Method and apparatus for producing fiber pulp from fibrous lignocellulose containing material

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Method and apparatus for producing thermo-mechanical pulp from wood chips and the like in which the chips are first heated in a steaming chamber or preheater to a fiber temperature below the softening point of the lignin of middle lamella section of the wood fibers. The thus heated chips are conveyed in a sealed system to the inlet of a defibrating zone enclosed within a housing in a gaseous atmosphere of superatmospheric pressure where it is compressed, by a screw conveyor into a plug which seals the defibrator housing against blow-back of the pressurized gaseous medium. The defibrating space is defined between a pair of grinding discs which rotate relatively to one another in the housing …