Abstract: A system for treating flowable materials wherein an elongated cylindrical housing is provided with an inlet for introducing material to the housing at one end thereof. An inner wall surface is defined by the housing and the temperature of the inner wall surface is controlled for heat exchange between the material and the surface. An outlet for the material is provided at the other end of the housing, and an agitator extends within, and at least partially along the length of, the housing for rotation within the housing. The agitator comprises a plurality of paddles extending from adjacent the axis of rotation of the agitator toward the inner wall surface, the paddles being positioned in spaced apart locations over at least a portion of the length of the inner wall surface whereby rotation of the agitator results in the moving of the material around the inner wall surface and the propelling of the material from the inlet to the outlet.

Abstract: A stove for burning corn (maize) including a heat exchanger having an input chamber in which corn is burned, and an output chamber where heat from the burning corn is absorbed in air, which is directed to a conventional grain drying machine for drying the grain therein. Unique arrangements are made for optimizing the quantity of air admitted to the input chamber for combustion, and for making the flow of combustion air uniform across the entire mass of burning corn. An auger is included for feeding corn to the input chamber either from a separate supply vessel, or, in cases where corn is the grain to be dried, from the grain dryer itself.

Abstract: A system and method is disclosed for removing a volatile component from volatile component-containing matrix. A volatile component-containing matrix, such as a sludge contaminated with volatile organic material or volatile inorganic material, is directed into a housing. The matrix is then directed through the housing by a screw conveyor. A heat transfer medium is conducted through a conduit within the screw conveyor to heat the screw conveyor to a temperature sufficient to volatilize at least a portion of the volatile component. The heat transfer medium can be a molten eutectic salt solution. The volatilized component is transported by a hot gas discharged over the matrix along at least a substantial portion of the length the housing from a gas inlet tube which is disposed above the matrix within the housing and is substantially parallel to the screw conveyor.

Abstract: A portable grain bin comprises a wheeled frame in which the wheels are movable relative to the frame to sit the frame on the ground and thereby transfer the load of material in the bin to the ground. The bin is grossly asymmetric with a bottom discharge much closer to one end than to other. The bottom wall nearest the bottom discharge is very steep. The bottom wall opposite the bottom discharge is relatively shallow but still exceeds a normal angle of repose of grain placed in the bin. The bottom discharge includes an opening spanned by a series of stationary slats and a movable member comprising a frame having a series of complementary slats which selectively align with or are offset from the stationary slats. The grain bin is used with a batch type grain dryer to provide surge capacity in a harvesting operation.

Abstract: A flow dryer is disclosed for comminuting and dehydrating matter using a stream of hot gas, said flow dryer being of the type employing an inlet duct in series with an agitator followed by a drying duct, the agitator having an inlet communicating with the inlet duct and an outlet communicating with the drying duct in order for hot gas to flow through the agitator, and control means operable to vary the residence time of matter in the agitator by varying the required exit characteristics for comminuted matter leaving the agitator through the agitator outlet.

Abstract: Distillers syrup or similar liquid solutions or suspensions of organic solids and oil and water is dried to obtain granular solids with improved syrup content by continuously spraying the syrup or liquid onto the upper surface of a previous bed of granular solids while passing air through the previous bed to dry the syrup from the bottom of the bed upwardly. The upper surface layer of the previous bed is maintained at near saturation temperature of the air entering the bottom of the bed due to the cooling effect of evaporation. The syrup or liquid is continuously mixed into the upper surface layer of the granular solids to significantly increase the dried syrup or liquid content. The bottom layer of the graular solids is continuously cut and continuously removed.

Abstract: An energy-saving type solar-heated drying apparatus for drying various types of matter, which utilizes a drying room surrounded by a solar-heat transmitting/absorbing wall. In the drying room, the matter is deposited on an elongated drying cage while exposed to a dry hot air produced by the solar heat. During drying treatment of the matter, the matter is moved from a supply side of the drying cage to a discharge side of the same in a longitudinal direction of the drying cage by means of a stirring/mixing transporter by which the matter is stirred/mixed while moved from the supply side to the discharge side of the drying cage. The dry hot air produced in the drying room under the influence of the solar heat is drawn into the drying cage, passing through the matter deposited thereon so as to evenly and effectively dry the matter.

