Improvements in Apparatus for Drying Wool, Textile Materials and other Substances.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Jan., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 20th Oct., 1899-Accepted, 25th Nov., 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Drying Wool, Textile Materials and
other Substances.
I, EDWARD ROBINSON, of 133, Castelnau, Barnes, S.W., in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:-
The
For the carrying out of this invention as applied for example to the drying of
wool or the like fibrous materials, I employ a travelling band, or conveyor made
of wire, perforated metal, net-work, or the like & attached on either side to a
chain, by preference, suitable for travelling over sprocket, or cupped wheels.
The wheels or pulleys for carrying this conveyor are mounted upon a squarely
constructed frame work of iron or wood. A series of wheels in pairs revolving
on the same exis is arraranged along the upper part of the frame work, & a
corresponding series along the lower part of it there being thus two rows of
horizontal pulleys or wheels on each side of the square chamber. For the pur-
pose now being explained these wheels are put at about equal distances apart in
vertical order, so that the chains carrying the conveyor travel over the upper
wheels & under the lower ones, thus working up & down in a zigzag course.
diagonals so formed can be made to have any desired slope by placing the pulleys
or rollers nearer together vertically, or farther apart. Any number of such pulleys
or rollers may be employed so as to extend the conveyor to any required length,
& after passing round the end wheel the band is reversed, & made to return
under the diagonal series, supported upon suitable pulleys, back again to the
end whence it started: thus forming an endless band. The whole is boxed in
or enclosed within a well fitting chamber. This endless conveyor may be made of
suitably woven wire web, rope netting, or it may consist of a series of small
trays, boxes, or baskets hinged or jointed together & made of open mesh work
or its equivalent so as to admit the free passage of air without allowing the
material to fall through. In order to keep the substance under treatment from
falling off the sloping conveyor, I provide rows of teeth, or lifters, or the small
trays may have sides or divisions between them for the purpose. The trays or
baskets must be narrow enough, & be so connected to the sprocket chain, or belt,
as to admit of passing round the apses as the conveyor moves along the diagonal
series. As the lifters or trays rise up at the feeding end the material to be dried
should be evenly spread upon them & on passing round the final pulley at the
opposite end the whole conveyor turns up side down & the material, which has
been dried as it travelled along, falls off, the empty conveyor returning under-
neath to be refilled at the feeding end.
When the material to be dried is woven, or fabricated, as in the case of cloth,
calico, paper, felt & the like, some little modification in the apparatus is obviously
necessary. In treating such substances as wet paper, pulp, & felts, for example,
the travelling band may be made of some suitable textile fabrick, in which
case the place of the sprocket wheels is supplied by rollers, or drums of any
convenient size, and over which the textile band travels, as before described, with
out the aid of chains, carrying along with it the pulpy substances mentioned. If how-

page_text: ever, such substances are sufficiently adhesive & strong to bear their weight &
travel over the rollers alone, the band conveyor may be dispensed with altogether,
the web of the material being dried is then carried along by the rollers as before
described & when sufficiently dry it is wound upon a reel in the usual way.
Textiles & fabricks of various kinds may be dried by means of an arrangement
of this description. When however calicos, papers, & many other fabricks require
to be dried after being printed, stained, coloured, varnished or the like on one
side only, I place the afore-mentioned series of upper & lower rollers, or drums
nearer together, as webs of this description will travel in a vertical position.
It is essential that the wet, or coloured surfaces of these webs should not come
into contact with the rollers, & to effect this object I carry the web round the
outside rollers first for which purpose I provide guides to support the horizontal
portion of the web as it passes over the upper & under the lower series of rollers.
The web is then made to travel inwards, each roller bringing it nearer to the
centre of the chamber where it is finally wound upon a reel as in the case above
mentioned. By this simple means of working the apparatus the web is carried
along with its wet surface always clear of all contact, whilst volumes of heated air
free from dust & impurities are dispersed among the webs as they move through
the chamber.
