Pressurised hopper for feeding powder into a pneumatic conveyor - for the treatment of molten iron or steel

摘要

Powder distributor uses a hopper located above a pneumatic conveyor tube (a). The powder is placed in the hopper, which is then sealed, and a pressurised gas drives the powder through a bottom outlet (b) in the hopper into tube (a). A vertical shaft (c), fitted with radial arms, is mounted on the axis of the hopper and rotated by a motor to prevent the powder clogging the hopper; and the bottom end of shaft (c) is provided with an eccentric rod which keeps outlet (b) from clogging. The bottom end of shaft (c) has a conical section; and the shaft can be raised or lowered to alter the width of an annular gap through which the powder flows to outlet (b), thus controlling the rate of powder flow. Used e.g. for injecting powder for sulphur removal from molten iron; or for refining steel, where the invention ensures accurate feeding of powder into the pneumatic conveyor tube (a).