US 11,806,731 B2
Cyclonic separator
Chandranath Banerjee, West Bengal (IN); Eduardo Cepeda, Santiago (CL); Niyam Balacharya Joshi, Bangalore (IN); and Amith Thirumale Muralidhara, Bangalore (IN)
Assigned to Weir Minerals Africa (Pty) Limited
Appl. No. 17/634,503
Filed by Weir Minerals Africa (Pty) Limited, Gauteng (ZA)
PCT Filed Aug. 18, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/057759
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 10, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/038379, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 4, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 1912400 (GB), filed on Aug. 29, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0288607 A1, Sep. 15, 2022
Int. Cl. B04C 5/28 (2006.01); B04C 5/04 (2006.01); B04C 5/103 (2006.01); B04C 5/13 (2006.01)
CPC B04C 5/28 (2013.01) [B04C 5/04 (2013.01); B04C 5/103 (2013.01); B04C 2005/133 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A cyclonic separator comprising:
a body having a top and a sidewall defining a separation chamber, the sidewall having a generally cylindrical upper portion and a frusto-conical lower portion tapering away from the upper portion,
a feed inlet leading into the separation chamber,
an underflow discharge leading from the separation chamber and defined by a spigot attached to a lower end of the lower portion of the sidewall, and
a vortex finder,
the vortex finder comprising:
an intermediate chamber,
an axially arranged upstream portion positioned in the separation chamber,
an axially arranged downstream portion defining an overflow discharge,
a secondary overflow discharge leading from the intermediate chamber, and
a bleed opening defined between the upstream and downstream portions and leading into the intermediate chamber, and through which a portion of an overflow stream can be bled from the secondary overflow discharge to remove oversized particles from the overflow stream,
wherein the upstream and downstream portions of the vortex finder are co-axial and at least one of the portions is axially displaceable relative to the other to permit the spacing between adjacent ends of the upstream and downstream portions of the vortex finder, and hence the size of the bleed opening, to be adjustable, so that the size of bleed opening can be selected depending on the relative particle sizes desired at the overflow discharge and the secondary overflow, and wherein the intermediate chamber is defined by a circular top and a sidewall depending therefrom, the sidewall having a cylindrical upper portion, an upper end of which is closed by the top and a frusto-conical lower portion protruding from the upper portion and tapering away from the top.