US1717440A - Process for washing wool - Google Patents

Description

June 18, 1929. E. c. DUHAMEL PROCESS FOR WASHING WQOL Filed May 8, 1925 TWN.

suinty lwools when they have been treated, duringthelr washlngpvith hot su1nt,and on the other hand 1t 1s 1mportant to cause the v suintto exert its full detersivo action. That Vis why the invention provides, as to raw wool e ers. This operation of soaking followedby i mangling, may be carried out a second time before the wool enters a vat.

"2. The wool is passed through two vats containing suint of about 4 B., the suint in the second vat being more completely cleaned (in `order to increase its detersive` power) than that in the first vat.

3. When the purifying of the Wool can be carried out far enough-forinstance, by utilizing filtration-the wool passesl through three vats containing suint of about 4 B.

The third vatican be supplied with suint from the first vat. but perfectly purified; the dirtiest suint from the third vat flowing into the second vat, and the dirtiest suint from `the latter vat flowing into the first vat. The liquid in the third vat can also be purified for return thereto` while the purified liquid from the'first vat feeds the second vat, and the dirtiest liquid from the second vat flows into the first one. Obviously, more than three suints vats can be used. Thereafter, the wool may or may not be treated in a soapy bath, and finally, in either case it is simply rinsed in water as usual.

In the case where the wool is subjected several times to the Washing action of suint liquor, the suint liquor of a bath containing relatively clean wool is given a greater washing power than that ofthe liquor of a bath containing relatively dirty wool. For instance the cleaner suint liquor coming from Va bath containing relatively clean wool is subjected to at least one more purifying operation than the dii-tier liquor. The purified suint liquor can be delivered to a cleaner washing bath than the one rfrom which it was taken.

The suint liquor can be circulated in counter-current with the wool while treating the raw wool with cold Water to cause it to give up its suint and supplying the bath containing the cleanest wool with the suint obtained kfrom the said cold water treatment. Moreover, the impurities. both separable and nonseparable by simple natural decantation` are removed from contact with the suint, andthe portions of the suint bath containing the impurities which have settled down by gravity are automatically removed during the washing operation, then subjected to a. purifying treatment, and then reused for wash7 ing, these steps being carried out in a s ubstantially continuous manner. bath can operater indefinitely and without stoppage for clcaning,'if supplied with regulated amounts of water. l

The heavier impuritiesseparated fromthe suint liquor by centrifliging are extracted The suint from the centrifuge while the latter is running at full speed. Preferably, the bath liquid is treated to extract ,the heavier muds, and then is centrifuged to extract the colloidal-muds, the grease being removed eitherv during the same operation or by a different operation.

From the point of view of the length of the Wool fibers, it is important to reduce the action of the soap during the washing by increasing the action of the suint. Indeed,

the soap baths have a tendency to felt the wool and form it into buttons, whereas the sui-nt baths open out the Wool by separating the fibers farther from one another. Hence, there is less Wool broken during carding and, therefore, less waste occurs in the combing operation, and the comb contains fewer short fibers and has a more regular length.

In the accompanying drawings Figures 1 and 1A conjointly form a general diagrammatic plan view of an apparatus embodying the invention` `and for carrying outI the same. It is to be assumed that in the following description, the washing of wool is involved; but such description can, of course, apply, with slight modifications, to the washing of materials other than wool.V The description, moreover, involves the employment of suint as the washing agent, followed by a finishing treatment with soap. 1

Referring-,more particularly tothe drawing, it Will be seen that the structure illustrated diagrammatically therein comprises a battery or column of successive vats (five, in this instance) designated 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Wool is suitably fed to the first vat 1 which contains, for instance, 4o B. suint. This Baume degree is usually sufficientl to insure a good detersivo action, `but it can be increased to about 10o B. when diiiicultlycleaned wools are to be treated, such as those which have been dried after anL imperfect washing. e

In the plants hitherto in use, the-washing vat had to be of great volume in order to reduce the number of outlets;v but according to my invention the vatv 1 is, like the other vats of the set or battery, a vat of reduced volume, owing to the fact that below each vat there is provided a Vpyramidal chamber or hopper 1 1 having sharply inclined walls. These hoppers permit the mud separated from the wool or other material under treatbath liquid in order to render the purifying treatment more effective.

