Patents Assigned to Westfalia Separator AG
  • Patent number: 4828865
    Abstract: A method for producing citrus juices with low final percentages of pulp. A centrifuge is used, with the space in the drum that receives the heavier phase, the phase with a high concentration of pulp, discontinusously emptied of at least some of the pulp through slide-activated extraction openings in the jacket of the drum. The light phase, the clarified juice, is continuously extracted. To ensure that the juice will be clarified considerably more effectively in the centrifuge at low energy and equipment costs, with the throughput increased incrementally, juice with a high concentration of pulp is continuously extracted from the centrifuge through channels or through an annular space that is demarcated on the inside by a large separating disk and that has an inflow opening at the largest inside diameter of the drum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 9, 1989
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Werner Kohlstette, Peter Schottler, Friedhelm Siegmann
  • Patent number: 4823830
    Abstract: A rinse-injection box has, between a connection for supplying water from a drinking-water line and an inlet into the rinse-injection box, a valve that opens automatically when water flows in. An opening to the atmosphere prevents water from flowing out of the full box into a drinking-water line that communicates with the connection because the opening prevents the establishment of a vacuum. When the supply of water is discontinued, the valve body will close off the inlet, allowing the vacuum needed for the next rinsing process to become established inside the box. Thus, no non-potable water can be suctioned back into the drinking-water line even when the rinse-injection box is completely full.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 1988
    Date of Patent: April 25, 1989
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Heinrich Bucker
  • Patent number: 4820420
    Abstract: The present invention concerns a process for secondary purification and stabilization of liquids containing polyphenols and/or proteins. The liquid to be treated is first subjected to a centrifuge, or similar apparatus, which performs the primary purification of the liquid. The treated liquid is then mixed with stabilizing means that adsorb the polyphenols and proteins and filter means that retain the fine turbidities contained within the liquid. The liquid mixture is then transferred to an alluvial filter apparatus in laminar flow wherein the filter means and stabilization means along with the adsorbed polyphenols and proteins form a filter cake. The purified liquid is then transported to subsequent treatment while the filter cake is subsequently treated with a solution which dissolves the polyphenols and protein thereby regenerating the stabilization means and the filter means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 1986
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1989
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Norbert Hums, Helmut Schafft
  • Patent number: 4820539
    Abstract: A defined amount of a product containing concentrated non-fat dry substance is supplied in such a way that the content of non-fat dry substance in the butter is adjusted to the maximum permissible level during the buttering process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 1987
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1989
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Hanno Lehmann, Werner Vennewald, Wolfram Hoffmann
  • Patent number: 4810374
    Abstract: A self-emptying centrifuge drum has an intake for the centrifugate, a peeling chamber that accommodates a peeling disk for diverting the clarified liquid, and an automatic device that senses the level of solids in the separating space of the drum. The sensing device consists of channels extending from the separating space to another peeling chamber with another peeling disk. The outflow channel from the second peeling disk communicates with a measuring instrument that operates in conjunction with controls that introduce the extracted solids into the drum. Peeling channels are provided in the second peeling disk, extending out from its circumference and opening tangentially into an annular space that does not have any ribs and that extends radially inside the disk to detect the level of solids in the separating space even when centrifugates that do not block the channels sufficiently are being clarified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 1988
    Date of Patent: March 7, 1989
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Paul Bruning, Werner Kohlstette
  • Patent number: 4805659
    Abstract: In centrifuges that concentrate liquids that contain suspended solids and wherein the concentrated solids are removed from the centrifuge at a constant rate, the concentration of solids leaving the centrifuge must be regulated. Some of the concentrated solids leaving the centrifuge for example can for this purpose be returned to the centrifuge. In the method in accordance with the invention, the solids leaving the centrifuge through its second outlet are diverted through a measuring channel that contains a bob. The shape of the bob ensures that the force exerted on it by the solids will increase with the viscosity of the solids. The force can accordingly be exploited to adjust a flow regulator in such a way that amount of solids returned to the centrifuge is decreased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1987
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1989
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Hubert Gunnewig, Ulrich Wrede
  • Patent number: 4790261
