METHOD OF PROCESSING HETEROGENEOUS MATERIALS Russian patent published in 1994 - IPC

FIELD: separating minerals. SUBSTANCE: working suspension is fed to a bath of a separator. Compressed air is simultaneously suppled to the bath trough unit 6. The air enters space 23 between side wall of a ladle of an elevator wheel and side wall 27 of the bath and lifts up to inner part of the bath. Compressed air carries suspension to the top bath layer. The suspension flow impacts against the bottom of a chute and is directed to a hoe-type mechanism. Turbulent flow of the compressed air and suspension supplied after regeneration occurs at the top part of the bath contributing to separating initial material into fractions. After supplying working suspension and compressed air the initial material enters separator. The material moves over the chute and enters inner space of the elevator wheel in the zone affected by suspension and compressed air flows. The material is separated into fractions. Light fraction moves to hoe- type mechanism, heavy product is settled within the bath. A part of the product is discharged on the wheel and the other one remains above a discharging port as a layer. Sides of chute are inclined to each other at an angle of 70. Length of the sides is equal to 2.5 of ladle width and a distance between the bottom edges of the sides are equal to the width of the ladle. EFFECT: enhanced efficiency. 7 dwg