GB829027A - Improvements in and apparatus for the preliminary treatment of tea leaf - Google Patents

Abstract

829,027. Tea manufacture. SAYAMA TEA ESTATES Ltd., and WORTHINGTON, W. R. Dec. 18, 1957 [Dec. 19, 1956], No. 38654/56. Addition to 668,013. Class 129. [Also in Group XXX] A preliminary treatment of tea leaf is carried out by conveying a resilient layer of the leaf between two travelling bands with substantially non-resilient surfaces and, at the same time, subjecting it to a series of nipping operations. As shown, conveyers 1 and 2 comprise respectively conveyer bands 3, 6, e.g. of leather, cotton, hair, steel, or other non-resilient material on pulleys 4, 5 and 7, 8 keyed, respectively, on horizontal shafts 9, 10, 11, 12 rotatably mounted in bearings 14 in frame 13. Pulley 7 is driven in the direction of arrow B from a shaft 16 rotatably mounted in frame 13. A stepped pulley 18 keyed to shaft 16 drives, through a belt 20, a stepped pulley 19 which through gearing drives shaft 11, from which the drive is transmitted through further gearing to shaft 10 of pulley 5. Pulleys 4 and 8 are idler pulleys. Chain conveyer 27 is mounted between the upper and lower flights of conveyer 1 and comprises a pair of sprocket wheels 28 keyed in spaced relationship on driving-shaft 16, a pair of sprocket wheels 29 keyed in spaced relationship on the shaft 30 and chains 31 mounted on the sprockets. Supported between chains 31 all along their length are a plurality of rotatable rollers 33 with axes substantially horizontal and parallel to shafts 16 and 30. A slat conveyer 34 mounted between the upper and lower flights of conveyer 2 comprises a pair of sprocket wheels 37 keyed in spaced relationship on a shaft 36 and a pair of chains 39 mounted on the sprockets. Shafts 36, 38 are mounted in bearings 40 in frame 13 and shaft 36 is driven by a chain-and-sprocket drive from shaft 11. Chains 39 travel at substantially the same speed as conveyer band 6 and support between them throughout their length a plurality of slats or backing-plates 44. Tea leaf is fed continuously into a hopper 45 and falls on to band 6 which carries it in direction F under a rotating spreader 46 driven from conveyer 34. The spread tea leaf is carried between conveyers 27, 34. Scrapers 55, 56 remove any tea leaf which adheres to bands 3 and 6. The vertical separation between conveyers 27, 34 may be adjustable. In modifications, conveyer 34 may be replaced by a stationary table and conveyer 27 may be replaced by a reciprocating frame containing rollers.