In order to obtain economically the volums of heated air required for this
drying process I construct an apparatus after the following manner :-
An adequate number of steam tubes of suitable strength & size are set into
tube plates at both ends & made steam tight by expansion or other means as
in the case of a steam boiler. These tubes are nicely fitted into a spiral diaph-
ragm made like an archimedian screw. This spiral with the tubes thus con-
tinued through its length are enclosed in a cylindrical shell, the outer circle of
the diaphragm being made to fit the circular shell. Well fitting steam covers
are securely bolted to the tube plates so as to enclose the open ends of the tubes
in a steam chest. A steam pipe connected to one of these end chests admits
steam inside all the tubes. Openings are provided at each end of the outer shell
or air duct, & to one of these openings I connect a fan or blower having some
positive pressure, for drawing or driving wind through the heater. The spiral
diaphragm has the effect of causing the wind to circulate round & round among
the steam heated tubes thus greatly prolonging its travel in passing through.
Expansion joints are provided to prevent leakage through strain.
For the equal distribution of the air thus heated I carry a pipe of sufficient
capacity from the fan or blower into the drying chamber. Such pipe is provided
with a series of nozzles or orifices of maximum efficiency & so proportioned as
to discharge wind at about equal pressure along the whole length of the pipe.
I prefer to arrange the nozzles in a straight line & direct them downwards placing
under them a tri-angular deflector, of sheet metal, or board, having its sharp
apex just under the centres of the discharging orifices. Such deflector will
equally divide the blast of wind causing it to spread out on either side rising
up into & among the material under treatment in the drying chamber.
In applying the heated air to the vertical or nearly vertical webs of textile &
other fabricks the air discharging orifices may be made to blow between all the
webs to ensure equal drying in all parts alike. Obviously this method of obtain-
ing & distributing volums of heated air is applicable to the drying of a great variety
of commodities which may be suspended or set up in suitably enclosed chambers
or drying rooms, of any convenient size-due provision being made in all cases,
by preference in the upper part of such chambers or enclosures for the escape of
the moisture evapourated from the material under treatment.
Dated this 23rd day of January 1899.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Drying Wool, Textile Material and
other Substances.
I, EDWARD ROBINSON, of 133, Castelnau, Barnes, S.W., in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, 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:-
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this
specification, in which similar letters indicate corresponding parts in all the
figures.
Fig. I is a partly broken side elevation of apparatus for drying wool & the
like.
Fig. II is a transverse section of heater & air distributing tube.
Fig. III is an end view of Fig. I with outer covering removed.
Fig. IV is a transverse section of air distributing tube as erected for drying in
chambers & the like.
Fig. V is a transverse section of air distributing tube & deflecting board inverted
as when placed under floors & the like.
In carrying out this invention as applied for example to the drying of wool or
the like fibrous materials, I employ a travelling band or conveyor A which may
be made of wire, perforated metal, net-werk, or the like, & attached on either
side to a chain a, by preference, suitable for travelling over sprocket or cupped
wheels b. These wheels or pulleys are mounted upon a squarely constructed
framework of iron, or wood, & provided with the usual plummer blocks or
bearings. These wheels are made to revolve in pairs upon the same axis & are
arranged at about equal distances apart in vertical order so that the chains a
carrying the conveyor travel over the upper wheels 6 & under the lower ones.
The diagonals thus formed can be made to have any desired slope by altering
the intervals between the upper & lower series of pulleys. Any number of such
pulleys may be employed so as to extend the conveyor to any desired length.
The direction of travel is indicated by arrows Fig. I & after passing round the
end wheel the conveyor is reversed & made to return under the diagonal series
supported upon suitable pulleys back again to the end whence it started, this
forming an endless band. The whole is boxed in & enclosed within a well fitting
chamber made of boards or other material.
