A system for transferring solid particles from a first environment at a first gas pressure to a second environment at a second gas pressure. The system comprises a first rotary valve having an inlet which is in fluid communication with the first environment, a second rotary valve having an outlet which is in fluid communication with the second environment, and an intermediate housing bounding an intermediate channel, of which an inlet is fluidly connected to an outlet of the first rotary valve and of which an outlet is fluidly connected to an inlet of the second rotary valve. The intermediate channel is fluidly connected to a third environment maintained at a third gas pressure. The third gas pressure is higher than both the first gas pressure and the second gas pressure or lower than both the first gas pressure and the second gas pressure.

A system for moving and placing granulate is provided. A housing is mountable to a trailer and has at least one cabinet located on a side of the housing with a compressor, at least one back compartment located on a back side of the housing, wherein the at least one back compartment has at least one rotary airlock device in communication with the compressor, wherein the compressor feeds air to the rotary airlock device under pressure, an actuatable feeder located on the back side of the housing, wherein the feeder when in an open position receives granulate and feeds the granulate to the at least one rotary airlock device, and a hose mount located on the housing and in communication with a bottom portion of the at least one rotary airlock, wherein when the compressor is actuated, the granulate is fed from the feeder, through the at least one rotary airlock and out through the house mount into a hose to place the granulate in a predetermined place.

Method for feeding in and for handling waste material in the channel section of a pneumatic wastes conveying system, in which method waste material or recycleable material is fed into a feed-in container from the input aperture of an input point of a pneumatic pipe transport system for material and onwards into the channel section between the feed-in container and the material conveying pipe, from where the material is conveyed along with the transporting air via the material conveying pipe to the delivery end of the pneumatic material conveying system, where the material is separated from the transporting air. In the method the material is acted upon by the combined effect of suction and replacement air in the channel section by bringing about compression in size in at least a part of the material being conveyed, by means of an impediment arranged between the conveying pipe and the material to be handled, or against the impediment, before transportation of the material to the delivery end of the pneumatic transport system for wastes.

An air distribution apparatus including a manifold body having ports with a delivery conduit connected to each port. A port valve is configured to communicate an interior of the manifold body with the delivery conduit associated with each port. A supply conduit is connected at an output end thereof to the interior of the manifold body and connected at an input end thereof to receive a product air stream with entrained agricultural products. An exhaust orifice is defined in the supply conduit and an exhaust valve configured to control a flow of pressurized air from an interior of the supply conduit through the exhaust orifice. The port valve and exhaust valve are controlled to operate oppositely to each other between their open and closed positions. The port and exhaust valves are also adjustable to intermediate positions between the open and closed positions.

A continuous production system continuously produces a product from a raw material powder. The system includes a first processor that performs a first process on the raw material powder, a second processor that performs a second process on the powder on which the first process has been performed by the first processor, and a test chamber through which the powder being sent from the first processor to the second processor passes. A cleaner blows gas from an inlet side opening formed in the inner face of a channel connected to the test chamber from the first processor on the downstream side of an inlet side gate valve for opening and closing the channel toward a direction to form a swirling flow along the inner face of the channel.

Method for feeding in and for handling waste material in the channel section of a pneumatic wastes conveying system, in which method waste material or recycleable material is fed into a feed-in container (10) from the input aperture (2) of at least two input points (1) of a pneumatic pipe transport system for material and onwards into the channel section (20, 21, 22) between the feed-in container and the material conveying pipe (100), from where the material is conveyed along with the transporting air via the material conveying pipe (100) to the delivery end of the pneumatic material conveying system, where the material is separated from the transporting air. In the method the channel section (20(II), 20(III), 20(IV) . . . (22(II), (22(III), 22(IV)) of at least one second input point is connected to the channel section (20(I), 21(I), 22(I)) of one first input point between the input point (1) and an impeding means (30, 30), in that in the method at least a part of the material (w1, w2, w3, w4) fed in is acted upon by the combined effect of suction and replacement air in the channel section (20(I), 21(I), 22(I) . . . (20(IV), 21(IV), 22(IV)) by bringing about compression in size in at least a part of the material (w1, w2, w3, w4) being conveyed, by means of an impediment (30) arranged between the conveying pipe (100) and the material (w1, w2, w3, w4) to be handled, or against the impediment, before transportation of the material to the delivery end of the pneumatic transport system for wastes.

A method of forming a compact includes removing material from a workpiece, transferring metallic dust released during the material removal into a conduit, operating a plurality of slide gates to selectively control movement of the dust from the conduit to either one of a primary collector and a back-up collector, drawing the dust through the conduit to a compactor, and compacting the dust in the compactor.

A pressurized tank is provided in which no air flows back from a piping for conveying powder to the pressurized tank. A pressurized tank (A) is used for a device (B) for intermittently feeding a predetermined amount of powder to a piping (7) for conveying the powder when the powder is conveyed in a plug flow through the piping (7) by means of compressed air. The tank (A) has a first pressurized room (6) that is a pressure vessel and that has a funnel-shaped upper partition (3) that has an opening and a funnel-shaped lower partition (4) that also has an opening, a first check valve (9) that is provided beneath the opening of the upper partition (3) of the first pressurized room (6) and is vertically moved so as to be upwardly moved by means of compressed air to close the opening of the upper partition (3), a second check valve (10) that is provided beneath the opening of the lower partition (4) of the first pressurized room (6) and is vertically moved so as to be upwardly moved by means of compressed air to close the opening of the lower partition (4), and an elastic body (24) to upwardly bias the second check valve (10).

An apparatus for collecting dust from a cutting unit is provided. The apparatus includes a rotary valve operatively connected to the cutting unit, a conduit in fluid communication with the rotary valve, and a compacting machine disposed downstream from the conduit and configured to receive dust from the conduit. A blower is configured to pull air downstream to carry the dust into the compacting machine. The compacting machine produces a compact from the dust.

A pneumatic conveying apparatus operable to transport material from a supply source to a process which requires a rate of change of feed rate far in excess of what is possible from a typical pneumatic conveying system and pipeline alone, and for a process where storage of large volumes of material directly adjacent to the process feed point is either not possible or disadvantageous. The pneumatic conveying apparatus (100; 101;102) comprises at least one conduit (11) and a compression device (8) operable to supply and transport pneumatic media through at least one conduit (11). The supply source (1) may be a feed hopper and is operable to discharge material into the pneumatic conveying system downstream of the supply source. In the pneumatic conveying system at least one vessel (9; 9A, 9B; 20) is arranged to receive material from the supply source (1) and to discharge material to at least one conduit (11). The system also includes a filter receiver (4), which is configured to simultaneously receive and discharge material and pneumatic media from at least conduit. The filter receiver has a working volume or capacity which is very small in relation to the feed rate, typically 1 to 2 minutes storage when operating at the maximum discharge rate, and with a volume typically th to th of the volume of the vessels feeding material into the start of the pneumatic conveying pipeline. The filter receiver is equipped with a discharge device operable to increase the discharge rate to the process from the minimum feed rate to the maximum feed rate in a time period of 2 to 30 seconds. The filter receiver (4) is configured and operable to separate material and pneumatic media such that the material can be discharged from the filter receiver to the downstream process (2), in order to separate the conveying apparatus from the process and provide further advantages described within the invention. The apparatus includes a control system (19) that is operable to maintain a target weight and/or level within the filter receiver, and recover the target weight and/or level in the filter receiver, by measuring the weight and/or level and the rate of change of weight or level, of all storage vessels discharging material to the pneumatic conveying pipeline and process and incorporating aspects of closed loop control methodologies.