IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Robert Fletcher and Joseph
Fielding at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th April
1883.
JOHN ROBERT FLETCHER and JOSEPH FIELDING both of Stoneclough near
Manchester in the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
"
Our invention relates principally to the construction of apparatus employed for
straining the pulp as it comes from the rag Engine and before it is supplied to the
paper making machine.
First the strainer proper. This consists of a shallow box or cistern supported
upon a suitable framing at each end, within which is a sieve or strainer (made by.
preference of brass plates) and carried at each end by a crosshead fixed to a
vertical sliding rod. The lower end of each rod is provided with a ring inside
which works a stepped cam keyed on the main driving shaft which passes through
about the centre of the two rings. The stepped cam acts against a bar fixed in the
lower part of the ring and the rods are continually forced upwards by strong india
rubber spring buffers which keep the bar always pressing against the stepped cam.
The pulp from the rag Engine is admitted into the outer box or cistern and
passes upwards into the sieve through the plates, at the same time that the sieve
is kept constantly jerking up and down by the action of the stepped cams and the
springs so as to keep the pulp constantly in motion and separate therefrom all dirt
or other extraneous matter which remains at the bottom of the box or cistern.
The sieve is provided at one side with a spout by means of which the pulp as it
rises in the sieve passes off ready to be delivered to the paper making machine.
The spring buffers which act against the lower ends of the vertical rods supporting
the sieve are capable of adjustment by means of screws and nuts so as to regulate
the strength of the blow or jerk given to the sieve.
Secondly the auxiliary strainer.
This may be used either as a preparatory strainer in connection with the strainer
proper, or it may be employed as what is known as a "half-stuff" collector.
This auxiliary strainer consists principally of a cistern in which is mounted a
partly immersed cylindrical revolving strainer (formed either of plates or wire
CD

page_text: gauze) and one or more revolving agitators to keep the pulp in motion. The pulp
from the rag Engine is caused to flow into the cistern and passes through the
plates to the inside of the cylinder, and thence through an end opening into a side
pocket, whence it passes onto the strainer proper.
When employed as a "half-stuff" collector the cylinder is made of fine wire
gauze and as it revolves in the cistern of pulp the latter adheres to the surface of
the revolving cylinder and is carried upwards where it is removed by means of a
roller revolving in a contrary direction over which (and between it and the wire
gauze cylinder) passes an endless web or felt which removes the partially strained
pulp and carries it forward or upwards to another roller which takes it from the
web or felt in the state known as "half-stuff."