AU617994B2 - Fluent and non-fluent material mixer - Google Patents

Description

i i iil-..~ 617 9 f 510 FCRM 10 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE: Class Int Class Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority: Related Art: Name and Address of Applicant: Roto-Mix, Inc.

Dodge City Kansas 67801 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Address For Service: Spruson Ferguson, Patent Attorne.ys Level 33 St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia Complete Specification for the invention entitled: Fluent and Non-Fluent Material Mixer The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us 5845/3 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is an improvement on the mixer of Patent 4,506,990, March 26, 1985, MIXER FOR FLUENT AND NONFLUENT MATERIAL, and Patent 4,597,672, July 1, 1986, CENTER DISCHARGE MIXER FOR FLUENT AND NONFLUENT MATERIAL on which I am a coinventor.

The radial straight paddles on the mixing and unloading augers, Figures 7 and 8, of the '990 patent may tend to allow hay to wrap around them unless chopped into small pieces. A 10 different paddle construction is needed that will release longstem hay for mixing and discharge purposes.

The wiper on the cross bar of the rotor in Figures 9-11 of the '990 patent were designed to pivot and also move radially of the rotor arms. The pivoting of the wiper allowed the wiper to raise up and away from the chamber wall and slide over heavy material like a mixture of molasses and corn. This design takes excessive horse power to operate and an improved design for the wiper assembly is desirable which will take less horse power to operate.

S It also appears that the rotor of Figure 9 of the '990 patent could be manufactured and assembled in a less costly and more simplified manner. A new rotor assembly design is needed.

It also appears that the discharge door of Figures 1, 2 and 4 of the '990 patent might be improved in terms of operation and simplicity of design to avoid mixed material blockages to the door opening and closing, -2 -3- SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the invention provides a mixer for fluent and ionfluent material, comprising a mixer tank including forward and rearward end walls, a bottom wall and opposite sidewalls, said bottom wall including a curved wall portion defining the bottom of a main chamber, a rotor including a plurality of elongated rotor bars adjacent the outer periphery thereof, means for supporting said rotor in said main chamber for rotation in a direction for movement of said rotor bars across said curved wall portion, said rotor having a diameter such that said rotor bars travel in an arc substantially conforming to and adjacent to said curved wall portion, drive means for rotating said rotor, means for supporting said rotor bars for movement radially of said rotor and means for urging said rotor bars radially outwardly of said rotor, at least one elongated wiper rigidly connected to a rotor bar for wiping contact with said curved wall portion in response to movement of 20 said rotor bar there across and said urging means biasing said wiper towards said curved wall portion, and means for preventing any rotational movement of said rotor bar and thereby maintaining a substantially consistent and uniform angle between y o osaid wiper and said curved wall portion.

Preferably, the wiper blade is connected to said rotor bar intermediate its width thereby defining leading and trailing edges, said trailing edge only of said wiper being positioned to contact said curved wall surface and said leading edge being substantially spaced from safd curved wall surfaces.

HRF/0577r

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DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 Figure 2 discharge door Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 being mixed as Figure 6 is a perspective view of the mixer of this invention.

is an enlarged fragmentary side elevational view of the assembly.

is a cross-se!tional view taken along line 3-3 of Figure 2.

is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4-4 of Figure 2.

is a flow diagram indicating the movement of the material acted upon by the rotor and the mixing augers.

is an end vertical view of the rotor and mixing augers.

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HRF/0577r j II__ lu Figure 7 is a side elevational view of the top mixing auger.

Figure 8 is a side elevational view of the bottom mixing auger.

Figure 9 is an exploded perspective view of the rotor illustrating the round drive shaft positioned in the square rotor axial tubing.

Figure 10 is a cross-sectional view along line 10-10 in Figure 9 illustrating the arrangement of the wiperblade on the rotor bar mounted on the rotor arms.

10 Figure 11 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 11-11 in Figure 6.

0 0 Figure 12 is an end elevational view of an alternate embodiment rotor including six arms.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 15 The mixer of this invention is referred to in Figure 1 by the reference numeral 10 as seen in Figures 1 and 6, The mixer includes a sidewall 12 and an opposite sidewall 14. A forward end wall 16 is seen in Figure 1. The mixer includes a main chamber 18 and an auxiliary chamber 20 which include bottom walls 22 and 24, respectively. A rotor 26 is positioned in the main chamber 18 and stacked augers 30 operate in the auxiliary chamber A discharge unloading door 32 is seen in Figures 1-4.

The flow of the material being mixed is seen in Figure wherein material is continuously cycled from the main chamber 18 into the lower portion of the auxiliary chamber 20 where it is moved toward one end of the mixer by auger 30 where it is met by 5 material moving in the opposite direction moved by the same auger. Curved paddles 34 serve to move the grain laterally out the discharge door 32 when open or upwardly to the top auger 28 whereupon the material being mixed is moved back to -the right (as seen in Figure 7) end of the auxiliary chamber where material also may spill over into the main chamber 18. The paddles 36 serve to move the grain again laterally into the main chamber or downwardly to the lower auger 4 The paddles 34 and 36, as seen in Figures 6-8, have a special design configuration that prevents material from becoming attached to them such as is sometimes the case with long-stemmed hay. The paddles are circumferentially positioned around the auger and extend radially and laterally thereof. Each of the paddles have a curved convex forward leading surface 38 for engaging material in the mixer and moving it laterally of the auger and the chamber. The curved surface is transversely flat along its length. As seen in Figure 6, the outer end of the paddle is the trailing end as the auger rotates. The backside of the curved paddles is concave and includes a reinforcement plate element 40 which extends the length of the paddle and is affixed to the auger at its inner end. The effective length of the paddle is equal to the radius of the flight, as seen in Figure 6.

