Feed paddles

Feed paddles came into usage around 1930 (Fig. 36). Spiral-shaped in-feed rolls were invented for extrusion machines in the fine and advanced ceramics fields. (Fig. 37). 

Fig. 2. Internieshing co-iotating twin-sciew extrudei A, motoi B, geai box C, feed poit D, clam shell baiiel E, vent poit F, sciew shafts G, conveying screws H, kneading paddles 1, baiiel valve and J, bhstei rings. Courtesy of APV Chemical Machinery Inc.

Clarifiers. The largest user of clarifiers is probably the water-treatment industry. The conventional one-pass clarifier uses horizontal flow in circular or rectangular vessels (Eig. 2) with feed at one end and overflow at the other. The feed is preflocculated in an orthokinetic (paddle) flocculator... 

FIG. 18-50 Intermeshing corotating twin screw extruder (a) drive motor, (h) gearbox, (c) feed port, (d) barrel, (e) assembled rotors, (f) vent, (g) barrel valve, (h) kneading paddles, ( ) conveying screws, (/) splined shafts, (k) blister rings, (APV Chemical Machinery, Inc.)... 

Equipment, The reactor was 1.523 liter, 316 stainless steel cylindrical, jacketed vessel equipped with two multiblade, paddle-type agitators. Tracer studies showed the reactor was well-mixed. A thermocouple measured temperature and was recorded continuously. Feed tanks, tubing, pumps and valves were made of stainless steel and had teflon seals. 

All operations take place simultaneously in different stations. Sixteen stations were commonly used in earlier machines with outputs between 500 and 1000 TPM and tablet diameters up to 15 mm. Presses with outputs orders of magnitude greater than the above are now widely available. The dies are filled as they pass beneath a stationary feed frame, which may be fitted with paddles to aid material transfer. The die cavities are completely filled and excess ejected prior to compression. Compression involves the movement of both punches between compression rolls, in contrast to single station operations where only the upper punch effects compression. Ejection occurs as both punches are moved away from the die on cam tracks until the tablet is completely clear of the die, at which point it hits the edge of the feed frame and is knocked off the press. Tooling pressure may be exerted hydraulically, rather than through the use of mechanical camming actions, as is the case with machines produced by Courtoy. 

Methanol dehydrogenation to ethylene and propylene. In some remote ioca-tions, transportation costs become very important. Moving ethane is almost out of the question. Hauling propane for feed or ethylene itself in pressurized or supercooled vessels is expensive. Moving naphtha or gas oil as feed requires that an expensive olefins plant with unwanted by-products be built. So what s a company to do if they need an olefins-based industry at a remote site One solution that has been commercialized is the dehydrogenation of methanol to ethylene and propylene. While it may seem like paddling upstream, the transportation costs to get the feeds to the remote sites plus the capital costs of the plant make the economics of ethylene and its derivatives okay. 

Figure 5.7. A screw conveyor assembly and some of the many kinds of screws in use. (a) Screw conveyor assembly with feed hopper and discharge chute, (b) Standard shape with pitch equal to the diameter, the paddles retard the forward movement and promote mixing, (c) Short pitch suited to transfer of material up inclines of as much as 20°. (d) Cut flight screws combine a moderate mixing action with forward movement, used for light, fine, granular or flaky materials, (e) Ribbon flights are suited to sticky, gummy or viscous substances.

Other variations of the rotary drum mixer-agglomerator, fitted with either lifting blades or independent paddle shafts, are also used in feed preparation for sintering operations (see Section 2, Chapter 4). 

The hopper is usually made of stainless steel and has the shape of a funnel to contain and deliver the product to be compressed. It may be provided with a window for the observation of the product level and may also be provided with low-level sensors that signal an alarm, shut off the engine, or activate the feeding mechanism to deliver the product when it falls below this level. The feeder system usually consists of three sections (in the case of force feeders) and is ideal for press performance at high speed. The first section of a force feeder system is where the hopper is connected and is responsible for the flow of the product from the hopper to the next sections. The second section is where the die cavities are filled to their maximum capacities, and the third section is where the weight control adjustment takes place. These sections contain paddle systems which prevent packing of the product. The... 

Several continuous digestion processes have been proposed [2.24]. A proven method is to continuously feed a mixture of ilmenite and water together with the acid into a double-paddle screw conveyor. After a relatively short dwell time (<1 h), a crumbly cake is produced [2.25]. This process utilizes a more limited range of raw materials than the batch process because they need to be very reactive. 

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