摘要 |
An apparatus (10, 110) and method are disclosed for cleaning gas-contaminated particulate material such as powder metal. The gas-contaminated powdered metal is passed through a vacuum chamber (12, 112) having a gas outlet (14, 114) connected to a vacuum pump (119) which evacuates the chamber (12, 112). The vacuum chamber (12, 112) has first (20, 120) and second (22, 122) ends with a flow passage at each end for directing the flow of the particulate material into and out of the chamber (12, 112). The gas-contaminated particulate material is subjected to an electric field in the vacuum chamber (12, 112) to electrically charge the gaseous contaminates and cause separation of the gaseous contaminates from the powdered metal to facilitate the removal (14, 114) of the gaseous contaminates from the vacuum chamber (12, 112). First (24, 124) and second (26, 126) containers are connected to the flow passages of the vacuum chamber (12, 112). |