In Figure 6 and 9-11 details of the rotor 26 are shown. The rotor includes axial square ubing 44 and rotor areis 46 to which.

rotor bars 48 are ,onnected. %o e rotor bars 48 are provided with pins 50 which are regeived in coil spring 52 located in the bars 6 46 and supported on a stop 54. A wiper plate 56 is rigidly connected to the rotor bar 48 at an angle, as seen in Figure 6 and 10. The wiper plate 56 includes a replaceable flight portion 58 secured by bolts 60. The cleaning edge 62 is on the trailing end of the wiper 56 as it rotates in a clockwise direction, as seen in Figure 6. It is important that the cleaning edge 62 stays in contact with the chamber wall and not pivot away and I allow material to come between the wiper and the chamber wall.

Torque requirements for wipers that pivot versus those that did not have been compared. With a -torque meter in the PTO of the S driveline of both types of units the nonpivoting design of this K invention required 15 to 40% less power, depending on the particular material being mixed. The greater savings in power were realized with the high density and weight materials such as f15 molasses in feed which create a sticky hard-to-move material.

The wiper of this design also gives a faster more positive cleanout especially in heavy materials such as fertilizer.

Feedlot mixtures weight 20 to 30 pounds per cubic foot while fertilizer mixtures weigh up to 60 pounds per cubic foot. If 2? obstructions are hit in the operation the rotor bar 48 will move radially inwardly against th action Jf the spring 52 and then return to its fully extended position, as s een in Figure 10, once the obstruction is passed. The power requirements for this wiper blade construction are substantially less than prior designs and the cleaning action is superior.

7 i The rotor 26 of Figure 9 can be quickly and inexpensively assembled and installed. The rotor is preassembled, as seen in Figure 9, and placed in the main chamber 18. A drive shaft 64 is then inserted into the axial opening 66 of the axial tubing 44 from an opening in one end wall of the chamber, The stub shaft 68 is received in a bearing assembly 70 in the front end wall 16, as seen in Figure 1. The shaft 64 is limited against travel to the left or forwardly by a lock element 70 which engages the end edges of the tube 44. The round drive shaft 64 is ablu to drive the square tubing 44 by the addition of right angle elements 72 which matingly engage the right angle corners 74 of the tubing 44, as seen in Figure 11. The right angle elements are placed at least at opposite ends and as shown in Figure 9, are also positioned in the center of the shaft 64. The adaptation of a 15 round shaft to drive square tubing is much less expensive than constructing a square shaft to matingly drive square tubing.

SThe unloading or discharge door assembly 32, as seen in Figures 1-4, includes a door 76 having the shape of the rounded wall areas 78 at the juncture of the sidewall 12 with the bottom wall 24, as seen in Figures 1 and 6. The problem is to provide a door which will not leak mix materil but will also open and close freely without being obstructed by the material. This is particularly a problem at the top edge 80 of the door which must clear the top edge 82 of the door wall opening, as seen in Figures 3 and 4, as the door moves from the closed position of Figure 3 to the opened position of Figure 4. A hydraulic 8 cylinder 86 is mounted on the sidewall 12 and is connected to the door 76 by a pair of plates Each side of the door assembly includes upper guide tracks 92 and lower guide tracks 94. The upper guide tracks 92 are vertically oriented parallel to the sidewall 12 and receive a pivot pin 96 carried on the top side edge of a door extension member 98 extending above the door. The lower tracks 94 extend from the bottom end upwardly and outwardly and receive pivot pin 100. It is seen that because the pivot pin 96 is positioned a significant distance above the top edge 80 of the door that the pivot arm is lengthened thereby creating a larger arc through S which the door pivots when the cylinder 86 is operated thereby making the top edge 80 clear the adjacent edge 82 of the wall 12 with the doors being opened and closed.

15 Depending on the conditions of use the rotor 26 may be constructed of four arms 46 or six arms 46A, as seen in Figure 12. The axial tubing of the ru-tor 26A in Figure 12 is of a 9 o conventional design compared to that of Figure 9. The wipe plate 56 of Figure 10 is utilized. Thus it is seen that the mixer has been shown and described herein which will accomplish at least all of its stated objectives.

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Claims (2)

1. 2. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said wiper blade Is connected to said rotor bar intermediate its width thereby defining leading and trailing edges, said trailing edge only of said wiper being positioned to contact said curved wall surface and said leading edge being substantially spaced from said curved wall surfaces,
2. 3. The mixer of claim 1 wherein said rotor bar having said wiper Includes pins received In coil springs positioned in rotor arms, 4, The mixer of claim 3 wherein said wiper is substantially flat over Its substantial surface area, HRFI0577r A mixer for tiLient and nonfluent materiai ially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawlrrjs, DATED this TWENTY SEVENTH day of AUGUST 1991 Roto-Mix Inc, Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON 3 HRF'/0577r