GB651000A - Improvements in or relating to devices for mixing fluids - Google Patents

Abstract

651,000. Making foam. JEFFREE, J. H. Oct. 1, 1948, No. 15532. [Class 47 (ii)] [Also in Group II] Two fluids which may be water and a foaming agent are mixed in predetermined proportions by producing in a pipe a moving stream of one of the fluids, periodically interrupting the stream by breaking it into two columns, blocking the following column, allowing the leading column to continue under its own inertia to produce a suction effect in the closed space formed in the pipe between the two columns and using the suction effect to draw a second fluid into the pipe for admixture with the first fluid. In one embodiment, Fig. 6, a fluid A flowing from an inlet pipe 20 to an outlet pipe 21 passes through an interrupter chamber 43 and through diametrically opposed holes 48 into a tube 47 which delivers the fluid into a mixing chamber 25. The chamber 43 contains a waterwheel 24, suspended from a vertically adjustable screw 52 for rotation by the incoming fluid A, the water-wheel having a sleeve 45 which surrounds the upper closed end of the tube 47 and which carries diametrically opposed lugs 46 which during rotation of the wheel 25, interrupt the flow of fluid through the holes 48. The inertia of each separate column of fluid so formed flowing through the outlet pipe 21, produces suction in the mixing chamber 25 to open a valve 23 and draw in the fluid B from a container 42. To control the proportions of the two fluids the duration of each interruption is adjusted by the screw 52, by which means the tapered lugs 46 may be vertically displaced in relation to the holes 48. In other embodiments, as in Fig. 8, not shown, the interrupter comprises a rotatable conical valve driven by the fhud A or as in Fig. 5, not shown, the interrupter may be a reciprocating valve driven from an external source of energy which may be under the control of a chemical recorder measuring the chemical properties of the mixed fluids. The proportions of the fluids may also be controlled by a chamber 76, Fig. 11, which is filled with fluid B through a constricted inlet 77 in the periods between successive interruptions of the main stream and from which fluid is withdrawn by the vacuum created in the mixing chamber 25, in quantities depending upon the movement of a flexibly mounted diaphragm 78 between limits provided by an abutment shoulder 83 and an adjustable screw 81. In a similar embodiment, Fig. 12, not shown, the diaphragm 78 is replaced by an expansion bellows.