Apparatus for mixing propellant charge powder rods

{
  "publication_number": "US5346304A",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "A",
  "title": "Apparatus for mixing propellant charge powder rods",
  "abstract": "An apparatus for mixing propellant charge powder rods. The apparatus comprises a flexible band (1) which is suspended freely in a loop between two paraxial, radially spaced drums (2,3) and is movable back and forth between the drums (2,3) by drive motors (6,7). The band (1) is finite or endless and movable in reciprocation between two winding drums (4,5) each adapted to be driven in either direction of rotation by the drive motors (6,7). The propellant charge powder rods (30) are placed in the suspended loop of the flexible band (1)--transversely of the longitudinal direction of the band--and are mixed together by moving the band (1) back and forth. The length of the loop is increased and decreased periodically during this process.",
  "claims": [
    "1. An apparatus for mixing propellant powder rods comprising: a support frame, a pair of deflecting drums mounted to said support frame, with said deflecting drums being disposed along parallel axes and being laterally spaced from each other, a flexible band supportingly draped between said deflecting drums and so that the flexible band is suspended freely and forms a downwardly hanging unsupported loop therebetween, a plurality of transverse studs mounted on the side of said band facing the interior of said loop, lateral limiting means mounted to said support frame on each side of the portion of said band extending between said deflecting drums, and drive means for moving said band back and forth between said deflecting drums, whereby said band and said limiting means are adapted to support the powder rods so that the powder rods are supported upon the loop of said band and with their longitudinal length being transverse to the direction of movement of said band between said deflecting drums and whereby said transverse studs engage the powder rods and enhance the mixing thereof.",
    "2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said band is endless, and said drive means comprises a drive drum mounted on said support frame so as to engage said band outside of the band loop, and with said drive drum being adapted to be driven in either direction of rotation.",
    "3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said band is of finite length, and said drive means comprises a pair of drive drums mounted to said support frame for engaging opposite end portions of said band, with said pair of drive drums each being adapted for rotation in opposite directions.",
    "4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said drive drums are positioned such that said band extends directly from each of said deflecting drums to respective ones of said pair of drive drums.",
    "5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising control means for operating said pair of drive drums at different speeds so as to vary the length of the loop.",
    "6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said control means is adapted to change the loop length periodically between minimum and maximum values while the band is moving back and forth.",
    "7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for adjusting the length of the loop.",
    "8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means mounting at least one of said pair of deflecting drums so that it is adjustable in height.",
    "9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transverse studs are spaced apart from each other in the direction of movement of said band between said deflecting drums.",
    "10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said transverse studs are triangular in cross section.",
    "11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lateral limiting means are in the form of generally planar walls, and wherein said apparatus further comprises means mounting said walls to said support frame so as to permit the spacing therebetween to be adjusted and thereby be adopted to different lengths of propellant charge powder rods."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The invention relates to an apparatus for mixing and a method of mixing propellant charge powder rods.\n\nIt is conventional to produce propellant charge powders in individual batches. To a certain extent the properties of the propellant charge powder vary from batch to batch because the manufacturing conditions prevailing during production of a batch are not precisely reproducible for another batch. Therefore, different batches of any one type of powder are mixed together in order to minimize the spread of the propellant charge powder characteristics around a given medium value, thus obtaining uniform quality in the long run.\n\nWhere the propellant charge powder is available in the form of sticks or rods, the mixing so far is carried out manually, with strict observance of mixing rules, for example by exchanging certain proportions of batches of propellant charge powder rods positioned side by side on a mixing table. Although attempts have been made in the past to mechanize the mixing process by the use of mixing drums, they did not meet with success since the propellant charge powder rods assumed oblique positions in the mixing drum, becoming jammed with one another, and impeding the further movement of the rods so that mixing no longer took place. Another disadvantage of the mixing drum method became evident in emptying the mixing drums: Prior to being able to pass on the unaligned, crisscross heap of rods to further steps in the production, they had to be fed to a vibrating or sorting device for proper alignment.",
  "cpc": [
    "C06B 21/0008",
    "B01F 33/00",
    "B01F 33/27"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B01F 13/00",
    "B01F 3/18",
    "C06B 21/00"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "WNC Nitrochemie GmbH"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Helmut Kleinhans"
  ],
  "filing_date": "1993-12-01",
  "publication_date": "1994-09-13",
  "grant_date": "1994-09-13",
  "priority_date": "1989-09-08",
  "application_number": "US-15974793-A",
  "family_id": "25884941",
  "cited_by_count": 8,
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}