Material handling system

Claim 1

In a system for handling mixtures having electrical conducting components, the combination of: a linear polyphase induction motor having a core with a face and a plurality of coils in substantially parallel slots defining a motor axis perpendicular to said slots, with said coils connected in groups with a group for each phase; circuit means for connecting said coil groups to a polyphase AC source for continuous excitation of said motor; a plurality of capacitors, with a capacitor for each phase and connected in circuit with said groups of coils to provide a resonant circuit; and means for moving a mixture having random electrical conducting components across said motor face along a path not aligned with said motor axis, so that said random components are moved out of the mixture in the direction of said motor axis by coupling of said components to the motor magnetic field, and including a conveyor with an electrical non-conducting sheet moving across the face of said motor along said path, with the motor being only intermittently loaded by the random coupling of said conducting components, first means for depositing material on said conveyor upstream of said motor, second means for receiving material from said conveyor down stream of said motor, and third means for receiving conducting components at one side of said conveyor, with said motor on one side only of said conveyor sheet.