Patent ID: 6865822
Filing Date: 2005-03-15
Classification: C04B,C08J,D21C,D21H,Y02W

Abstract:
1. A drying system for the processing of pulp into singulated and dried fibers comprising: a jet drier with a jet conduit, a manifold for air intake into the jet conduit, a pulp intake for delivery of pulp into the jet conduit, and a fiber outlet for removal of singulated and dried fibers, outlet air, and fines from the jet conduit; a pulp supply station coupled to the pulp intake for supplying a feed pulp to the pulp intake; an air supply station coupled to the manifold for delivering air to the manifold; an outlet flow conduit coupled to the fiber outlet for the transport of the fibers, outlet air, and fines from the jet conduit; a fiber separation station coupled to the outlet flow conduit for separating the fibers from the outlet air; and the pulp supply station including a pulp feed device coupled to the pulp intake for delivering the feed pulp to the pulp intake while minimizing the amount of air flow through the pulp supply station, the pulp feed device being a rotary airlock including a rotor housing and a rotor rotatably mounted within the rotor housing, the rotor having rotor vanes for transporting the feed pulp, wherein the rotor vanes and rotor housing are sized so that a gap exists between the rotor vanes and the rotor housing to prevent the feed pulp from jamming the rotary airlock, said gap between said rotor vanes and said housing is in the range of 0.010 to 0.050 inches.