US430817A - Scouring and washing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

F. E. ANDERSON. SOOURING AND WASHING APPARATUS.

30,817. Patented Jung 24, 1890.

I /N VENTOH A TTOHNE YS UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.-

FRANK E. ANDERSON, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

SCOURING AND WASHING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 430,817, dated June 24, 1890.

Application filed February 13, 1890. Serial No. 340,348. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK E. ANDERSON, of East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Securing and W'ashing Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to apparatus for scouring, washing, or dyeing various fibrous materials. It is more particularly intended, however, for the cleansing and washing of wool, and is more especially designed as an improvement upon the invention patented by Samuel Hodgson, September 3, 1889, No. 410,519, for a scouring and washing machine, in which the main objects of the invention were to provide for a uniform submersion of all of the wool or other fiber operated upon, and to provide for a submersion of any length of time. Said machine, which included a process subsequently patented to said Hodgson, January 14:, 1890, No. 419,331, operated upon the principle of submerging the staple and subjecting said staple and its surrounding liquid to forward intermittent impulses, and in carrying out this process the machine patented September 3,1889, as above named, consisted, essentially, of a normally-filled tube or conduit and a flushing mechanism arranged in connection therewith. These and other details included in said machine are used in this my improvement, which, however, has other features in addition, including a succession or series of fiber-submerging tubes, one following the other, and the one which follows up the work of the preceding one either having a continuous or intermittent flow of liquid through it; but the same will here be described as having continuous flow through it instead of operating by forward impulses; also, pressure or squeeze rolls interposed between the tubes and at the terminus of the series, whereby the wool or fiber under treatment is more effectually cleaned, substantially as hereinafter described.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved scouring and washing apparatus. Fig. 2 is flow-chamber b.

a vertical longitudinal section of the same, taken upon the line w :1: in Fig. 1; and Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are vertical transverse sections, upon a larger scale, taken, respectively, upon the lines w w, y 'y, and z z in Fig. 2.

A is the first of a series of tubes or flumes, of which there may be any number in succession, one in advance of the other, although only two are here shown, (marked A B.) At the one end of this tube A is a hopper (3, into which the wool or fiber to be treated is first fed by any suitable means, while the other end of said tube is raised, so that the lower edge of the discharge opening a will be above the level of the top of the main body of the tube.

On top of the hopper C is a tank D, that supplies by overflow the scouring or washing liquid to the flume A and keeps such fiume, tube, or conduit normally filled with the liquid. Applied to said hopper (J is a tilting flushing-bucket E, into which the liquid from the tank D flows. This tilting flushingbucket as it tilts serves to give the necessary intermittent forward impulses to the wool or fiber and its surrounding liquid in and through the flume or tube A.

At the discharge end CL of the tube A, over or within a drip-pan F,is an endless traveling cloth or other, preferably porous, apron G, which serves to carry the wet wool or fiber forward to and between a pair of pressure or staple squeezing-rolls H H in and over the drip-pan F. These rolls or one of them is made adjustable to give any degree of pressure required-as, for instance, by screws applied to the bearings of the upper roll. Beyond these rolls H II is another endless traveling belt or apron G, set inclining upward within a channel-Way I, and serving to deliver the partially-cleansed wool or fiber into a second hopper J, mounted on the one end of the second flume or tube B, the wool being delivered above the level of the fall of liquid therein, which is supplied from an over- The liquid squeezed out of the wool or fiber by the pressure-rolls H H is returned from the drip-pan F back to a tank K, from whence it is returned or supplied by a pump or steam-pulsometer L and suitable connections to the overflow-tank D. The endless traveling aprons GG and the squeeze or pressure rolls H H are positively driven by any suitable arrangement of gearing, an ordinary system for 'the purpose being shown in Fig. 1. The tube or fiume B also has the lower edge of its discharge-opening a at the one end of said tube at the level of the top of the main body of the tube; but the flow of liquid and passage of the fiber through this tube, instead of being by intermittent impulses as well as continuous, as in the tube or fiume A, is continuous only, the liquid being continuously supplied by the overflowchamber 7) without the intervention of a tilting flushing-bucket.

