Patent ID: 6997859

Claim:
A centrifuge bawl for use in an apparatus for separating intermixed particulate materials of different specific gravity in a slurry where the apparatus includes a feed duct far feeding the slurry into the bowl so that during rotation of the bowl the intermixed particulate materials flow over a peripheral wall of the bowl for collection of heavier particulate materials on the peripheral wall and for discharge of the lighter particulate materials in the slurry from the open mouth and a launder for collecting the lighter particulate materials in the slurry discharged from the open mouth, the bowl comprising a base and a peripheral wall surrounding an axis passing through the base and generally upstanding from the base to an open mouth; and a plurality of annular recesses on the peripheral wall at axially spaced positions over which the materials pass, when fed from the supply duct, so that the heavier particulate materials collect in the recesses; each recess being defined by two recess side walls extending generally outwardly from the axis from an open mouth of the recess toward a base of the recess at the peripheral wall and converging toward one another; a fluidizing liquid injection system for fluidizing the materials in each of the recesses including a liquid supply and at least one liquid entry opening extending from the supply into the recess at or closely adjacent the base of the recess; and a plurality of removable insert members each mounted in a respective one of the recesses; each insert member being mounted in its respective recess at a position therein so as to define a channel between the side walls, inwardly of the base of the recess and outwardly of the insert member within which the fluidizing liquid from the liquid entry opening can flow within the recess; each insert member having an inwardly facing surface which spans the space between the side walls at the insert member so as to confine the materials within the volume of the recess defined by the side walls and inwardly of the inwardly facing surface of the insert member; each insert member being formed of a material which is not a mesh so that the material is imperforate; which imperforate material has an array of fluid injection holes formed through the imperforate material shaped and arranged to cause the injection of jets of fluidizing liquid from the channel through the holes in the insert member into the volume.