Abstract: A method of and apparatus for the flotation of mineral feedstock using the method of froth flotation. The method may be employed with flotation machines having their own air suction, or with flotation machines with subaeration. Pulps pretreated with flotation agents and having a density up to twice the normal density of ore pulps are submitted to a flotation process with a pulsed air flow by means of normal air supply periods alternating with periods wherein the quantity of air ranges from 1-90% of the normal air supply. The apparatus for carrying out said method makes use of known flotation machines with rotor-stator systems, which machines are modified to provide them with an air duct incorporating an air flow regulating member connected to an appropriate control means. With the existing methods of flotation there are obtained about 400 gr/l of solids in the pulp. With the present method with pulsing air supply there can be obtained about 800 gr/l of solids in the pulp.

Abstract: The invention concerns a flotation apparatus for separating impurities, such as printing ink, or the like, from a fiber suspension that has been formed from waste paper. The apparatus includes a container for flotation of the suspension. A drive shaft extends into the container, either from above or below. A feed opening for suspension is defined at the bottom of the container. On the drive shaft is a pump impeller for impelling suspension into the container and downstream along the drive shaft. From the pump impeller there is a rotor located on the drive shaft for dispersing air that is introduced to the container by an air feed conduit which emits air into the region of the rotor. The drive shaft itself may serve as the air feed conduit and it may have air outlets at either or both of the pump impeller and the rotor. A foam withdrawal means for withdrawing the foam of impurities generated in the flotation apparatus has an inlet positioned at the axis of the cylinder which is at the axis of the rotor.

Abstract: Froth flotation apparatus with mechanical agitation and aeration. Impeliers and diffusers therefor which are more durable and less expensive than the state-of-the-art components.

Abstract: A flotation machine is intended to carry out flotation of valuable minerals, such as coal, for example, and comprises a plurality of cells provided with pulp receiving and discharging means. Mounted in each cell above horizontal stator plates and in spaced relationship therewith are aerators. Each stator horizontal plate is formed with a central opening disposed below each aerator. Arranged intermediate the stator plates is a means for regulating longitudinal recirculating streams of pulp, and between side walls of the cell and the stator plates there are arranged means for regulating transverse streams of pulp. Each of the horizontal stator plates is formed with vertical blades arranged all around the aerator at an angle to a vertical plane passing through the center of the aerator, this angle coinciding with the angle at which the pulp is discharged by the aerator. To prevent swirls in the pulp flow under the aerator, a cruciform partition is mounted below the stator plate.

Abstract: A mixing and aeration impeller is comprised of a hub and a plurality of first flutes interspaced between and joined to a plurality of second flutes. The flutes are adapted to the hub and have troughs which begin proximate the hub and extend radially away from and angularly downward and upward away from a plane normal to a shaft to which the impeller is adapted. The flutes are preferably formed as one unitary structure and shaped in a periodic pattern which may be generally sinusoidal or trapezoidal in cross section normal to the radius of the impeller along the length of the troughs. The impeller includes means to receive compressed air from a source and means to exhaust the compressed air radially outward from the rim. The hub has means to receive the compressed air and to communicate it to a passage or gap formed in the flutes to transmit the air radially outward to the rim. The air is exhausted through a slot along the rim of the impeller. A shroud with radial fins may be positioned about the impeller.

Abstract: Apparatus for use in froth flotation comprising at least four parallel upright partition walls defining flotation columns within a receptacle. Below each partition wall is a froth generator driven by a shaft passing through the thickness of the partition wall. Rods of differential buoyancies divide each flotation column into flotation cells in such a way as to permit froth to pass upwardly from one cell to another in a controlled manner maintaining a predetermined froth thickness in each cell.

Abstract: A flotation cell having a submerged screen for breaking up mineral-laden air bubbles to reduce refuse entrainment and a rotating rake to break up the surface froth to return mechanically entrapped refuse which has escaped the screen.

Abstract: Disclosed is an aeration device for aerating liquids having a foam-forming tendency. The amount of foam generated by such an aeration device is controlled by having the air inlet disposed at a predetermined foam level. The liquid inlet is disposed near the surface of the liquid to be aerated, such that solid particles floating thereon are taken into the aerator. Air and liquid are combined in the aeration device producing the desired foam. The foam level is prevented from exceeding the level of the air intake due to the fact that air is required to produce the foam, and if the foam level exceeded the air intake, it would be ingested into the pump reducing the amount of foam produced thereby. Particular embodiments disclose concentric foam and liquid intakes to a submersible aeration pump.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus for the controlling of froth during the aeration of liquids.In the aeration (or treatment with gas) of sewage for the biological (or chemical) purification of the latter it is well known that considerable frothing occurs, which cannot be immediately controlled even with considerable effort and expense, for example using froth skimmers, froth barriers, oversize tanks, and the like. The problem is in providing an aeration apparatus which, without additional measures, that is to say by its own resources, is able to control frothing and thus keep it within permissible limits.The expressions "aeration" and "air" are here used to refer to any gaseous medium which is to be admixed with any liquid concerned in the present context. Similarly the expression "air pipe" is to be understood as meaning a pipe for a gaseous medium.

