The present invention generally relates to solids reduction and, in a representatively illustrated embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to a specially designed staged cascade mill for reducing solid materials.
Solids reduction is the process by which certain materials are ground, crushed or pulverized from a certain input size to a prescribed, smaller output size. Solids reduction technology is utilized in a wide array of commercial applications such as, for example, cement production, mining, utility and chemical processes, oil and gas processing, paper production and various agricultural applications.
Various devices have been developed and utilized to reduce the size of solids in these and other applications. One such device is called a ball mill. A ball mill typically includes a cylindrical or conical shell that rotates about a horizontal axis and, in a commonly utilized embodiment thereof, is partially filled with a large number of steel balls. The material to be reduced in size is suitably introduced into the shell, and the shell is rotationally driven by one or more motors in a manner such that the steel balls are caused to “cascade” within the shell—i.e., be lifted up and then caused to fall onto the material to be reduced. The impact of the falling balls against the material crushes the material and reduces it size. Additionally the movement of the balls along a bottom portion of the shell grinds and crushes the material disposed within the void spaces between these balls.
While ball mills have been successfully used in a number of industries, they have certain well known limitations and disadvantages. For example, the need to continuously lift a multiplicity of heavy steel balls to reduce the material typically requires a huge power input—often thousands of horsepower in large scale ball mills. Accordingly, the electrical cost required to operate a ball mill per ton of processed material can easily be cost prohibitive. Additionally, it is often difficult to accurately control the size of the reduced material exiting the typical ball mill.
From the foregoing it can readily be seen that a need exists for material reduction apparatus that eliminates or at least substantially reduces the above-mentioned limitations and disadvantages of a conventional ball mill as generally described above. It is to this need that the present invention is primarily directed.
In carrying out principles of the present invention, in accordance with representatively illustrated embodiments thereof, material reduction apparatus is provided in the form of a staged cascade mill comprising a plurality of material reduction chambers interconnected in series in a manner such that material to be reduced from an initial size to a predetermined final size may be sequentially passed through the reduction chambers from a first one thereof to a last one thereof. The reduction chambers may each be disposed within its own separate housing structure, or a plurality of reduction chambers may be disposed in a single housing structure.
Illustratively, the reduction chambers each have a single motor-driven rotor structure therein, and are preferably arranged in a vertically stacked array with the uppermost reduction chamber being the first reduction chamber, and the lowermost reduction chamber being the last reduction chamber. Each of the reduction chambers has internal reduction structure for providing a portion of the overall required material size reduction by a combination of impact and crushing/grinding action. The percentage relationship between these two actions progressively changes in the reduction chambers from a predominantly impact action in the first reduction chamber to a predominantly crushing/grinding action in the last reduction chamber.
A recirculation system may be provided for returning material discharged from one of the reduction chambers to a preceding chamber for further processing. In an exemplary embodiment thereof the recirculation system comprises a separator for receiving the material discharged from one of the reduction chambers and separately discharging (1) sufficiently size-reduced material as a finished product, and (2) insufficiently size-reduced material for return to a preceding reduction chamber.
In each of the reduction chambers the aforementioned reduction structure illustratively includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart projections extending radially outwardly from the periphery of the chamber's rotor structure which is rotationally driven, preferably by a reversible motor. In downwardly successive ones of the reduction chambers the pluralities of projections extend around increasing circumferential portions of their associated rotor structures. At least some of such projections are provided with convexly curved radially outer side surfaces.
In each of the reduction chambers the reduction structure illustratively further includes a breaker member having a side surface facing the periphery of the chamber's rotor. The breaker member may be one of an opposed pair of breaker members horizontally facing diametrically opposite peripheral side surface portions of the rotor, and the breaker member is preferably supported for selective adjusting movement toward and away from the periphery of its associated rotor. For each reduction chamber its breaker members are illustratively carried on threaded rods threadingly extending through a housing wall portion associated with the particular chamber.
An inner side surface of at least one of the breaker members has an arcuate, generally toothed configuration, with the teeth on such side surface of at least one of the breaker members illustratively having flattened point portions. Further, at least one of the breaker members may have a substantially smooth arcuate inner side surface.
The overall material reduction apparatus may also include a non-single rotor material reduction apparatus such as, for example, a dual rotor hammer mill, operative to discharge partially size-reduced material into the uppermost reduction chamber of the staged cascade mill. The overall material reduction apparatus may also include a non-single rotor material reduction apparatus such as, for example, a pinch roller apparatus, operative to receive and further process size-reduced material discharged from the lowermost reduction chamber.
Schematically depicted in
In the illustrated exemplary embodiment thereof the cascade mill 10 comprises a vertically stacked plurality of stages (representatively five in number) of material reduction carried out within the schematically illustrated five single rotor material reduction chambers generally identified, from top to bottom, by the reference numerals 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 which respectively correspond to the aforementioned five stages of material reduction. Representatively, but not by way of limitation, each reduction chamber is disposed within its own separate housing H. However, if desired, a plurality of reduction chambers could be operatively disposed within a single housing structure without departing from principles of the present invention.
According to a key aspect of the present invention (as will subsequently be described in more detail herein) material reduction apparatus within the stage 1 (uppermost) reduction chamber 16 partially reduces the particle size of the incoming material predominantly by impact and to a far lesser extent by a crushing/grinding action. By way of non-limiting example, and with reference to the graph in
As can be seen in the
Compared, for example, to conventional ball mill type solids reduction processors, the cascade mill 10 provides substantial advantages. For example, the cascade mill 10 provides for significantly better control of discharged particle size. Additionally, for a given material throughput rate, a very sizeable reduction in operational energy is achieved. Further, as will be subsequently described herein, the cascade mill 10 may be easily “fine tuned” to accurately handle a variety of different materials to be reduced in size, or to accurately change the output particle size of the same material operatively traversing the mill 10.
