Rotary impinging stream dryer
AssigneeEarth Care Products, Inc.
InventorAndrew Livingston
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved rotary shell or drum dryer (10) is provided having an elongated, horizontally disposed, axially rotatable shell (12) with product and air inlets (14, 18) and an outlet (16) at opposite ends of the shell. Internally, the dryer (10) includes axially spaced apart first and second drying sections (26, 28) each having a turbulator (30, 32) and a downstream serpentine flow section (34, 36). The turbulators (30, 32) are designed to divert portions of a product/airstream in different directions respectively to achieve the intense mixing similar to that obtained in an impingement dryer.
Claims18
A gas turbulator comprising;
- a generally circular frame having a gas inlet face and an opposed gas outlet face and including an inner annular wall and an outer annular wall;
- a plurality of elongated, stationary mixing vanes located within said inner annular wall, at least some of said vanes oriented for diverting gas during passage thereof past the vanes in a first direction;
- and
- a number of elongated mixing plates located between said inner and outer walls and in circumferentially spaced relationship to each other, at least certain of said plates oriented for diverting of gas during passage thereof past the plates in a second direction different than said first direction.
A rotary dryer comprising:
- an elongated, generally horizontally disposed, axially rotatable shell configured for passage of drying air therethrough;
- an inlet for initially moist product to be dried adjacent one end of said shell;
- an outlet for dried product adjacent the other end of said shell;
- first and second drying sections located within said shell in axially spaced relationship to each other and between said inlet and said outlet,
- each of said first and second drying sections including an upstream turbulator and a downstream serpentine flow section, said turbulator operable to mix and divert air and product during passage of said air and product to be dried therethrough, said serpentine flow section including telescoped inner and outer wall structure for directing said air and product from said turbulator along an elongated serpentine flow path.
A method of drying an initially wet product comprising the steps of:
- forming an initially wet product and drying airstream and passing said stream into and through an elongated, generally horizontally oriented axially rotatable dryer shell having an initially wet product inlet, and a dried product outlet at opposite ends thereof;
- and
- during rotation of said shell, directing said stream through first and second axially spaced apart drying sections located between said inlet and said outlet during passage of the stream through said shell,
- during said direction of said stream through each of said drying sections, causing said stream to be initially mixed by diverting respective stream portions in different directions, and thereafter passing the stream along a downstream serpentine flow path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.