Material classifying apparatus

Claim 2

IN AN APPARATUS FOR GRADING OR CLASSIFYING ABRASIVE MATERIAL, SUCH AS CRUSHED ORE OR THE LIKE, INTO COARSE AND FINER COMPONENTS HAVING AN OSCILLATING CONVEYOR MEANS INCLUDING A GENERALLY HORIZONTALLY DISPOSED RECTANGULAR FRAME, A CLASSIFYING SCREEN MOUNTED UPON SAID FRAME, DRIVE MEANS FOR OSCILLATING SAID FROME AND SAID SCREEN TO CONVEY MATERIAL ACROSS SAID SCREEN FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER WHILE PASSING THE FINER COMPONENTS OF SAID MATERIAL DOWNWARDLY THROUGH THE OPENINGS IN SAID SCREENS: THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING A SUPPORT DECK FIXEDLY MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME AND INCLUDNG A PLURALITY OF SPACED PARALLEL RIGID TUBULAR SUPPORT MEMBERS FIXEDLY MOUNTED UPON SAID FRAME IN UNDERLYING RELATIONSHIP TO SAID SCREEN WITH SAID SUPPORT MEMBERS EXTENDING TRANSVERSLY OF THE DIRECTION OF MOVEMENT OF MATERIAL ACROSS SAID SCREEN, RESILLIENT SHIELD MEANS OVERLYING A FIRST GROUP OF SAID SUPPORT MEMBERS AT THE UPSTREAM END OF SAID SCREEN WITH RESPECT TO THE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL OF MATERIAL THEREACROSS, AND HARDENED METALLIC SHIELD MEANS FIXEDLY TO AND OVERLYING THE REMAINDER OF SAID SUPPORT MEMBERS, BOTH OFF SAID SHIELD MEANS BEING OPERABLE TO PROTECT THE SUPPORT MEMBERS AGAINST THE ABRASIVE ACTION OF MATERIAL PASSED DOWNWARDLY THROUGH SAID SCREEN.

Claim 3

Apparatus for grading or classifying abrasive material, such as crushed ore and the like, into coarse and finer components, comprising: frame support means; screening means for supporting said material and having apertures therethrough of a size large enough to pass the finer components but not the coarse components; deck means supporting said screening means on said frame support means for oscillating movement; and means for imparting oscillating movement to said deck means and said screening means; said deck means including a plurality of hollow cylindrical screen support members underlying said screening means, and sheaths of resilient material wrapped around said screen support members to protect said screen support members from abrasion by said finer components, confronting edge portions extending radially of said screen support members, and clamp means for clamping said edge portions to each other.

Claim 4

Apparatus for grading or classifying abrasive material, such as crushed ore and the like, into coarse and finer components, comprising: frame support means; screening means for supporting said material and having apertures therethrough of a size large enough to pass the finer components but not the coarse components; deck means supporting said screening means on said frame support means for oscillating movement; and means for imparting oscillating movement to said deck means and said screening means; said deck means including a plurality of hollow cylindrical screen support members underlying said screening means, and sheaths of resilient material wrapped around said screen support members to protect said screen support members from abrasion by said finer components, confronting edge portions extending radially of said screen support members, and clamp means for clamping said edge portions to each other.

Claim 5

The apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said resilient shield means comprises a layer of resilient material wrapped around at least one support member including terminal end portions in confronting relation and extending generally radially of said support membeRs, and means clamping said confronting terminal end portions together.

Claim 6

The apparatus as set forth in claim 3 including plate means extending generally radially of said support members and disposed between said confronting terminal end portions, and additional plate means on circumferentially outer sides of said end portions, said clamping means maintaining said plate means and said confronting terminal end portions sandwiched together.

Claim 7

The apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said resilient shield means comprises sheaths of resilient material wrapped around said support members to protect them from abrasion by said finer components.

