Abstract: A process for removing mineral matter from feed coal employing liquid carbon dioxide. A water slurry of pulverized feed coal is mixed with liquid carbon dioxide. Demineralized coal is collected in the liquid carbon dioxide phase while separated mineral matter concentrates in the water phase. The two liquid phases are separately drawn off and their solid contents recovered.

Abstract: A classification screen or sieve is provided having a plurality of elongated pieces, each piece having a substantially straight posterior edge, and an anterior edge downstream from said posterior edge having a plurality of alternating projections and notches. Each elongated piece being staggered or off-set with respect to the succeeding elongated piece without touching it and each of said elongated pieces being parallel to each other and vertically displaced from each other.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus for sorting out recycled paper pulp obtained from scrap material containing contaminants in the form of large pieces of foreign material such as plastics, adhesives, pieces of rope and the like.The invention avoids the need to disintegrate such large pieces of foreign material prior to their removal.The device of the invention comprises a drum (1) with an horizontal axis (2), an end wall (3) of the drum being fitted with a perforated plate (4) and an helical stirrer (5) having profiled blades rotating in a plane parallel to this plate at a short distance thereof, these blades having a transverse cross-section with a hydrodynamic profile adapted for generating a depression in front of the perforated plate, and a leading edge (6) forming a Bernouilli spiral with a constant angle of approximately 30.degree.

Abstract: In a powder classifier of the kind having a turbine-like horizontally rotating classifying rotor which is arranged to have air diametrically flow into radial passages and to cause the coarse powder portion of a powder material supplied to the inside of the radial passages to move to a circular passage encompassing the outer circumference of the rotor and the fine powder portion of the powder material to move diametrically toward the inside of the rotor, the circular passage has a discharge port formed in a part of the outer circumferential wall thereof. To the discharge port is connected a coarse powder discharge duct which approximately tangentially extends from the discharge port of the circular passage to a chute part arranged above a coarse powder recovering device; a powder return duct is connected to the chute part and extends approximately tangentially relative to the circular passage from the chute part to an opening provided in the outer circumferential wall of the circular passage.

Abstract: Separator device for edible meal, comprising a vertical cylindrical container (4) provided at its the bottom with a discharge rotary valve (9). A feeding duct (5) extends axially into the top portion of the container, and swirling means are provided so that the meal to be treated will reach with a whirling flow the central portion of a distributing chamber (31) having equispaced lateral openings (32) from which equal spiral-shaped tubes (33) protrude outwards with the same curvature, whereby the meal is discharged tangentially onto the periphery of an underlying horizontal dish (6) which is arranged co-axially in the upper portion of the container (4). Arranged at a suitable distance above the disc there is a horizontal partition (1) which is fixed to the container and is sealingly traversed by the curved feeding tubes (33).

Abstract: A portable sluice box for classification of mineral particulate from detritus or placer deposits containing the same is comprised of an infeed table including upstanding sidewalls and a bottom wall for receiving and confining a charge of mineral-containing deposits for fluid compelled movement along a path lying in a material handling plane generally coincident with the bottom wall of the table; a classification table member, including upstanding sidewalls and a foraminous separation plate having downwardly depending, opposed marginal skirts for proximal engagement with the sidewalls of the separation table interiorly thereof, the separation plate also lying within the material handling plane; a plurality of riffles disposed transversely in a laterally and longitudinally extending spaced array between the skirts, defining a series of upper flow channels intermediate the separation plate and the top edge of the riffles and a lower, mat channel intermediate the bottom wall of the classification table and the bo

Abstract: A process for separating porous components from non-porous components of a mixture of granular materials comprising the steps of:(a) contacting the mixture of the porous and non-porous materials with a gas capable of adsorbing in the pores of the porous component;(b) discharging the so charged or loaded mixture into a liquid in which the adsorbed gas is allowed to desorb from the porous componet, the viscosity and surface tension of the liquid being chosen so that the desorbed gas remains attached to the porous component with the specific gravity of the liquid chosen to separate the so desorbed porous component from the nonporous component; and(c) separating the floating materials from those of sinking materials in the liquid of Step (b).

