Filtering and collecting device of solid and powder refuse for industrial and civil suction apparatus

Abstract: The apparatus is equipped with at least one flexible, removable storage bag (17) and means (4) of drawing in and conveying refuse to the storage bag (17) adapted to form a flow of air and refuse, the filtering and collecting device comprising: an air and refuse sorting zone (16a) supplied with the flow of air and refuse, at least one filter (19) communicated with the sorting zone (16a) and adapted to allow for the escape of air from the flow, and the storage bag (17) communicated with the sorting zone (16a) and made of an impervious material of the disposable type, to be thrown away together with refuse collected therein.

Description: This invention relates to a filtering and collecting device of solid and powder refuse for industrial and civil suction apparatus, and specifically for suction apparatus or equipment incorporating a refuse storage means which comprises at least one flexible and removable bag. Such a device is defined in the preamble of the accompanying Claim 1 and it is known from CH-A-608.538. It is recognized that suction equipment or apparatus both require that the suction air be filtered and let through and that the powder and solid refuse picked up be stored up therein. Many suction apparatus as used on certain industrial and civil areas have the beneficial characteristic of employing a filtering and collecting means which conveys the air, powder, and solid refuse drawn in directly into at least one filtering storage bag which is flexible and detachable. With this engineering approach, emptying, cleaning, and maintaining such suction apparatus can be made simpler and quicker. To permit of the air conveyed along with dust and solid refuse transpiration, the storage bag of such devices is in the form of bags or pouches made, for instance, of a porous paper or a fabric having a suitable porosity. Plastics bags would serve no purpose because, owing to their being impervious, they cannot let air therethrough. Said bags or pouches are of two types: a permanent type, which is saved and emptied after a number of cycles to also re-establish optimum filtering conditions; or a disposable type, to be thrown away when filled and replaced with new bags. Re-usable bags must be made of some strong material, usually of fabric, whereas disposable bags are made of paper or the like low-cost material. Such suction apparatus with at least one flexible, removable storage and filtering bag shows serious deficiencies when subjected to severe working conditions in industrial applications or city or civil area cleaning applications. In fact, with filtering bags of the disposable type it is generally difficult to work outdoors on broad surfaces, especially when wet, because filters made of paper or the like materials are torn and disintegrated once wet by the impact from solid refuse. Where fabric bags are used, on the other hand, it is the emptying and recovering operation that becomes difficult as well as being unsanitary, because this operation can raise a lot of dust sweeping over the operator. In addition, one often has no idea of where to go for emptying them, or the dumping site is relatively far away and involves significant downtime for transportation. Of course, fabric bags cannot be thrown away on account of their high cost. In actual practice, despite the advantages from simplicity and practicality afforded by the conveyance of air, dust, and solid refuse into one or more filtering and storage bags, the cited drawbacks are so serious that the use of said suction apparatus only becomes possible on certain areas, or where the amounts of dust and refuse to be removed are minimal. To try to obviate to these drawbacks, it is known to provide filtering and collecting devices which convey a flow of air and refuse to a storage bag made of an impervious material, to be thrown away together with the refuse matter collected therein, which is in communication with a permanent filter arranged to allow air to escape. In particular, CH-A-608.538 describes a filtering and collecting device comprising suction and conveyance means suitable to form a flow of air and refuse, a permanent filter overlying a flexible storage bag made of a substantially impervious material of the disposable type, and a manifold defining on its interior a sorting zone fed by the flow of air and refuse and in communication with the filter and the storage bag. The sorting zone is located downstream from the suction and conveyance means, between the filter and the storage bag. A drawback of these devices is that the filter and the storage bag need that the flow of refuse is delicate, while on the contrary the suction and conveyance means needs the maximum power, to pick up also solid refuse, from the ground. The said opposite needs, interfere each other and forbid suction and conveyance means to have high power, to avoid a dangerous impact of solid refuse against the storage bag and the filter. Thus, the technical problem remains unsolved of how to provide a filtering and collecting device, of the type based upon the conveyance of the refuse to at least one flexible, removable storage bag, which can be effectively utilized under a variety of environmental conditions and on broad industrial or civil areas. This being the situation, the technical aim of this invention is to provide a device which can solve technical problem and substantially