'.lhe wool is caused to travel through the bath by suitable devices and is ultimately delivered to a mangle 1G; the liquid expressed by the mangle being delivered either into a pipe 19 leading to a collector 20 that feeds a mud remover 21, or, when the inlet end of said pipe is closed by a slide valve, into the vat 1 by Way of an overflow pipe 22. The liquid squeezed out by the mangle joins the flushing liquids in the double-slope collector 20 which is located beneath the washing vat and feeds by gravity into the mud remover 2l, the latter being necessarily arranged at a slightly lower level than the collector. The collector 20 discharges directly into a pipe 26` which, in turn, discharges into a pipe 20 of sufficiently large diameter to contain a steam coil or other suitable device for heating the liquid in order to decrease its viscosity; such heating action also serving to keep the liquids hot enough to maintain the standard working temperature in the washing vat into which they are returned. The pipe 20 is connected to the mud'relnover 21, and the presence of its coil or other contact-heating device has, of course, the advantage that the Baume degree ofthe 4suint is not lowered, as would be the case if the suint were heated by having steam injected into it.

The muds deposit on the walls of the solid basket of the mud remover 21 which turns lat high speed, and this necessitates their removal. The liquid from which the mud has been removed can be transported and handledv v tical axis and a small diameter. The grease flows continually through a suitable nozzle out of the degreasing apparatus, and the degreased liquid (which is about 4 B. suint) returns to the vat 1. In the case of a protracted stoppage of the operation, a greasy froth may form on top of the vat which should preferably be removed before the operation starts again; and for this purpose, in order to facilitate scraping the'vat, one of its longitudinal sides is made slightly lower than the other one. By adding suint to the first vat,the greasy froth can be caused to rise and flow off over the top of the shorter. wall into the discharge gutters that are provided beneath the pyramidal hoppers 11 on the vat.

The set consisting of the. mud remover and the degreasing apparatus may advantageously be replaced by al1 apparatus that will act both as a mud remover and as a dcgreascr, with continuous removal of muds and greases. Mud removal may be effected in two operations: the first one consisting in removing the larger bits of earth, for example by means of a centrifuge of large diameter, and the second one" consisting in removing the colloidal earths by means of a small-diameter centrifuge either before or after degreasing. The small-diameter centrifuge is analogous to the degreasing apparatus in that it also has a high rotary speed; its walls being of conical form to assemble the calloidal muds at the inlet ends of 'the discharge pipes which, being of small section, would become obstructed in receiving the liquid just as it comes from the first vat of the battery. The mud can be carried away by a further supply of water which may, at the saine time, be used to recover the suint contained in the muds removed. The liquid is preferably heated-for instance, by means of the device 20 previously described-after it has left the vat and before it leaves the last purifying device. This heating assists purification so that if the heat necessary to the bath were applied in the bath, the temperature of the liquid at the time of purification would be lower, and purification would then be less thorough. During cent-rifuging, it is advisable to prevent the liquid from cooling; and since such cooling chiefiy takes place when the liquid is atomized by air, a device of some sort which will prevent entrance of air should be used.

The wool is delivered by the mangle 16 of the first vat 1 to the second vat 2 which contains suint of about 1 B.' This second vat is of the same kind as the first one but of reduced length, having only two hoppers instead of four through which the' wool is moved. The mud-removing centrifuge 21 associated with this second vat, which latter, however, does not generally require a degreasing apparatus, may serve for several vats of the same order in various batteries. There is no occasion to fear that coarse or colored wool will find its way to a bath for treating fine or white wool because, during centrifuging, every staple of Wool is separated from the liquid and stuck against the wall. By spacing the flushing operations at sufiicient intervals, the liquid from the flushings of thesaidsecond vat 2 can also be sont, by way of a pipe 28, into the collector 20 that feeds the mud remover 2l. Y

The third vat 3 is identical with the second one, and contains clean water to free the wool completely from suint. The flushing liquid passes to the discharge conduit, drinn or gutter or, if preferred, it may pass either to centrifuge 2l or to centrifuge 2l; the l1qu1d expressed by the mangle returning to the vat.

In thisthird v at, however, the flushing operations do not take place automatically but are effected` by hand whenever required. The three vats 1, 2 and 3 constitute a unit in the battery, as regards circulation' of their liquids; the second and third yvats '2 and 3 having'for their function to free the wool -from suint while it is being washed. Re-

gardless of the shape of these two desuinting vats, they feature of taking from them the ,dirtiest liquid anddelivering it to a preceding vat, either directly or through a centrifuge or a purifying apparatus, remains always within the scope of this invention.

