Abstract: Disclosed is a process for increasing the molecular weight of condensation polymers involving the use of a high velocity rarefied inert gas sweep in the polymer finishing process.

Abstract: An apparatus for mixing or otherwise processing fluids, which apparatus comprises, within a housing, a rotating perforated drum positioned tangentially relative to an inner non-rotating stationary body that is located within the rotating perforated drum. The outer surface of the rotating perforated drum is also positioned tangentially relative to the inner surface of the housing or other outer non-rotating stationary body. In operation, zones are formed which promote mixing of the fluid being processed and generate new fluid surfaces, thereby facilitating mixing, degassing and/or reaction.

Abstract: An apparatus for processing materials, such as mixing or homogenizing fluids or dispersing a fluid in a viscous material, comprises a housing having bores and at least one inlet port and an outlet port disposed in the housing and in fluid communication with the bores. A pressure mechanism is disposed outside the housing and is in communication with the inlet port for introducing the materials under pressure to the bore and for forcing the materials through the bores to the outlet port. A rotor is disposed in each bore. The rotors do not contact each other. Each rotor has teeth, and the teeth of one rotor mesh with the teeth of an adjacent rotor so that the materials are squeezed in the space between two adjacent teeth of one rotor and the meshing tooth of the other rotor to impart stretching flow to the materials and to expel the materials from the interstices between the teeth of the one rotor and the other rotor.

Abstract: An apparatus for treating a medium in situ includes counter-rotating shafts and intermeshed blades arranged on the shafts in a helical array to define mixing zones along the length of the shafts. Reagent supply conduits are disposed in a housing surrounding the upper ends of the shafts for introducing reagents into the mixing zones. The housing is attached to a mobile excavator which moves the shafts horizontally and vertically. The shafts are lowered into the medium by the excavator and are counter-rotated to cause the blades to pump the medium and the reagents along the shafts. Once at the desired operating depth, the shafts are moved below the surface of the medium in the horizontal direction generally perpendicular to the plane of the axes of the shafts to define a volume in the medium.

Abstract: Counter-rotating intermeshing rotors are employed to generate films of viscous material to enhance processing. The rotors are configured that they trap viscous material in open-ended chambers defined by the rotor surfaces. As rotation proceeds the chambers decrease in volume and the material is expelled through the ends of the chambers as a film. Longitudinally adjacent rotors each have a different angular orientation about their centers of rotation to provide a sawtooth stepped helix to convey material longitudinally.

Abstract: This invention relates to a screw processor having multiple fully intermeshed co-rotating in-phase screws each provided with equal numbers of threads, each of said screws having longitudinally staged eccentric cross-sections preselected so that at least one thread of each screw spreads process material over the barrel bore and at least one other thread of each screw collects said process material and transfers it to a co-acting screw, which thereupon repeats the spreading-collecting-transfer cycle.