Patent ID: 6776292
Filing Date: 2004-08-17
Classification: B03D

Abstract:
An apparatus for separation of solids in froth, comprising:a housing, delimited by two upper side walls, two upper end walls and a mainly funnel shaped bottom, the housing establishing a chamber for flows of liquid and solid material and a froth bed on the liquid; feeding means for getting incoming material to be separated in contact with said froth bed; discharging means for solid material near the bottom of said housing; aerator means under the liquid surface for creating bubbles and thus forming said froth bed on the liquid in the apparatus, said aerator means being constructed to generate a vertical flux of bubbles substantially nonhomogenous in a horizontal cross-section of the chamber, to generate a moving bed of froth on the liquid; means for discharging froth from the housing including at least a froth outlet; a surface connected to said feeding means so as to reduce the vertical speed component of the material being fed with the feeding means along which surface the material being fed is introduced from above said froth bed in and on to said froth bed; and one or more vertical plates installed inside the chamber substantially parallel to the direction of the froth motion, wherein said aerator means comprises a main bubble generator and at least one additional bubble generator, said main and at least one additional bubble generators being installed at least partly one above another, each of the main and at least one additional bubble generators by itself creating in the horizontal cross-section a homogenous flow of bubbles, the main bubble generator covering substantially the whole length of a horizontal section of the chamber in the direction of the froth motion, and the at least one additional bubble generator covering two-thirds or less of the length of the chamber in the direction of the froth motion starting from the start point of the horizontal froth motion.