obviate the cited drawbacks. Within the scope of this technical aim, an important object of the invention is to provide a low-cost device with a simple structure, which can gain widespread acceptance and utilization. The above mentioned aim, and specific object, are substantially achieved by a filtering and collecting device of solid and powder refuse for industrial and civil suction apparatus as claimed in Claim 1. Further features will become apparent from a detailed description of a device according to the invention, shown in the accompanying drawing, where the Figure shows a suction apparatus incorporating a device having a single storage bag with a cartridge-type filter. With reference to the drawing view, the device of this invention is shown to be inserted in a suction apparatus or machine 1 as used to clean large municipal areas, perhaps directly by personnel of the municipal street cleaning service. The suction apparatus 1 is mainly comprised, additionally to the inventive device indicated at 2, at a supporting and guiding structure 3, and refuse suction and conveyance means 4. The structure 3 comprises a support 5, two wheels 6, handlebars 7, and a truck portion 8. The support 5 carries the wheels 6 rotatably by means of an axle 5a, and the truck portion 8 oscillably which is provided with at least one caster 8a, by means of a swivel joint 5b. The handlebars 7 comprise two bars 7a which extend laterally of the suction apparatus 1, from the support 5 to man's height. The suction and conveyance means 4 comprise a motor 9 mounted fixedly on the support 5 and a fan 10 driven by the motor 9. The suction side of the fan 10 is connected to a suction port 11 provided with a caster 11a, and the fan delivery side is connected to a conveyance duct 12. The suction and conveyance means 4 form in combination a flow of air and solid and powder refuse which extends from the suction port 11 to beyond the conveyance duct 12. The device 2 locates downstream from the suction and conveyance means 4 in the flowing direction of the air and refuse stream, and is engaged with the side bars 7a of the handlebars 7. In addition, it is overlaid by a case 13 which is manually controlled to tilt or detach. The device 2 comprises a refuse collecting or storage member 14, filtering member 15, and a manifold 16 positioned at said members 14 and 15 and defining a sorting zone 16a therebetween. The collecting member 14 comprises one or more storage bags 17 in the form of collecting bags to be trown away with the refuse, being of a standard impervious plastics type for municipal street cleaning and refuse collection. The storage bags 17 are supported at the bottom on the truck portion 8 of the support 5. The manifold 16, which is rigid and engaged with the side bars 7a of the handlebars 7, comprises at the bottom one or more ports 18 for removable attachment to said storage bags. The manifold 16 has mounts instead at the top, for the filtering member 15 in the form of one or more filters 19. The filters 19 may be formed of flexible filter bags vertically overlying the storage bags 17. Between the filters 19 and the storage bags 17 there may be advantageously provided foraminous partition septa, e.g. of wire mesh or perforated sheet metal, which are engaged with levers or the like operable from outside the suction apparatus 1 to shake said foraminous partition septa. The only Figure shows a suction apparatus 1 having a single filter 19 of the cartridge type, made of a special paper and substantially rigid, overlying a single storage bag 17. Further in the Figure there is advantageously provided a means 20 of controlling the strength of the air flow from the fan 10, provided on a conveyance body 20a placed between the manifold 16 and the suction and conveyance means 4. The control means 20 on the conveyance body 20a is formed by portions of a filtering material of the conveyance body 20a itself, such as a porous cloth. In the example shown, the conveyance body 20a is made of cloth throughout. Shown in the Figure are cleaning members for cleaning the interior of the cartridge filter 19, which are embodied by a brush element 21 adapted to be reciprocated manually from the above downwards by means of the knobs 22 which are passed through the filters 19. In the Figure there is also shown a rigid emergency basket 23 placed on the truck 8. The device 2 operates as follows. With the motor 9 and fan 10 in operation, the suction port 11 will pick up anything within its reach lying on the ground, as the operator moves forward with the suction apparatus or machine 1, by pushing it through the handlebars 7. The air drawn in together with dust and small lightweight solid bits, such as pieces of paper, will be forced, through the conveyance duct 12, into the manifold 16 and out through the filters 19 which hold back the dust and lightweight solid bits, whereas the heaviest ones will fall directly into the underlying storage bags 17. If the foraminous partition septa are provided, in the filters 19 dust will collect only. At the end of the job, or when the storage bags 17 have been filled, the operator will stop the motor 9 and fan 10, thereby the contents of the filters 19 tends to fall naturally into the underlying storage bags 17 because of the interrupted air flow. In any case, the operator can act on the filters 19 so as to drop their contents into the underlying storage bags, for example, by shaking the filter bags with his hands, or where a cartridge