A continuous cooker having a continuous closed-loop cooking chamber which maintains a constant volume of liquid phase material and a constant volume of gas phase material therein. The cooker is provided with a liquid inlet on one side of the loop, and a common gas and liquid outlet on the other side of the loop. The loop is disposed to provide a lower passageway in which a constant volume of liquid resides, and an upper passageway in which a constant volume of pressurized gas resides. The cooker automatically maintains virtually constant retained-liquid volume regardless of discharge conditions. A gas, i.e., a material which is not condensed at operating conditions is continuously added to the upper passageway.
A method and apparatus for cooking a starch solution and then dispensing that cooked starch solution to a commercial laundry washer provides a vessel with an interior surrounded by a wall for holding a volume of liquid, a water supply inlet for supplying water to the vessel interior, an opening for adding dry starch to the vessel interior, and a steam supply inlet for adding steam to the vessel interior so that the volume of liquid within the vessel can be heated. A level controller controls the level of fluid within the vessel in between the minimum and maximum levels that is fabricated of a generally low or non-heat conductive material. A recirculation flow line has an inlet and outlet that each communicate with the vessel interior. A centrifugal pump mounted in the recirculation flow line pumps fluid from the inlet to the outlet in a recirculating fashion, the pump having a filter disposed on the inlet side within the vessel that breaks up starch lumps flowing in the recirculation flow line. A discharge flow line transmits the heated starch solution from the vessel interior to the commercial laundry washer.
A method and apparatus for cooking a single batch of starch solution and dispensing the solution to a commercial laundry machine utilizes a single batch reservoir. The reservoir is substantially filled with water, the water in the reservoir agitated while adding dry starch to form a starch suspension. The starch suspension is heated to cook the starch to form a starch solution. The entire batch of starch solution is dispensed to a commercial laundry machine while water is sprayed into the reservoir to clean residual starch from the reservoir.
An apparatus for cooking and dispensing starch to laundry machines has a hopper (10) holding dry starch and a stirrer (15) and auger (25) for delivering predetermined amounts of dry starch to a mixing chamber (35) to be mixed with water. The mixing chamber (35) has a circulation pump (60) for circulating the starch and water mixture. A pressure pump (70) delivers starch and water mix from the mixing chamber (35) to a cooking chamber (80). The cooking chamber (80) also receives steam, which cooks the starch and water mix. A programmed computer (100) causes the apparatus to receive a request for starch from a laundry machine and dispense a predetermined amount of cooked starch to the requesting machine through one or more discharge valves (125) connected to a manifold (120). The computer (110) starts and stops the stirrer (15), auger (25), pressure pump (70), a steam valve (100), and discharge valves (125) to particular laundry machines in a programmed sequence.
