GB492524A - Improvements in or relating to processes of and apparatus for expressing liquids from and disintegrating fibrous material - Google Patents

Abstract

492,524. Crushing vegetable material. STACOM, M. J. March 16, 1937, No. 7688. [Class 59] [Also in Group VIII] In the production of fibrous cellulose for the manufacture of paper, artificial silk, &c., pine or fir wood. banana, stalks, honoquon, hemp, grasses, sugar cane, cornstalks, tobacco, bamboo, palm lea,ves, rhubarb, &c., are crushed whilst green, or moistened with hot or cold water, dilute caustic soda &c. under great rolling pressure to separate sap, resins, sugar, medicinal substances, carbohydrates, oils, albuminoids, alcohols, amides, chlorophyl, &c., and reduce the fibres to a dry, friable mass which may be given subsequent chemical treatment as by a soda, sulphate, or sulphite process, or may be further dried by heat, exposure to sunshine &c. or pulverized, screened, sorted, &c. The material is fed longitudinally and upwardly between a ring 1 and a roller 2 which may have flanges 2a to prevent extrusion sidewise. Thrust, e.g. up to 1,600,000 lb. is applied to the roller-bearings 9 by coiled springs &c. or hydraulic pistons 10 in cylinders 11, the bearings 9 being on arms 7 pivoted at 8, and is opposed by roller 3 on fixed bearing supports 5. Rollers 2 and 3 are preferably both driven as by gears allowing movement of the roller 2 under the hydraulic thrust, or directly by constant speed synchronized motors. The rollers 2, 3 and ring 1 may be cylindrical, frusto-conical, &c. and may have inclined axes to direct expressed sap &c. towards one side. The frame 6 may be recessed and the sap &c. drained off at 6a. The ring 1 may be supported by guide rolls 12 also under hydraulic pressure to allow the ring to dip as raw material is fed in. The hydraulic pressure may be produced by compressed nitrogen &c. acting on a large piston bored to act also as a smaller cylinder containing water compressed against a fixed piston. Crushed fibre is exhausted by suction in a trunk aided by air blown at 58 into a space bounded inter alia by scrapers 52, 53, hinged at 52a and weight or spring loaded to act on the ring 1 and roller 2 along which they may be reciprocated to even wear &c. Alternatively the crushed fibre may be scraped off and fall on to a conveyer belt. The raw material is fed as a thin strip or boards or nearly parallel stalks between two or several converging guides 39 supported at 40, 41 from brackets on the frame 6, or the guides may rise and fall with the ring 1.