Abstract: An agitator for use in flotation having a frusto-conical skirt attached to a central hub to the agitator. The agitator also having two layers of bars disposed symmetrically on the generatrices of two opposite, coaxial truncated cones mounted at their ends on circular bases, at least one base being perforated to allow passage of flotation medium, and the bases being connected by a hollow central hub of which an upper portion is adapted to receive pressurized gas and a lower portion is provided with at least one orifice for discharging the gas. The frusto-conical skirt is situated between the bars and the central hub, is coaxial with the hub and is attached at its upper end to the hub.

Abstract: In a device for dispersing gas, e.g., air into a liquid or slurry in motion, wherein the surface at which dispersing takes place has a vertical extension and thus is subjected to varying hydrostatic pressure effected by the liquid or slurry, dispersing is optimized and the performance essentially improved by compensating the varying hydrostatic pressure with a dynamic pressure caused by the liquid in motion and varying in a desired manner so that the total pressure at least at most of the dispersing surface is substantially equalized. Said compensating is effected by providing for the correct flow rate and corresponding shape of the dispersing surfaces and other possible members influencing the liquid flow. In one embodiment the dispersing surface is represented by the envelope surface of a rotor rotating about a vertical axis.

Abstract: A flotation cell of the type comprising at least one froth removal edge and a rotor and stator adapted to be immersed in the liquid to be flotated, in order to direct the surface flow in the flotation cell towards its removal edge or edges, the clearance between the rotor and the stator, as seen in the rotation direction of the rotor, widens in that rotational sector or those rotational sectors of the rotor which is or which are substantially towards the removal edge or edges and respectively converges in the other rotation sector or the intermediate rotational sectors of the rotor.

Abstract: A method of effecting froth flotation in a receptacle divided by separating means to provide a plurality of flotation cells arranged one above another comprises passing froth upwardly from a first cell into a second cell situated thereabove while controlling the thickness of the froth layer in the first cell to correct variations therein and thereby inhibit coalescence. Apparatus for use in said method comprises a receptacle divided by separating means to provide a plurality of flotation cells arranged one above another, said separating means being adapted to provide, in operation, passage means for the passage of froth upwardly from a first cell into a second cell situated thereabove, the first cell having control means which acts to control the thickness of the froth layer in the cell in response to a variation in the thickness of said layer.

Abstract: An apparatus for ingesting and mixing gas into a liquid body includes a tank, a rotatable impeller fixed to a vertical drive shaft, and a vertically-extending conduit which surrounds the drive shaft and which extends to a location in the liquid above the impeller to serve as a channel of communication between a source of gas and the impeller. In the conduit, a vortex-turning baffle having an enlarged gas-flow aperture formed centrally therethrough is fixedly mounted above the impeller so that when a rotor-induced liquid vortex rises along the wall of the conduit, the vortex is turned downwardly by the baffle to aid in the ingestion of gas into the liquid.

Abstract: A bubble-dispersing apparatus, which comprises a tank for containing a liquid or a mixture of liquid and solid, a vertical rotary shaft installed in said tank and connected with a power source, a fixing plate installed on the lower part of said rotary shaft and extending perpendicular thereto, stirring blades installed on the bottom face of said fixing plate, plural radially disposed guide blades surrounding the rotation zone of said stirring blades and located practically on the same horizontal level as that of said stirring blades by means of a frame whose top is closed, and a gas supply pipe installed beneath and in confronting relationship to said stirring blades.

Abstract: A process for treating fine minerals, for example clays, to separate therefrom mineral impurities. The fine mineral is conditioned in the form of an aqueous slurry containing a deflocculant, for example sodium silicate, and a collector is added to the aqueous slurry of the mineral which is then subjected to a froth flotation process in a flotation cell having a central, internal, submerged impellor which comprises a base plate, to which there are attached a plurality of blades in radial arrangement, and a stationary cover plate which is separated from the tips of the blades by a small clearance, the impellor being rotated at a peripheral speed of at least 2000 feet/minute.

Abstract: An improved separation cell suitable for use in a hot water method for extracting bitumen from tar sands. The improvement lies substantially in the hollow inverted frusto-cone shaped bottom of the cell having a means for injecting hydroseparation liquid into the cavity formed by the frusto-conical bottom.

Abstract: An agitation flotation cell for the preparation of minerals and coals having at its lower end a structure including a vertical shaft with a disk at the lower end of the shaft being circular in plan view with said disk having a first lateral section tapering outwardly and downwardly from a central diametral line passing through the shaft and a disk having a second lateral section tapering outwardly and downwardly from the central diametral line with the two sections meeting at a peak to form a roof-shaped surface with first and second radially extending vanes projecting above the first and second sections extending at right angles to the peak and third and fourth radial vanes extending downwardly from the peak on the bottom side of the vanes and being parallel to the peak.

Abstract: An agitation flotation cell for the preparation of minerals and coals having a vertical rotatable shaft surrounded by an air intake pipe with upper and lower annular plates coaxial with the shaft each having central agitation intake openings and an agitator carried on the shaft between the plates including a plurality of outwardly extending agitator paddles having axially facing surfaces with the paddle surfaces positioned at different oppositely disposed angles relative to an orbit plane at right angles to the axis of the shaft producing opposed axial thrust forces on the material agitated in the shaft with radially extending vanes between the paddles with the vanes being substantially parallel to the shaft.