Kneading apparatus with rotary shafts having stirring members

摘要

A kneading apparatus has a pair of rotary shafts mounted to undergo rotation in different directions of rotation and at different rotational speeds from one another. Stirring members are helically arranged on outer peripheries of the rotary shafts at predetermined helical and angular pitches for kneading an object during rotation of the rotary shafts. The helical pitch of the stirring members of one of the rotary shafts has an inverse helix from that of the stirring members of the other rotary shaft. The stirring members have surfaces with a first phase configured to move the kneaded object in a feed direction or a second phase symmetrical to the first phase and configured to move the kneaded object in a direction reverse to the feed direction. The stirring members are arranged so that the first and second phases cyclically repeat in a predetermined sequence in axial directions of the rotary shafts.

主权项

1. A kneading apparatus comprising:
a first rotary shaft having a plurality of first stirring members provided on an external periphery thereof so as to be arranged helically at a predetermined helical pitch and at predetermined angular pitch intervals; and a second rotary shaft having a plurality of second stirring members provided on an external periphery thereof so as to be arranged helically with an inverse helix from that of the first stirring members at a predetermined helical pitch and at predetermined angular pitch intervals, the first and second rotary shafts being mounted parallel to one another to undergo rotation in opposite directions at unequal speeds to one another for kneading an object with the first and second stirring members; wherein a helical pitch ratio of the first and second stirring members is the inverse of a rotational speed ratio of the first and second rotary shafts, and an angular pitch ratio of the first and second stirring members is the same as the rotational speed ratio of the first and second rotary shafts; wherein the first and second stirring members are arranged so that the surfaces of the first and second stirring members assume either a normal phase to advance the kneaded object in a feed direction, or a reverse phase symmetrical to the normal phase relative to a center axis of each of the first and second shafts rotary shafts, and the first and second stirring members that are positioned equidistant from the ends thereof as viewed in the axial direction of the first and second rotary shafts face to each other with the surfaces thereof assuming the same phase; wherein the first and second stirring members are arranged so that the normal phases and reverse phases cyclically repeat in a predetermined sequence as seen in the axial direction of the first and second rotary shafts, the predetermined sequence being normal, normal, reverse; and wherein when the first and second rotary shafts rotate in opposite directions at unequal speeds, the kneaded object is advanced in a feed direction by surfaces of the first and second stirring members facing each other and assuming the normal phase, and the kneaded object is pushed back in a direction opposite to the feed direction by surfaces of the first and second stirring members facing each other and assuming the reverse phase.