Apparatus for treating materials by creating a cavitation zone downstream of a rotating baffle assembly

Apparatus for treating a fluent material, comprising:

• housing means including inlet means for receiving said fluent material, and outlet means;
• pulsing means within said housing means for imparting pulses of energy to said fluent material, said pulsing means having orifice means for passing incremental quantities of said fluent material in bursts from a high pressure zone to a cavitation area;
• and
• means within said housing means for compensating for the drop in pressure of said fluent material occurring between said high pressure zone and said cavitation area, wherein said compensating means includes longitudinally displaceable flow control means upstream of said cavitation area.

Apparatus for treating a fluent material, comprising:

• housing means including inlet means for receiving said fluent material, and outlet means;
• pulsing means within said housing means for imparting pulses of energy to said fluent material, said pulsing means having orifice means for passing incremental quantities of said fluent material in bursts from a high pressure zone to a cavitation area;
• and
• means within said housing means for compensating for the drop in pressure of said fluent material occurring between said high pressure zone and said cavitation area, wherein said compensating means includes longitudinally displaceable flow control means upstream of said cavitation area, and wherein said flow control means includes a ring shaped member.

An apparatus for treating one or several materials, comprising:

• a housing defining a passage, said passage having a series of regions in which a material is treated;
• an inlet through which a material is introduced into said housing;
• a pair of baffle plates disposed in said housing in said passage downstream of said inlet;
• one of said baffle plates being rotatable relative to the other of said baffle plates;
• a shaft on which said rotatable baffle plate is mounted;
• said rotatable baffle plate having a series of circumferentially disposed openings that extend through said rotatable baffle plate;
• said other baffle plate having a series of circumferentially disposed openings that extend through said other baffle plate;
• said rotatable baffle plate being disposed closely adjacent said other baffle plate such that the series of openings on said rotatable baffle plate and the series of openings on said other baffle plate are intermittently in alignment with each other to intermittently create a series of baffle passages which extend through said rotatable baffle plate and through said other baffle plate, said baffle plates being mounted and positioned with respect to said housing and said shaft such that all material moving past said baffle plates in said housing must pass through at least some of said baffle plate openings;
• and
• a cavitation region downstream of said pair of baffle plates, said cavitation region being adapted to receive pulses of said material through said baffle passages formed by the intermittent alignment of said openings in said pair of baffle plates.