Patent GB-544809-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to the manufacture of butter
IPC: A01J15/00
Filed: 1940-05-30
Abstract: 544,809. Making butter; churns; centrifugal extractors. SENN, J. May 30, 1940, Nos. 9512 and 9513. Convention dates, May 27, 1939 and April 4, 1940. [Class 84] [Also in Group II] Relates to the manufacture of butter from cream and milk by the carbon dioxide contact process, in which the cream &c. is stirred in a pressure vessel with CO 2  at  to 20 atmospheres while being cooled. According to the invention the granular butter produced in the pressure vessel is transfered with washing or cooling water and preferably with exclusion of light and air to a water extractor where the butter is dehydrated to the desired degree and discharged, e.g. to a packing machine. The cooling may be effected by the introduction of liquid CO 2  or by means of brine with a surface cooler. Two examples are given. In Fig. 1, cream &c. is sucked by a pump (not shown) into the pressure vessel 6, liquid C0 2  is injected into the chamber to give after evaporation a pressure of 2-4 atmospheres, and a stirrer 5 is operated by an electromotor 1 at, say, 1,500 r.p.m. dropping within 5-60 seconds to 20 r.p.m., whereby the butter clots are formed. (The speed of the stirrer is reduced continuously by a gear 2. Manual release of a coupling 3 uncouples the motor when the clots have been formed; the uncoupling may be effected by an electrical device. A perforated cover 14 prevents rising of foam to CO 2  valves (not shown) in the cover 7). The carbon dioxide is then released from the vessel 6 for recompression for further use. Movement of a lever 29 to the a position moves slides 9, 27 so far to the left that (1) washed butter and washing water drop from the washing vessel 20 into a centrifugal extractor and (2) butter milk escapes from the vessel 6 through a duct 12. Further movement of lever 29 to the b position (1) blocks the exit from the vessel 20 by the part 27b of slide 27 and (2) allows butter, agitated again by the stirrers 5, to drop through aperture 13 into vessel 20. Lever 29 is then moved quickly back to its original position as shown. The slides 9, 27 may be operated by servomotors or pinions. Water is admitted through a perforated annular pipe 21, and a stirrer 22 having rods 23 agglomerates the butter. The water passes between the double walls of the vessel 20 and out through a pipe (not shown). The extractor 31 has an upwardly movable base which presses the butter against a knife 32, the knife being curved as shown to discharge the butter to a forming and packing machine. The water extraction may be effected in the presence of, or the butter strip peeled off by the knife 32 may be passed through, concentrated brine or a salt dust atmosphere. The discharge of gas from the vessel 6, the discharge of the extractor 31 by the rising base, and the starting of the forming and packing machine may be effected synchronously. The stirrer 22 may be replaced by a device which introduces the washing water simultaneously in a vertical and radial direction. The different parts of the machine may be arranged not above each other as shown, but side by side or concentrically. The chamber 6 has an observation-window. In Fig. 9 the washing is effected in the pressure chamber 201 and the water extraction is performed by two conveying worms 225 which knead the butter and discharge it through an opening 227 to the packing machine. The butter-clots and last washing-water are discharged from the chamber 201 by withdrawing a bolt 220 whereby a flap 218 drops down. The bolt may be replaced by an eccentrically-arranged shaft. A flap 232 or spring-pressed disc prevents entry of butter &c. to the bolt-receiving bore 233. Liquid (water or brine) is transferred from the chamber 228 to chamber 201 via pipe 207 by a pump 230 or by reducing the pressure in the chamber 201. Also are provided a cream inlet 205, a washing water inlet 206, CO 2  outlet 209, CO 2  inlet 212, and outlet 213 for butter-milk and washing water. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 describes a third example comprising a stirrer 103 enclosed within a removable, split, perforated jacket, 112. When churning is completed - a rod 109 is depressed and rotated, a pinion 111 thereon engaging a toothed segment 115 to contract the cylinder which then grips the butter. - Washing and cooling water is then passed into the chamber while the jacket is rotated to act as a water-extractor. Also, the coupling 3 automatically disconnects the motor when the resistance of the forming butter reaches a certain point, and the two conveying worms 225 rotate in opposite directions. This subjectmatter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.