Improvements in or relating to the Separation of Slime Gas or other Fluid from Bodies containing or Mingled with the same.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Sept., 1896-Accepted, 14th Sept., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Separation of Slime Gas or
other Fluid from Bodies containing or Mingled with the same.
I, WILLIAM ADOLPH KONEMAN, Room 1410, 100 Washington Street, Chicago, in
the State of Illinois, United States of America, at present residing 432 Strand in the
County of London, England Civil and Mining 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:-
This invention relates to the separation of slime, gas, or other fluid from bodies
containing or mingled with the same, its principle object being the construction for
performing such operations, of improved apparatus which will possess strength,
efficiency, simplicity and great facility of access for inspection, repair and renewal.
The main features of such apparatus are a centrifugal strainer which is cylindrical
or approximately so, and an independent extractor or discharging device for
withdrawing residual material from the interior of the strainer. Another
advantageous feature of this apparatus is its applicability to the separation of
absorbed gas from the liquid containing it.
In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate by way of example one
construction of apparatus according to this invention,
Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in longitudinal central section, of the apparatus;
Figure 2 is a transverse sectional elevation on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a plan, partly in horizontal rection in the plane of the axis of the
centrifugal strainer herein after described, and shown in Figure 1;
Figure 4 is a half end-elevation of the head of the centrifugal strainer;
Figure 5 is a half end-elevation of the machine, and its housing, as seen from the
Aly-wheel end of the former.
The discharge blades of the apparatus, omitted from Figures 1 and 2 for the sake
of clearness, are shown in proper place in Figure 3.
Like letters indicate like parts throughout the drawings.
A is a bed firmly secured to the floor and provided with standards A¹ which have
at their upper ends bearings A2 A3 in which is journalled a horizontal shaft B with a
fly-wheel B¹ fixed on it; this shaft also carries fast and loose pulleys B2 B3 and has
an overhanging end B on which is firmly secured a head or disc Be to carry a
centrifugal strainer C to be hereinafter fully described. The fly-wheel B1 and pulleys
B2 B3 are so disposed upon the shaft B as to balance the weight borne by the
overhanging end B+ of the latter.
The head B6 is strengthened by radial ribs B7 and provided with a circumferential
flange B8 strengthened by fillets B. To this flange Bs is secured by bolts D a ring C¹
having flanges C2 C3 at its opposite ends; the flange C2 receives the bolts D by which
the ring is secured to the head, and is provided with an overhanging lip C* to ensure
the proper centering of the ring upon the head.
The ring C encircles one end of a taper perforated shell C5, which is fixed to it by
bolts C or otherwise and receives upon its exterior a layer or coating C of felt,
textile, or other porous material. Over this layer Co is drawn another taper perforated
shell C7 provided with a flange C8 at its larger end by which it is bolted to the

page_text: flange C3 of the ring C by bolts E; the bolts E not only secure the outer shell C'
in place but also serve to draw it endwise towards the larger end of the inner shell C5
to compress and hold securely in place the porous layer C, suitable packing being
interposed if necessary between the two flanges C and C to enable the distance to
which they are screwed up to be adjusted to the degree desired. The two shells C' C
may be made of metal.
The strainer C is enclosed in a casing F, the upper part F of which is hinged
at F to the lower part F and provided with handles F by which the upper part may
be opened about this hinge when necessary. At the bottom of the part 3 of the
casing is a hopper F for the reception of slime and liquid, provided with an outflow
or exit F. The casing F near the larger end of the strainer is provided with a
plate F to prevent the possibility of any material being flung out of the apparatus
past the circumference of the flange ; at its opposite end the easing is
circumferentially enlarged, as at F, in proximity to the smaller end of the strainer C
to form a chamber G for the reception of residual material delivered into it by the
open end of the strainer C in the manner hereinafter described; the lower portion
of this chamber is formed as a trough F for a conveyor G¹ by which this residual
material is delivered out of the apparatus. C' and C are circumferential flanges
secured to the exterior of the strainer C on the sinaller end of the outer shell C' and
extended radially therefrom as shewn, the former to ensure that none of the liquid or
slime shall enter the chamber in which the conveyor G' is contained and the latter to
ensure, conversely, that none of the coarser material from the conveyor chamber
shall get into the hopper F. F is a hend by which the larger end of the easing F
is closed, except for a central opening therein to admit a portion of a headstock H,
which carries the stationary discharge-apparatus now about to be described and
forming in the several modifications hereinafter referred to an important feature of
this invention.
The headstock I is mounted to slide endwise, that is to say in the line of the axis
of the strainer C, in guides J' formed in a base plate J, into which guides enter
dovetails H' formed on the headstock; traversing mechanism comprising a shaft M
journalled in the headstock and rotatable from the exterior there carrying a
pinion M gearing into a rack N on the part J, is provided to enable the endwise
Inovement of the headstock in its guides to be easily effected. K is a shaft of square
cross-section firmly held in the headstock H by a cap H2 secured by bolts H3; the
shaft is provided at H' with a flange and at H with an enlargement, to prevent it
from having any endwise movement relatively to the headstock. A portion of the
shaft K which projects as shown from one side of the headstock H, extends centrally
into the strainer C when the headstock is in the position indicated in Figures 1 and 3,
stopping just short of the end of the shaft B. On the overhanging portion of the
shaft K are threaded a series of bosses I, each of which is provided with two radial
arms L in the end of each of which is a scraper 1 preferably adjustable radially by any
convenient means to bring it into the desired degree of proximity to the interior of
the shell C. The several scrapers are disposed in a helix of fine pitch or in planes
oblique to the axis of the strainer, as shown in Figure 3 and the bosses L are
retained in place by set-screws or other means, not shown in the drawings.
The material to be treated is delivered continuously by suitable means into the
interior of the strainer C through the open end thereof by way of a trough O which
leads to and delivers at the closed end thereof, being conveniently supported on the
shaft. K, say by some of the arms LA which may be suitably disposed to enable them
to be thus made use of.
Upon rotation of the strainer C which is effected by turning the shaft B by a belt
and the "fast" pulley B, its contents are caused, under the influence of centrifugal
action to coat the interior of the shell C, the liquid or slime passing through the
perforations thereof and of the layer C and shell C into the casing F between
the flanges and C, descending into the hopper F and finally passing out at the 5
outlet F. The coarser material incapable of passing through the filtering layer C
of porous material coats the interior of the shell C, and in the rotation of the