Abstract: An apparatus for incubating and/or incubating shaking biological test specimens having a detachable autoclavable chamber. The main incubating chamber is provided with a support plate and diffuser plate for directing a controlled flow of heated air to the biological test specimen. A transverse blower is provided to assist in providing uniform air flow within the main incubating chamber.

Abstract: A method of drying thermosensitive materials includes spraying such materials onto inert bodies circulating about a closed space in a flow of a heat-transfer agent at an increased temperature. In the upper part of the flow of the heat-transfer agent, occupying not more than 1/3 of its cross section, the heat transfer agent is rotated at an axial velocity 2 to 3 times higher than the velocity of the heat transfer agent in the rest of the flow. An apparatus for carrying out this method has a cylindrical chamber with a tapered bottom accommodating axially of the chamber a blind tube with a base defining with the walls of the bottom an annular passage for introducing a heat transfer agent thereto. The chamber has a mesh and a propeller mixer secured thereunder on a shaft arranged at an angle of 60.degree.-90.degree. to the axis of the chamber at a distance from this axis which is less than R, where R is the radius of the chamber.

Abstract: A modular door jamb and lintel system for an industrial furnace having an access door opening. A module is provided with a pair of spaced, generally vertical door jambs of precast refractory material. A refractory lintel spans the door jambs and combines therewith to define a frame for the access opening. Hangers are provided on the lintel to facilitate transporting and installing the lintel in position at the access opening. Fasteners are provided on at least the door jambs to facilitate securing the door jambs to appropriate structural members about the access opening.

Abstract: A fluidized bed dryer/granulator (10) for coating pellets (P) used in the preparation of pharmaceutical materials, comprises a chamber (11) having a top wall (12) and a bowl (16) at the bottom thereof and an axial air inlet (19) for directing a flow of air axially therethrough, and at least one removable air inlet (20, 21) positioned in the chamber for directing a circumferential flow of air into the chamber to interact with the axial flow to produce an orbital or swirling motion, enhancing the rate of treatment of the material in the chamber.

Abstract: A coffee-bean roaster for small quantities of coffee, which has a cylindrical roasting chamber (11) and in which only one fan (35) is provided for roasting and for cooling, is described. The coffee beans are roasted in the roasting chamber as a result of the blowing-in of heated air via at least two blowing-in conduits (12) which are arranged off-center and of which the blowing-out direction is set at an angle of between 0.degree. and 30.degree. relative to the roasting-chamber axis in the tangential direction. After the roasting operation has ended, the roasted coffee beans are transferred, via an openable bottom (19) of the roasting chamber, into a collecting container (5), the sieve-like bottom of which is connected to the supply-air conduit (28), so that the roasted coffee beans are cooled by the sucked in supply air of the roasting chamber (FIG. 3).

Abstract: An apparatus for drying resinous material includes a reaction vessel and a pair of counter-rotating hollow shafts disposed in the vessel. Each of the shafts supports a plurality of blades for stirring the resinous material to be dried in the vessel. A flow of hot gas is continuously supplied through hollow shafts into the blades and released into a reaction vessel through a plurality of apertures in the blades when the blades are in contact with the resinous material.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for drying or cooling particulate materials in a machine where said particles are made to circulate, with a particle flow moving downwards along the inside of a chamber wall. The method is characterized in that a cooling or drying agent, or the like is introduced from above into the interface area between the particle flow directed downwards and the chamber wall.

