pushed by said reciprocal feed apparatus into said rotary milling means.
1 more element
The comminuting apparatus of claim 36, wherein said adjusting means includes first bias means for biasing said arms toward said floor panel.
Comminuting apparatus for comminuting materials, said apparatus comprising:
- A rotor mounted on a horizontal shaft that defines the axis of rotation of the rotor and a plurality of hammers angularly disbursed around the periphery of said rotor;
- p1 an elongated chute with two spaced apart side panels extending upwardly from a substantially horizontal floor panel that extends to a position adjacent the periphery of said rotor and lays in a plane that extends into said rotor slightly below said axis of rotation and substantially above the bottom of the rotor, the distance between said plane and said axis of rotation being less than the distance between said plane and the bottom of the rotor;
- a reciprocally moveable feed plate in said chute, and
- drive means for moving said feed plate toward and away from said rotor.
1 more element
Comminuting apparatus for comminuting materials, said apparatus comprising:
- rotary milling means for comminuting materials;
- an elongated chute with two spaced apart side panels extending upwardly from a substantially horizontal floor panel that extends to a position adjacent said rotary milling means;
- a reciprocally moveable feed plate in said chute, said feed plate being foldable from an upright position that is substantially perpendicular to said floor panel to a position substantially parallel to said floor panel;
- and
- drive means for moving said feed plate toward and away from said rotary milling means.
2 more elements
Comminuting apparatus for comminuting materials, said apparatus comprising:
- rotary milling means for comminuting materials;
- an elongated chute with two spaced apart side panels extending upwardly from a substantially horizontal floor panel that extends to a position adjacent said rotary milling means, said chute having an elongated slot in each of said side panels just above the floor panel and extending substantially the length of said chute;
- a support plate slideably positioned in said chute with lateral extensions that extend in opposite directions from said support plate through said slots in said side panels and a reciprocally moveable feed plate extending substantially vertically from said support plate in said chute;
- and
- drive means for moving said feed plate toward and away from said rotary milling means, said drive means including a pair of roller chains positioned respectively on opposite outsides of said chute and adjacent said respective slots in said side panels and attached to said respective lateral extensions, said roller chains being large enough to substantially occlude said slots.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.