    Abstract: A method of mechanical milking consists of a main milking phase and of a preceding stimulation phase involving mechanical stimulation of the teats of the animal to be milked. To obtain optimal milking readiness individual-specific stimulation is proposed, taking the different stimulation needs of each individual animal into account.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1987
    Date of Patent: December 13, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Bernhard S. Wartenhorst
  • Patent number: 4784633
    Abstract: A centrifuge drum is provided with a seal consisting of a narrow gap between the drum and centrifuge housing. The seal is located between the actual housing and the solids catch chamber. There is a pressure-compensation space at the drum in the vicinity of the seal. The exchange of air that occurs at the seal in a centrifuge without the compensation space between the solids catch chamber and the housing in accordance with the invention and that leads to deposits of solids in the housing is accordingly displaced into the compensation space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1987
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Paul Bruning, Helmut Figgener
  • Patent number: 4784635
    Abstract: In the continuous-operation centrifuge drum for concentrating suspended solids the solids are conveyed to a central chamber from a solids space through channels. Before the solids arrive in the central chamber, they must travel through an unribbed annular space. Since the solids concentrate tends to increase its existing kinetic energy, a higher flow resistance is generated. As viscosity increases, the solids, however, are more powerfully affected by friction in the unribbed annular space, their kinetic energy decreases, and the flow resistance decreases. The resulting increase in the volume of solids extracted also decreases its concentration and hence its viscosity. This behavior of the solids in the unribbed annular space of a rotating drum results in automatic regulation of the solids concentration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1987
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Paul Bruning, Wilfried Mackel, Ulrich Wrede
  • Patent number: 4781208
    Abstract: The device has one valve body that can be set at a constant minimum cross-section and another valve body that is not activated until the pressure in a supply connection becomes too high. The valve bodies are accommodated in separate and parallel-streamed valve housings. Since the design allows free selection of the cross-section in the valve housings, extremely wide fluctuations in the concentration of cream can be mastered in accordance with controls technology by means of the second valve body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 1987
    Date of Patent: November 1, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Karl-Heinz Zettier
  • Patent number: 4781670
    Abstract: A centrifuge drum has a chamber that can accommodate fluid formed by a concentric component inserted into the drum. The concentric component has a sealing ring accommodated in an annular groove at its outer diameter. The base of the annular groove can be supplied with control medium through a channel and emptied again through an outlet device. When the channel is full, the sealing ring is forced against a cylindrical surface and seals off an annular gap. When the channel is empty, the pressure of the fluid in the chamber forces the sealing ring in, releasing the annular gap for the chamber to empty through. In addition to acting as a seal, the sealing ring also acts as a valve, and allows a very simple design for all types of centrifuge-drum chambers that must be filled and emptied again during operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1987
    Date of Patent: November 1, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Werner Kohlstette
  • Patent number: 4755165
    Abstract: A method and device for separating two liquid phases by means of a centrifuge. The position of the zone that separates them is varied by supplying additional heavy phase as a function of that position. Once the zone arrives at a certain location, traces of light phase will appear in the heavy-phase outlet. A shutoff is opened and additional heavy phase is supplied for a prescribed length of time through a separate intake, displacing the zone toward another location. The process is repeated, with more heavy phase being diverted through the heavy-phase outlet than is supplied through the product intake.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 1986
    Date of Patent: July 5, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Hubert Gunnewig
  • Patent number: 4718886
    Abstract: A continuous-operation centrifuge bowl for concentrating suspended solids. The separated solids are conveyed through channels provided with nozzle-like orifices from the periphery of the bowl to a skimming chamber located in the diameter of an incomplete circle that is shorter than the outside diameter of the bowl. The concentrate is diverted out under pressure by means of a skimmer. Each channel communicates through a communicating channel with a distribution chamber, into which some of the diverted-out solids are returned. To create a centrifuge bowl in which the concentrate that is to be recirculated never leaves the vicinity of the bowl, there is another skimmer in the skimming chamber that returns some of the concentrate conveyed into the skimming chamber directly back into the distribution chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 1987
    Date of Patent: January 12, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Wilfried Mackel
  • Patent number: 4718887
    Abstract: In a vertical centrifugal separator having a basket and a skimmer, laminar flow occurs at the bottom of an upper skimming disk and extends over the skimming-disk shaft into an annular catch chamber. Liquid-diversion channels leads from the catch chamber into an intake. Although the product is fed into the intake under higher-than-atmospheric pressure, the catch chamber, which is at atmospheric pressure, empties through the liquid-diversion channels because the high rate of flow in the intake produces an injector effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 1987
