Abstract: A filterable fluid flows under pressure through a filtering passage along one side of the filter, so that there is a substantial pressure drop along the filter area in the flow direction. A fluid flow in this same direction is provided in a filtrate passage extending generally parallel to the opposite side of the filter, so as to create a corresponding pressure drop in the flow direction in the filtrate passage, whereby the pressure difference between both sides of the filter is maintained substantially constant throughout the entire filter area.

Abstract: A centrifugal rotor contains a member slidable axially of the rotor to open and close its peripheral outlets, and on the side of this member opposite from the separating chamber is an operating chamber for receiving liquid to maintain the slidable member in its closing position. Said member is moved to its opening position by draining part of the liquid from the operating chamber, the remaining liquid acting to return the slidable member to its closing position when only part of the material in the separating chamber has been discharged through the peripheral outlets. Means are provided for adjusting the magnitude of the force by which the slidable member is kept in its closing position, thereby enabling adjustment of the amount of material discharged from the separating chamber upon each opening of the peripheral outlets.

Abstract: To prepare a satisfactory edible protein concentrate, seed selected from Brassica species and Crambe abyssinica are cracked to loosen the hulls and then separated into a meat fraction and a hull fraction. The hull-free meat fraction is then subjected to myrosinase inactivation in the wet state at 80.degree.-100.degree. C, leaching by water of glucosinolates and other soluble components, drying, solvent extraction to remove the oil, and careful desolventizing so that the protein will not be damaged or discolored.

Abstract: In a centrifuge rotor having intermittently opening peripheral outlets for discharging separated solids and having a paring chamber with stationary paring means for discharging separated liquid, an arrangement is provided to prevent air from passing into the paring channel when opening of the peripheral outlets causes the liquid level to move radially outward in the rotor. The arrangement includes an annular partition of the rotor which allows liquid flow from its separating chamber to its paring chamber during normal operation but which prevents some liquid in the paring chamber from returning to the separating chamber due to opening of the peripheral outlets, and first and second stationary annular discs coaxial with the rotor and operable while the peripheral outlets are opened to maintain, respectively, a first liquid seal between the separating chamber and the paring channel and a second liquid seal between the paring channel and the atmosphere surrounding the rotor.

Abstract: A slide is adapted to be reciprocated along a slide plane to connect each pulsation opening of the milking machine pulsator alternately to vacuum and to atmosphere. A spindle rotated at constant speed by a suitable motor is provided with an endless, helically-shaped groove; and a driving means engaged in this groove is connected to the slide for reciprocating the same.

Abstract: A reciprocating drive unit is operable through a clutch assembly to move a manure scraper step-wise first in one direction and then in the opposite direction along a manure track. The clutch assembly includes means responsive to an overload on the scraper for causing the clutch assembly to self-activate the reversal of travel of the scraper, and means for adjusting said responsive means to vary the amount of overload required to effect said reversal.

Abstract: A centrifugal rotor has separate peripheral channels serving as outlets for separated sludge, and the separating chamber of the rotor contains means located between the sludge outlets to form funnel-shaped pockets each converging radially outward toward a corresponding sludge outlet. Sealing members are movable into and out of contact with the rotor around the outer ends of the peripheral channels and are operable to seal the channels intermittently by an axially directed force against the rotor, the sealing members being operated by pressurized air, the rotor and sealing members being formed to allow ejected sludge to leave the rotor without any obstruction.

Abstract: A drum rotatable about an axis through its center of gravity carries troughs located in a circle concentric to said axis and which are charged at a certain level with flowing material to be measured as to quantity, whereby the drum is influenced by a driving moment from the weight of the charged material. After a certain rotation of the drum, the troughs discharge the charged material at a lower level than said charging level. Means are provided for counteracting rotation of the drum by said driving moment, said means including interconnected scoops arranged in a circle concentric to an axis through the common center of gravity of the scoops, said last axis forming an angle with a vertical line. The drum rotates the scoops around said last-mentioned axis, and the scoops successively elevate a second material from a certain level and discharge it at a higher level.

Abstract: A connection between a vacuum source and a conduit of a milking machine is controlled by a valve body having a position for providing a normal working vacuum in the conduit and a position for providing a reduced working vacuum in the conduit. The valve body is actuated by an element movable in a chamber in response to a pressure change in one part of the chamber communicating with the vacuum source through a passage; and a regulating device is provided for opening and closing this passage to cause movement of the valve body from one position to the other by the actuating element. The regulating device may be under the control of a milk flow indicator, so that the reduced vacuum is provided automatically whenever the milk flow is below a certain rate.

Abstract: The housing of a control device forms a chamber into which opens a milking machine conduit communicating alternately with a vacuum source and a pressure source, there being a separate connection between the chamber and the pressure source which is independent of the conduit. A valve member in the chamber is operable from outside the housing and has a first position where it blocks the opening of the conduit into the chamber while uncovering said separate connection, whereby the valve member is sucked against said opening and thus held in its first position when vacuum prevails in the conduit. When the conduit is placed in communication with the pressure source, the valve member automatically moves to a second position where it uncovers the opening of the conduit into the chamber while blocking said separate connection; and the valve member can be returned to its first position only by manual operation from outside the housing.