page_text: strainer C, is brought into contact with the helical or oblique scrapers L² and is
caused by them to travel towards the open end of the strainer out of which it passes
into the stationary chamber G and drops into the trough F, from which latter it is
removed by the conveyor (which may be of any desired type operated by any
desired means.
One of the advantages of the construction hereinbefore described is that by
constructing the headstock and the extractor or discharging device supported by it
in such a manner that it can be readily withdrawn from the apparatus, the taper
shell C can be readily removed bodily and in one piece whenever access to the
layer C is desired; a further advantage is that very easy access to the scrapers Lª
for adjusting them is obtainable by drawing out the extractor.
In the treatment of ores in the improved apparatus hereinbefore described not
only are the water and slime eliminated rapidly and completely from the coarser
material retained inside the strainer, but any gas which previously had been absorbed
in the liquid is separated froin it centrifugally and forced into the casing F.
Absorbed gas can be separated with like facility from other liquids delivered into the
strainer C. When it is desired to collect such gas for further use or for other
reasons such collection may be easily effected by a suction fan or equivalent
apparatus arranged to draw its supply from the upper part of the casing F, by a
tube P.
The apparatus hereinbefore described is specially advantageous for metallurgical
and mining use, but apparatus constructed according to this invention is not limited
to those applications alone, nor is its construction necessarily such as has hereinbefore
been described by way of example.
For instance for the arms L' and scrapers carried thereby, any equivalent apparatus
may be substituted which is capable of being moved into and out of the strainer by
a support such as H and will become operative in the movement of the strainer and
helically-disposed vanes or the like relatively to each other to propel the residue
along the inner periphery of the strainer to the discharge end thereof."
It is not necessary that the discharge-blades or scrapers I should be stationary
whilst the strainer C revolves round them, for the discharge of the residue could be
equally well effected by giving the blades or scrapers, or whatever equivalent may be
substituted for them, a motion of rotation in the strainer about an axis preferably
coincident with the axis of the strainer. Indeed the speed of discharge with blades
of a given pitch or obliquity could be very conveniently varied by suitably regulating
the angular velocity relatively to each other of the strainer C and such rotating blades
so that the difference of their speeds on which the rate of discharge would depend,
could be given the value desired, at any time. To give them rotatory motion the
shaft K would be made rotatable in the headstock H and provided with suitable
appliances for rotating it.
Instead of the shaft K being rectangular it may have any other desired cross
section.
The shells CC may be in several sections, and the strainer C need not be
constructed as shown; for instance the head B ring C and perforated shell C may
be cast in one piece turned thin, tapered outward instead of inward from the head and
having the perforated shell C similarly tapered and inserted and fixed within it, the
layer being retained between them.
The headstock H instead of sliding may be made to roll on rails or be otherwise
made to be movable endwise.
It is not necessary that the axis of the whole apparatus should be in a horizontal
plane.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In separating apparatus the combination of a strainer such as C with helical or

page_text: like discharge apparatus such as L2 arranged to be capable of relative rotary motion
for the purpose described.
2. In separating apparatus the combination of a rotating strainer such as C with
stationary helical or like discharge apparatus such as L for the purpose described.
3. In separating apparatus the combination of a strainer such as C rotating upon
its axis, with an independent or self-contained extracting device insertable in such
strainer but not connected therewith.
4. In separating apparatus, a discharge apparatus adapted to extend into a strainer
such as C from an independent support which is readily inovable in the direction of
the axis of the strainer for the purpose described.
5. In the separation of gas from liquid in which it is contained the employment of
a centrifugal separating apparatus of the kind described.
6. In a centrifugal separator a strainer comprising two concentric perforated shells
such as CC with a layer of felt, textile, or other porous material Co between
them.
7. In a centrifugal separator the modified construction of cage wherein the head C
and shell Care integral with each other and receive internally a shell C5 and layer C
substantially as described.
8. In a centrifugal separator, stationary discharge apparatus comprising an
adjustable headstock H a fixed or rotatable shaft K and blades or vanes fixed obliquely
or helically thereon for the purpose specified.
9. In a centrifugal separator the combination with a head such as B' of a ring C
encircling one end of a taper perforated shell C5 which is fixed to it, a taper perforated
shell C, and means to draw the outer shell C endwise towards the inner one C sub-
stantially as and for the purpose described.
10. In a centrifugal separator a strainer such as C rotatable about a horizontal or
approximately horizontal axis, and provided with any independent extracting
device.
11. In a separating apparatus of the kind described the combination with a cage
rotatable about a horizontal axis of a casing F, a trough F, and a conveyor G¹,
or without the flange C or C10 for the purpose described.
12. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting a complete separating
apparatus substantially as and for the purpose herein before described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 14th day of September 1896
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.