Patent ID: 9643799
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: B65D,B65G

Claim:
1. A pneumatic conveyor operable to convey fine powder material, said conveyor comprising: a pressure vessel presenting a continuous elongated chamber with opposite upper and lower chamber ends and being operable to receive fine powder material and to be selectively pressurized with compressed air to pressurize and convey the fine powder material in a dense-phase flow, said pressure vessel including uppermost and lowermost vessel ends associated with the upper and lower chamber ends, respectively, said lowermost vessel end presenting an outlet to discharge the dense-phase flow of pressurized fine powder material from the lower chamber end, said pressure vessel further including a unitary tubular section and an endmost inlet section that forms the uppermost vessel end, said unitary tubular section extending continuously between the upper vessel end and the lower vessel end to define the chamber, said unitary tubular section having a frustoconical shape and including an inclined wall that extends upwardly relative to the outlet, said inclined wall being inclined at an angle relative to the horizontal, with the angle ranging from about sixty degrees to about eighty degrees so that fine powder material in the chamber is collected by the inclined wall and urged toward the outlet to restrict the fine powder material from bridging within the chamber; and a pneumatic supply assembly that provides compressed air to the chamber when pressurizing the vessel, said pneumatic supply assembly including at least one pneumatic supply line that extends through the inlet section so that the pneumatic supply assembly fluidly communicates with the chamber entirely through the inlet section, with all of the compressed air being supplied to the chamber by passing through the inlet section, said at least one pneumatic supply line presenting a pneumatic injection port located within the chamber, with the injection port located adjacent the outlet to inject compressed air into the flow of pressurized fine powder material.