Patent ID: 7484957

Claim:
A bulk material cooler having a cooling grate which carries material to be cooled and transports the material to be cooled, through which a cooling gas flows, from a charging end for the material to be cooled to a discharging end for the material to be cooled, wherein the cooling grate is made up of a number of adjacently arranged elongate bottom elements which extend in a longitudinal direction of the cooler, are movable in a controlled manner at least partly independently of one another between a forward-travel position in a transporting direction of the material to be cooled and a return-travel position so that the material to be cooled is conveyed through the cooler step by step in accordance with the walking floor conveying principle; the bottom elements have, seen in cross section, an upper side which carries the material to be cooled and allows the cooling gas to pass through from underneath upward, and, at a distance from the upper side, a closed underside preventing material to be cooled from falling through the grate; and the underside of the bottom elements has a number of cooling-gas inlet openings distributed over the length, to aerate the bottom elements and consequently the cooling grate; wherein the upper sides of the bottom elements that are longitudinally movable in each case comprise gabled-roof-shaped V profiles arranged spaced apart mirror-symmetrically opposite one another, but offset in relation to one another, such that an upper set of V profiles are inverted with two leas of the V completely overlying upwardly extending legs of two adjacent V profiles of a lower set, the V legs of the two sets of profiles engaging one another with an intermediate space, which latter forms a labyrinth for the material to be cooled and for the cooling gas.