Sectional contacting tray

June 19, 1962

R. VERSLUIS

SECTIONAL CONTACTING TRAY

Filed March 18. 1958

3,039,751

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FIG. 6

INVENTOR;

ROELAND VERSLUIS

HIS ATTORNEY

United States Patent Office

3,039,751

Patented June 19, 1962

3,039.751

SECTIONAL CONTACTING TRAY Roeland Versluis, The Hague, Netherlands, assignor to Shell Oil Company, a corporation of Delaware

Filed Mar. 18,1958, Ser. No. 722,191

Claims priority, application Netherlands Mar. 22, 1957 7 Claims. (Cl. 261—114)

The invention relates to contacting columns, such as are used to contact fluids, e.g., to effect an exchange between liquid and gas in fractional distillation or absorption, to effect heat exchange, or to scrub gas, etc., and is, more particularly, concerned with a sectional tray which can be mounted transversely with a column, the tray having openings of any desired type or shape for the passage of fluid to be contacted, such as holes surmounted with bubble caps, open dots with vertical or inclined side walls, or the like.

It is known to form contacting trays of sections which are mounted in laterally adjoining relation and are sustained in part by a supporting ring secured to the column wall and in part on one or more cross-beams carried, by the ring. Difficulties have heretofore been encountered in providing a simple and effective seal between the adjoining tray sections, such as is often required to prevent undesired or uncontrolled flow of gas or liquid through the tray. While effective seals have been provided these often were expensive to construct and/or time-consuming in the installation and dismantling of the tray.

The principal object of the invention is so to improve the construction of the sectional tray that the tray sections can be connected to one another in a simple manner and with little effort and skill to attain a gas- and liquid-tight seal between adjacent tray sections.

A further object is to provide a simple seal between the tray sections and the supporting ring and beams.

In summary, the contacting tray sections of the invention include decks containing openings therethrough for the passage of the fluid to be contacted and dependent flanges that extend along the margins of the decks and are approximately L-shaped in cross section, so as to provide lateral sealing rims at levels below those of the decks. The several tray sections are assembled side by side with the sealing rims of adjacent sections in superposed relation, packing material is interposed between the superposed sealing rims, and the rims are clamped together by any suitable means to press the rims against the packing.

In a preferred construction the sealing rims have upwardly directed flanges at their free edges to stiffen the rims longitudinally and so enable them to compress the packing material throughout an extended span between clamping elements, thereby to reduce the number of clamping elements required. The flanges further insure that the sealing rims retain their correct shapes during handling, which is necessary to provide a tight seal.

It is preferred to use as the clamping means bolts which extend continuously through the packing material and through vertically aligned holes in the two superposed sealing rims and in the deck above them. Further, according to a feature of the invention a compression memoer, such as a bushing, is secured between the upper sealing rim and its associated deck at the said holes so as to transmit the thrust to the rim when the bolt is tightened.

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and showing one preferred embodiment, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a tray made up of deck sections;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary transverse section taken on the line 2—2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a further enlarged, fragmentary transverse section taken on the line 3—3 of FIGURE 1, showing a detail;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of a pair of adjoining tray sections and their connection to a beam;

FIGURE 5 is fragmentary perspective view similar to FIGURE 4 but showing only one of the tray sections; and

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a pair of adjoining tray sections and their connections to the supporting ring.

In the drawing, one tray is shown to be mounted in an upright column 5, it being understood that a plurality of such trays may be mounted therein in vertically spaced relation. The column wall carries, for each tray, a supporting ring 6 which sustains a plurality of crossbeams 7, which beams may be formed of pairs of structural channels placed back to back with their upper surfaces coplanar with the top of the ring 6.

The tray is composed of a large number of individual tray sections 8, 8a, 8b, 8c, disposed with their longitudinal or longer dimensions extending transversely across the beams and mounted side by side. The interior sections 8 and 8a are identical in outline and span the space between the beams; the section 8b adjoining the column wall also spans the beams and has the same length as the sections 8 but is curved at the exterior margin; and the sections 8c extend between one beam and the supporting ring and are curved adjacent the column wall. These ^sections are made of sheet material, preferably thin metal plates which include fiat, horizontal decks 9 containing openings containing risers 10, which risers are surmounted with bubble caps 11 for the upward passage of gas or vapor. The tray sections have dependent flanges 12 or 13 along their adjoining sides, thereby stiffening the sections against bending and facilitating the use of thin metal plates.

According to the invention the flanges 12 and 13 have lateral'sealing rims 14 and 15, respectively, which, extend parallel to the deck, so that the flanges have approximately L-shaped cross sections. Each rim 14 is turned inwardly, under the associated deck 9, and each rim 15 is turned outwardly from its associated deck and is positioned lower than the rims 14. The rims 15 rest on the beams 7 and, in the case of marginal sections provided with these rims (e.g., the section 9 appearing in FIGURES 3 and 6) on the ring 6. These sealing rims further have upstanding flanges 16 and 17, respectively, at their free edges to add rigidity thereto. A vertical bushing or tubular post 18 is fixed, e.g., by welding, between each sealing rim 14 and its deck 9 at each point where a bolt is to be attached. The bottom of the bushing abuts the top of rim 14 surrounding a bolt hole therein and the top extends upward through a slightly larger hole in the deck to permit a bolt 19 to extend continuously through these parts and through the bushing, a registering bolt hole being formed in the rim 15.

Various arrangements of the flanges 12 and 13 are possible, provided that the sections are constructed so that at each longitudinal joint between sections there is one flange of each type. Thus, as is shown in FIGURE 2, the section 8 has a flange 12 at one side and a flange 13 at the other, while the section 8a has two flanges 13 to facilitate assembly. It is evident that the section 9 of FIGURE 2 is placed on its support prior to emplacing the adjoining sections 8b and 8.

To seal the deck section against the cross-beams 7 and the supporting ring 6, each marginal portion of a deck section which is to lie above such a supporting element is formed with a similar flange 20, having a horizontal

3,039,751 sealing rim 21 and, preferably, an upward flange 22, as is shown in FIGURES 4-6. These flanges are similarly provided with bushings 18 and bolt holes.

In assembling the tray, the deck sections are positioned side by side with the flange 12 of one section nested within the flange 13 of the adjoining section and a strip of packing or sealing material 23 is placed between each pair of sealing rims 14 and 15. A separate strip of packing material 24 is similarly placed between the end sealing rims 21 and the supporting ring 6 or cross beams 7. The bolts 19 are passed down through the bushings 18 and through the packing strips 23 or 24 and are secured to the cross-beams or supporting ring by threads in the latter or by nuts 25.

When the bolts are tightened the packing material 23 or 24 is compressed to form a gas- and liquid-tight seal against the sealing rims 14, 15 and 21. The bushings 18 are placed in compression by the bolts and transmit the downward thrust of the upper ends of the bolts to the sealing rims 14 and 21. Hence seals are formed between the rims 14 and 15 and no fluid can by-pass the tray between the sides of the adjacent tray sections; similarly, seals are formed between the rims 21 and the supporting rim or the cross beam and no fluid can pass about the ends of the tray sections.

If desired a tray section may be omitted at one part of the column to provide a large opening 26 at which a liquid downcomer (not shown) may be connected.

The construction according to the invention has the advantage that the tray sections can be mounted in a simple and rapid manner, that they are of light but robust design, can be interconnected in a fluid-tight manner without difficulty, and are easy to disassemble.