Patent Publication Number: US-2007113335-A1

Title: Food preparation sink trash interceptor

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
      This application is a continuation-in-part application of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/285,520 filed Nov. 22, 2005. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      A. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a garbage disposal, and more particularly to a garbage disposer unit for use in food industries to replace motorized disposers that have become an environmentally harmful way to dispose of food wastes.  
      B. Description of Related Art  
      Restaurant food waste from rinsed dirty dishes is an environmental problem. Garbage disposers are highly efficient at disposing of food waste at a high rate, unfortunately they have other problems. Drain waste has the potential to create public health hazards. Excessive food service waste can overburden community wastewater systems and consequently, the oceans and streams of our natural environment. In this regard, the currently popular powered garbage disposers are problematic. Heavy-duty disposers have a high initial cost and maintenance with lost operation time at busy restaurants when they need fast dish washing with food disposal. Some cities such as Irvine, Calif. have banned garbage disposers because of the environmental awareness that the motorized disposers basically excrete food waste in a slurry state to the rivers and public facilities where it is difficult to be recycled into potable water. Thus, the food waste will eventually end up in the ocean where it can cause bacteria blooms and other environmental disasters.  
      One alternative to the garbage disposer is a strainer system to catch food waste from rinsed dirty dishes. Strainers built into the piping system have been used for more than a hundred years. U.S. Pat. No. 495,998 shows a sink trap design patented in 1893, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. A larger unit is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 960,901 to Hall for a trap for kitchen sinks patented in 1910, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Hall shows a top strainer removable for cleaning and a bottom strainer. A horizontal line strainer was invented by Buker as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,188 patented in 1957, the disclosure which is incorporated herein by reference. The Buker device allows a continuous horizontal flow having a removable screen. A more recent improvement is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,351 to Peterson patented Aug. 30th 1977, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The Petersen device has a removable strainer mounted below a sink. While the previously cited patented inventions may help with household drain straining, they are not well suited to a high flow restaurant type of environment. They also have inconvenient design features that would not allow their use as a replacement of a garbage disposer.  
      U.S. application Ser. No. 11/285,520 filed by the present inventor and incorporated in its entirety herein by reference discloses a garbage disposer replacement unit that is fixed under a kitchen sink where an electric disposer has left. The garbage disposer replacement unit includes a pre-rinse basket with food waste straining holes. The unit comprises a main body housing a tray slidingly suspended that retains small particles food waste via fine bottom perforations. The tray has a top opening larger than a drain diameter of an existing bus bowl in a kitchen. A plastic clip disc pairs with top clip members to clip the main body onto bus bowl flanges. A clip disc drain adapter adjusts and adapts the unit&#39;s outlet to different drain diameters of existing bus bowl fixtures. The clip disc and top clip members constitute a clip assembly for adjustably clipping the unit main body to the given drain flange. Optionally, a four-legged riser replaces the clip assembly to attach to the unit main body top for bus bowls with a flangeless standard drain fitting.  
      It is also necessary to be able to have a flexible range of placements of such garbage disposer replacement unit to adapt to various kitchen space requirements.  
      Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a garbage disposer replacement unit that can replace a motorized disposer at any place about the kitchen sink using readily available plumbing members.  
      Another object of the present invention is to provide a self-supporting garbage disposer replacement unit that does not require a special fixture to the sink.  
      Yet another embodiment of the present invention is to provide a means for simply adapting the garbage disposer replacement unit to fit different diameters of the drainage system of individual kitchens.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      A garbage disposer replacement unit according to the present invention provides a means for straining food waste more environmentally friendly and comprises a drainage means fitted to one or more sink for transporting food wastes to a sewer system, a main body connected in series with the drainage means, the main body having a reservoir and a number of legs for supporting the main body above a floor, a tray slidingly suspended within the main body above the reservoir, wherein the tray has fine bottom perforations, and a draining basket removably positioned under the drainage means for catching escaped wastes bypassing the main body.  
      The tray of the main body retains small particles food waste via fine bottom perforations. The tray has a large top opening and a centrally opened adaptor plate to redefine the top opening to fit with the drainage means for the existing sinks in the kitchen.  
