Abstract Wood chips are cleaned of foreign or tramp material such as sand and pebbles in a vibrating water bath. Optionally the chips are driven down into the bath by overhead downwardly directed jets of water. The vibration of the bath container conveys the heavy material, i.e. the sand, pebbles, etc., along the bottom of the water bath and up an inclined ramp at the downstream end. The washing action of the vibrating water bath and overhead jets may be enhanced, if desired, by upward flow of water issuing from a perforated deck forming the bottom of the vibrating trough containing the water bath. The water carrying the cleaned wood chips is discharged over a weir in a wall of the vibrating water bath container and is drained from the chips as they pass over a vibrating screen deck. The water, after passing through a settling tank to remove the sand, etc., is recycled through the jets and perforated deck. Optionally the wood chips may be subjected to a further spray wash during the initial portion of their travel across the vibrating screen deck.
An apparatus for cleaning wood chips, and similar material, comprising, in combination, a vibratory conveyor frame, means for resiliently mounting the frame and driving it through a vibratory stroke adapted to convey material along the frame, a first trough mounted on said frame, said trough having a first portion of constant depth and a second portion of decreasing depth in the direction of vibratory conveying, means supplying a cleaning liquid upwardly through the bottom of the constant depth portion of the trough, a weir in a side wall of the trough adjacent said first and second portions, a diverter plate extending across the trough on the downstream side of the weir, a second trough on said conveyor frame for receiving material discharged over said weir, a screen covering said second trough to separate the solid material from the liquid discharged from the first trough, and a plurality of downwardly directed nozzles arranged over an intermediate part of the constant depth portion of the first trough supplying jets of liquid to drive any material floating in said trough into the liquid agitated by the vibration of the trough whereby wood chips or similar material introduced with the upstream end of said first trough are immersed and agitated in vibrating liquid in said trough for cleaning and then separated from the debris and liquid while the debris is vibratorily conveyed through the second portion of the first trough.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
236 words
An apparatus for cleaning wood chips, and similar material, comprising, in combination, a vibratory conveyor frame, means for resiliently mounting the frame and driving it through a vibratory stroke adapted to convey material along the frame, a first trough mounted on said frame, said trough having a first portion of constant depth and a second portion of decreasing depth in the direction of vibratory conveying, means supplying a cleaning liquid upwardly through the bottom of the constant depth portion of the trough, a weir in a side wall of the trough adjacent said first and second portions, a diverter plate extending across the trough on the downstream side of the weir, a second trough on said conveyor frame for receiving material discharged over said weir, a screen covering said second trough to separate the solid material from the liquid discharged from the first trough, and a plurality of downwardly directed nozzles arranged over an intermediate part of the constant depth portion of the first trough supplying jets of liquid to drive any material floating in said trough into the liquid agitated by the vibration of the trough whereby wood chips or similar material introduced with the upstream end of said first trough are immersed and agitated in vibrating liquid in said trough for cleaning and then separated from the debris and liquid while the debris is vibratorily conveyed through the second portion of the first trough.