A The third .vat 3 receives clean water or, in order to save heat and water, it may receive water from the last vat which, as will be hereinafter seen, contains no soap.` This vat may be placed a little lhigher than the second vat and may be provided with an overflow pipe 27 v to feed the secondvat 2; though such feeding may also be effected by delivering the iiushings from the third vat to the mud-removing centrifuge 21. In order to rid the wool of Vevery trace of suint smell, it may be advisable to introduce into the said vat more liquid than lis taken into the preceding vats, the excess liquid vpassing into the discharge conduit.V The second vat 2 may likewise be positioned a little higher than the first vat and be fitted with an overflow pipe 28 leading to theviirst vat, orsuch feeding may be effected by delivering the flushings from the second vat to the mud remover 21.

The wool issuing from the third vat 3 is delivered to the fourth vat 4 which is identical with the vat 1, excepting that it has no automatic flushing, this fourth vat being lilled with soapy water or soap suds. A belt elevator 29, located in a receptacle at one side of vat4, feedsa degreasing apparatus 30 that gushes its liquid into the fourth vat, which latter vat is always quite clean, for only very little dirt deposits in the bottom ofthe hoppers.V Flushing should, therefore, be e'ected yby hand when required, for the apparatusv is no longer stopped for vat-cleaning except ywhen part of the batch of wool is being changed. The waters from vat 4 maybe sent untreated to the discharge conduit, or

through a special duct to be'treated both for purifying them and for recovering the fatty acids of the soap mixed with some wool grease. f

The 'wool then enters the last v at 5 which is identical with vat 4 but contains .clean water only. This fifth or last vat, which .has

no degreasing apparatus, is positioned alittle higher (about 10 centimeters) than the fourth jvat sofas to feed the same when flushing occurs, and it is ke t clean by clean water suitably supplied to 1t and by flushing it by hand at the proper times. c

In the event of suicient suint being available to disregard as negligible the recovery ing of the wool between its treatments with suint and with soap. The Washing action of vat 2 is particularly effective; every impurity in the wool being enveloped in a strong solution of suintbccomes detached from the wool and drops intov the clean water in the vat, and the liquid which saturates the wool after having passed through the mangle of vat 2 is clean since the said vat receives an abundance of clean water. c

If no consideration has .to be paid to river pollution, and if wools which, like Africans, are less greasy but contain much sand or dirt are being treated, only a mud reu'iover without a degreasing apparatus need be employed for centrifuging. As a matter of fact, the Baume degree of the suint in the irstvat becomes higher, and suint' must, therefore, be removed. which thus carries oif grease. 0n the other hand, the mud removed in the mud remover also carries away grease, so that the suint in the first vat keeps in a. not too greasy state. Only a little grease reymains on. the wool when it leaves the mangle of the first vat; and this grease, which is in. emulsion 1n the suint and still keeps the same moist despite mangling,y easily separates' Off in vat 2 and is discharged into the gutter torspecial drive permits wool to be washed with suint, in the vats hitherto used, by purifying, if need he, the liquidsfrom the mangle during the working of the column, while the muds of the bath accumulate under the false bottoms; then, after the factory has been vshut down, the whole contents of the vat,

including what is found in the false bottoms, is subjected to eentrifuging. IVhen the fac'- tory works 24 hours a day, the electric drive of the purifying apparatus permits the first vat in each successive column or battery to containing a solution of sodium carbonate,

and then the waters squeezed out by the mangle and the lushmg` waters from this Vat are purified by centrifuging to permit their reuse. The vat may or may not be preceded b v a sprinkling funnel or conduit 1n which, however, the sodium carbonate solution will be used. and the said funnel may or may not be followed by a mangle. The wool coming from the sodium carbonate Washing bath is delivered to one of the hereinbefore-described washing systems in which suint is used; lowering of the B. degree of the suint in the 4 vat being prevented by bringing ther-cinto additional quantities of, say, about 10 B. suint obtained from other wools.

Suint washes the better the more concentrated it is-a concentration of about 4 B. is generally sufficient-but the wrong methods adopted in the past involved bringing back into the first or inlet vats either during operation or during draining (except for the losses involved by mud removal) the whole of the liquids from the following vats, so that a concentration suitable for a good washing with suint could never be effected hitherto merely with the suint from the wools subjected to the said washing, even when attempts were made to re-introduce, after centrifuging in the inlet vats, part of the liquid from their outiioW.

