Wet mechanical purificn. of impure bulk material - esp. accumulator scrap travelling via gravity down shaft fed with water employed to wash the scrap

摘要

The material is fed into the top end of a shaft together with a washing medium, e.g. water, which wets the material and removes water-soluble cpds. The mixt. of material and water then falls via gravity onto a row of impact plates arranged as a cascade, so thorough mixing occurs. The impact plates pref. cause the mixt. to flow in alternate directions, and the process is pref. employed as a preliminary treatment prior to further wet mechanical refining. The process is used esp. for the treatment of battery accumulator scrap, the pref. plant including a shaft contg. a vertical stack of curved impact plates. The crude scrap is fed by a conveyor belt into the top of the shaft, which also has a water inlet. No moving mechanical parts are required in the shaft, in which the mixing effects are obtd. via gravity, and washing is very efficient. Pressurised water is not used, and thus the formation of noxious aerosols is avoided.