filter is used, by operating the brush elements 21 through the knobs 22. In operation of the machine, the brush elements 21 would be held in a raised position not to hinder the flow of air. The foraminous partition septa may also be shaken by means of the levers. The operator will then remove the storage bags 17 from the manifold 16, tie them closed, and throw them away together with the refuse collected on their inside. The operator can then return the suction apparatus 1 to its operative condition by applying new storage bags 17 to it. The guard case 13 prevents dust from sweeping over the operator, even in the unlikely event of the filters 19 being ruptured. The air flow control means 20 provided on the conveyance body 20a attenuate the strength of the air flow, permitting enhanced escape of the same and, therefore, high power motor 9 and fan 10 to be used. Because of the conveyance body 20a being provided directly ahead of the manifold 16, it will not affect the suction capacity of the device: solid and powder refuse will have acquired by now a sufficient velocity to reach the manifold 16. The invention achieves important advantages. In fact, the invention enables simple and inexpensive storage bags 17 to be used which are made of plastics or some other disposable material for refuse collection, while the filtering action takes place on filters 19 of a suitable material, which do not require replacement except on the occurrence of fortuitous ruptures or of wear over time. The attachment ports 18 for the storage bags 17 may be adjusted to fit the bags normally used by the refuse collection serices of various towns, and are therefore readily available. These bags can also receive solid objects and refuse picked up from wet surfaces. It is obvious that said plastics bags may also be guarded externally or temporarily inserted, during the picking-up operation, into a bag of a strong fabric to prevent their rupture for unforeseen reasons during the picking-up operation and the collected material from spreading over the ground. The mutual positions of the storage bags 17 and filters 19 enable natural sorting of the air and dust, on the one side, and solid refuse, on the other side, during the job, and an immediate conveying into the storage bags 17 of the dust as well on completion of the job. The position of the filtering and collecting device according to the invention at the end of the flow of air and solid and powdery refuse, downstream from the fan 10 which generates the flow, enables the fan 10 to be located closest to the suction port 11 to provide a strong suction effect and reliable removal of the refuse from the ground. Furthermore, said position enables the provision of said means 20 of controlling the oncoming air flow to the sorting zone 16a. In fact, this control means 20 only controls the strength of the flow at the filtering and collecting device according to the invention and does not affect the suction action of the fan 10 at the port 11. It thus becomes possible to provide fans 10 and motors 9 even of high power.

Claims: A filtering and collecting device (2) of solid and powder refuse for industrial and civil suction apparatus (1), comprising: suction and conveyance means (4) for conveying said refuse suitable to form a flow of air and refuse, a manifold (16) defining on its interior a sorting zone (16a) for said air and said refuse, said sorting zone (16a) being fed by said flow of air and refuse, at least one flexible storage bag (17) in communication with said sorting zone (16a) and made of a substantially impervious material and of the disposable type, to be thrown away together with the refuse matter collected therein, and at least one filter (19) placed in communication with said sorting zone (16a) and arranged to allow air of said flow to escape, said at least one filter (19) and said at least one storage bag (17) being substantially aligned vertically to each other, in their working position, and said at least one filter (19) overlying said at least one storage bag (17), said sorting zone (16a) in communication with said at least one filter (19) and said at least one storage bag (17), aligned vertically to each other, being located downstream from said suction and conveyance means (4), relatively to the direction of flow of said flow of air and refuse, characterized in that between said suction and conveyance means (4) and said sorting zone (16a) a means (20) is provided of controlling the strength of said flow of air and refuse arranged to provide for the escape of air. A device according to claim 1, wherein said means (20) is provided directly ahead of said manifold (16) defining said sorting zone (16a). A device according to Claim 2, wherein said means (20) is located on a conveyance body (20a) comprising portions of filtering material. A device according to Claim 3, wherein said filtering material is made of cloth. A device according to Claim 1, wherein at least one said storage bag (17) and at least one said filter (19) are separated by a foraminous partition septum adapted to guard at least one said filter (19) against solid refuse, and wherein said foraminous partition septum is movable and a lever is provided for operating said foraminous partition septum, said lever being operable from outside said suction apparatus.

Inventors: ZONI SERGIO, ZONI, SERGIO
Applicants: DULEVO INT SPA, DULEVO INTERNATIONAL S.P.A.
Application year: 1989
Main classification: E01H1
IPC codes: E01H1, A47L9