Stearns-Roger Mfg. Co. v. Ruth
| Decision Date | 19 December 1932 |
| Docket Number | No. 647.,647. |
| Parties | STEARNS-ROGER MFG. CO. v. RUTH. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Henry D. Williams and G. Willard Rich, both of New York City (Carlos G. Stratton, of Denver, Colo., and Giles S. Rich, of New York City, on the briefs), for appellant.
Max D. Melville, of Denver, Colo., for appellee.
Before LEWIS, COTTERAL, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges.
Ruth brought this suit against the Stearns-Roger Manufacturing Company for alleged infringement of patent No. 1,277,750 issued on September 3, 1918, for a flotation process and apparatus. From a decree adjudging claims one and three of the patent in suit valid and infringed, the Stearns-Roger Company has appealed.
The patent in suit relates to a process and machine for separating metalliferous minerals from rock by flotation. In general the process is as follows: The ore is so finely ground that the metalliferous mineral and the rock or gangue, with which it was associated in the ore, are reduced to distinct particles. The ground ore is mixed with sufficient water to produce a pulp which will flow freely. A mineral frothing agent is added. Air is forced through the pulp forming diffused air bubbles. These air bubbles select and attach to themselves metalliferous particles, and reject gangue particles, and because of their buoyancy carry the metalliferous particles upward through the pulp and form into a metal bearing froth floating upon the surface of the pulp. This metal bearing froth, called concentrate, floats or is skimmed from such surface and the remainder of the pulp, called tailings, passes into the next unit.
The machines employed are built in several units, each of which repeats the process so as to ultimately effect substantially a complete separation.
Figure 1 of the patent drawings is as follows:
Claim 1 may be analytically stated as follows: The herein described flotation process including (a) aerating the pulp, (b) overflowing the froth, (c) maintaining the tailings in suspension by an upward circulation of the pulp in a flotation compartment, and (d) overflowing the tailings wholly from said compartment at a substantial distance above the inlet and in proximity to the level of the overflow of the froth but separate therefrom.
Claim three may be analytically stated as follows: A flotation separating unit comprising (a) an agitation compartment and (b) a flotation compartment having a froth overflow, (c) the said compartments communicating at the bottom, (1) the flotation compartment being relatively deep and (2) having a tailings discharge away from the unit, at a substantial distance above the inlet and in proximity to the level of the froth overflow, but separate therefrom, (3) the unit being otherwise closed against the discharge of the tailings.
In the carrying out of the process, it is essential that a proper pulp level be maintained. If the pulp level rises too high, a part of the pulp will escape with the froth and ruin the concentrate. If it falls too low, the froth will collapse back into the pulp and will be carried out with the tailings.
The impeller 18 in the patent in suit impels the pulp by centrifugal force upward through the flotation compartment 10 and, notwithstanding a variation in the flow of pulp, maintains a pulp level in the flotation compartment almost as high as the top of the sides adjacent to the flotation compartment, of launders 26 and 27, over which sides and into which launders the froth overflows, and forces the tailings to overflow into the next unit through trough 24, which acts as an overflow weir, slightly below the level at which the froth overflows. Thus the proper pulp level is maintained automatically without adjustable valves to regulate the overflow of tailings.
This impeller also draws the pulp from the receiving compartment practically as rapidly as it enters, and with it air through opening 22 and mixes the air and pulp. Aeration of the pulp is also in part effected by the fact that the pulp enters the first unit and each succeeding unit at the top and is cascaded to the bottom of the receiving compartment, which is kept comparatively free from pulp by the force of the impeller.
The impeller also forces the heavier as well as the lighter particles to the top of the flotation compartment before they escape into the next unit, and thus gives more opportunity for the bubbles to attach to and carry off the heavier particles.
Where the pulp is forced through a separation unit by hydrostatic pressure, proper pulp level cannot be obtained automatically, and regulating valves are required. While an overflow weir would keep the pulp level from rising too high, it would not keep it from falling too low should the inflow of pulp fall substantially below the outflow of tailings.