This invention, therefore, covers the production and maintenance of the desired concentration of the suint in the washing machines by additions of suint from the raw wools, combined with purification of the baths andr re-use thereof, as Well as combined with the feature that the vat containing 4 B. suint receives only a number of liters of liquid about equal to the number of kilograms of raw wool feeding the column, whether the said purification is or is not effected by centrifugiug. or by formation of greasy froth which is subsequently eliminated, or by electricity, or by filtering, or by any other process or method; the same also holding good in the case of alkaline carbonatesv having been added to the bath.

The invention likewise covers the feature of transporting from the column liquids containing the suint carried oif by the wool on issuing from the vat or vats containing suint for washing, before or after mangling, in order to clean the said suint with a View to re-using it for washing, or for concentrating it with or without puriiication, or even for the purpose of throwing it away in any form whatever.

' Iclaim:

1. In a method of washing uncarded wool, the steps of sprinkling the wool, at the beginning of its treatment, with hot suint while causing it to advance slowly; uniformly subjecting the wool, after the sprinkling treatment, to a squeezing action; and then delivering the squeezed wool to a washing bath of suint havinga concentration at least as highv as 3 B.

2. In a method of washing, uncarded wool, in which the Wool is subjected at least once to the washing action of an aqueous bath of concentrated suint, the steps of subjecting the wool to the action of a single bath of soap, and then to a rinsing bath to reduce the adsorption of soap by the wool.

3. In a method of washing uncarded Wool, the steps of subjecting the wool at least once to the washing action of an aqueous :bath of concentrated suint, admitting to the suint bath about one liter of aqueous liquid per kilogram of dry Wool to be washed, and maintaining said bath in a sufficiently clean state for washing by preventing its excessive enrichment in impurities.

4. In a method of washing uncarded wool, in which the wool is subjected at least once to the washing action of a bath of suint liquor, the step of supplying such bath with suint liquor which has undergone a concentrating treatment.

5. In a met-hod of washing uncarded Wool, in which the Washing liquids are purified for reuse, and in which the wool is subjected several times to the washing action of suint liquor, the step of subjecting the suint liquor from a bath containing relatively clean Wool to at least one purifying operation more than the suint liquor from a bath containing relatively dirty wool.

6. In a method of Washing uncarded wool, in which the wool is subjected several times to the Washing action of suint liquor, the steps of circulating suint liquor having a concentration at least as high as 3 B. in counter-current- Within the wool, treating the raw Wool with col'd water to cause it to give up its suint, and supplying the bath containing the cleanest wool with the suint obtained from said cold Water treatment.

7. In a m'ethod of washing uncarded Wool, in which the wool is subjected at least once to the washing action of a bath of suint liquor, the steps of treating the bath liquid to extract the heavier muds, and. then centrifuging it to extract the colloidal muds.

8. In a method of washing uncarded wool,

said liquid to a grease-extracting treatment.

9. In a method of washing uncarded wool,

in which the wool is subjected at least oncey to the washing action of a bath of suint liquor which, during the washing operation, is puried for reuse, the step of augmenting the efcacy of the purifying operation by heating the suint liquor at a point in its travel outside of the bath and before the completion of the purifying operation so as to decrease its viscosity and to maintain the bath at the required temperature.

10. In a method of washing unearded Wool, in which the wool is subjected at least once to the washing action of a bath of suint liquor,v

the steps of withdrawing the suint liquor from the washing bath, purifying it, and then delivering the purified suint liquor to a cleaner washing rbath than the one wherefrom it was taken. i

11. In a method of washing uncarded wool, in which the wool is subjected at least once to a washing action of a bath of suint liquor, the steps of removing from contact with the suint liquor the impurities both separable and non-separable by simple natural decantation, automatically removing during the course of the washing operation the portions of the suint liquor bath containing the impurities which have settled down by gravity, subjecting said portions to a purifying treatment, and re-using the purified suint liquor for washing; said steps being carried out in a substantially continuous manner. A

12. In a method of washing uncarded wool, in which the wool is subjected at least once to the washing action of a bath of suint liquor,

the steps o f collectin the suint in such bath,y

automatically removing during the course of the washing-operation the portions of the suint liquor bath containing the impurities which have settled down by gravity, subject-ing said portions to a purifying treatment, and re-using the puriied suint liquor for washing; whereby said bath can operate indefinitely and without stoppage for cleaning, if supplied with regulated amounts of water.

13. In a process of washing uncarded wool, in which the Wool is subjected at least once to the washing action of a bath of suint liquor, the steps of centrifuging the bath liquid at vleast once, and extracting at regulated speed ELISE CHARLES DUHAMEL.

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