Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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The present invention relates to equipment for
continuously separating foreign matters from unpurified
liqlaid papermaking materials.
Unpurified liquid papermaking materials contain
unnecessary things besides fibers. Recently in particular,
such unnecessary things have become more and more diversi-
fied because papermaking materials have become richer in
variety and utilization has been made of, for instance, waste-
paper. There has been almost no equipment that can remove
all these diversified foreign matters at one time. Previous
efforts to cope with the diversification of foreign matters
have included the separate use of two different types of
e~uipment, one for removing light foreign matters and the
other for removing heavy foreign matters. This has had
disadvantages that it involves a great cost for equipment
and needs a large space therefor. On the other hand,
cyclone separators are limited in size because of their
function. Therefore, several cyclone separators have been
used at the same time if liquid papermaking materials are
to be handled in quantity. Also in this case, the above-
mentioned disadvantages have been lnevitable. Furthermore,
the cyclone separators have been arranged in a row and pipes
for the supply of liquid papermaking materials, etc. have
; branched off to them, but the distances between the branch
point and the cyclone separators have been different.
Therefore, even if the cyPlone separators are adjusted to
the same operating conditions, they have not always per-
formed uniform separating action and they have often given
uneven purification. To obtain uniform purification, each
cyclone separator has had to be adjusted individually.
This adjustment has been very difficult to make, and it
has been impossible to make it perfectly. As a result, it
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has been impossible to purify liquid papermaking materials
satisfactorily.
It is therefore a main object of this invention to
provide equipmentwhich obviates at least some of the
above-mentioned disadvantages.
It is another object of this invention to provide
equipment which effectively removes heavy foreign matters
from unpurified liquid papermaking material9.
It is still another specific object of this invention
to provide equipment~hich further separates the heavy
foreign matters into relatively light matters and relatively
heavy matters.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide
equipment which collects said relatively light foreign
matters and puts them in new liquid papermaking materials
to be purified in order to obtain a better yield.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide
equipment which re-collects foreign matters in a uniform
,.
state.
According to the invention, equipment for separating
foreign matters from liquid papermaking materials comprises
.. . .
cyclone separators disposed so as to form a.single ~tage,
each separator compri~ing a separator body, a first
supply pipe for supplying liquid papermaking materials
tangentially connected to the upper portion of said
separator body, a coliecting chamber for liquid papermaking
materials dispo9ed at the top of said separator body, a
collecting pipe extending out of said collecting chamber,
a cyclone vortex chamber having a bottom and disposed
under said separator body, a second supply pipe for
providing fresh water under pressure and connected tang-
enti~lly to the upper portion of said vortex chamber, a
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re-collecting port provided at the center of said bottom
of said vortex chamber, said bottom having a portion
around said re-collecting port lower than said re-collecting
port, and an outlet pipe for waste connected to said
portion.
In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side view illustrating
an embodiment of ~he present invention.
Fig. 2 is a plan view illustrating the same.
Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view, partly in vertical
section, of equipment of the invention.
The present invention will now be described with
reference to embodiments illustrated in the drawings. In
Fi~s.l and 2, numeral 1 represents a cyclone separator.
A plurality of cyclone separators (six in Fig~ 2) are
lS disposed, for instance, radially around and equidistantly
from a central structure 2. Referring first to the cyclone
separator 1, this has a separator body 3 tapering toward
the bottom, and a supply pipe 4 for liquid papermaking
materials is tangentially connected to its upper portion.
An exhaust pipe 5 for light foreign matters comes from
above into the upper central portion of a cyclone chamber
3a with its open end positioned slightly lower than the
above-mentioned supply pipe 4 for liquid papermaking
materials. A collecting chamber 6 for liquid papermaking
materials is diposed at the top of the separator body 3,
and is connected to the cyclone chamber 3a by a collecting
nozzle 7 which surrounds said exhaust pipe 5 for light
foreign matters. By the way, the exhaust pipe 5, which is
provided for removing light foreign matters as mentioned
later, is not necessarily essential to this invention. This
is because of the fact that, in some kinds of liquid paper-
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making materials, light foreign matters have almost no ill
effect and do not have to be removed. What is necessary
in this connection is only to take out heavy foreign
matters that have a harmful effect and further separate
them into two parts: relatively light matters and relatively
heavy matters. A collecting pipe 8 extends tangentially,
for instance, out of the collecting chamber 6. The routes
of the collecting pipe 8 and exhaust pipe 5 will be described
later.
