July 25, 1939. G. E. COX ET AL 2,167,432 GRANULATION OF NONGRANULAR MATERIALS Filed May 14, 1907 2 Shoota-Sheet 1 32 5 INVENTOR Mire ©. (le Burner, 8 6 Ceonce £ Cox, Cee, 8 Micda etre eyJuly 25, 1939. G. E. COX ETAL 2,167,432 GRANULATION OF NONGRANULAR MATERIALS Filed May 14, 1987 2 Shoots-Sheot 2 INVENTOR, Waren CMeBuRner, Ye Ceerig Cox. Cox, ‘ATTORNEY.10 6 35 30 35 40 ry 38 Patented July 25, 1939 2,167,432 GRANULATION OF NONGRANULAR ‘MATERIALS George E, Cox, Niagara Falls, N. ¥., and Walter (G. McBurney, Niagara Falls, Canada, assignors {6 American ‘Cyanamia Company, New York, 2,167,432 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE N. Application May 14, 1 Claim. ‘The present invention relates to a method of treating non-granular materials to produce there- from substantially spherical or globular agere- gates in the form of substantially stable hard granules. In many arts today, materials heretofore in the form of powders or powdery materials, the in- dividual particles of which are either of uniform or of heterogeneous sizes, are more desirable for many purposes in the form of granules. For in- stance, fertilizer materials such as calcium cyan- ‘amid, heretofore marketed as a powdery or non- grantilar product, becomes more desirable and ac~ ceptable to the trade in the form of granules with minimum quantities of fines and many thousands of tons of this material are now marketed an- hnually. ‘This is but one example of granular ma~ terials which are constantly finding a larger place in industry. ‘The principal object of the invention ts, there- fore, to produce granules from non-eranular materials by a simple and efficient method with minimum handling dificulties so that as a result, of these operations, maximum number of op- timum sized aggregates are produced with mini- ‘mum quantities of fines, and of a stable character. ‘To this end, the invention contemplates in its broadest aspect, passing the material to be granu- lated through or between closely approaching sur= faces such as rolls or presses, so that the material will be compacted together in the form of a flake. Yt Js intended that the thickness of this flake Will, in large measure, determine the eventual Giatneter of the produced granule. ‘The invention contemplates subsequently treating the flake so fas to break it up into smaller pieces, which will be termed herein as rough granules. ‘These broken pieces will, of course, have relatively sharp edges and will be of irregular shape. ‘The sub- Sequent treatment includes tumbling these rough granules tipon themselves to knock off the rough edges and bring them more nearly into a spherical or globular shape. During the tumbling opera tion, the fines or final particles produced as 9 result will be in large measure pounded into the granules and become a part thereof, If the ma- terial treated is of such a character that more fines are produced than can normally be pounded into and become incorporated with the granules, they may be subsequently separated. ‘The invention likewise contemplates the heat treatment of the thus rounded granules to reduce thelr liquid content to a desired point, such point being determined by the degree of hardness de- a corporation of Maine 1987, Serial No. 142,632 (cL. 23-239) sired dependent upon the use to which the gran- ular material will be put. ‘The invention further consists in the further details hereinafter described. In the drawings 6 Fig. 1 illustrates diagrammatically the char- acter of equipment used to carry out the process; Pig. 2 showing the remaining equipment; Pig. 3 is a sectional view along the line 33 of Fig. 2. 10 ‘Referring now with particularity to the em- bodiment ilitstrated and taking crude calcium eyanamid a a representative material to be treated, although it is to be understood that this, fg illustrative only, the fully hydrated powdery 1S cyanamid is introduced from a suitable source into hopper { from which it may be fed by screw device 2 into a suitable type of automatic welgh- ing scale 3 emptying into mixer 4. In some in- stances, the cyanamid entering the mixer will 99 contain sufficient moisture so that in the subse- quent compacting or flake forming operation, suf- ficient adherence may be obtained between the particles, Ii, however, the cyanamid at the point of entering the mixer 4 does not contain sufictent 95, moisture, additional quantities may be added from tank § through metering device 6 until the proper consistency has been obtained. Where esired, the Water in the tank 8 may contain ma~ terials dissolved therein, such, for instance, as gn ‘potash salts and/or phosphates where a complete fertilizer 1s desired. On the other hand, such Mquld may contain binding materials such as = solution of calcium nitrate or the like. Again, it may contain such substances as the sugars where 35 it is desired to utilize the dicyandiamid inhibiting effect thereof during the process. ‘These, or any combinations of the above, may be utilized in any manner desired and they may be introduced from a single tank or an additional tank 7 with 49 its metering device # may be utilized. "The requisite amount of liquid, where neces- sary, and containing desired additional material, or none at all, having been introduced into the mixer 4 a at §, the cyanamid and the added ma- 4s terial are well mixed by means of the rotating: paddles 10 inside of the mixer. From the mixer, the moist cyanamid then passes to a compacting nucleus oF flake forming device, which may con yeniently take the form of a squeeze roll mech- 59 anism shown generally at (1. ‘These rolls are so arranged with relation to each other, that their proximity may be adjusted and the cyanamid in passing between them is compacted and formed into flakes. The clearance between the rolls 15 sg10 ws 0 40 45 50 5 60 0 ©. 