Pneumatic drier of the two-biconical drying chamber type

Claim 1

A PNEUMATIC DRIER COMPRISING MEANS TO FORM A STREAM OF RELATIVELY HOT AND DRY DRYING GAS; MEANS TO INTRODUCE INTO SAID STREAM A DIVIDED MATERIAL IN THE FORM OF SUBSTANTIALLY DISCRETE PARTICLES; AT LEAST ONE SUBSTANTIALLY VERTICAL BI-CONICAL DRYING CHAMBER HAVING A LOWER UPWARDLY FLARING CONICAL PORTION AND AN UPPER DOWNWARDLY FLARING CONICAL PORTION SUBSTANTAILLY SYMMETRICAL WITH SAID LOWER CONICAL PORTION WITH RESPECT TO A HORIZONTAL PLANE, SAID CHAMBER FURTHER HAVING AN UPPER END AND A LOWER END; OUTLET MEANS CONNECTED WITH THE UPPER END OF SAID CHAMBER; INLET MEANS OPENING AXIALLY INTO THE LOWER END OF SAID CHAMBER, SAID INLET MEANS RECEIVING SAID STREAM WITH SAID DIVIDED MATERIAL INTRODUCED THEREINTO TO PRODUCE IN SAID CHAMBER AN ASCENDING JET OF DRYING GAS WITH SAID PARTICLES IN SUSPENSION THEREIN; BALLS DISPOSED IN SAID CHAMBER TO BE LIFTED IN THE LOWER CONICAL PORTION THEREOF BY SAID ASCENDING JET OF DRYING GAS; A TRANSVERE GRID IN THE LOWER END OF SAID CHAMBER TO PREVENT SAID BALLS FROM FALLING THERETHROUGH; AN ADDITIONAL GAS INLET OPENING TANGENTIALLY INTO SAID CHAMBER, SUBSTANTIALLY MIDWAY OF THE HEIGHT THEREOF; MEANS TO SUPPLY TO SAID ADDITIONAL GAS INLET SUBSTANTIALLY HOT AND DRY DRYING GAS SUBSTANTIALLY FREE FROM SUSPENDED PARTICLES OF DIVIDED MATERIAL; AND MEANS TO SEPARATE THE DRIED PARTICLES FROM THE GAS ISSUING FROM SAID OUTLET MEANS.