Abstract: A fermentation unit comprising a scoop wheel equipped with scoops on the periphery thereof, and which moves between bunker silos. The bunker silos are equipped with aeration ducts at the base thereof. Flexible scrapers located around the periphery of the scoop wheel scrape the aeration ducts. Unstacking barbs are also located on the periphery of the scoop wheel. Means are provided to adapt the unit to the type of materials to be treated.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for roasting small quantities of coffee, in which the unroasted coffee is fed into a roaster and supplied with hot air via a controlled burner until roasting is completed; after roasting is shut off, the roasted coffee is pre-cooled with water and then removed to a cooling screen and cooled with air. The invention is characterized in that the coffee is fed into the roasting chamber (12) of the roaster, at a readiness temperature (t.sub.B) that is kept constant or regulated, after a feed device (80, 81) for the unroasted coffee has been unblocked for further filling, after the removal of the previous batch of roasted and cooled coffee.

Abstract: A drying plant for brown coals of high water content comprises, as seen in flow direction of the coal and one behind the other, a conveyor means (2) equipped with a means (3) for spraying hot waste water onto the coal, a wet sieve (4) equipped with a means (5) for supplying residual steam, a conveyor means (6) for conveying the sieved material to a pressure lock (7), a preheating means (8) equipped with a pressure lock (7) at the charging location and with connections for steam conduits (11), a further pressure lock (13) for discharging the coal from the preheating means (8) and for charging the coal into an autoclave (14) being adapted for being supplied with steam, preferably saturated steam, and having connected thereto waste water conduits (12), a sieve drum (15) arranged within the autoclave (14) and being equipped with a variable rotational drive means (16) and with conveyor elements, in particular screw conveyor elements, a further pressure lock (19) for discharging the steamed material into a subseque

Abstract: In a horizontal fluidized-bed dryer, at least one rotatable hollow axle extends horizontally through a drying chamber over a porous supporting shelf and has a heat transfer tube assembly mounted on and around the hollow axle for fluid communication therewith. A spiral or screw-shaped blade is mounted on the heat transfer tube assembly so as to be disposed around the periphery of an imaginary cylindrical figure generated by rotation of the heat transfer tube assembly about the hollow axle. This blade serves to push large particles of wet feed on the supporting shelf from the inlet side to the outlet side as the hollow axle and thus the heat transfer tube assembly are rotated.

Abstract: Apparatus for dewatering and drying plastic granulate comprising a multistage dewatering rotor having conveyor and aerating blades and surrounded by a screening member located within a housing between a product inlet and a product outlet. In order to simplify the handling of a wide variety of plastic granulate with only a small amount of space being required, a collection container which is open at its top coaxially surrounds the first stage of the dewatering rotor and accumulates separated water in a reservoir region for discharge by a suction pump. The product inlet discharges into a feed vessel secured in the collection container. The first stage of the dewatering rotor is provided on its circumference with worm segments of increasing pitch in the direction of granulate conveyance.

Abstract: This invention relates to solar grain drying apparatus in general, and more specifically to a windmill powered grain circulating conveyor mechanism used in conjunction with a solar heat source to accomplish a slow uniform drying of the contents of a grain bin; and having a unique conveyor support and rotation imparting mechanism, that insures that the grain lifted from the bottom of the grain bin, will be uniformly distributed around the periphery of the bin to promote the drying process.

Abstract: A vertical container holds and treats particulate material, such as comminuted cellulosic fibrous material like wood chips. The container includes a vertical interior wall, an open top, and a discharge outlet at the bottom. A top interior wall structure directs particulate material to a first false bottom concentric with it. The first false bottom is mounted for oscillation with respect to the vertical container and discharges particulate material through a discharge opening in the generally conical bottom thereof into a second false bottom structure. The second false bottom structure also includes a generally conical bottom with a discharge opening, and is also mounted for oscillation with respect to the container. Steam is preferably introduced into the second false bottom to effect steaming of the particulate material within it, and the container is held at super-atmospheric pressure.

Abstract: A body of pulverulent material is confined in a receptacle, and a screw conveyor having a vertical axis conveys a predetermined quantity of the material per unit of time in the upward direction. The amount of the pulverulent material which is being conveyed is such that it fills the space between the turns of the helical conveyor screw of the screw conveyor, which is surrounded by a jacket, only in part, thus leaving a passage in the screw conveyor through which a stream of drying air is conveyed in contact with the pulverulent material so that the drying air withdraws moisture from the material. The rotational speed and/or the pitch or spacing of the consecutive turns of the conveyor screw is so selected that only such an amount of the pulverulent material enters through an opening in the jacket of the screw conveyor while the space between two consecutive turns is juxtaposed with the opening as to only partially fill such a space.

