Improvements in Granulating Mills.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Aug., 1894-Accepted, 6th Oct.,
1894
CUM LEIE DI BOLTIVATION
Improvements in Granulating Mills.
I FREDERICK WILLIAM EDDY of No. 41 Park Row, New York in the County
and State of New York, United States of America, Writer, 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 :-
This invention relates to improvements in granulating mills, and more
particularly to mills for reducing to a granulated form, substances which have
more or less of a yielding nature, and which require to be caught and torn into
fragments, as distinguished from a crushing process.
This mill is especially adapted to granulating cork, which may be in pieces of
varying size, and compressed into a compact mass before its engagement with the
disintegrating burrs.
The accompanying drawings represent a vertical section of the mill, taken
transversely through the feed rollers and hopper.
The supporting frame consists, conveniently, of a pair of end supports A, A,
terminating, at their base, in legs a, a¹. These end frames are suitably girded
together, so as to form a rigid support for the several operating parts to be
hereinafter referred to.
The feed hopper B is located at the top of the mill, and is arranged to discharge
its contents between the faces of a pair of feed rollers C, C¹. The curved faces of
the said feed rollers are preferably, though not essentially, corrugated as shown
at c, and it is intended that the discharge end of the feed hopper B shall continue
down into proximity to the faces of the rollers C, C³, so as to form a continuous
passageway for the material to be granulated, down the sides of the hoppers, and
along the faces of the rollers, the ends A, A, of the machine, or downwardly
projected ends of the hopper, as may be found most expedient, forming a closure to
prevent the material from escaping past the ends of the rollers C and C¹. The
rollers C and C¹ are journalled in suitable bearings attached to the end frames, the
former C in fixed bearings, and the latter C¹ in adjustable bearings, c', of any well
known or approved form, for the purpose of slightly increasing or diminishing the
distance between the adjacent faces of the feeding rollers. The rollers C and C¹
have fixed, to rotate therewith, gear wheels c² and c³, which intermesh with each
other, so as to drive the wheels in opposite directions, when power is applied to
either one or the other of them. It is intended that the teeth on the wheels c²
and shall be sufficiently long to permit the slight adjustment of the one roller
with respect to the other, without disengaging their intermeshing gear.
One of the gear wheels (in the present instance, c³) is driven by a pinion d on a
shaft D, journalled in the frames A, A, said shaft D having fixed thereon a band
pulley d connected by a belt d' with a suitable source of power, not shown.
The material fed from the hopper between the adjacent faces of the feed rollers,
is received from, and forced by, the rollers into a charging chamber formed by a
pair of cheek pieces E and E¹, which are secured between the end frames A, A,
and having their upper edge in proximity to the curved feeding faces of the
rollers C, C. For the purpose of adjusting the width of the charging chamber,
I make one of the cheek pieces (E, for example) adjustable a short distance
towards and away from the opposite piece, E. This may be accomplished by means
of a slot and set screw connection, as shewn at e. The ends of the charging
chamber may be formed by the inner faces of the end pieces A, A, as herein
shown; or it is obvious that the downwardly extended ends of the hopper, or
separate plates for the purpose, might be inserted between the end frames A, A, to

page_text: form the ends of said chamber. The lower end of the charging chamber is
contracted by projecting the lower edges of the cheek pieces E and E' towards
each other in a downwardly slanting direction, as shown at e¹ and e². This feature
of contracting the lower end of the charging chamber is a very important one, as it
has a tendency to retard the advance movement of the scraps or pieces of material
to be granulated in their downward course, under the action of the feeding rollers,
causing them to become compressed into a compact mass within the charging
chamber, and to issue from the lower end thereof in such a compressed condition as
to render the action of the disintegrating or granulating surface very effective.
The granulating of the mass is effected as it issues from the lower end of the
chamber by the surface of a rotary drum or cylinder F, provided on its periphery
with manifold burrs f. The surface of the cylinder is preferably formed of tough
and hard sheet steel, and the burrs are preferably formed by punching hoies in the
sheet with a three-edges punch, the three edges of the punch radiating from a
common centre so as to form three sharp pointed wings of metal, projecting
outwardly from the outer surface of the cylinder. The cylinder F is mounted in
suitable bearings in the frames A, A, with its burred surfaces in proximity to the
discharge end of the charging chamber, and is driven at a suitable rate of speed by
means of a drive pulley f fixed on the shaft f2 of the cylinder, and connected by a
band with a suitable source of power, not shown.
In operation: The mass of material, as it issues from the contracted end of the
charging chamber, is acted upon by the burrs on the surface of the rotating
cylinder, and is caught and torn into fragments by said burrs, the size of the
fragments being easily regulated by the speed of the cylinder F relative to the rate
of feed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
--
The combination with the feed rollers arranged to form between them a passage
for the material to be granulated, and a charging chamber forming a continuation
of the passageway between the rollers, beginning at the point where the faces of
the rollers most nearly approach each other, said charging chamber being
contracted at its discharge end, of a burred cylinder arranged to rotate in proximity
to the contracted discharge end of the discharge chamber, substantially as set
forth.
Dated this 21st day of August. 1894
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.