Abstract: In sieving apparatus, an undercarriage carries a belt conveyor, which has a frame that is adapted to be folded in length about a hinge. The belt conveyor carries at its discharge end a sieving machine, which is adapted to be driven and which has an adjustable inclination relative to the belt conveyor. Hydraulic cylinder-piston units are provided for adjusting the inclination of the sieve and for pivotally adjusting the pivotally movable section of the conveyor belt frame. The sieving machine is adapted to be swung against that side of the adjacent section of the conveyor belt frame which faces downwardly when the apparatus is in operating position. As a result, when the apparatus is entirely collapsed the upper section of the conveyor belt frame extends above and along the lower section of said frame and the sieving machine is disposed above the upper section of said frame.

Abstract: A rotor for a sorting apparatus for cleaning fibrous suspensions such as produced from the making of paper is described. The rotor is equipped with sorter blades which extend substantially parallel to the axis of rotation and are set at a desired angle relative to the direction of rotation of the rotor so as to create a hydrofoil effect. The sorter blades are mounted to one or more supporting walls shaped in a spiral form to provide spiral surfaces which are coaxial with the axis of rotation of the rotor and impart a conveying motion to the fibrous suspension. Upon rotation of the rotor in a fibrous suspension entanglements by impurities are avoided and the danger of the occurrence of a blockage of the strainer used in the sorter apparatus is reduced.

Abstract: A vibratory screen structure which is rectangular in plan employing pretensioned screen panels and a pneumatic tube seal beneath the panels. Restraining members are positioned on two sides of the screen panels to hold the screen frames in position on the pneumatic tubes when sealed. The remaining sides are unrestrained and bow under the pressure of the pneumatic tubes to create a crown in each screen panel.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method in the operation of magnetic separators comprising a plurality of canisters or like devices (4) containing magnetizable induction poles (41) arranged to pass through a magnetic field (1). While the canisters (4) are located in the magnetic field (1), a particle suspension is supplied (5) to the canisters, in which magnetizable particles are attracted to the induction poles (41). Rinsing fluid (6) may optionally be supplied to the canisters while the canisters are still located within the magnetic field (1), thereby to remove non-magnetic particles through discharge means (7a, 7b) for fluid and non-magnetic material. Outside the magnetic field flushing fluid is supplied in a flushing station (8, 56), this flushing fluid removing magnetic material through discharge means (8, 57) for magnetic material. The canisters (4) are provided with flexible sealing lips (36) as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.

Abstract: According to the method the stock suspension is moved across a mass force field due to gravity or centrifugal acceleration in the form of stock stream or current and contacts a pick-up surface moved in conjunction with the stock stream and at substantially the same velocity. The apparatus may comprise a housing in which a turbulent or vortex flow is generated and containing a rotor therein which possesses the pick-up surface. Further embodiments have a guiding wire or screen which is moved along a pick-up cylinder or is trained around the same and upon which there is formed a layer of the stock suspension by using a stock supply device. A band, for example a wire band, may be provided to pick-up the contaminants.

Abstract: A method of controlling the separation of coal from a mixture of coal and refuse in a froth flotation device by measuring the differential back pressure between two gas bubbler tubes immersed to different depths into the body of pulp in the device to produce a first control signal representative of the pulp density, and adjusting the rate of addition of a froth enhancement additive to the froth flotation device responsive to changes in said first signal; a second signal, produced by measuring back pressure of a single bubbler tube and representative of the pulp level in said device, can be corrected for changes in density by combining it with said first signal and then utilized to control liquid level in the cell by adjusting the rate of withdrawal of refuse therefrom.