This endless conveyor A may either be made of a continuous web of any suitable
material, or it may consist of a series of small trays, boxes, or baskets, hinged or
joined together & made of open mesh work or its equivalent so as to admit of
the free passage of air without allowing the material under treatment to fall
through. In order to keep the material being dried from falling down from
the sloping conveyor I provide rows of teeth or lifters e, or the small-trays may
have sides or divisions between them for the same purpose. The trays or baskets
must be narrow enough & be so connected to the chain or belt, as to admit of
passing round the apses as the conveyor moves along its diagonal course. As the
lifters or trays rise up at the feeding end the material to be dried should be
evenly spread upon them & on passing round the final pulley at the opposite end
the conveyor turns up side down. & the material, having been dried in travelling
through the heated chamber-falls off, the empty conveyor returning under-
neath to be re-filled at the feeding end, as before explained.
In order to obtain volumes of heated air for the above & other drying pur-
poses I construct the apparatus B after the following manner. An adequate
number of steam tubes f of _suitable strength & size are expanded into tube
plates at each end & made steam tight as in the case of, a steam boiler. These
steam tubes are nicely fitted into a spiral diaphragm g made like an archimedian

page_text: screw. The spiral & tubes thus arranged are enclosed in a cylindrical shell, as
shown. Steam covers are bolted to the tube plates, thus enclosing the open ends
of the tubes in steam chests, & admitting steam inside all the tubes. Openings
are provided at each end of the outer shell, & to one such opening is connected
a fan or blower C, for drawing or driving wind through the heater. The spiral
diaphragm has the effect of causing the wind to circulate round among the steam
heated tubes thus greatly prolonging its travel in passing through. Expansion
joints are provided to prevent leakage through strain.
For the equal distribution of the air thus heated I carry a pipe D of sufficient
capacity from the fan or blower into the drying chamber. Such pipe is provided
with a series of nozzles or orifices h of maximum efficiency & so proportioned as
to discharge wind at about equal pressure along the whole length of the pipe. I
prefer when practicable to arrange the nozzles h in a straight line, & direct them
downwards, placing under them a tri-angular deflector 7, of sheet metal or board,
& having its sharp apex just under the centres of the air discharging orifices.
Such deflector will equally divide the blast of wind causing it to spread out on
either side as shown by the arrows in Fig. II IV. & V, thus dispersing the wind
into all parts of the drying chamber.
In some cases however it is more convenient to let the air pipe D into the
ground, or place it under a chamber floor. In such cases the air pipe & deflector
may be inverted as seen in Fig. V. But in combinations similar to that illus-
trated in Fig. I the deflecting board may be dispensed with, the wind being
made to impinge upon the heater B as seen in Fig. II.
It will be understood that many modifications of detail may be adopted to
suit varying requirements. In some cases it may be best to place the heater B
outside the drying chamber, allowing only the pipe D to enter. Or if desired
two or more heaters may be employed, either connected together to form one
system, or separately, & such heaters may be worked either inside or outside the
chamber. By means of suitable bends the air distributing pipe D may be arranged
in almost any position, either in one straight length, or with a return, a circular
or diverging pipe. And obviously this heating & distributing apparatus may be
used either in connection with a conveyor similar to the one hereinbefore described
or in connection with any other suitable arrangement for carrying along various
substances requiring to be dried, such for example as paper, pulp, textile fabrics,
yarns, & the like through chambers, cylinders, or any convenient enclosures. Or
again this same apparatus may be employed for drying any kind of commodities,
suspended or fixed in drying rooms or houses of any ordinary discription, due
provision being made by suitable ventilators for the escape of the vapour driven off.
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 apparatus for drying wool & other substances, having a travelling
conveyor, & lifters, or other similar devices for carrying the material along, in
combination with the heater, fan, & air distributing appliances, substantially
as herein before specified & shown in the drawings. Or in combination with
any of the ordinary appliances in use for heating, & distributing heated air.
2. The heating apparatus with spiral diaphragm in combination with a fan or
blower & air distributing pipe or pipes, having nozzles or orifices directed so as
to blow wind upon deflectors, for the equal dispersion of such wind, to be em-
ployed in any ordinary drying rooms, houses, cylinders, or other suitable enclosures
substantially as herein before specified.
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