Improvements in Machines for Cleaning or Scutching Hemp and other Fibres.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 31st Jan., 1899-Accepted, 18th Mar., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machines for Cleaning or Scutching Hemp and
other Fibres.
I, JOSÉ TORROELLA, of Calle 60, No. 386, Merida de Yucatan, in the Republic
of Mexico, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:
The object of the invention is to provide a machine for cleaning hemp and
other fibre, so constructed that there will be a total absence of chains, pressure
bars and springs as employed in other existing machines to hold the hemp or
other leaves while they are being led to, cleaned by and taken away from the
revolving knives, revolving disks placed at angles to one another being used for
the purpose of holding the leaves during the process of cleaning. A further
object of the invention is to so shape the knives upon the scraping or scutching
wheel, that the quantity of cut fibre found in the bagasse will be reduced to
a minimum:
The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several
parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth and pointed out in the claims.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this
specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding
parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a plant illustrating the application of my
improvement thereto;
Figure 2 is a plan view of the plant, the driving shaft having been removed;
Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section through the plant; and
Figure 4 is a plan view of the lower disk of a pair.
Instead of the usual chains, pressure bars and springs being employed as
clamps or carriers for the leaves, employ two or more pairs of clamping and
feeding disks, the pairs of disks being designated respectively as A and B. Each
pair of disks comprises a lower horizontal disk and an upper disk placed at an
angle to the lower disk, as shown particularly in Figure 3, the disks of one
pair being designated as a and a¹, and the disks of the second pair as 6 and b¹.
The lower disks of the pairs are mounted to turn on tables 10, provided with
suitable legs 11, the tables having a roller bearing 13, as shown in Figure 3.
Each lower disk is provided with an attached shaft 14, and each upper disk
is provided with an attached shaft 15, the two shafts of each pair of disks being
connected by a universal joint 16. The upper disk of each pair is held in an
inclined position with regard to the lower disk by means of standing brackets
or supports 17. Each pair of disks is driven at the same speed, the speed being
slow, but the pair of disks B turns in an opposite direction to the pair A, as
indicated by the arrows in Figure 2. The upper surface of each lower disk is
provided with circular grooves 18 alternating with circular tongues 19, as shown
best in Figure 4, the tongues and grooves being near the edge of the disk; and
the under face of each upper disk is provided with circular tongues 20, adapted

page_text: to enter the grooves in the lower disk and grooves 21 receiving the tongues of
the lower disk.
A bevelled gear 22 is secured to the lower end of each shaft 14, and the said
gears mesh with pinions 23 carried by a line shaft 24 and driven from a suitable
power shaft 25. Adjacent to the pair of disks A and opposite the wide space
between the disks, a feed table 20 is erected, shown as provided with chain
conveyers 27, driven by shafts 28, provided with gear wheels 29 which mesh
with pinions 30 on the line shaft 24.
At the point of tangency of the disks, a rapidly revolving scraping or scutching
wheel C is mounted to revolve in a circular casing. 31, the casing being of greater
diameter than the wheel, and being provided with an outlet 32 near its bottom
and with a transverse opening 33, which faces the point of contact between the
opposing disks of a pair, one of the said scraping wheels being provided for each
pair of disks. The scraping wheel is provided with a series of transversely.
arranged blades 35, each blade being provided with an upper bevelled surface,.
the bevelled surfaces of the blades being the surfaces that are to be brought in
engagement with the leaves, the leaves while being cleaned resting upon the
segmental bottom 34 which extends from the transverse opening 33 of the casing
to the outlet 32.
The disposition of the cleaning knives is a novel one, as instead of presenting
an acute angle to the leaves as in all other machines, the scraping knives are
brought in contact with the leaves in an exactly reversed way and in such a
manner that the bevelled edges of the knives are their cleaning edges. It is
claimed that this disposition of the knives will greatly diminish the quantity
of cut fibre found in all bagasse.
The leaves are placed transversely upon the feed table, their butts facing the
open space between the clamping and feeding disks of the first pair A. The
leaves are fed by hand from the feed table into the space between the disks a
and a, the butt end entering the said space, and as the disks a and a¹ are
revolving at a low rate of speed in the direction of the arrow shown in Figure 2,
the leaves fed to the disks are caught at or near the point "x," and the butts
of the leaves being held firmly between the two disks a and a¹ said leaves are
carried to the opening 33 in the casing of the scraping wheel belonging to the
set of disks A. As soon as the knives come in contact with the leaves, the leaves
are whipped downward into the casing and made to lie upon the bottom 34, where
the knives act upon the leaves in such manner as to thoroughly clean and expose
the fibre. As the disks a and a¹ continue to revolve, the stripped or cleaned
fibre is drawn out from the casing of the scraping wheel, and will hang pendent
in like manner as a fringe over the guide bar 36 which extends from a support
adjacent to the wheel casing to the space between the disks and b¹.
At or
about the time that the fibre is gripped and held between the disks 6 and 61, the
butts of the leaves will have been released from the disks a and a¹, and the disks b
and 6, holding fast the fibre, will direct the butts and inclined ends of the
leaves into the casing of the second scraping wheel, where the butt ends of the
leaves will also be cleaned. When the cleaned fibre now held by the disks b
and breaches the point ¹, the fibre will be freed from the disks b and b¹ and
may be taken away to the drier.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. The rotatable clamping and feed disks arranged at an angle to each other
and in contact at one point of their peripheries.
2. The rotatable, clamping and feed disks arranged at an angle to each other
and in contact at one point of their peripheries, in combination with a feed
device at one point of their periphery, and a scutching device at another point
of their periphery.

page_text: 3. The feed disks having shafts arranged at an angle to each other and con-
nected by a universal joint.
.
4. In combination two sets of rotatable feed disks, the disks of each set being
arranged at an angle to each other, and a guide for conducting the material
from one set to the other.
5. In combination two sets of rotatable feed disks, a feed device for conducting
the material to one set of feed disks, a scutching device adapted to receive the
material from the said set of feed disks, a guide for conducting the material from
said scutching device to the second set of feed disks, and a second scutching
device arranged to receive and finish the material from the second set of feed
disks.
Dated this 31st der of January 1899
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
Chartered Patent Agents, 53, Chancery Lane, London.