    Date of Patent: January 12, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Michael L. A. Gunn
  • Patent number: 4717376
    Abstract: The centrifuge has a self-emptying drum. The jacket of the drum has expulsion apertures that lead from the solids space and that can be closed off by a piston slide. With the piston slide is associated a closure chamber. The closure chamber has channels for supplying closure liquid and communicates through a let-off channel in the form of an annular gap with a chamber. The inside diameter of the chamber equals the outside diameter of the closure chamber. The chamber can accommodate all the closure liquid in the closure chamber. This makes it possible to completely empty the closure chamber, so that there is no residual closure force on the piston slide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1988
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Paul Bruning, Willi Niemerg
  • Patent number: 4702197
    Abstract: A device for cleaning a milking system, with an air separator, a rinse reservoir, a suction line that leads from the rinse reservoir to the air separator through a milking station, and a pressure line that leads from the air separator to the rinse reservoir. The top of the air separator communicates with a vacuum line and the bottom communicates with the pressure line through a conveyor pump and with a shut-off valve in the section of the suction line between the rinse reservoir and the milking station. To improve the cleaning effectiveness of the known device and prevent the air separator from getting overloaded, the shut-off valve is remote-controlled and is connected through a control line to controls that are also connected to the conveyor pump and to a level sensor in the air separator through other control lines. The controls close the valve when the pump is on and open it when the pump is off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 27, 1987
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Friedrich Icking, Heinrich Bucker
  • Patent number: 4695270
    Abstract: A drum for clarifying and separating centrifugates. It has at least one skimmer for diverting the clarified or separated centrifugates, a stationary inlet pipe extending into an inlet chamber, which rotates along with the drum, through an aperture that is slightly wider than the inlet pipe, outlets extending from the inlet chamber into a vestibule that communicates with channels ascending through a set of nested plates within the drum, and, upstream of the inlet chamber, an annular space that communicates with the inlet chamber through an annular channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1986
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Karl-Heinz Zettier
  • Patent number: 4689157
    Abstract: The method is carried out with a self-emptying separator. Used mineral oil is supplied to its centrifuge drum through a central intake. Purified oil is extracted through a run-off. The separator also has another run-off for liquid extracted from the periphery of the drum. The second run-off is supplied from a sampler. A sensor is positioned in the second run-off. The sensor determines the consistency of the liquid. Downstream of the sensor is a water run-off valve. A line branches off between the sensor and the water run-off valve. The line is provided with a circulation-system valve and empties into the intake. When the circulation-system valve is open and the sensor determines from the consistency of the liquid flowing through the second run-off that the liquid is an emulsion of oil and water, it supplies the result to controls. The controls then close the circulation-system valve for a prescribed amount of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1986
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1987
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Aloys Tenthoff
  • Patent number: 4670005
    Abstract: The centrifuge has a self-emptying drum. There are expulsion apertures in the bottom of the drum. The apertures lead from a solids space and can be closed off with a piston slide. A closure chamber that can be charged with closure liquid is associated with the piston slide. The closure chamber communicates with a chamber through a bleed channel in the form of an annular gap and through a valve gap. The annular gap has an extensive cross-section that promotes rapid flow and accordingly especially accelerates bleeding the closure liquid out of the closure chamber into the other chamber. This makes it possible to increase the stroke of the piston slide at a prescribed extraction volume when the drum empties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 2, 1987
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventors: Werner Kohlstette, Rudolf Koch
  • Patent number: 4658711
    Abstract: A continuous churn for making sweet-cream or sour-cream butter consists of an initial churning cylinder that contains a beater and creates butter grain and buttermilk, of a rotating second churning cylinder that is downstream of the initial cylinder and incorporates an afterchurning section, of a strainer-like section for separating the butter grain from the buttermilk, and of a washing section. To increase the yield of butterfat in the afterchurning section and decrease fluctuations in the butter's water content, a back-up disk is positioned between the afterchurning section and the separation section of the second churning cylinder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1985
    Date of Patent: April 21, 1987
    Assignee: Westfalia Separator AG
    Inventor: Werner Vennewald