Inlet air seal for use with a cooler/dryer

Abstract

A horizontal cooler/dryer having a continuous traveling conveyor, the conveyor being a chain conveyor formed of a plurality of links adjoined in end-to-end relationship, each of the links being pivotally pinned at its ends to adjacent links; a housing about the conveyor, the housing having a cooling gas inlet, a gas exhaust, a product inlet through which material to be cooled may be deposited on the conveyor and a product outlet through which cooled material can be discharged; and a plurality of non-perforate material pans mounted to the conveyor in juxtaposed overlapping relationship to form a substantially continuous surface about the conveyor. The product bed is leveled by dragging the lower edge of a hollow pivoting quarter drum across the product. The leveling is produced by the weight of the quarter drum pivoting down against the product. Counter weights can be used to control the leveling pressure against the product to avoid crushing or other product damage.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.