From the tube B the wet wool in being discharged slides down an incline d and pushes any wool or fiber ahead of it up to and between another pair of adjustable squeeze or pressure rollers H. H, suitably boxed in at their sides and back to insure the passing water or liquid being run out to said rolls togeth er with the wool or fiber. A rotating fanlike device e at the back of these rolls serves to regulate the delivery of the wool or fiber.

Beneath the rolls I l II is a drip-pan N, which serves, by a suitable pipe-connection, to pass the liquid flowing out of the tube B and squeezed from the wool while passing between said rolls back to a tank K, from whence it may be returned by a pulsometer or pump 0 to the overflow-chamber b. The pressure-rolls, or one of them H H, are also positively driven, as likewise the fan-like device e, by any suitable gearing-such, for instance, as shown in Fig. 1.

Of course for cleansing wool the liquid used may be suitably heated, as customary in such cases.

By the use of a series of successive flushin g-flumes, the contents of which are subjected to intermittent impulses and a continuous current, and the employment of squeeze or pressure rolls between the fiumes and at the end of the series, where any desired pressure may be given, not only will the wool, supposing that to be the material being treated, be properly submerged and soaked and rinsed without jamming or injury to its fibers; but the wool, in passing between the squeeze-rolls, will receive a greater proportion of cleansing in the squeezing operation than in the soaking one, the hard pressure of. the rolls forcing the liquid through every part of the wool, besides separating the dirt and grease, which has been loosened and softened by the soaking operation.

It should be observed that the flushing fiumes or tubes may either be subjected to an intermittent or continuous current through any or all of them. Means for doing both are here shown. This remark applies whether the apparatus has only one flushing-fiume or a series of flushing fiumes or tubes in succession, so long as squeeze-rolls be combined either with the one fiume or with the series of fiumes. Again, by the term flushing fiume or tube is meant a tube or fiume the liquid full length of the tube, close the tube diametrically, so as to give the requisite resistance and friction. This may be done by making the outlet portion of the tube, though not necessarily its extremity, elevated in relation to the body of the tube.

It should here be observed that the flushing fiumes or tubes in which the scouring and washing is done essentially diifer from mere upright tanks or receptacles provided with toothed drums or other special rotating devices for agitating and working the wool while within said receptacles, and with pumps for passing the wool from one receptacle to another or into a raking device, and further provided with pressure rolls or wringers and endless belt conveyers for conveying the wool or staple through and delivering it from the apparatus. Each scouring and washing fiume or tube in my invention is not dependent upon interior operating devices or pumps for lifting the wool, but it is simply a fibersubmerging tube, normally filled with fluid, having its opposite end portions so arranged that a current by gravitation passes through the tube, and the latter is kept filled for a portion at least of its length with liquid, so as to give the requisite resistance and friction and to provide fora proper and uniform submersion of all the wool or fiber passing through the tube. WVool or other staple thus scoured or washed is in a condition to be acted upon more thoroughly and perfectly by squeeze or pressure rollers without injury to the fiber, and where a series of such flushing flumes or tubes and a series of such pressure-rollers outside of the delivery end of each flushing fiume or tube, respectively, are used the efliciency of the apparatus is greatly enhanced.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. In apparatus for scouring and washing wool or other fibrous material or staple, the combination, with a flushing fiume or tube that is, a tube normally filled with liquid and having an elevated outlet and means for supplying liquid theretoof pressure or staple squeezing rolls arranged beyond the outlet end of said fiume, essentially as herein set forth.

2. The combination, with a series of flushing fiumes or tubes having elevated outlets and arranged one in advance of the other, a means for delivering an intermittent supply of liquid to one of said tubes, and a means for delivering a continuous supply of liquid to the succeeding tube, of pressure or staple squeezing rolls arranged in relation to the tubes or fiumes, as and for the purpose stated.

3. The combi11ation,with a series of flushing fluines or tubes having elevated outlets and arranged one in advance of the other, hoppers at their inlet ends, and means for supplying, respectively, said tubes with liquid, of pressure or staple squeezing rolls arranged between said tubes and at the end of the series of tubes, conveying devices for conseries of tubes, as and for the purpose stated.

FRANK E. ANDERSON.

Witnesses:

ROBERT MILLs. GEO. A. ADAMS.

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