Patent GB-1197892-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in the Classification of Granular Materials
Inventor: LOVEGREEN ALAN TREVOR
IPC: B03B5/62
Filed: 1966-07-21
Abstract: 1,197,892. Upward current classifiers. A. T. LOVEGREEN. 17 July, 1967 [21 July, 1966], No. 32715/66. Heading B2H. In a method of classifying granular materia], the raw feed material is introduced at or near the top of a single enclosed body of liquid in which a number of separate upward currents are established at different levels. Each current has a separate offtake circuit which is separately controllable for adjusting the grading of the particles of material entrained thereby. The coarse fraction of particles is collected at the bottom of the body of liquid and discharged automatically in response to a given weight thereof at any instant. As shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the raw material in, e.g. aqueous suspension is pumped through an inlet pipe 10 and a rectangular nozzled 1 into an annular chamber 13 which is full of water. The particles enter through an annular gap 31 into a settling chamber 32 where they first encounter an upwardly and radially outwardly directed current which is produced by an annular jet structure 35 and which entrains the fine particles upwardly through ducts 22 and over a weir 24 in a launder 26 from which they are discharged through a valved pipe 28 into a weir box 29 or into a hydrocylone. The heavier particles which are separated out of the current flaw by the radial component thereof fall by gravity through ports 137 in a drum 30a under the action of an upwardly and radially inwardly directed current which is produced by an annular jet structure 43. The ports 137 correspond with wide sector-shaped spaces 51, Fig. 6, where the medium-sized particles encounter an upward current of water and are evacuated upwardly and downwardly thnough a valved pipe 20 into a weir box 29a. The coarse or heavy particles continue their descent through the sector-shaped spaces 51 which open at their lower ends into a hopper 67. Water is supplied to the jet structures 35, 43 from a tank 17 a pipe 42 and valved pipes 40, 48. The pipe 40 opens into a header space 131 which communicates with the jet structure 35 whereas the pipe 48 opens directly into the jet structure 43. The pipe 42 also supplies water through a valved pipe 56 to a header space 53 which communicates through ports 52 with narrow sector-shaped spaces 50. Water issuing from the lower ends of the spaces 50 is deflected upwards by troughs 130 into the wide sectorshaped spaces 51. The discharge hopper 67, Fig. 4, is supported in a fixed outer casing 68 by a body of water supplied to the space between the hopper and the casing by a pipe 91 connected via a trap 92 to the header space 53. The hopper 67 is free to rise and fall in the casing 68 to a limited extent. Resilient load cells 78-82 serve to support the unladen weight of the hopper 67 and the weight of the coarse particles. At the start of an operation, the hopper is filled with water only and in this balanced condition a discharge valve 85 at the bottom of the hopper is closed. The heavy coarse particles accumulating in the hopper causes it to descend and this movement is detected by an automatic valve 107 and utilised to open the discharge valve 85. The system settles down to a general condition of balance in which the discharge from the hopper 67 is fainly continuous so long as coarse or heavy particles continue to fall into the hopper. Make-up water is supplied to the annular chamber 13 from the tank 17 through a pipe 17 under the control of a manually operated valve 15 and of a butterfly valve 57 which is operated by a swing-biassed counterbailanced lever 61 connected by a cord 60 to a vertically movable hollow sphere 59 conected by a flexible pipe 62 to the water space [between the hopper 67 and the casing 68.