Abstract: An apparatus for recovery of a solvent gas involved in the drying of goods treated with an organic solvent with the aid of an air stream in a dry-cleaning machine. In this machine the goods are dried by an air flow circulating in a closed circulation loop which is heated before contact with the goods and after contact is again cooled for condensation of solvent vapor. In a second stage of the recovery, the socalled reduction stage, the goods are cooled by shutting off the heat. For recovery of the residual solvent vapor still remaining in the air after cooling the air stream is subsequently fed through an adsorption unit. During the cooling only a portion of the cooled air is supplied for adsorption and after that is fed back in the air circulation loop circulating over the goods. This has been accomplished by providing a circulation branch having an adsorption unit substantially parallel to a portion of the circulation loop and an additional blower.

Abstract: The apparatus recovers solvent vapor and is used in a process for drying goods. A closed system of pipes guides an air flow through a heat exchanger comprising a condenser and an air heater. The system of pipes has a blower for providing a circulation forming this air flow and a switching means for the air flow comprising a plurality of valves and at least one pipe segment by which an adsorber is connectable in series in the circulation with a processing container. The adsorber is connectable by the blower or directly in the circulation with an outlet of the processing container. Advantageously at least one other pipe segment bypassing the heat exchanger with the switching means is provided so that the circulation only runs through the processing container, the blower and the adsorber without running through the heat exchanger. Furthermore at least one additional pipe segment and at least one additional switching means are provided bypassing the processing container.

Abstract: A filter device for a cleaning machine includes a plurality of disk-like filter elements accommodated within a casing and connected to a hollow shaft to be rotatable therewith. Arranged between adjacent filtering elements are stationary disks which extend from the casing inner wall towards the shaft. Each disk is provided at its both sides facing the filtering surface of the filtering elements with at least one rib which extends in radial direction and projects towards the filtering surfaces. These ribs cooperate with projections provided on the filtering elements in such a manner that only a narrow gap is defined when the projections pass the stationary ribs during rotation of the filtering elements. Consequently, the ribs and the projections work like vanes of a turbine and cause strong currents to provide a cleaning effect of the filter fabric.

Abstract: A wind turbine with a single rotor blade drives an alternator whose output is connected to an a-c network to supply same with power when the alternator acts as a generator under the driving force of the wind. The network establishes a synchronous speed for the alternator which corresponds to a rotor speed so chosen that a certain laminar flow along the blade will be maintained even at high wind velocities. Changing the pitch of the blade allows a wide range of wind velocities to be accommodated.

Abstract: A suction apparatus for extracting liquids from a web, e.g. an organic solvent from a fabric treated with the solvent by impregnation, comprises a tube having a pair of shell halves defining an axially extending gap between them, the web passing over this gap and the tube being evacuated. The gap is widened or narrowed by a jaw-type mechanism which can be adjusted by a screwthread assembly tending to swing the jaws of the device about a hinge axis lying outside the tube diametrically opposite the slot or gap.

Abstract: A drum-type drier for fabric in which the drying drum has a perforated periphery and is mounted in a housing for rotation about a horizontal axis. The housing has, opposite an end wall of the drum, at least one door or flap. The fabric web is guided over the periphery of the drum. According to the invention, the cooler for the drying gas, generally air, is mounted within the housing on this door or flap.

Abstract: An apparatus for the treatment of material in the form of webs, usually textile webs, with a heated treating fluid, e.g. hot air for the drying of the material, comprises a drum having a perforated periphery adapted to receive the web from a so-called float-dryer disposed above the drum. The treating fluid is forced through the perforations of the drum and contacts the web lying therealong. The float-dryer has a surface inclined downwardly toward the surface of the drum in a direction opposite the direction of rotation thereof and in a direction opposite the direction of rotation thereof and is provided with means forming a fluid cushion between the web and the float-dryer surface. The arrangement prevents the application of tensile stress to any significant extent to the web during the predrying and subsequent treatment thereof on the surface of the drum at the transition region between the predryer and the drum surface or elsewhere along the treating path.

Abstract: In order to recover an organic solvent from an airstream blown through one or more treatment units such as dry-cleaning machines, two adsorbers filled with activated charcoal are alternately connected between an incoming duct and an outgoing duct in series with a blower, a normally inactive air heater upstream of the adsorbers and a normally inactive air dryer downstream of the adsorbers. A programmer periodically reverses two switchover valves for passing the airstream through one or the other adsorber in respective half-cycles during which steam is blown through the inactive adsorber for regenerating its active mass. If no treatment unit requires solvent removal, the continuously circulating airstream is returned from the dryer outlet to the heater inlet through an otherwise closed bypass controlled by a valve in response to changes in duct pressure or to a switching signal from a treatment unit.

Abstract: A load of garments or other textile material to be washed is presoaked in organic solvent, e.g. in a rotating drum, and is then immersed within the same vessel in a water bath while still permeated by a substantial quantity of solvent. During this immersion, the vessel is gradually heated to the boiling point of the solvent, or of the azeotropic water/solvent mixture, which is below the boiling point of water so that only a part of the wash liquor is vaporized. The evaporation can be accelerated by placing the vessel under a partial vacuum. The evaporation rate of the solvent is measured and the washing cycle is halted as soon as that rate drops to zero or below a predetermined limit, with subsequent drying of the load by, for example, centrifugation.

Abstract: An apparatus for drying a continuously moving web has a housing defining a vertical zigzag path having a succession of oppositely directed and inclined stretches each flanked by a pair of parallel and confronting walls each in turn provided with an array of nozzles. Rollers are provided at the ends of the stretches for reversal and guiding of the web, and a blower is provided whose pressure side is connected to the nozzles for creating a gas cushion to each side of the web which supports the web and guides it along the path. Each of the walls is corrugated in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the web, and the nozzles are provided on each side of the crests of the corrugations. The gas cushion is drawn off at the ends of the troughs of the corrugations.

Abstract: An adsorption device for the treatment of gases with a solid adsorbent comprises a disk-shaped cylindrical vessel having a horizontal axis and planar parallel vertical end walls, the conduits being connected to the vessel wall, preferably at diametrically opposite locations so that a number of such vessels may be horizontally stacked with or without removal of intervening end walls, thereby increasing the adsorption capacity of the installation or making it possible to operate two adsorption cells in functionally interchanging relationship such that one may be regenerated while the other serves to adsorb a component from a gas stream.

Abstract: The drum of a dry-cleaning apparatus is provided with a circulating heater loop including a heat-exchanger which draws gas out of the drum at one location and reintroduces it at a higher temperature at another location in the drum. A pump is operated to maintain the pressure in the drum substantially uniformly at a subatmospheric pressure so as to compensate for the vapor generated by the heating of the atmosphere in the chamber. Temperature and pressure sensors are provided in the drum to shut off the heater if the pressure and/or temperature rises above a predetermined level. In the method aspects of the invention, the articles in contact with an organic solvent are maintained in a substantially airless atmosphere of the solvent vapor, a portion of which is drawn off at a rate corresponding to the rate of vaporization while the remaining solvent vapor is recirculated after warming.