Referring next to a cyclone vortex chamber 9 disposed
under the separator body 3, this is substantially cylindrical
in shape and is connected at its central top to the cyclone
chamber3a. A pressurized fresh water supply pipe 10 enters
the cyclone vortex chamber 9 tangentially at its upper
portion. The bottom of the cyclone vortex chamber 9 has a
re-collecting port 11 at the center, an accumulating portion
12 for waste disposed around and slightly lower than the
re-collecting port 11, and an outlet port 15 is connected
to the outlet port 13. Incidentally, each of these pipes
is fitted with a valve halfway in a conventional manner.
Referring now to the aforesaid central structure 2, this
is a hollow structure with, for instance, a circùlar cross
section, and is partitioned into a plurality of intermediate
chambers 20 disposed one on top of the other. These
intermediate chambers 20, provided with letters a, b, c ---
for indentification, are arranged, for instance, in the
following order from the top: an intermediate chamber 20a
for accumulating light foreign matters, intermediate chamber
20b for distributing liquid papermaking materials, intermed-
iate chamber 20c for supplying pressurized clear water,
intermediate chamber 20d for re-collection, and intermediate
chamber 20e for outlet. A collecting intermediate tank 21
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is provided at the top of the central structure 2. All the
collecting pipes 8 from all the cyclone separators 1 enter
the collecting intermediate ~ank 21, while a main collect-
ing pipe 22 is connected to it at its central top. The
S intermediate chamber 20a under the collecting intermediate tank
21 is connected both to all the exhaust pipes 5 for light
foreign matters extending from all the cyclone separators
1 and to a main exhaust pipe 23 for light foreign matters.
The intermediate chamber 20b for distributing liquid
papermaking materials located under the intermediate chamber
20a is connected both to all the supply pipes 4 for liquid
papermaking materials extending to all the cyclone separators
1 and to a main supply pipe 24 for liquid papermaking
materials. An elbow is used to connect the main supply
pipe 24 to the intermediate chamber 20b in an embodiment
of this invention illustrated in Fig. 3, but they may be
connected together in other ways, such as connecting a
straight pipe directly to the intermediate chamber 20b,
according to the pressure, velocity of flow, etc. of liquid
papermaking materials. The intermediate chamber 20c for
supplying pressurized clear water located under the inter-
mediate chamber 20b is connected both to all the pressurized
clear water supply pipes 10 extending to all the cyclone
separators 1 and to a main pressurized clear water supply
pipe 25. The intermediate chamber 20d for re-collection
located under the intermediate chamber 20c is connected
both to all the re-collecting pipes 14 from all the cyclone
separators I and to a main re-collecting pipe 26. The
main re-collecting pipe 26 is connected to the main
supply pipe 24 for liquid papermaking materials as required.
All the outlet pipes 15 from all the cyclone separators
1 are connected to the intermediate chamber 20e for outlet,
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and a main outlet pipe 27 is connected to it at its bottom.
Most of the things taken out of the cyclone.
vortex chamber 9 are heavy foreign matters. In the case of
liquid papermaking materials, however, such heavy foreign
matters may contain useful materials and therefore they need
to be further separated and purified. Relat~vely light
matters in the heavy foreign matters are taken out through
the re-collecting port 11 and, as mentioned above, put in
new liquid papermaking materials for further separation.
On the other hand, relatively heavy matters in the heavy
foreign matters are taken out through the outlet pQrt 13
and, as shown in Fig. 3, further separated and purified
to increase yield. The latter function is performed by
secondary cyclone separators 1', about the same in construct-
ion as the aforesaid cyclone separator 1, which areconnected so as to form subsequent stage or stages for
m~ltistage operation. Each of the secondary cyclone separators
; 1' is connected to the end of the main outlet pipe 27 by
a supply pipe 4' which enters a separator body 3'. By the
way, each part of the secondary cyclone separator 1' is
,
represented by the same numeral, with a prime ('), as the
cyclone separator 1 because these separators are about the
same in construction. The secondary cyclone separator 1'
differs from the cyclone separator 1 in the following points:
The secondary cyclone separator 1' in the embodiment
illustrated in Fig. 3 does not have a means of removing
light foreign matters because materials separated by it
contain almost no light foreign matters. Also it has a
sedimentation tank 28 for heavy foreign matters to which
an outlet pipe 15' for heavy foreign matters is connected.
