Patents by Inventor Peter Gerard Bourke
Peter Gerard Bourke has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 11554379Abstract: A flotation line for treating mineral ore particles suspended in slurry, including at least three flotation units arranged in fluid connection with each other for allowing gravity-driven slurry flow between flotation units, and a feed inlet for supplying slurry into a first flotation unit; wherein at least three flotation units are configured to be uniplanar, each flotation unit includes at least one flotation cell; and wherein the launder lip height of each uniplanar flotation unit is lower than the launder lip height of the preceding uniplanar flotation unit in the direction of the slurry flow, so that an angle of sloping between a first uniplanar flotation cell, equipped with a launder lip and being larger than 150 m3, and a last uniplanar flotation cell, equipped with a launder lip and being larger than 40 m3, is formed; and the angle is 1.5 to 10 degrees relative to horizontal.Type: GrantFiled: July 28, 2017Date of Patent: January 17, 2023Assignee: OUTOTEC (FINLAND) OYInventors: Peter Gerard Bourke, Antti Rinne, Rob Coleman
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Patent number: 11247213Abstract: A flotation method for recovering valuable metal containing ore particles from ore particles suspended in slurry is disclosed. In the method, the slurry is treated in an at least one overflow flotation cell and the valuable metal containing ore particles are recovered by conducting the continuous upwards flow of slurry out of the at least one overflow flotation cell as slurry overflow. At least part of the slurry overflow is conducted to a further treatment step in a treatment system.Type: GrantFiled: August 15, 2016Date of Patent: February 15, 2022Assignee: OUTOTEC (FINLAND) OYInventors: Antti Rinne, Peter Gerard Bourke
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Patent number: 10569196Abstract: Provided are a method and apparatus for treating a feed stream for a flotation device comprising a mechanical agitator in a tank, the feed stream comprising solid particles. The method comprises generating microbubbles in a diluation water stream, mixing the diluation water stream with the feed stream to facilitate attachment of the microbubbles to the solid particles in the feed stream and generate bubbles for attachment to microbubble-attached solid particles, and fluidly connecting the feed stream to the flotation device. The apparatus comprises a feed stream conduit fluidly connected to the flotation device, a diluation water stream conduit fluidly connected to the feed stream conduit for conveying the diluation water stream to the feed stream, and a microbubble generator connected to the diluation water stream conduit for generating microbubbles in the fluid stream.Type: GrantFiled: August 28, 2014Date of Patent: February 25, 2020Assignee: OUTOTEC (FINLAND) OYInventor: Peter Gerard Bourke
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Publication number: 20190176166Abstract: A flotation method for recovering valuable metal containing ore particles from ore particles suspended in slurry is disclosed. In the method, the slurry is treated in an at least one overflow flotation cell and the valuable metal containing ore particles are recovered by conducting the continuous upwards flow of slurry out of the at least one overflow flotation cell as slurry overflow. At least part of the slurry overflow is conducted to a further treatment step in a treatment system.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 15, 2016Publication date: June 13, 2019Inventors: Antti RINNE, Peter Gerard BOURKE
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Publication number: 20190160476Abstract: A flotation line for treating mineral ore particles suspended in slurry, including at least three flotation units arranged in fluid connection with each other for allowing gravity-driven slurry flow between flotation units, and a feed inlet for supplying slurry into a first flotation unit; wherein at least three flotation units are configured to be uniplanar, each flotation unit includes at least one flotation cell; and wherein the launder lip height of each uniplanar flotation unit is lower than the launder lip height of the preceding uniplanar flotation unit in the direction of the slurry flow, so that an angle of sloping between a first uniplanar flotation cell, equipped with a launder lip and being larger than 150 m3, and a last uniplanar flotation cell, equipped with a launder lip and being larger than 40 m3, is formed; and the angle is 1.5 to 10 degrees relative to horizontal.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 28, 2017Publication date: May 30, 2019Inventors: Peter Gerard BOURKE, Antti RINNE, Rob COLEMAN
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Publication number: 20160214036Abstract: Provided are a method and apparatus for treating a feed stream for a flotation device comprising a mechanical agitator in a tank, the feed stream comprising solid particles. The method comprises generating microbubbles in a diluation water stream, mixing the diluation water stream with the feed stream to facilitate attachment of the microbubbles to the solid particles in the feed stream and generate bubbles for attachment to microbubble-attached solid particles, and fluidly connecting the feed stream to the flotation device. The apparatus comprises a feed stream conduit fluidly connected to the flotation device, a diluation water stream conduit fluidly connected to the feed stream conduit for conveying the diluation water stream to the feed stream, and a microbubble generator connected to the diluation water stream conduit for generating microbubbles in the fluid stream.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 28, 2014Publication date: July 28, 2016Applicant: OUTOTEC (FINLAND) OYInventor: Peter Gerard BOURKE
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Patent number: 7886912Abstract: The invention provides an agitator (1) is disposed to agitate slurry within a flotation tank (2). The agitator includes a rotor (6) mounted on one end of a centrally disposed drive shaft (7) extending axially downwardly into the tank and driven by a motor (8) and associated gearbox (not shown). The other end of the drive shaft includes a mounting flange (9) adapted for connection to the motor. A stator (10) is also provided around the rotor. A froth deflection cone (11) extends around the drive shaft adjacent the top of the tank. The deflection cone is oriented such that its smallest diameter is located at its lower-most end nearest the rotor (6). An auxiliary agitator (12) is connected to the drive shaft at a position substantially midway between the underside of the deflection cone (11) and the top of the rotor (6), as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The auxiliary agitator (12) includes agitation blades (13) extending radially outwardly from diametrically opposite sides of the shaft (7).Type: GrantFiled: March 16, 2004Date of Patent: February 15, 2011Assignee: Outotec OyjInventor: Peter Gerard Bourke
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Patent number: 7624877Abstract: The invention provides a flotation device including a series of flotation tanks (1) for processing a slurry incorporating valuable minerals for extraction. At least one of the tanks includes a side outlet (15) adapted for the withdrawal of targeted relatively fine coarse particles from the slurry. The tanks also include a bottom outlet (14) for the withdrawal of relatively dense or coarse components of the slurry. The incorporation of bottom and side outlets allows the slurry to be separated into two parallel streams, one configured for optimal recovery of the relatively coarse or dense slurry components and the other for optimal recovery of the relatively fine slurry components. In this way, outflow slurry from downstream tanks in the coarse particle stream has a higher proportion of coarser particles than was present in the inflow slurry from the upstream tanks.Type: GrantFiled: March 16, 2004Date of Patent: December 1, 2009Assignee: Outotec OyjInventor: Peter Gerard Bourke