Tool for separation of solid materials by particle size
"Drainer" redirects here. For the music culture, see
Drain Gang
.
Metal laboratory sieves
An
ami shakushi
, a Japanese ladle or scoop that may be used to remove small drops of batter during the frying of
tempura
ancient sieve
A
sieve
,
fine mesh strainer
, or
sift
, is a tool used for
separating
wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the
particle size
distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a
woven
mesh
or
net
or
perforated
sheet material.
[1]
The word
sift
derives from
sieve
.
In cooking, a
sifter
is used to separate and break up clumps in dry ingredients such as
flour
, as well as to aerate and combine them. A
strainer
(see
Colander
), meanwhile, is a form of sieve used to separate
suspended
solids
from a liquid by
filtration
.
Industrial strainer
[
edit
]
Some industrial strainers available are
simplex basket strainers
,
duplex basket strainers
,
T-strainers
and
Y-strainers
. Simple basket strainers are used to protect valuable or sensitive equipment in systems that are meant to be shut down temporarily. Some commonly used strainers are
bell mouth strainers
,
foot valve strainers
,
[2]
basket strainers. Most processing industries (mainly pharmaceutical, coatings and liquid food industries) will opt for a self-cleaning strainer instead of a basket strainer or a simplex strainer due to limitations of simple filtration systems. The self-cleaning strainers or filters are more efficient and provide an automatic filtration solution.
[3]
Sieving
[
edit
]
Sieving is a simple technique for separating particles of different sizes. A sieve such as used for sifting flour has very small holes. Coarse particles are separated or broken up by grinding against one another and the screen openings. Depending upon the types of particles to be separated, sieves with different types of holes are used. Sieves are also used to separate stones from sand. Sieving plays an important role in food industries where sieves (often vibrating) are used to prevent the contamination of the product by foreign bodies. The design of the industrial sieve is of primary importance here.
[4]
Triage
sieving refers to grouping people according to their severity of injury.
Wooden sieves
[
edit
]
A wooden mesh in which the withes were one eighth of an inch wide and set the same distance apart. This would be used on an English farm of the Victorian era to sift grain, removing dust and soil.
The mesh in a wooden sieve might be made from wood or
wicker
. Use of wood to avoid contamination is important when the sieve is used for sampling.
[5]
Henry Stephens, in his
Book of the Farm
, advised that the
withes
of a wooden
riddle
or sieve be made from
fir
or
willow
with
American elm
being best. The rims would be made of fir,
oak
or, especially,
beech
.
[6]
US standard test sieve series
[
edit
]
A
sieve analysis
(or gradation test) is a practice or procedure used (commonly used in
civil engineering
or
sedimentology
) to assess the particle size distribution (also called gradation) of a granular material. Sieve sizes used in combinations of four to eight sieves.
Designations and Nominal Sieve Openings
[7]
Tyler
|
Sieve
|
Sieve opening
|
(in)
|
(mm)
|
?
|
5 inch
|
5.0
|
125
|
?
|
4.24 inch
|
4.24
|
106
|
?
|
4 inch
|
4.0
|
100
|
?
|
3
+
1
⁄
2
inch
|
3.5
|
90
|
2.97 inch
|
3.0 inch
|
3.0
|
75
|
?
|
2
+
1
⁄
2
inch
|
2.5
|
63
|
?
|
2.12 inch
|
2.12
|
53
|
2.10 inch
|
2 inch
|
2.00
|
50
|
?
|
1
+
3
⁄
4
inch
|
1.75
|
45
|
1.48 inch
|
1
+
1
⁄
2
inch
|
1.50
|
37.5
|
?
|
1
+
1
⁄
4
inch
|
1.25
|
31.5
|
1.05 inch
|
1.06 inch
|
1.06
|
26.5
|
?
|
1 inch
|
1.00
|
25.0
|
0.883 inch
|
7
⁄
8
inch
|
0.875
|
22.4
|
0.742 inch
|
3
⁄
4
inch
|
0.750
|
19.0
|
0.624 inch
|
5
⁄
8
inch
|
0.625
|
16.0
|
0.525 inch
|
0.530 inch
|
0.530
|
13.2
|
?
|
1/2 inch
|
0.500
|
12.5
|
0.441 inch
|
7
⁄
16
inch
|
0.438
|
11.2
|
0.371 inch
|
3
⁄
8
inch
|
0.375
|
9.5
|
[
clarification needed
]
[
(a)Why are two columns with the same numbers needed? (b)Figures in mm don't agree with figures in inches.
]
Other types
[
edit
]
- Chinois
, or conical sieve used as a strainer, also sometimes used like a
food mill
- Cocktail strainer
, a bar accessory
- Colander
, a (typically) bowl-shaped sieve used as a strainer in cooking
- Flour sifter or bolter, used in flour production and baking
- Graduated sieves, used to separate varying small sizes of material, often soil, rock or minerals
- Mesh
strainer, or just "strainer", usually consisting of a fine metal mesh screen on a metal frame
- Laundry strainer, to drain boiling water from laundry removed from a
Wash copper
, usually with a wooden frame to facilitate manual handling with hot contents
- Pickle lifter
? Device for lifting pickled goods from a container
- Riddle
, used for soil
- Spider
, used in Chinese cooking
- Tamis
, also known as a drum sieve
- Tea strainer
, specifically intended for use when making tea
- Zaru
, or bamboo sieve, used in Japanese cooking
- Other uses
- "Sieve" is a common term used in
trash-talk
referring to a
goaltender
in
ice hockey
who lets in too many goals
[8]
- "Leaks like a sieve" is an English language idiom to describe a container that has multiple leaks, or, by allegory, an organization whose confidential information is routinely disclosed to the public.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Sieves
at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of
sieve
at Wiktionary
Quotations related to
Sieve
at Wikiquote
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Categories
Commons
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