Abstract: A fluidized bed apparatus for treating particulate material comprising a foraminous support such as a perforate plate, a screen, or the like, gas supply means to supply a fluidizing gas beneath said support and a plurality of movable flights above said support adapted to sweep fluidized material along the support. The apparatus is useful for obtaining controlled residence time of materials being treated within an enclosed treating chamber.

Abstract: In a hot air aseptic canning system, containers are sterilized by hot air in an adaptation of a commercially available machine. In accordance with the improvement of the present invention, hot air is blown into the tops of the containers to displace ambient air trapped therein and thus lower the time required to sterilize the containers. As the containers travel along a helical conveyor, inside an insulated housing, they pass under off-center nozzles having openings in their bottoms to cause swirling of air within the containers. The nozzles are connected by ducts to a source of sterilizing air. As the containers leave the conveyor, with their axes vertical, they travel side-by-side down a waterfall with their axes horizontal, then onto a rapidly moving horizontal conveyor which carries the containers away as rapidly as they reach the bottom of the waterfall, and then are turned to vertical position and directed into a filler.

Abstract: A secondary dryer device comprising a drying oven, for subjecting open containers of water detector pads to a secondary drying operation. The oven has a pair of elongate channels disposed side by side with open, outer-most ends and blind inner-most ends. One channel holds a plurality of containers in single file, whereas the other channel holds a plurality of containers in double file, whereby the dwell time is greatly increased. A transfer structure interconnects the blind ends of the channels to provide transfer of the containers from the narrow channel to the wider channel. A powered pushing device applies force to the containers of the single file, to advance said containers inwardly into the oven, toward the blind end of the channel. The oven has means which provides heat to raise the temperature and expel moisture.

Abstract: A plurality of elongated flexible members are initially disposed in generally parallel relation over a foraminous support structure upon which a bed of hops to be dried is subsequently placed and through which heated drying air is to be subsequently pumped for passage upwardly through and drying the bed of hops. After the bed of hops has been partially dried and the hops of the bed have settled and become crusted, opposite ends of adjacent elongated members are upwardly displaced from opposite sides of the bed of hops in order that the elongated members may tear upwardly through the crusted bed of hops in the manner of an elongated flexible tear member. After the bed of hops has been torn by the elongated members from opposite sides of the bed, heated drying air may continue to pass upwardly through the bed of hops for the purpose of completing the drying process.

Abstract: A personal coffee roaster for effecting roasting of small quantities of green coffee beans and having limited physical size and weight, has a roasting chamber with at least one perforate wall, elements for creating a heated gaseous flow through the perforate wall into the roasting chamber and an exit orifice leading from the roasting chamber, in gaseous communication therewith, for providing an outlet for the heated gas flow. The apparatus further has an air flow rate controlling element for variably controlling the rate of flow of the heated gas through the roasting chamber. The roasting chamber, stirring elements therein, and a driven rotating shaft are inclined to a vertical axis for effecting better tumbling action and stirring within the roasting chamber.

Abstract: Apparatus for drying products of various types including particulate materials having varying degrees of moisture content including those moistened throughout, as by organic solvents, and which may be tacky in nature; the apparatus including a generally cylindrical vessel with a downwardly conical lower portion terminating in a dried product discharge opening, and a gas inlet conduit arranged to deliver a drying gas to the vessel in the region of and slightly above the discharge opening at relatively low pressure but with auxiliary screw or propeller arrangements for preventing access of the product, particularly if tacky, to the gas inlet conduit and also serving to assist in distribution of the drying gas throughout the product as it is agitated and distributed in the vessel and in countercurrent as it tends toward the discharge opening.

