| 摘要 |
1,243,432. Sterilizing apparatus. INTERNATIONAL MACHINERY CORP. S.A. 10 June, 1969 [20 June, 1968], No. 29316/69. Heading A2D. In a hydrostatic cooker comprising a processing chamber with vertically extending legs and a drivable endless conveyer having carriers thereon for moving containers through the chamber, there is provided a protective system to maintain the sterilizing medium in the cooker in a balanced condition and under superatmospheric pressure, which system comprises a series of baffles connected to the chamber walls and inwardly projecting to terminate adjacent the path of movement of the carriers. The baffles are arranged to cause a pressure drop in response to a flow of the fluid past the baffles and to prevent an uncontrollable flow of fluid from the leg by reducing the flow to a manageable rate. A pressure controller is connected to the opposite ends of the series of baffles to detect the pressure drop, and this controller is connected to a control means which operates, on detection of a pressure drop, to direct a quantity of fluid to the low pressure side of the baffles to return the fluid in the processing chamber to a balanced condition. An embodiment of the invention is shown in Fig. 1 wherein a hydrostatic cooker comprises an inlet housing 20, sterilizing housing 34 and air lock housing 36 each provided with a protective system 10 in the form of a series 70, 71, 72 and 73 of spaced baffles 74. Each series of baffles has a diaphragm type pressure controller 76 (Fig. 2, not shown). Each controller 76 comprises upper and lower portions 77, 78 connected by conduits 82, 83 to each end of the series of baffles. Each controller is provided with switches S1-S8 connected to a control circuit (Fig. 3, not shown). In operation, for instance to maintain the desired fluid level in inlet housing 20, a drop in the level will cause a pressure imbalance which will cause fluid to flow past the series 70, 71, 72 and 73 of baffles creating a pressure drop in each case, which pressure drop activates the various diaphragm controllers closing switches S1, S4, S5 and S8. These switches are connected in series to solenoid valve V2 (Fig. 3, not shown) and closing of these switches opens this valve resulting in a quantity of fluid being added to housing 20 from the reservoir 90. The head of fluid in the discharge housing 48 and the air supply flow into the air lock housing 36 may be maintained in a balanced condition in a similar manner. |