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The equipment describe~ above separates foreign matters
from liquid papermaking materials as follows: By proper
value operations, liquid papermaking material is sent through
the main supply pipe 24 to the intermediate chamber 20b from
which it is distributed through ~he supply pipe 4 to each
cyclone separator 1. The ~iquid papermaking material enters
the cyclone chamber 3a tangentially, and therefore in the
cyclone chamber 3a it comes down in a whirl. Light foreign
matters concentrate in the center of the vortex, move up with
the flow, pass through the exhaust pipe 5, enter the inter-
mediate chamber 20a for accumulating light foreign matters,
and come out of the equipment. On the other hand, heavy
foreign matters sink down, come out of the cyclone chamber
3a and enter the cyclone vortex chamber 9.
Referring in detail to the last step, pressuri~ed clear
water is sent into the cyclone vortex chamber 9, and pressure
balance is maintained near the bottom of the cyclone chamber
3a between the clear water in the cyclone vortex chamber 9
and the liquid papermaking material in the cyclone chamber
3a. The liquid papermaking material on the border is diluted,
and only heavy foreign matters with large specific gravity
separate from the liquid papermaking material and drop into
the cyclone vortex chamber 9.
In the cyclone vortex chamber 9, the clear water sent
in under pressure through the pressurized clear water supply
pipe 10 forms a vortex, ~hich concentrates relatively light
matters in the heavy foreign matters to its center and
gathers relatively heavy matters on the circumference of
the bottom. The relatively light matters in the heavy for-
eign matters enter the re-collecting port 11, pass through
the re-collecting pipe 14, and come into the intermediate
chamber 20d for re-collection. In the chamber 20d they
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mix with similar matter from other cyclone separators 1.
The mixture then moves into the main re-collecting pipe
26 and enters the main supply pipe 24 again. On the other
hand, the relatively heavy matters in the heavy foreign
matters come out through the outlet port 13 and enter
the intermediate chamber 20e for outlet. In the chamber
20e they mix with heavy matter from other cyclone separators 1.
The heavy matter mixture is then sent to secondary cyclone
separators 1' to undergo similar separation and purification
again. In the meanwhile, liquid papermaking material,
from which foreign matter~ have thus been removed, comes
out through the collecting nozzle 7, provided at the top
of the cyclone chamber 3a, into the collecting chamber 6,
and moves through the collecting pipe 8 into the collecting
intermediate tank 21 at the top of the ¢entral structure 2,
where it mixes with liquid papermaking material from other
cyclone separators 1. Then the mixture comes out through
the main collecting pipe 22.
The present invention so far described in detail has
~ 20 the following advantages. Heavy foreign matters and light
foreign matters are properly separated both from liquid
papermaking materials and from each other because the
cyclone separator has both the cyclone chamber and cyclone
vortex chamber. The heavy foreign matters are further
separated in the cycIone vortex chamber and part of them
are re-collected and put in new liquid papermaking material
to be purified, so that a larger recovery percentage of
useful materials and better yield are obtained. It is
possible to further increase the accuracy of separation by
taking out the heaviest foreign matters and putting them
in secondary cyclone separators.
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In addition, a plurality of cyclone separators are
disposed radially around the central structure which is
partitioned into intermediate chambers. All their pipes,
such as the supply pipes, exhaust pipes, re-collecting
pipes and outlet pipes, enter respective intermediate
chambers which are connected to main pipes such as the
main collecting pipe, main exhaust pipe and main supply pipe.
This means that all materials are completely mixed in their
respective intermediate chambers and they are supplied to
the cyclone separators and taken out from the equipment in
a uniform state.
Furthermore, where the intermediate chambers are provided
inside the central structure, it is possible to make the
whole apparatus small and to decrease the number of its
parts.
Many different embodiments of this invention may be
made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.
It is to be understood that the invention is not limited
to the specific embod~i~ents described above.
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