Improvements in Drying Apparatus.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Sept., 1896-Accepted, 31st July, 1897
Improvements in Drying Apparatus.
[Communicated from abroad by FREDRIK HIORTH, of Kvarner Brug, Christiania,
in the Kingdom of Norway, Mechanical Engineer.]
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to drying apparatus in which the material to be dried is
moved through heated chambers by some kind of transporting apparatus.
My new drying apparatus is adapted for all kind of substances and objects, and
more especially for pasteboard, paper, plates of cellulose, objects pressed from fibrous
materials, cloth, yarn, varnished sheet-metal or wooden objects. But, substances or
articles of other materials may also be dried by means of this new apparatus. My
improved apparatus may also be used for smoking meat, fish and the like.
The apparatus consists of a tower having two shafts or channels, in which a chain
is moved by rollers or sheaves mounted at the upper and lower end of the channels,
and in such a way that in one of the channels or shafts the chain goes upward and in
the other downwards. These shafts or channels meet at their upper ends, and at
their lower ends are connected with an air-duct through which dry or heated air
enters the lower end of that one of the channels in which the chain is going
downwards, while the damp air leaves the channel at the lower end of the shaft,
where the chain is going upwards. In the lower end of the tower are openings,
through which the objects are taken in and out on suitable carriages.
When a
carriage has entered the shaft it is engaged by hooks on the chain and carried away
with it.
In this manner a drying apparatus is obtained that occupies only very little
space on the floor, and the capacity of the same may be enlarged by making the
tower higher.
My apparatus is also advantageous for the reason that the inlet and the outlet
openings of the drying chamber are arranged at the same level and very close to
each other, whereby the various operations are made easy.
As the articles or the like to be dried and the air in the apparatus move in a
contrary direction to each other the economy of the same is very great, and the
danger of fire is completely excluded because the drying room has no projections
on which the materials can be retained and take fire by overheating.
One form of my improved apparatus is shown in the accompanying drawings, in
which
Figure 1 is a vertical section through the apparatus, and
Figure 2 is a horizontal section on line xx Fig. 1.
Figures 3 and 4 show the mechanism for operating the doors, and
Figures 5 and 6 are details to be hereinafter referred to.
Figure 3 is a detail view hereinafter referred to.
The tower A has an inner wall B which divides the same into two channels or
shafts A and A². In the drawings two pairs of shafts are shown side by side, Figure 2,
but of course more may be used if needed. E Fig. 1 is a fan, which draws air
through the passage A3 from the shaft A', so that the moisture in the air can be

page_text: condensed through the douching device f. (In Figures 5 and 6 is shown how the
quantity of the water inay be regulated by an adjustable piece or plug f¹). y, Figure 1
is a grating down which water flows and he is a shoot or outlet for the same. Being
in this manner deprived of its moisture the air is forced through a channel A' to the
heating room D and then into the shaft A2. The carriages on which the material
is hung or placed are moved by two endless chains which run over drums sheaves or
pulleys, c. These chains being preferably of the Galles-type composed of links d
and bolts e, Figure 3. The chains move in the direction contrary to the heated air,
and engage with the carriages by means of hooks when they are pushed in through
the opening, and deliver then at 6. The doors, closing the openings may be so.
constructed, that they are automatically opened by the carriages, such apparatus
being shown in detail Figures 3 and 4.
The door m is suspended by a chain 3, which passes over a sheave t² mounted on
the shaft t. On this shaft another sheave t is mounted, the same having a chain t
with a counter-balance t, Figure 4.
On the shaft a smaller sheave or pulley t is also mounted, the same being
connected with a lever 8 by a chain s'. This lever when moved downwards canses
the chain to turn the shaft t, and then the chain 3 is wound up around the
sheave or pulley 2 thereby opening the door.
The arms is periodically inoved in the following manner by the continuously
rotating shaft. When the carriage C with the goods approaches the track n,
Figure 3, it causes an arm to be forced downwards Fig. 3, this arm being
connected by a rod o¹ to a crank p on the shaft pl, the latter also is turned, causing
the fork p² to move the coupling ql, Figure 4 which rotates with the shaft r, against
the other coupling piece which is in one piece with the cam g. The cam will
then be turned by said shaft r pressing the arms downward causing the shaft t' to
rotate and wind up the chain 3 so that the door will be lifted. The can having
made half a revolution the arm & is again allowed to move upwards, the door being
lowered. When the door goes down the projection on the rod w, that is fastened
to the door m, will strike the arın p³ on the coupling shaft pl, and thereby move the
coupling piece q back to the position shown in the drawing, the shaft r being again
uncoupled from the cnm q.
The arrangement of the carriage C and the track n, may be either as shown in
Figure 1 or as shown in Figure 3 according to the circumstances and the materials
to be dried, or there may be used other frames for carrying the goods. The
automatical arrangement of the doors may be used at both openings.
My drying apparatus may be made fireproof by means of doors inside the
openings a and b the same being held by pieces i of an easily fusible metal. If then
the materials are ignited these metal pieces melt, and the doors i fall down.
In the top of the tower is an opening & closed by a loose plate l, so that if steam
or gas is created by fire the said plate is thrown off by the pressure of the said steam
or gas.
As it may be seen my new drying apparatus meets all demands, and the motive
power needed is but very little, as the same only has to overcome the difference of the
weights of the goods in the two channels. The degree of drying can be easily
regulated by changing the speed of the chains. When heated air cannot be used, the
apparatus works very well with cold air, the chain being moved slowly, and the current
of air a strong one.
My invention is not limited to the elements of construction as described but
involves the combination broadly of a drying room of the shape substantially as
described and a transporting apparatus which takes the goods from the floor upwards
through one shaft and then down through another shaft.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a drying apparatus the combination with a chamber divided by a vertical wall

page_text: into two channels or shafts communicating with each other at their upper end and a
their lower ends connected with airducts, of a transporting device for the goods to be
dried, consisting in endless chains laid over sheaves on top of and below the partition
wall so that the chains will move downwards in one channel and upwards in the other
channel.
2. In a drying apparatus the combination with slowly moving endless chains and a
drying chamber of a partition wall, dividing the chamber in two parallel shafts
communicating with each other at their upper end, of openings in the front and back
wall of the drying chamber and rails leading through these openings into the shafts
between the endless chains, and carriages for the goods to be dried running on the
said rails and adapted to be caught by hooks on the chains, when pushed into the
path of the same, so that the carriages will be lifted by the chains and transported up
one of the shafts over the partition and down the other shaft till it engages the rail at
the bottom of this shaft.
3. In a drying apparatus of the type described the combination with the openings
at the lower ends of the shaft and the rails and the carriages running on the same of
automatically closing doors for the said openings, the hoisting apparatus for the said
doors involving a coupling, which is acted upon by a lever, arranged at the rails in
the bottom of the shaft which is depressed at the moment a carriage hanging in the
chains engages the rail.
4. In a drying apparatus of the type specified the combination with the shafts, through
which the material is moved of a fan or blower for taking the damp air from the
bottom of one of the shafts and forcing dry and heated air into the other shaft and of
a condensing apparatus arranged in the duct between the fan and the shaft from which
the damp air is exhausted and of a heating chamber arranged in the duct between the
fan and the other shaft.
5. A drying apparatus substantially as specified and shown.
6. In a drying apparatus of the type specified the arrangement of the drying
room, transporting chains, and details of construction substantially as described.
Dated
day of Santamber 1906
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.