Improvements in Machinery for Forcibly Feeding Crushed or Shredded or Comminuted Sugar Cane to Crushing Mills.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Forcibly Feeding Crushed or
Shredded or Comminuted Sugar Cane to Crushing Mills.
A communication from HECTOR KIDD, 14, Toxteth Road, Lee Point, Sydney,
New South Wales, Civil and Mechanical Engineer.
I, WILLIAM SMITH, of the Firm of A. & W. Smith & Co., of Eglinton Engine
Works, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, 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, that is to say :-
This invention has for its object the feeding of crushed or shredded or comminuted
sugar cane to crushing mills in an improved manner, by machinery contrived to act
in a regular and uniform manner and to insure that the crushing-mill rollers may
continually act on a thickness of cane maintained as nearly uniform as practically
possible.
The improved machinery is represented on two accompanying sheets of
explanatory drawings,
Figures, 1, and 2, Sheet, 1, being a plan and an elevation showing the general
arrangement, and
Figures, 3, to 7, Sheet 2, being enlarged views of details.
In these drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or
like parts wherever they are repeated.
On the bedframe, 8, of the intermediate gearing for driving the sugar-cane mill,
there is carried in bearings a horizontal shaft, 9, which is made to rotate by a
pulley, 10, on it, driven by a rope from a pulley, 11, on the first-motion or crank
shaft of the gearing. The shaft, 9, by a crank on one end connected by a rod, 12,
to a longer crank on a rocking shaft, 13, gives a rocking motion to the latter. The
rocking shaft, 13, has a bearing on the bed frame, 8, and extends thence to the housings
or checks, 14, of the mill where it has bearings in blocks, 15, fixed to the housings.
In the space between the housings, 14, the rocking shaft, 13, has fixed on it two
cranks or levers, 16, which are connected by short rods or links, 17, to a pusher
plate, 18, which is made to reciprocate by the rocking motion and which is guided
so as to move in a direction tangential or nearly so to the mill rollers, 19, at their
line of contact or nearest approach. With a three-roller mill the said direction is
inclined as shown in Figure, 2, but in Figures, 3 to 7, the parts are, for convenience,
shown as if the direction were horizontal.
The pusher, 18, is a plate which reciprocates between cheek plates, 20, to and
from the rollers, 19, and it is formed with lugs, 21, on its under side to which the
connecting rods or links, 17, are jointed. The inner or acting edge of the pusher
plate, 18, is thickened by a bar, 22, riveted to its under side; and the plate has
fixed to its under side at its lateral ends bars, 23, of hard brass, fitted to slide on
hard-brass guide bars, 24, fixed to the cheek plates, 20, by means of angle iron,
whilst rising off the guide bars, 24, is prevented by narrow plates, 25, fixed to the
plate, 18, and moving under the guide bars. Beneath the pusher plate, 18, there
is a fixed plate, 26, shown in face view in Figure, 7, which plate is fixed at its ends
to the side cheek plates, 20, by angle iron, and which has its inner edge toothed or
serrated as shown. This plate, 26, is provided to prevent the outflow of juice
from between the rollers, 19, from carrying any of the cane over the lower roller,
and beneath the plate, 26, there is fixed to it by means of bent bars, 27, the
plate, 28, usually employed to direct the juice away from the rollers. The pusher
plate, 18, has fixed to it two safety hooks, 29, which in the innermost position
engage with the under fixed plate, 26, and prevent the pusher plate from moving

page_text: in too far. The crushed, shredded, or comminuted cane is led from the conveyer, 30,
down a shoot, 31, on to the pusher plate, 18, the bottom of the shoot having hinged to
it a plate, 32, the bottom edge of which rests on the pusher plate and prevents the
latter from carrying any cane backwards.
Figures, 3, and, 7, are plans of the parts they represent when placed horizontally,
and Figures, 4, 5, and, 6, are vertical sections.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
In machinery for forcibly feeding crushed, or shredded, or comminuted sugar
cane to crushing mills, the improved construction, arrangement, and combination of
the parts thereof substantially as herein before described and as shown in the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this Ninth day of August 1893.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.