2 0 adjusted that a flake of any desired thickness may be obtained, which thickness will in large measure determine the eventual diameter of the finished granule. From the flaking device (1, the flakes drop into a breaker mechanism 12 containing rotating knives 13 which, during the passage of the eyan- amid through the breaker, cut or break the flakes into smaller fragments which may be termed partially formed or rough granules. The action of the knives in the breaker is not such as to again reduce the flakes to powder but should be only carried to the extent that fragments or rough granules are formed. From the breaker 12, the material is fed through line {4 to a granu- tating equipment 18 which may be in the form of a slightly inclined rotating cylinder. In this lece of apparatus, the rough granules are gently tumbled upon themselves so as to knock off the edges of the fragments and form substantially globular granules therefrom, ‘The length, diam- eter, inclination and speed’ of rotation of this equipment may be suitably chosen s0 as to pro~ duce the desired quantity of granules of the specified size with minimum fines. During this tumbling operation, all or most of the fines pro- duced are pounded into the granules during their formation. ‘This operation, therefore, has 2 tendency to reduce the total amount of fines discharged from the granulator while at the same time producing a more dense or compact granule. This has the effect of displacing the water or other liquid in the granule toward the surface thereof, which facilitates drying or liquid re- moval in a subsequent operation, From the granulator, the granules drop upon screen 18, the oversize being caught in trough 17 and returned through conveyor 18 to a supple- mental flaking device 19 similar to the flaking device 11 for return to the breaker 12. ‘The mesh of the screen 46 is chosen so as to deliver into the drier the size granules desired. ‘The drier 20 may take the form of an inclined rotating cylinder within which is located a eylin- arically arranged core 21 with radial vanes or division plates 22 therebetween (Fig. 3), inas- much as the granules delivered to the drier 20 at this point are relatively weak, they will not stand a great deal of abuse and, hence, by con- structing the drier as above set forth, the move- ment of such particles during tumbling is of a restricted extent, while at the same time giving the drier a large capacity without increasing its length or the time of drying. ‘The drier may be suitably heated, preferably interlorly, by means of the products of combus- tion of burner 28, which latter is fed by fuel through the line 24 and air through the line 25. ‘The products of combustion are delivered through duet 28 to the drier 20 and pass concurrently therethrough with the granules. ‘The tempera~ ture of the combustion gases entering the drier may be adjusted by admitting requisite quanti- ties of cool alr through duct 27 by proper use of the damper 28. Any dust formed during tho passage of the granules through the drier is pulled out by means of exhaust fan 29 and eon- ducted to a dust separator 39, from which the same 1s delivered to hopper 8{ and returned through line 82 to a feed device 33 and from thence into a weighing scale 34 and into the mixer 4. Thus an absolute control may be ob- tained on the quantities of dry or substantially dry material entering the drier in a cyclic manner, 2,167,482 ‘The length, inclination, and speed of rotation of the drier 20 and the’ temperature, quantity and velocity of the heated gases delivered thereto are chosen with a view to producing granules having a desired moisture content, ‘This mois- ture figure will obviously vary over wide limits, cepending upon the use to which the granules are to be put. In the case of granular cyanamid used for fertilizer purposes, the total moisture content should be reduced to the neighborhood of 5%, more or less. ‘The thus dried granules are then delivered to conveyor 38 and passed over’ sereen 36 to separate the oversize therefrom. ‘These oversize particles are caught in trough 37 and through conveyor 98, passed to crusher de- vice 38, whereupon they are returned to the conveyor 38 and screen 38, ‘The granules of the proper size pass through’ screen 36 and pass downwardly through one or more dust separators 40 into conveyor 41, where they pass out of the train of apparatus to the packaging machine or storage, Exhaust fan 42 draws air into the dust separators 40 through alr inlets 43, countereur- rent to the moving finished granules and this dust is returned through line 44, through sepa- rator 45, hopper 33 and into line 82 for return eventually to the mixer 4, ‘Where desirable, some of the initially dry ma terial from the feeder 2 may be by-passed through either or both of lines 48 or 47 to the breaker 12. ‘This insures the proper amount of fines in granu- lator 18 in the event that the materiel delivered to the granulator is too wet or an insufficient quantity of fines is produced during the granu- lating process. Tt may be added that the fnes either knocked off of the rough granules or ad- ditionally supplied through the lines 48 and 47 assist materially in preventing a too fast build- ing up of granules in the granulator and thus assist in the production of maximum quantities of granules of an optimum size, Among the other materials which may be suc cessfully granulated by this method are the mono and diammonium phosphates, the mono, di or tricalcium phosphates, caleined phosphates, basic slag, alkall chlorides and sulphates, bauxite fines or the like, or any combination thereof. In addition, fillers, either reactive with the ma- terial being granulated, or inert thereto, may be added such as gypsum, sand, clay, ground dolo- mite, limestone or the tike. ‘Where the material treated is water or liquid soluble, the liquid added may contain a solution of the material treated. For such insolbles, however, as basic slag, bauxite, or the like, a solu tion of some suitable binding agent will be found desirable, such as calcium chloride, calcium ni- trate, cautic soda, sugar or the like. ‘While the invention has been shown and de- scribed with particular reference to specific em- bodiments, it 1s to be understood that it Is not to be limited thereto, but is to be construed broadly and limited only by the scope of the claim, ‘We claim: A method of granulating @ non-granular ma- terlal chosen from the group consisting of cal- cium eyanam{d, ammonium phosphates, caletm phosphates, basic slag, calcined phosphates, al- kali and ammonium sulfates and muriates and bauxite fines which includes the following steps: adjusting the liquid content thereof so that when the material is passed through squeeze ‘olls it will have sufficient adherence to form flakes, passing the moistened material through squeeze 10 6 20 25 0 38 40 50 55 cy cy m Eo2,167,482 rolls to form flakes, the thickness of the flake largely determining the eventual diameter of the granules, breaking up the flakes into rough gran- ules, tumbling the rough granules upon them- selves to round up the same and compact the solid matter thereof while driving the liquid con- tent thereof to the surface, separating the over- 3 size masses from the desirably sized granules by passing the result of the granulating operation over a screen, and thereafter separately drying the rounded compacted granules freed from oversize, GEORGE E. COX. WALTER G. McBURNEY,