Claim 8

In an apparatus for grading or classifying abrasive material, such as crushed ore or the like into coarse and finer components having an oscillating conveyor means including a generally horizontally disposed rectangular frame, a classifying screen mounted upon said frame, drive means for oscillating said frame and said screen to convey material across said screen from one end to the other while passing the finer components of said material downwardly through the openings in said screens; the improvement comprising a support deck fixedly mounted on said frame and including a plurality of spaced parallel elongate rigid tubular support members fixedly mounted upon said frame in underlying relationship to said screen with said support members extending transversely of the direction of movement of material across said screen, hardened metallic shield means fixedly secured to and overlying at least a portion of said support members, said shield means being of an inverted trough-like shaped upper portion smoothly curved to contact the support member along two longitudinal lines of contact and having downwardly and outwardly divergent lower side portions projecting outwardly beyond the sides of said support member.

Claim 9

In an apparatus for grading or classifying abrasive material, such as crushed ore or the like into coarse and finer components having an oscillating conveyor means including a generally horizontally disposed rectangular frame, a classifying screen mounted upon said frame, drive means for oscillating said frame and said screen to convey material across said screen from one end to the other while passing the finer components of said material downwardly through the openings in said screens; the improvement comprising a support deck fixedly mounted on said frame and including a plurality of spaced parallel elongate rigid tubular support members fixedly mounted upon said frame in underlying relationship to said screen with said support members extending transversely of the direction of movement of material across said screen, hardened metallic shield means fixedly secured to and overlying at least a portion of said support members, said shield means being of an inverted trough-like shaped upper portion smoothly curved to contact the support member along two longitudinal lines of contact and having downwardly and outwardly divergent lower side portions projecting outwardly beyond the sides of said support member.

Claim 10

The apparatus as set forth in claim 6 wherein said side portions are rigidly connected to opposite sides of said cylinders along a plane generally intersecting the centerlines of said cylinders.

Claim 11

Apparatus as defined in claim 6 further comprising rod means extending longitudinally along opposite sides of said support member and fixedly engaged between said side portions and said support member.

Claim 12

Apparatus as defined in claim 6 further comprising rod means extending longitudinally along the upper portion of said shield means in symmetrically spaced locations such that the uppermost portions of said rod means and said shield means are tangent to a common horizontal plane, a bracket having a flat lower surface fixedly supported upon said shield means and said rod means, and support elements mounted on said bracket extending mormal to said support members in underlying supporting relationship to said bracket.

Claim 13

In an apparatus for grading or classifying abrasive material, such as crushed ore or the like into coarse and finer components having an oscillating conveyor means including a generally horizontally disposed rectangular frame, a classifying screen mounted upon said frame, drive means for oscillating said frame and said screen to convey material across said screen from one end to the other while passing the finer components of said material downwardly through the openings in said screen; the improvement comprising a plurality of parallel rigid cylindrical screen support members fixedly mounted on said frame in underlying relationship to said screen and extending transversely of the direction of movement of material across said screen, hardened metallic shield members overlying and projecting outwardly from opposite sides of said support members to shield said support members from material passing through said screen, said shield members having outwardly and downwardly projecting skirt portions extending tangentially of the cylindrical support member at opposite sides thereof and an upper portion integrally joining said skirt portions and having a radius of curvaturE of less than the outer radius of said cylindrical support member whereby said shield member engages said support member along two lines of contact, and means fixedly securing said shield member to said support member.

Claim 14

In an apparatus for grading or classifying abrasive material, such as crushed ore or the like into coarse and finer components having an oscillating conveyor means including a generally horizontally disposed rectangular frame, a classifying screen mounted upon said frame, drive means for oscillating said frame and said screen to convey material across said screen from one end to the other while passing the finer components of said material downwardly through the openings in said screen; the improvement comprising a plurality of parallel rigid cylindrical screen support members fixedly mounted on said frame in underlying relationship to said screen and extending transversely of the direction of movement of material across said screen, hardened metallic shield members overlying and projecting outwardly from opposite sides of said support members to shield said support members from material passing through said screen, said shield members having outwardly and downwardly projecting skirt portions extending tangentially of the cylindrical support member at opposite sides thereof and an upper portion integrally joining said skirt portions and having a radius of curvaturE of less than the outer radius of said cylindrical support member whereby said shield member engages said support member along two lines of contact, and means fixedly securing said shield member to said support member.

Claim 15

The invention defined in claim 10 wherein said means fixedly securing said shield member to said support member comprises an elongate rod member seated between said support member and the underside of each of said tangentially projecting skirt portions, and weld means securing said rod members to said support members and said skirt portions.