Vertical plate filter press for beer prodn. fruit juice extn. etc. - has automatic opening and closing of filter pocket bottoms

摘要

Vertical compression plates are brought towards each other to compress a pocket of filter material between each pair of adjacent plates. Each pocket contains a batch of moist material from which moisture is expelled by plate pressure on the pocket. Plate pressure is taken off, the bottom of each filter pocket is opened and dried cake drops out of the pocket. The mechanism for opening and closing the plates is linked to a mechanism for automatically opening and closing the filter pocket bottoms in synchronism with plates displacement. When plates are fully opened, the open bottom of a filter pocket hangs down between a pair of plates. Before the pocket is top-loaded with moist material for pressing. A transverse bar on one side of the projecting, lower end of the pocket is moved to tuck the double thickness of pocket into transverse channel in the face of the plate on the other side of the pocket. Closure of the pocket is ensured by the pocket walls being clamped together between the leading edge of the bar and the base of the channel. This type of press is used in breweries to extract beer wort from mashed malt, leaving a cake of drained draff. The press is also suitable for the extn. of juice from fruit. The mechanised closing and opening of the pockets eliminates a time-absorbing manual operation and reduces press down-time.