Patent GB-707639-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for use in the preparation of animal foodstuffs
IPC: A23N17/00
Filed: 1950-04-21
Abstract: 707,639. Amimal food apparatus. POWLING, W. T., POWLING, W. T. L., and DAVIS, P. S. March 9, 1951 [April 21, 1950], No. 9928/50. Class 5 (2) In an installation for the preparation of animal food by extraction of aqueous matter from greenstuff and other edible fibrous matter, e.g. grass, cabbage leaves, fish, by breaking down the cell structure, there is included apparatus, Figs. 1 and 4, comprising a worm device 20 having a horizontal casing 21 which converges to one end and is provided at its larger end with an inlet 26 for the fibrous matter, a tapering worm 22 mounted to revolve in the casing, an impervious wall at the outlet of the worm device, against which wall the worm operates to compress the fibrous matter and squeeze aqueous matter therefrom, and a screened drain 27 at the larger end of the casing for the aqueous matter. In the worm device of Fig. 1, the impervious wall comprises a plate 23 which is rotatable with the worm and which is urged by means of a spring 60 to close the outlet, but is pushed away from the outlet under pressure built up by the revolving worm on the fibrous residue to allow expulsion of the fibrous residue from the casing. In the worm device of Fig. 4, the impervious wall is a plate 116 which is rotatable with the worm and which is urged by means of a spring 117 to close the annular outlet 115, but is pushed away therefrom under pressure built up by the worm on the fibrous residue to allow expulsion of the fibrous residue from the casing ; the shaft 14 of the worm is supported outside the ends of the worm casing by sleeves 140 and 132, the sleeve 132 providing a seating for the spring 117, and the casing is provided at its smaller end with circumferential reinforcing corrugations 144. The installation of Fig. 1 comprises a tank divided into three compartments 30, 16 and 19 and a shaft 14 extending horizontally through the tank ; in the two outer compartments are worm devices 20 and 24, the worms thereof being driven by the shaft 14. Fibrous matter fed into a hopper 25 passes by way of the inlet 26 into the casing 21 in compartment 30 and is subjected to pressure by the worm 22, the fibrous residue being forced past the plate 23 into the central compartment 16 and the expressed liquor flowing through the screen 27 down a shoot 28 to the bottom of the compartment 16, to be retained there or to be led.out by a pipe 42 ; the fibrous residue is agitated with expressed liquor or with wash water in the compartment 16 by blades 32 carried on arms 33 on the shaft 14 ; the wet fibrous residue is lifted from the compartment 16 by rotating scoops 36 carried by arms 35 on the shaft 14. which scoops discharge at the top of their rotations into a hopper 37 ; from this hopper the wet fibrous residue enters, in the compartment 19, a worm device 24 similar to the worm device 20; liquor expressed by the worm device 24 flows through a sieve 27<SP>1</SP> down a shoot 38 into the compartment 16. The fibrous residue is in some cases sufficiently dry to be suitable for mixing with dry meal without formation of lumps. The liquid obtained by use of the apparatus is flocculated by heating to produce a protein-rich animal food. Specification 705,369 is referred to.