COLLECTOR WHEEL

Abstract: A collector wheel designed to collect and separate oil (13) or the like, pulverous and/or insoluble liquid materials from bodies of water (1). The collector wheel is made of a stiff net material (2, 7, 8, 9) having openings in it, which material due to turbulence in the water close to the surfaces of the net material during the rotation of the wheel, separates the oil from the water. Also, the collector wheel is designed in such a fashion, that the oil during the rotation of the collector wheel gradually is forwarded inwardly to an enclosure (5) disposed along the axis of the collector wheel. The oil or any other material collected and separated finally is forced by the stiff net material into said enclosure (5) and removed from said enclosure by means of a screw (6) in the enclosure to a collecting vessel, a container or the like (4).

Description: COLLECTOR WHEEL The present invention relates generally to means of removing, by picking up in a mechanical fashion, from a liquid body solid materials and/or materials not dis- solved but present in a liquid state in said liquid body. The invention relates more specifically to a wheel designed to be used to collect and remove oil at sea and in beach areas, to decontaminate liquid bodies contami- nated with not dissolved chemicals, to treat waste a- ter, to be used as a dredger or as a supplement to it, as a fishing tackle, particularily for shrimps, etc. The invention particularily relates to a collector wheel designed to be used to remove oil, especially unrefined oils, even emulsified oils having a large water cont- tent, but also generally to remove not dissolved che- micals, particularily pulverous ones, which can be re- moved and collected by means designed to fight oil discharges. The principal object of the present invention is to re- medy the deficiencies of the presently used devices for oil separation and removal, improve the efficiency, i.e. increase the speed of the oil separation process and lo- wer the energy consumption. A second object of the in- vention is to avoid damages to the environment caused by the separation and removal process itself. A third ob- ject of the invention is to lessen the dependence of the separation and removal process on the weather condi- tions, wind, wave movements, temperature and on the spreading of the material to be separated and removed on the surface of the liquid body and also down into it. According to the present invention, surprisingly, all OMPI the objects metioned above can be attained to a saris- factory degree by means of a rotating collector wheel mainly consisting of a net material. The collector wheel is brought along a body of water contaminated with oil or any other material insoluble in water and continuous- ly picks up water and oil, separates the picked up ' amount of oil from the water and removes the separated oil to a collecting vessel. «The characterizing features of the collector wheel of the present invention is that it comprises two gables of a stiff net material, the gables being firmly posi- tioned on a wheel shaft, as well as a helically shaped portion between said gables, also made .of said stiff net material and fastened to the gables, the helical portion extending around said wheel shaft roughly 360 and having an outer edge and an inner edge, both edges being paral- lell in relation to the wheel shaft. A screw and an en- closure for it, designed to propel an oil material or the like, is disposed inside the collector wheel, coaxially with the wheel shaft, the enclosure being " firmly mounted in means supporting said wheel shaft. The collector wheel is rotated, in operation, with a certain oil collecting speed by means of a first driver and said screw is rotated by means of a second driver with such a speed, that all the collected amount of oil is removed from said screw enclosure. The collector wheel as well as the screw are rotably mounted in bearings in a frame, which is installed on a boat, a barge, a raft or the like, The inner edge of the helically shaped net material strokes the enclosure , when the wheel rotates. A certain amount of oil is collec- ted in the opening of the wheel each time the opening reaches the oil layer in the body of water. The water turns turbulent close to the net material and turbulent water layers substantially free from oil are shaped on OMPI ^-wiPδ- each side of the net material and thus, collected oil is not allowed to leave the inner areas of the wheel through the walls of the net material. Said walls are kept clean to a satisfactory degree due to the turbu- lenc ' e in the water close to the net walls. Due to the helical shape of the net material between the two ga- bles and the water turbulence at the net walls, the collected oil increasingly approaches said enclosure and screw, since the inner edge of the helically shaped net strokes the cylin rically shaped surface of the en- closure. The forwarded oil finally easily flows into the enclosure through its openings and is removed by said screw in said enclosure, through the enclosure it- self and through means connected to the enclosure for the continued removal of the oil material to a collec- ting vessel or the like. Due to the turbulence in the water close to the net ma- terial even separation between quite thin-bodied unre- fined oils and water can be attained as well as the re- taining of the oil inside the helically shaped portion of the wheel until it reaches the enclosure and the screw. This is also true as to emulsified oils having a large water content. Pulverous chemicals in liquid bo- dies can be easily picked up and be separated from the liquid by the collector wheel of the present invention. Due to the thickness of an oil layer, the speed of the wheel frame in relation to a body of water, such wheel dimensions as length and diameter, weather conditions etc. , the rotational speed of the wheel can vary con- siderably. Preferably it is 1-100 rev./min. The shaft of the collector wheel can be positioned above, in and below the surface of the body of water. Oil which OMPI W WIPPOO 1 has been spilled onto the surface soon starts to sink. 2 The collector wheel of the present invention is parti- 3 cularily well adapted to pick up sinking oil. The col- 4 lector wheel is lowered along legs of the wheel frame, 5 e.g. by means of hydraulically driven plungers. Spilled 6 oil often accumulates along beaches. In case the beaches 7 are shallow, the collector wheel with its enclosed screw 8 and frame can be installed on a truck or a motor vehicle 9 having caterpillar treads and the shaft of the collector 10 wheel be kept at a suitable level in relation to the wa- 11 ter surface during the oil collecting process. 12 13 It is also feasible to advantageously employ the collec- 14 tor wheel of the present invention to purify raw sewage 15 or the like, to employ it as a dredger or as a supplemen- 16 tal device to a dredger, as fishing ' tackle, e.g. for 17 shrimps etc. 18 19 The present invention is described in more details in the 20 following text, references being made to the enclosed 21 partly schematic drawings, wherein 22 23 Fig. 1 is a side view of the collector wheel, a preferred 24 embodiment of it; 25 26 Fig. 2 is a sectional side view taken along a line per- 27 pendicular to the shaft of the collector wheel; 28. 29 Fig. 3is afront view of the collector wheel, the net ma- 30 terial only being indicated by its edges, contour lines 31 and openings, thus unveiling the screw and its enclo- 32 sure ; and 33 34 Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the collector wheel. 35 OMPI Referring to the drawings, figs. 1-4, it is shown ow a collector wheel of the present invention operates. It is lowered into a body of water 1 , which is coπ.a- minated with oil 13. One of two gables 2 is shown in fig. 1. It is made of a metal net material, a sheet ha- vine holes in it, but only certain portions of the net material is shown in order to more clearly show the he- lically shaped net portion between the two gables 2. The net material is produced by cutting a plurality of small parallel slits in a sheet material of stainless steel, and subsequently drawing out the sheet material in order to develop said slits into small mainly square openings. A frame portion 3, which is disposed in a ver- tical direction, conceals gable 2 in fig. 1. Frame por- tio 3 holds in bearings (not shown) the shaft (not shown) , around which the collector wheel is rotably mounted. Frame portion 3 also supports a hydraulic o- tor 11 , which drives the shaft and the collector wheel. In fig. 3 a motor 12 is shown, which drives an oil pro- pelling screw 6. The frame portions, which carry motors 11 and 12 and their transmission means, are only shown schematically in the drawings. In fig. 3 collected and separated oil is shown in a for- warding enclosure 5, which extends between the central portions of the two gables 2. An amount of oil 13 inside enclosure 5 ( fig. 2) is propelled by a screw 6 towards a tube 4 and is removed through the tube to a collecting vessel (not shown) . The helically shaped metal net shown in figs. 1-4 has an inner and an outer edge 7 and 8 respectively. There is an opening in the collector wheel between edge 8 and a line 9 in the net parallel to it, the opening having a breadth a. A plane through this opening is vertically disposed in figs. 2-4, but the collector wheel rotates in the direction, which the arrows in fig. 2 indicate. After a rotation of 90 the collector wheel picks up oil 13 on a surface a x b (the breadth of the opening times the length of the wheel) . At the same time volume 10 defined by the metal net and the water surface de- creased sharply and the better part of the oil, which was found in that space, was forced into enclosure 5 and is now forwarded by screw 6 towards tube 4. Newly collected oil 13 is kept in place on the shrinking wa- ter surface between two metal net surfaces due to up- wardly turbulent streams, which the movement of the me- tal net in the body of water is creating. Earlier col- lected oil 13, which was found deeper inside the wheel, in volume 10 , when wheel opening 8 , had a vertical po- sition, was kept in place in the same manner. OMPI

