Abstract: The drain openings in movable and fixed platens in a press unit are wider than the largest praticle in a slurry to be dewatered and are formed by arcuate ribs dimensioned to resist the transverse forces developed as the granular particles from bridges across the slotted drain openings in rendom order. Liquid expressed through the movable platen is directed radially outward through a subplaten, passes back through the clearance between the piston carrying the movable platen and the mold wall and is discharged through a sealing and collecting ring having a series of annular grooves which communicate with longitudinal radially extending slots having longitudinal bores at the radial extremity thereof which direct the liquid to an annular passage for discharge.

Abstract: The load carrying upper reach of a belt conveyor particularly useful for transporting large pieces of rock and other heavy bulk material dispenses with the usual idle troughing rollers and is supported by an endless succession of spaced transverse flexible cross members or hammocks each of which has a trolley at each end riding on endless rails extending along each side of the belt and around the rollers at the head and discharge ends of the belt conveyor. Along the return strand of the conveyor belt the hammocks are above the belt but rest on it. The side-to-side distance between rails is less than the width of the conveyor belt so that the weighed belt cradles itself in the hammocks. However, at the head end of the conveyor there is a decending traveling belt ramp and at the discharge end an upwardly sloping belt ramp to flatten the hammocks and the belt for passage around the head and tail pulleys respectively. In these areas, the rails spread apart to take up the slack in the hammocks.

Abstract: A compartmented bucket wheel assembly in which the compartments extend radially inward and angularly opposite the direction of wheel rotation to facilitate emptying of the compartments and thereby increase the capacity of the bucket wheel. In a structurally simple but sturdy preferred form, the buckets are mounted between the extremities of a plurality of plate members, the outer portions of which extend diagonally outward in the direction of wheel rotation at an obtuse angle to the radially directed inner portions thereof. A number of flat, generally triangular plates disposed between the outer portions of adjacent plate members deflect the material toward the discharge edge which extends diagonally inward from the periphery of the wheel adjacent the front of the bucket along one lateral edge of the outer portion of the leading plate member associated with a particular bucket, to the intersection of the inner and outer portions of the associated trailing plate member.