Abstract: Solids comprising a magnetically stabilized fluidized bed are transported in a direction transverse to the flow of the fluidizing fluid exiting the bed by contacting at least a portion of said solids with fluidizing fluid which enters the bed with a velocity component in the direction of solids flow; i.e. the transverse flow direction. In a preferred embodiment, the fluidizing fluid entering the bed is passed through a distribution means containing propulsion passages slanted in the desired direction of solids flow which serve to orient the fluidizing fluid in the transverse flow direction. Use of this invention eliminates the need for the costly and inconvenient pneumatic, hydraulic and mechanical transport devices employed in the prior art. Solids attrition and elutriation are also reduced.

Abstract: In a magnetically stabilized fluidized bed in which the bed particles continuously move transverse to the flow of the fluidizing fluid, the bed particles have increased fluidity when the bed is operated at or substantially near the locus of transition between the bubbling and stabilized regimes of said bed. More specifically, the particulate bed comprising a transverse flow magnetically stabilized fluidized bed process has greater fluidity when the bed is operated such that the ratio of the difference between the transition velocity and the operating velocity to the difference between the transition velocity and the normal minimum fluidization velocity ranges between -0.1 and +0.5. The increased fluidity facilitates the movement of solids within a vessel as well as the transfer of solids to other vessels.

Abstract: A mixture comprising non-magnetic solids is separated according to the density difference of its components by contact with a separating medium comprised of a fluidized bed of magnetizable particles which is stabilized by a magnetic means. The separating medium circulates in a closed loop within a contacting vessel or zone such that at least two portions of said separating medium flow in essentially opposite directions transverse to the flow of the fluidizing fluid exiting the medium. This invention is particularly effective for separating mixtures of coal or for separating coal from other solids.

Abstract: A method for separating particulate material into coarse and fine fractions is disclosed by suspending the material in a conveying gas flow having a radially symmetrical flow pattern, radially surrounding the gas suspension with a band of clean gas containing substantially no particulate and directing the concentric gas flow past a vaned rotating rotor having an axis of rotation axially aligned with the concentric axis of the gases. The rotor vanes fling the coarse fraction in a radially outwardly direction while the remaining fine fraction remains in the conveying gas flow for subsequent separation from the gas. An apparatus in the form of a separator is disclosed for sorting particulate material suspended within a conveying gas into coarse and fine fractions is also disclosed.

Abstract: An apparatus and dry method for de-shotting shot-containing mineral wool fibers wherein the fibers are treated in a granulator to compact them into entangled nodules, and the nodules are passed through an air classifier to open up and de-shot them. In a preferred embodiment, a felted layer of mineral wool is subjected to a first granulation step to divide the layer into a multiplicity of lightly compacted nodules which are then partially de-shotted, and the partially de-shotted nodules are subjected to a second granulation step to more tightly compact the nodules before they are introduced into the air classifier.

Abstract: A sieve screen deck, the screen of which comprises a plurality of horizontal wedge wires connected to an array of backing bars running longitudinally of the screen parallel to its fall line. The screen is connected to a frame at its two ends, at least one end being connected by resilient means such that the screen may vibrate and flex under the influence of rapping or vibrating means. Side walls are provided along sides of the sieve screen, to prevent material flowing over sides of the screen, are also formed of a resilient material in order that they do not substantially impede the ability of the sieve screen to vibrate and flex under the influence of the rapping or vibrating means.

Abstract: A particle classifier apparatus and method for separating coarse particles from a mixture of particles carried in a gas stream, for preferred use in combination with a coal crushing mill. In the classifier, the gas-solids stream is passed through a plurality of internal upper angled fixed vanes for imparting a rotational motion to the particles. The rotating gas-solids stream then flows downwardly past 3-6 pivotable deflector vanes located entirely within the rotating gas-solids stream for effectively separating the larger size particles in the gas stream from the smaller particles. The smaller particles are then carried upwardly by the gas stream, such as coal particles carried by an air stream into a combustion zone of a boiler, while the larger size particles are returned downwardly, such as to a crusher for further size reduction and for recycling the particles through the classifier.