Claims: CLAIMS : 1. Apparatus for collecting, and separating in a mecha- nical fashion one or several solid and/or liquid ir.so- luble materials (13) in a liquid body (1) , comprising: two gables (2) made of a stiff net material having holes in it and mounted on a wheel shaft, which is horizcntal- ly and rotably disposed in a frame (3) and is driven by a first driving means (11) ; a stiff net matterial (7,8,9) , having a rectangular shape ' and fastened between and to said two gables (2) , being helically bent around said wheel shaft roughly 360 and having an outer edge (δ) and an inner edge (7) parallel to said wheel shaft; a screw (6) designed to remove material (13) , which has been collected due to turbulence and separation during the rotation of the apparatus, provided with a second driving means (12) and being disposed inside an enclo- sure (5) having a cylindrical shape, being firmly dis- posed and having openings facing upwardly; and the shafts of the gables and the helically bent net a- terial (2,7,8) and the screw (6) being coaxially disposed and the inner edge (7) of said helically bent net mate- rial stroking the cylindrical surface of said enclosure (5) , while the collecting apparatus rotates; as well as means (4) connected to said enclosure (5) and said screw (6) for the removal of said material. 2. The structure set forth in claim 1 , wherein said ma- terial to be collected and separated is an unrefined oil, OMPI % particularily an emulsified oil having a large water content. 3. The structure set forth in claim 1, wherein said a- terial to be collected and separated is a liquid or pul- verous and water insoluble chemical. 4. The structure set forth in any one of claims 1-2, wherein the collector wheel rotates with a speed of bet- ween 1 and 100 rev./min. 5. The structure set forth in any one of claims 1-4, wherein the shaft of said collector wheel during collec- tion and separation is situated above, in or below the surface of the liquid body (1) . 6. The structure set forth in any one of claims 1-5, wherein said frame is carried by a boat, a barge, a raft or the like or by a motor vehicle being provided with wheels or caterpillar treads, when the collector wheel is used to collect and separate oil or chemicals in shallow beach areas. 7. The structure set forth in any one -of claims 1-6, wherein said stiff net material, which said gables (2) and said helically shaped portion (7,8,9) consists of, Is made of sheet of stainless steel, which is cut with small slits and subsequently drawn out in order to trans- form said slits into openings in the the sheet having a substantially square area. 8. The structure set forth in claim 7, wherein the length of the edges of said sheet openings is 0.5 - 10 mm. OMPI WIPO

Inventors: EK KENNETH, HAMMARSTEDT ULF, EK,KENNETH, HAMMARSTEDT, ULF
Applicants: EK KENNETH, HAMMARSTEDT ULF, EK,KENNETH, HAMMARSTEDT, ULF
Application year: 1984
Main classification: E02B15
IPC codes: A01K61, A01K80, B01D17, B01D33, E02B15