Patent GB-1194373-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for preparing Liquid Food
Inventor: LEGRAIN MICHEL AIME JOSEPH
IPC: B01F13/10
Filed: 1967-06-23
Abstract: 1,194,373. Feeding animals, M. A. J. LEGRAIN. 23 June, 1967 [23 June, 1966; 16 Sept., 1966; 3 March, 1967; 19 June, 1967], No. 29223/67. Heading A1M. [Also in Divisions B1 and B8] Apparatus for preparing liquid food comprises a container for a powder, an Archimedean screw conveyer for feeding the powder to a container having means for mixing the powder with liquid, a pipe delivering the mixture to a drawing-off point, and means for adding at least part of the liquid to the powder before it comes in contact with the mixing means. As shown in Fig. 1 milk powder is delivered from a hopper 1 to a mixing container 2 having a stirrer 11 by a first feeding screw 3, water being added at 19. There may be a separately driven second feeding screw 5 which is rotated at a speed providing a greater flow rate than that of the screw 3; as shown, it is on the same shaft as the stirrer 11. A screw 15 in the discharge outlet prevents discharge of the mixture so long as the stirrer shaft is rotating, but permits flow down it when the shaft is stationary. In a modification (see Fig. 2, not shown) the powder container (20) and first feeding screw (22) are placed partly below the mixing container (21), and the second feeding screw is replaced by a vane wheel with curved blades (24). In a further modification the mixing container may be suspended from a balance beam (see Fig. 6, not shown) and its weight controls the mixer may be suspended by the stirrer motors of the stirrer and screw feeder; the shaft (see Fig 11, not shown). In the embodiment of Fig. 10 the feeding screw 44 may have a coaxial Archimedean screw 46 on the stirrer shaft 46, an oily constituent being fed in at 49 and part of the water for mixing with the powder, at 50, the rest of the water being fed to the mixing container 47. The water may be supplied to the two inlets at different temperatures in quantities proportioned to provide the desired final temperature. In a further embodiment, Fig. 13, powder is fed by the screw 66 and hot water by the inlet 69, whence it flows down the helix 71 on the outside of the spout 68 and commingies with the powder at 72. The conduit 70 carries fixed baffles 76 and is arranged that if obstructed by powder it is automatically released and drops into the mixing container, where the additional weight stops the motors. When used for feeding small animals the output pipe connects with mammilate or flat trapezoidal teats (see Figs. 7-9, not shown) having cruciform openings, and held by hot water bottles (see Fig. 3, not shown). For larger animals the apparatus may be protected by a surrounding structure with the teats on its outer surface (see Fig. 12, not shown). The mixture may be sterilized by passage through a tortuous conduit in suitable material where it is exposed to ulta-violet radiation (see Figs. 4 and 5, not shown). Hoppers. The hopper 1, Fig. 1, has an elastic scraper 12 provided with a coil 13, and rotated round the hopper by the shaft 8. In Fig 14 (not shown) is depicted a hopper (77) provided with a scraper consisting of two conical helixes (78, 79) of elastic material having opposite hands and attached at one end to an arm (80) extending from a shaft (67) co-axial with the hopper and carrying the Archimedean screw conveyer.