Where the pulp is forced through the flotation compartment by an impeller, a proper pulp level cannot be automatically obtained, and regulating valves are necessary if the tailings are permitted to escape at a point substantially below the level where the froth overflows.
Pearce obtained automatic pulp level control by combining an impeller and a tailings discharge in proximity to and only slightly below the level of the froth overflow.
A large number of patents of the prior art were alleged and proven for the purpose of showing anticipation of claims one and three of the patent in suit. These prior patents may be divided into three types.
Type 1. Where the pulp enters the unit at a point above or approximately at the same level with the point of exit of the tailings, where all tailings are overflowed, and where the undulating travel of the pulp through the unit is primarily due to the hydrostatic head created by the difference in level between inlet and discharge, and where the progress of the larger particles of the pulp through the unit is animated by overflow weirs.
In this type are the following devices:
Inspiration Machine, Callow No. 1,366,766, Gahl No. 1,346,817, Gahl No. 1,346,818, Groch No. 1,276,753, and Rouse No. 469,599.
It will be seen at once that a device operating by hydrostatic pressure cannot have a tailings discharge away from the unit at a substantial distance above the inlet.
Figure 1 of the Groch patent follows:
Counsel for the Stearns-Roger Company contend that, in considering Groch's device, the several groups of compartments separated by weirs G and partition e2 should be regarded as constituting distinct flotation separation units. They may be so regarded in the sense that each carries out the process of flotation separation, but not in the sense that each operates independently, because, as we shall undertake to show, they cannot successfully carry out such process without the co-action of other essential elements in the device.
In Groch's device the pulp enters the device at the top through opening b and leaves it at the bottom through opening e. Opening e has a regulating gate or valve e1. The pulp enters the first agitation and flotation compartment through inlet c1, and the succeeding ones through inlet c2. The agitators M aerate the pulp but do not force it up over weirs G by centrifugal force. If the agitators applied sufficient force to the pulp to lift it over the weirs, they would impel it backwards through inlets c1 and c2. The inlet into each succeeding agitation and flotation compartment at c2 is substantially below the inlet of the preceding one, and outlet e3 from the last flotation compartment to the right is on a level with c1, and the outlet e is below all of the inlets c1 and c2. From the foregoing it will be seen that the pulp is impelled through the device by hydrostatic pressure and not by centrifugal force of the agitators. Since Groch employs hydrostatic pressure instead of centrifugal force to move the pulp through the device, if the inflow of pulp falls substantially below the outflow of tailings, the pulp level will fall too low. In Groch the only means for retarding the outflow of tailings is regulating valve or gate e1. Since all of the several compartments in the device communicate with each other by openings through which the pulp passes, the closing of gate e and the consequent raising of the pulp level in chamber E, to the extreme right of the device, would tend to raise the pulp level throughout the entire device. Thus it will be seen that regulating valve or gate e1 co-acts as an element in each of such several groups of compartments in the device, considered as distinct units. The closing of outlet e may not be a practical way to keep the pulp level from falling too low, but it is the only method disclosed by Groch.
It follows that Groch employs a regulating valve instead of an impeller to keep the pulp level from falling too low, and does not disclose the principle by which Pearce automatically attains proper pulp level.
Type 2. Where the pulp enters the unit at approximately the pulp level therein, and where only the lighter tailings are overflowed, the remainder discharging at or near the bottom, there being no means provided to impel and compel them to overflow with the lighter material.
Included in this type are the following patents: Haley No. 1,357,556, Haley Australian Patent No. 1117/16, Janney No. 1,342,115, Shimmin & Bushnell No. 1,402,099, Smith No. 1,056,952, Callow No. 1,201,934, Hoover No. 979,857, Anaconda Machine, Engel's Machine, Hebbard Machine, and Ohio Copper Company Machine.
A fair example of this class is the Haley patent, No. 1,357,556. Figures 4 and 6 of this patent are as follows:
In the Haley machine the pulp is fed into the centrifugal pump 5...
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