Airlocking system and method for feeding bulk granular material
OwnerMarshall F. Parsonsinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A control measuring and supply apparatus and method for receiving a substantially, continuous flow of fluent material from a source of supply; the assembly having a bottom-sealed diverter plate, optionally positionable to direct the fluent material, by gravity, to either one or the other of a pair of adjacent, parallel supply chambers, each of the supply chambers having lower, sealed valve plates which can be optionally opened or closed, a and visa versa, one of the supply chambers being filled with the fluent material while the other is simultaneously emptied, and power operated control motors for controlling the operation of the diverter and valve plates; the diverter plate and valve plates cooperating with seals disposed out of the path-of-movement of the fluent material.
Claims11
Apparatus for feeding a supply of fluent material to a process device, comprising:
- housing means which includes an upper inlet for admitting fluent material to said housing means and a pair of lower outlets for selectively emptying fluent material from said housing means;
- control chamber means, contained within said housing means, wherein said upper inlet of said housing means serves as an inlet to said control chamber means,
- a pair of adjacent parallel supply chamber means in communication with said control chamber means, wherein each of said pair of supply chamber means includes a supply chamber inlet and a supply chamber outlet, and wherein each of said pair of supply chamber means selectively receives fluent material from said control chamber means through a respective supply chamber inlet,
- pivotally-mounted, single diverter plate means contained within said control chamber means for directing continuously flowing fluent material to either one or the other of said pair of adjacent parallel supply chamber means and for sealing either one or the other of said adjacent parallel supply chamber means,
- a pair of control valve plate means for respectively controlling gravity discharge of fluent material from said pair of parallel supply chamber means through said pair of lower outlets of said housing means and for sealing said lower outlets of said housing means,
- power-operated, diverter plate motor means, supported by said housing means and operatively connected to said pivotally-mounted, single diverter plate means, for optionally positioning said diverter plate means in one or another of two positions for directing the fluent material to one of said parallel supply chamber means, while simultaneously preventing flow of fluent material to the other of said parallel supply chamber means, and
- a pair of power-operated, control-valve-plate operating means, each of which being operatively connected to a respective one of said control valve plate means for optionally opening one of said supply chamber outlets while simultaneously closing and sealing another of said supply chamber outlets, such that one of said supply chamber means is being emptied while the other of said supply chamber means is being filled.
A method of feeding fluent material to a process device comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a continuous supply of fluent material;
- b) providing a single plate for diverting the continuous supply of fluent material to one or the other of a pair of parallel supply chambers and for sealing the supply chamber to which fluent material is not being directed;
- c) permitting the other supply chamber which is filled with fluent material to gravity discharge the fluent material contained therein;
- and
- d) alternately maintaining the supply chambers sealed at their tops while being emptied, or at their bottoms while being filled whereby pressure and heat losses from the process device are minimized.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.