As previously stated, representatively, but not by way of limitation, each of the material reduction chambers 16,18,20,22,24 is disposed within its own separate outer housing H which has a central material inlet opening 28 on its top wall, and a central material outlet opening 30 on its bottom wall. The five representative reduction chambers are illustrated as being horizontally aligned with one another in a manner such that the outlet opening 30 of each reduction chamber is aligned with the inlet opening 32 of the downwardly adjacent reduction chamber in the series thereof. Alternatively, however, the reduction chambers could be horizontally staggered with respect to one another if desired, with suitable passages being formed between adjacent reduction chamber inlet and outlet openings.
A single rotor structure 32 is disposed within each of the reduction chambers 16,18,20,22 and 24 and is rotationally drivable therein, representatively in a clockwise direction as viewed in
Extending radially outwardly from the periphery of each rotor 32 are a plurality of material reduction projections. Representatively, but not by way of limitation, these projections include:
(1) a diametrically opposed pair of radially outwardly extending projections 36 disposed on the periphery of the rotor portion 32 of the stage 1 reduction chamber 16;
(2) four projections 38 equally spaced around the periphery of the rotor portion 32 of the stage 2 reduction chamber 18, the projections 38 being substantially identical to the projections 36;
(3) four projections 40 equally spaced around the periphery of the rotor portion 32 of the stage 3 reduction chamber 20, each of the projections 40 being circumferentially wider than the projections 38;
(4) four projections 42 equally spaced around the periphery of the rotor portion 32 of the stage 4 reduction chamber 22, each of the projections 40 being circumferentially wider than the projections 40; and
(5) two diametrically opposite projections 44 disposed on the periphery of the rotor portion 32 of the stage 5 reduction chamber 24, the projections 44 being circumferentially spaced apart, but combinatively extending around nearly the entire periphery of the rotor portion 32 of the stage 5 reduction chamber 24.
As can be seen, in each downwardly successive reduction chamber, the projections on its rotor portion 32 occupy a greater circumferential portion of the rotor periphery. Accordingly, each downwardly successive rotor portion 32 is provided with a greater degree of grinding/crushing type material reduction capability than its upwardly preceding rotor portion, while each upwardly successive rotor portion 32 is provided with a greater degree of impact type material reduction capability then its downwardly preceding rotor portion. As can further be seen, the rotor projections 40,42 and 44 are representatively provided with curved radially outer side surfaces to enhance the grinding/crushing portions of their material reduction actions.
With reference now to FIGS. 1 and 3-5, each of the five rotor portions 32 is illustratively disposed between two horizontally facing, representatively arcuate breaker plate structures 46 which form a portion of the overall reduction structure within their associated reduction chamber. The breaker plate structures 46 in each opposed pair thereof are mounted on opposite vertical side walls 26 of their associated housing H (see, e.g.,
Illustratively, the inner side surfaces of the breaker plate structures 46 in the first through fourth stage reduction chambers 16,18,20 and 22 have generally toothed configurations. In the stage 1 reduction chamber 16 (see
Referring now to
In the stage 3 and stage 4 reduction chambers 20 and 22 this crushing/grinding increase and impact decrease theme is progressively continued. Specifically, in the stage 3 reduction chamber 20 the tooth points 52 are further flattened, and the gap G is further decreased, relative to their counterparts in the stage 2 reduction chamber 18. In the stage 4 reduction chamber 22 the tooth points are further flattened, and the gap G is further decreased, relative to their counterparts in the stage 3 reduction chamber 20.
In the stage 5 reduction chamber 24 (see
As can be seen from the foregoing, the relative configurations of the rotor projections and the breaker plate structures in the vertically stacked material reduction chambers 16,18,20,22 and 24 coupled with the adjustment capabilities of the breaker plate structures provide the cascade mill 10 with the unique capability of reducing the size of received material particles using a progressive chamber-to-chamber shift from a predominantly impact reduction action to a predominantly crushing/grinding reduction action.
The actual shapes of internal chamber material reduction components and adjustment techniques previously described herein are merely representative, and can be modified in a wide variety of manners without departing from principles of the present invention. Further, there may be a greater or fewer number of material reduction chambers utilized, as dictated by the particular material reduction task at hand. Also, while it is preferable to arrange the plurality of material reduction chambers in a vertically stacked array (to take advantage of gravity feeding of partially reduced material to the next reduction chamber), the plurality of material reduction chambers could alternatively be arranged in a horizontally disposed array with suitable transport apparatus being utilized to lift the partially reduced material discharged from a given reduction chamber to the inlet of the next successive reduction chamber in the reduction chain. Also, as previously mentioned, two or more reduction chambers could be positioned within a single housing H, if desired, without departing from principles of the present invention.
Another modification which could be made to the stages cascade mill 10 described above is, as schematically shown in
The uniquely configured and operative stacked material reduction chambers 16,18,20,22 and 24 shown in
The foregoing detailed description is to be clearly understood as being given by way of illustration and example only, the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited solely by the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/896,650 filed on May 23, 2007 and entitled “STAGED CASCADE MILL”, such provisional application being hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60896650 | Mar 2007 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12050434 | Mar 2008 | US |
Child | 12897181 | US |