APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING PARTICULATE MATERIAL

• US 3,820,503 A
• Filed: 04/20/1972
• Issued: 06/28/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Tabernacki H
• Original Assignee: Tabernacki H
• Inventors: TABERNACKI H
• Application Number:
  US05/245,851
• Time in Patent Office: 799 Days
• US Class Current: 118/24
• CPC Class Codes: A21C 9/04 Apparatus for spreading granular material on, or sweeping or coating the surfaces of, pieces or sheets of dough coating baked articles A21C15/002

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed for coating a moving surface with particles in essentially a uniform pattern disposed generally transverse of the direction of movement of the moving surface and for automatically recovering any particles not applied to the surface during coating. Said apparatus comprises an impeller rotatable about its axis to propel the particles towards the walls of a non-cercular hopper so as to produce a substantially uniform disperson of particles on the surface.

Claims

1. Apparatus for distributing particles on a generally horizontal surface moving in a given direction by arranging the particles substantially uniformly in a relatively narrow path disposed generally transverse to the directiOn of movement of said surface, said apparatus comprising an impeller rotatable about its axis to propel the particles centrifugally along paths emanating essentially from the center of said impeller, means for supplying said particles to said impeller, a hopper having noncircular walls disposed outwardly of said impeller to intercept said particles in their paths such that the points of interception when projected onto a plane containing said impeller axis and lying transversely of said given direction are equally spaced apart, said hopper further having wall means defining a relatively narrow discharge slot disposed generally transverse to said direction of movement of said surface, said wall means being adapted to guide particles intercepted by said non-circular walls toward said discharge slot in a manner to provide a substantially uniform dispersion of the particles on said surface transversely of said given direction, and conveyor means disposed longitudinally of said given direction and beneath said discharge slot.

2. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said non-circular walls are in the form of a curve comprising arcuate increments which successively increase in length from a line in said given direction toward a line transversely thereof, both of which pass through the center of said impeller, the lengths of said increments being determined by the increment ends (a) intercepting equal angles emanating from said impeller center and (b) projecting equal distances on said transverse line.

3. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said discharge slot is disposed along a transverse line located under the center of said impeller and in a vertical plane which passes through the impeller center.

4. The apparatus in accordance with claim 3 wherein the length of said slot is substantially equal to the width of said moving surface.

5. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said longitudinal conveyor means beneath said hopper is discontinuous, the discontinuity being in the form of a transversely extending gap, said gap being disposed directly below said discharge slot of said hopper to permit any of said particles not deposited on said surface to fall below said plane of movement of said surface.

6. The apparatus in accordance with claim 5 further comprising a recovery conveyor means disposed beneath said gap to collect and remove said particles passing through said gap for subsequent return to said means for supplying said particles to said impeller.