Centrifuge with cake churning
AssigneeBaker Hughes Incorporated
InventorWoon-Fong Leung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A centrifuge includes a conveyor for moving cake along a cake flow path towards a cake discharge opening and further includes a baffle mounted to the conveyor and disposed along the cake flow path. The baffle is provided on an upstream side, facing substantially away from the discharge opening, with a concave profile or surface. This concave profile or surface serves to direct a portion of the cake, which is headed downstream along the cake flow path, into a recirculation or churning path directed partly back towards a pool. The recirculation or churning of the particulate material facilitates an enhanced washing thereof and improves the removal of valuable solutes or undesirable impurities from the cake.
Claims13
A machine construction method comprising:
- providing a centrifuge having a bowl and a conveyor inside said bowl for moving cake solids along a cake flow path to a cake discharge opening;
- providing a baffle in the form of a plate having a pair of opposed major surfaces, at least one of said major surfaces having an at least partially concave profile;
- and
- disposing said baffle in said centrifuge so that said one of said surfaces of said baffle faces in an upstream direction relative to said cake flow path in said centrifuge and so that another of said surfaces faces in a downstream direction relative to said cake flow path.
A machine construction method comprising:
- providing a decanter type centrifuge having a bowl and a conveyor inside said bowl for moving cake solids along a cake flow path to a cake discharge opening, said conveyor having a plurality of adjacent blade flights;
- providing a baffle or churning vane in the form of a plate having a pair of opposed major faces, at least one of said major faces having an at least partially concave profile;
- and
- disposing said baffle or churning vane between preselected adjacent blade flights of the conveyor so that said baffle or churning vane is oriented substantially perpendicularly to a cake flow path extending to a cake discharge opening in said bowl and so that said one of said faces faces in an upstream direction relative to said cake flow path and away from said cake discharge opening and the other of said faces faces in a downstream direction relative to said cake flow path and towards said cake discharge opening.
A machine construction method comprising:
- providing a decanter type centrifuge having a bowl with an inner surface and a conveyor inside said bowl for moving cake solids along a cake flow path to a cake discharge opening, said conveyor having a plurality of adjacent blade flights;
- providing a baffle or churning vane in the form of a plate having a pair of opposed major faces, at least one of said major faces having an at least partially concave profile;
- and
- disposing said baffle or churning vane between preselected adjacent blade flights of the conveyor so that said one of said faces faces away from said cake discharge opening and so that said baffle or churning vane is spaced, from said inner surface, a distance sufficiently large to permit passage of a cake layer between said baffle or churning vane and said bowl along said cake flow path to said cake discharge opening.
A machine construction method comprising:
- providing a decanter type centrifuge having a bowl with an inner surface and a conveyor inside said bowl for moving cake solids along a cake flow path to a cake discharge opening, said conveyor having a plurality of adjacent blade flights;
- providing a baffle or churning vane in the form of a plate having a pair of opposed major faces, at least one of said major faces having an at least partially concave profile;
- and
- disposing said baffle or churning vane between preselected adjacent blade flights of the conveyor so that said baffle or churning vane is oriented at least partially perpendicularly to said adjacent blade flights.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.