Ultradisintegration and agglomeration of minerals such as mica, products therefrom and apparatus therefor

Claim 1

A process for disintegrating mica into thin particles which comprises: heating insufficiently fine pieces of mica to a temperature at which its water of hydration is released; injecting a hot gaseous medium as a multiplicity of swirling, non-radial, converging, flat, high velocity streams from a multiplicity of slit-shaped orifices into a lower portion of an upwardly extending disintegration zone of substantially circular cross section, said multiplicity of orifices being distributed in said disintegratiOn zone in part around its periphery to converge non-radially inward and in part around its central axis to converge non-radially outward, and exposing said mica pieces to said swirling gas streams in said lower portion at an operating temperature at which the water of hydration of said mica is released until said pieces become split into particles of different sizes and relatively fine particles having the desired fineness escape from said disintegration zone while relatively coarse particles remain therein to be split further.

Claim 5

An apparatus for disintegrating solids suspended in a fluid medium which comprises: an upwardly extending shell of generally circular cross section providing a disintegration chamber in the lower portion thereof and an elutriation chamber thereabove; a first plurality of high velocity nozzle means having substantially vertically elongated orifices disposed within said disintegration chamber around its periphery and oriented for jetting non-radially converging streams of fluid medium in a generally inward direction into said disintegration chamber; a second plurality of nozzle means having substantially vertically elongated orifices disposed within said disintegration chamber around its main vertical axis and oriented for jetting non-radially converging streams of fluid medium in a generally outward direction into said disintegration chamber; means for feeding fluid medium to said nozzle means; means for introducing insufficiently fine pieces of frangible mineral into said disintegration chamber; and means for removing fine product particles from an upper portion of said elutriation chamber.

Claim 6

An apparatus for disintegrating solids suspended in a fluid medium which comprises: an upwardly extending shell of generally circular cross section providing a disintegration chamber in the lower portion thereof and an elutriation chamber thereabove; a first plurality of high velocity nozzle means having substantially vertically elongated orifices disposed within said disintegration chamber around its periphery and oriented for jetting non-radially converging streams of fluid medium in a generally inward direction into said disintegration chamber; a second plurality of nozzle means having substantially vertically elongated orifices disposed within said disintegration chamber around its main vertical axis and oriented for jetting non-radially converging streams of fluid medium in a generally outward direction into said disintegration chamber; means for feeding fluid medium to said nozzle means; means for introducing insufficiently fine pieces of frangible mineral into said disintegration chamber; and means for removing fine product particles from an upper portion of said elutriation chamber.