Improved Method of, and Apparatus or Machinery for, Breaking, Disintegrating, or Opening Ramie and similar Fibrous Plants.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Sept., 1893-Accepted, 21st Oct., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by the Firm of FRIED. KRUPP, Grusonwerk, of
Magdeburg-Buckau, in the Empire of Germany, Manufacturers.]
Improved Method of, and Apparatus or Machinery for, Breaking,
Disintegrating, or Opening Ramie and similar Fibrous Plants.
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:-
The
The method of treating fibrous plants which forms part of the present invention
is purely a mechanical one, and differs from those heretofore known or practised
particularly in that the ramie or other stems are treated in the fresh state.
leading feature of the invention is the close imitation which it affords by mechanical
means of the manual labour performed by the Chinese, for example, when opening
ramie, whereby the fibre is preserved in the treatment, and, during the operation,
the soluble gluten which is contained in fresh stems is washed away, so that the
fibres, on leaving the machine, contain only that portion of the gluten which is not
soluble at all or which dissolves with difficulty.
The accompanying drawing illustrates in diagrammatic form a side elevation of
a machine constructed according to this invention.
The fresh stems of the fibrous plant after they have been freed from the leaves,
are fed by means of an endless travelling apron A to a pair of breaking rollers B, B'.
The fibres are placed on the said apron so that they lie in a layer side by side
parallel to the direction of the movement of the endless apron. They are then
guided or placed by hand singly in the spaces of a feed roller C which is provided
with suitable circumferential Hutes. The said roller presses only by its own weight
upon the stems and is set in rotation by the latter through friction. It operates to
prevent the rising of single stems and effects with certainty the introduction of the
same into a mouth-piece D provided with openings to receive the said stems,
preferably a separate opening for each stem. This mouth-piece guides the stems
between the breaking or crushing rollers B, B₁ the surfaces of which are fluted
longitudinally. The longitudinal ribs of one roller engage with the spaces between
the ribs of the other roller so that the rollers gear with each other like toothed'
wheels and only one of them requires to be driven. From the rollers B, B' the
stems pass to and between a second pair of rollers E, E'. These rollers are formed
with sharp-edged circumferential ribs likewise engaging with each other and which
operate to slit the cracked or broken stems in the longitudinal direction. The
broken and slit stems are now conducted to a series of longitudinally fluted
rollers G, G', G, G³, Gʻ, G, G' arranged in a semi-circle around a large roller H
which is likewise provided with longitudinal flutes with which the ribs of the smaller
rollers gear like toothed wheels, and by which the said rollers are driven.
feeding is effected by a longitudinally fluted roller F which engages with and is
rotated by the first roller G of the series. Accordingly the stems are conveyed
round the upper half of the roller H, between the said roller H and the rollers G, G',
G', G, G, G, G and after passing the last named roller they are seized by a
beating roller J which is separately driven in the direction of the arrow, and then
by a second beating roller Q, which rotates rapidly and whips out the woody parts.
The stems are caused by the said beaters to pass between the beater J and a delivery
roller K, and are then delivered upon an endless travelling apron L.
The
Between the rollers G and G' is shown a spray pipe M through which water
or other suitable liquid is discharged upon the stems to wash away the severed parts

page_text: of the bark and the soluble portion of the gluten and deliver the same over the
surface of the large roller into a trough N..
The first pair of longitudinally fluted rollers B B' may be arranged behind the
circumferentially fluted rollers E E' in which case the stems are slit first and
cracked or broken afterwards. In some cases the rollers B, B' may be omitted
altogether.
O is a toothed wheel fixed upon the shaft of the roller H and which receives a to
and fro intermittent movement, the movement in the forward direction being how-
ever greater than that in the backward direction so that the roller H progresses on
the whole and has a step by step motion. The wheel is driven by toothed
wheels P, P1, P2, P3, P4. To obtain this step inotion the shafts of the wheels P', P,
P³, P' are supported by a rod V whicà connects the crank R of the driving shaft with
a link S centred upon the shaft of the large toothed wheel O. The shaft of the first
wheel P of the train forms the pin of the crank R to which pin the wheel P is
securely keyed or otherwise fastened. It will thus be seen that as the crank R
rotates, the wheel P' receives, in addition to a turning movement upon its own axis,
a swinging movement about the shaft of the wheel O and turns the said wheel O
with it. During the forward oscillation the motion thus imparted to the wheel O is
added to that given to the wheel by virtue of the rotation of the wheel P* on its
axis, but in the rearward oscillation the one motion is subtracted from the other.
The gear is preferably so proportioned that the effect produced by the oscillation is
greater than that produced by the direct rotation of the wheel train and hence it
follows that during a forward swing when the two movements are added, the
roller H will be turned through a considerable angle, in the forward direction,
while in the return oscillation, the roller H will be turned back through a small
angle. This is of course repeated for each oscillation and the roller H on the whole
moves forward.
This peculiar step movement which would of course also be obtained if the wheels
situated between P and P4 were replaced by a driving chain, is imparted by the
roller H not ouly to all the smaller rollers G, G, G², G³, G', 'G' and G in
engagement therewith, but through the toothed wheels T, T' and U, U¹ to the
rollers E, E' and B, B¹. When the movement of the roller H is reversed, the
fibres either slack back or restretch, in consequence of the back lash between
the teeth of the toothed wheels, and also between the engaging ribs of the rollers,
and as this work is repeated in every revolution of the crank R the machine
imitates manual work. In this operation the tough bast of the fibrous plant is
severed in numerous small particles from the fibres and the latter are laid completely
bare..
By the above described new mechanical method an entirely uninjured fibre is
obtained, which still contains the hard insoluble gluten that has to be removed by
chemical means, but constitutes in this form a desirable commercial article.
.
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 correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. A method of breaking, disintegrating, or opening ramie or other fibrous plants,
wherein the stems of such plants are passed while fresh between breaking or
cracking, slitting and squeezing rollers which have imparted to them an
intermittent forward and backward movement, substantially as, and for the purpose,
specified.
2. In the method of treatment indicated in the first claim, discharging water or
other suitable liquid upon the rollers to wash away the broken and separated bast,
and to dissolve the soluble part of the gluten contained in the stems, substantially
as described.
3. A machine or apparatus having a large central fluted roller, and smaller rollers
arranged round the same and driven thereby, said rollers having imparted to them

page_text: an intermittent forward and backward movement with or without a spraying
substantially as described, for the purpose specified.
4. In a machine for breaking, disintegrating, or opening ramie and other fibrous
plants, the mechanism for giving to the rollers, the peculiar to and fro step motion,
substantially as described, for the purpose specified.
described with
5. The machine or apparatus, constructed substantially as
reference to the drawing, and operating as, and for the purpose, specified.
Ishin 0th day of September 1893.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.