Abstract: A centrifugal rotor having peripheral outlets for intermittent sludge discharge includes two axially united and interconnected parts forming between them the separating chamber. One of the rotor parts is a bowl formed in one piece and provided with an edge portion directed radially inward, the other rotor part having a substantially smaller diameter than the bowl part and being connected therewith at said edge portion. The portion of the bowl part surrounding the separating chamber, and including said edge portion, has a form which, as seen in an axial section through the rotor, is substantially the axial section form of a hollow conical body.

Abstract: In a heat exchanger unit having a heating section and a regenerative section, the product to be heat treated is first passed through the regenerative section to preheat the product, thence through the heating section and then back through the regenerative section to recover heat from the product. In the regenerative section, the return flow of the product is counter-current to its incoming flow; but when the exchanger unit is to be heated, as for cleaning or sterilizing, a liquid other than the product is passed through the regenerative and heating sections in the same path as the product flow except that the incoming and return flows of the liquid through the regenerative section are concurrent to each other.

Abstract: When a predetermined amount of separated sludge has accumulated in the peripheral part of the centrifuge rotor, a sensing device automatically opens outlets for the discharge of sludge. To provide substantially constant time intervals between consecutive openings of these sludge outlets, the feed rate to the centrifuge is automatically decreased in response to a shortening of these time intervals and automatically increased in response to a lengthening of these time intervals.

Abstract: A milking machine system includes a flow rate sensing device, a timing device, and a system control means for varying the character of the working and massage vacuums during the milking process, in response to the rate of milk flow and to time. The milking machine system can be controlled in predetermined phases, such as a stimulation phase, a milking phase, a post-milking phase, and a switch-off phase, with the duration of the phases dependent on the rate of milk flow reaching certain predetermined levels and on time lapse parameters. The level of the working vacuum or massage vacuum can be varied in each phase with the massage vacuum pulses also variable as to pulse frequency and duration. The teat cups can also be operated independently of one another, and can be subjected periodically to sequential pulses of the massage vacuum to operate the teat cups sequentially.

Abstract: One of a plurality of members is rotated by driving means relative to another member around an axis, the members forming between them a narrow passage extending around the rotation axis and serving for through-flow of a liquid to be heat treated, the driving means effecting relative movement between the walls defining the narrow passage, so that the liquid flowing therethrough is heated by internal friction in the liquid. The passage has a liquid inlet spaced from the rotation axis; and the passage extends from this inlet, via a point spaced a greater distance from the axis than is the inlet, to a liquid outlet located closer to the axis than is said point.

Abstract: A milking installation comprises an annular platform divided into separate milking stalls, each for one cow and provided with a milking unit hermetically connected to its milk receiver, and means for rotating the annular platform so that the stalls successively pass a milk collecting station. The latter includes a flexible milk tube carried by an arm of variable length which is pivoted at one end, the free end of the arm being provided with a coupling member connected to the flexible tube and movable vertically to connect hermetically with said milk receiver. The flexible tube moves along with the milk receiver and returns to its starting position after being disconnected from the receiver by the coupling member.

Abstract: In an apparatus for contacting a gas with a liquid, the gas is caused to flow upward through a vertical channel associated with a device for charging the channel with a foam containing the liquid. The channel contains upper and lower gas-permeable elements each arranged to support a layer of the foam covering the through-flow area of the channel, each element being formed to cause turbulence of the gas flowing therethrough. The two foam-supporting elements are located so close to each other that foam is entrained by the flowing gas from the space between the elements upwardly through the upper element to the upper side thereof, from which foam is returned through a passage to the space between the two elements. This return passage is shielded from upward flow of gas therethrough, so that a foam column in the passage can move downward.

Abstract: Annular concentric jets of steam and a liquid to be sterilized, respectively, are contacted with each other in a jet nozzle; and the resulting annular jet of steam-heated liquid is swept along both its inside and its outside by two additional annular jets of cold liquid concentric to the first-mentioned jets, thereby preventing material from the liquid to be sterilized from burning onto surfaces of the jet nozzle.

Abstract: A first unit rotating with the centrifugal rotor forms an electric resonance circuit having at least one variable oscillation property; and a sensing member rotating with the rotor is arranged to sense a displacement of an interface formed between two media undergoing centrifugal separation in the rotor, the sensing member acting to change the variable oscillation property of the resonance circuit in response to a sensed displacement. A second unit separate from the rotor comprises means for inductively transferring a signal to the resonance circuit and also includes means for sensing a change of the load by the resonance circuit on the signal transferring means in response to a change of the variable oscillation property of the resonance circuit.

Abstract: A manure remover for stables, especially for pigs, with a plurality of stalls arranged along a manure channel, which stalls have a manure area, situated close to the manure channel, a rotary brush being arranged to be driven and to sweep over the surface of the manure area and to move along the row of stalls by means of a conveying device.