Abstract: The present invention provides a drying device for coagulating and/or drying a fluid material having significant solids content, such as animal blood, to produce a dried solid product where the device includes generally an upwardly sloped elongate housing of generally semicircular cross section of selected diameter to define a coagulation chamber where the top of a portion of the chamber can be open, heat source means to selectively heat the housing, elongate screw conveyor means disposed within the housing with its longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing where the screw conveyor has a shaft with generally continuous helical blade means extending radially therefrom and having an outer diameter approximately equal to the interior diameter of the chamber and where the screw conveyor is adapted for rotation in the chamber to agitate the fluid in a portion of the housing and to convey solid material from a first lower end of the housing, toward a second, higher, end of the housing for e

Abstract: A grain drying bin is disclosed having a simplified structural supporting system and which provides rapid drying of stored grains. An upper truncated pyramidal shaped housing section has at least three inwardly sloping planar side walls and a horizontal roof portion with a grain entry port. A lower inverted truncated pyramidal shaped housing section having the same number of planar inwardly sloping side walls is provided. The two housing sections directly join to one another with the lower housing section being substantially supported in a cavity in the ground. Ventilation panels are mounted substantially parallel to and at a predetermined spacing from the side walls and floor portion of the lower housing section. A hot gas inlet aperture is provided to permit the entry of heated gas into the spaces between the side walls and the ventilation panels.

Abstract: An improvement in the method of grain drying wherein grain is dried in a first drying bin and removed to a holding bin, the improvement comprising withdrawing hot air from the holding bin and circulating the hot air to the drying bin.

Abstract: A method for providing grain drying and storage utilizing an earth cavity of designated planar construction as covered by light transmitting housing assembly; the structure consisting of an earth cavity having inverted tetrahedral characteristic which is closed over by a light transmitting housing, the interior of the storage volume includes a plurality of conveyor means for circulating the fungible material placed therein as well as means for controlling the interior heat and auxiliary heat flow.

Abstract: A method of reducing the liquid content of a mixture of a liquid and a particulate solid by subjecting said mixture to pressure filtration in a tube pressure filter in which, after the formation of the filter cake on the filter element of the tube pressure filter, a gas is forced through the filter cake at a pressure which is at least one third of the maximum pressure employed to form the filter cake on the filter element.

Abstract: In a system for flocking a substrate, such as a garment, the improvement comprising a method, apparatus and article for adjustably controlling the moisture content of the flock in the flock tray to any desired moisture level, whereby the flocking machine is not limited to use only in a plant having a humidity controlled atmosphere.

Abstract: A system for reducing sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur in which a reactor vessel is divided into a plurality of compartments, and coal is fed from a single source into each of the compartments. A sulfur dioxide rich gas is distributed to each of the compartments and is contacted with the coal to form substantially pure sulfur.

Abstract: A feeding apparatus has a vessel with a floor on which is provided a support lining defining with the floor a generally closed space and constituted as a gas-impervious foil formed with a multiplicity of throughgoing holes and a gas-pervious textile sheet bonded to the foil over the holes. A blower serves to inject gas into the space and suck it therefrom and means is provided for withdrawing fluent particulate material from the vessel adjacent the lining. The gas injected under the lining serves partially to fluidize the bed and also to flex the lining so that the bed of particulate material thereon is loosened and can be withdrawn from the vessel.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for storing grain wherein improved and efficient ventilation is achieved and internal ventilation is practiced without subjecting the stored grain to overdrying and overheating.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for the manufacture of foamed polystyrene particles of moderately great density, such as 3 to 25 lbs. per cubic foot (50 to 400 milligrams per cubic centimeter). Beads are fed by a constant-displacement auger to an expander vessel having the form of, in its lowest part, a cylinder with a vertical axis, and thereabove, of a frustrum of an inverted cone having a base angle of about 83.degree. to 70.degree.. Steam is supplied to the vessel in an appropriate, controlled manner. The vessel also contains stator bars, to break lumps and retard the rotation of the material in the vessel, and rotating bars, to provide the necessary agitation. Desirably, the equipment includes a discharge chute of adjustable location, to facilitate adjustment of the residence time and consequently of the density of the expanded beads being produced.