      The main body of the garbage disposer replacement unit also has a large opening on its top surface and a set of adaptor plates each having a predetermined diameter of central opening and a number of peripheral bolt holes for attaching a selected adaptor plate to the main body for redefining the large opening of the main body to fit with the drainage means.  
      The supporting legs of the main body each has threaded sections movable relative to each other along a common longitudinal axis to adjust the length of the leg, whereby the main body stands at level.  
      Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of the garbage disposer replacement unit according to the present invention as applied to a kitchen sink.  
       FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the main body of the garbage disposer replacement unit of  FIG. 1 .  
       FIG. 3  is an exploded view of an adjustable leg supporting the garbage disposer replacement unit of  FIG. 1 .  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , a garbage disposer replacement unit  10  according to the present invention is in an exploded view to show its installation to a kitchen sink  11  at a drainage system  12  between an upper stream section  13  and a lower stream section  14  typical in a kitchen setting. The kitchen sink  11  may be a double bowl sink having a long-spout faucet  15  and is connected at its bowls to a three-bowl drain  16  with a single outlet  17  to which an extra sink  18  is connected.  
      The lower stream section  14  comprises a first elbow  19  facing upwardly and a second elbow  20  facing downwardly. The main garbage unit  10  stands on its own legs  21  under the sink  11  and is connected in series with the drainage system  12  between the upper and lower stream sections  13 ,  14 . On the floor, a drain basket  22  is laid for a secondary filtering of waste water from the garbage unit  10  at a final stage before it goes down the sewage system.  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , the garbage unit  10  comprises a main body  30  constructed by sheets of stainless steel bent and welded into a shape of a drawer box with a deep bottom floor for holding an accumulation of food wastes for controlled disposal. The main body  30  is raised from the floor by the three legs  21  having threaded feet  23 , respectively. It has a large top opening  24  and an adaptor plate  25  with a selected diameter of center hole  26  to accept the drainage system  12  fitting with kitchen sink  11 . The plate  25  is fastened to the top surface of the main body  30  by four sets of bolts  27  and nuts  28  at four bolt holes  29 .  
      Also, the main body  30  has a front rectangular opening  31  though which a tray  32  enters and slidably suspended in the interior of the main body  30 . An oversized handle  33  is attached to the front side of the tray  32  for handling the same in its sliding in and out as well as transporting the wastes filtered at the tray  32 . The primarily filtered wastewater flows down to a drain outlet  34  formed in the bottom of the main body  30 .  
      The drain outlet  34  of the main body  30  is adapted to connect with the draining system  12 .  
      The basket  30  has multiple straining holes for filtering food wastes off dishes by dishwashing personnel who will use the sink unit  10 . The straining basket has straining holes preferably circular 4-7 mm diameter. The basket straining holes can be adjusted by about  60 % without substantial performance degradation, but the best mode is 5-6 mm.  
      The tray  32  is in the shape of a drawer with four sidewalls and a bottom wall formed with perforations  35  to filter out wastes primarily. The tray perforations are preferably 1-3 mm diameter circular apertures. The diameter can be adjusted by about up to  40 % without substantial performance degradation, but the best mode is 2 mm.  
      The main body  30  is provided by a number of sheet members which may comprise a side plate  36  bent generally in U-shape, a front plate  37  for closing substantially the bottom half of an end opening of the side plate  36 , a rear plate for closing the entire opposite end opening of the side plate  36  and a top plate  38  to cover the top opening of the side plate  36 . Stainless steel may be used for making the main body  30 . It may be fabricated by known methods of fastening metal such as stamping, spot welding, laser welding to name a few.  
      The rectangular opening  31  is slanted backwardly relative to the face of the adjacent front plate  37  extending its latitudinal dimension so that the tray  32  may enter and exit the main body  30  rapidly and repeatedly with ease even during busy kitchen hours.  
      The opening  24  formed in the top plate  38  occupies the substantial area thereof and is redefined by the center hole  26  of the adaptor plate  25 . The adaptor plate  25  is also a flat disc with a plurality of peripheral holes where the bolts  27  are threaded through the top plate  38 . In the present embodiment, four bolt holes are formed. A set of adaptor plates  25  may be provided with different diameters of the center hole  26  from which an installer of the garbage unit  10  selects the best fit with the particular drainage system  12 .  
      Pair of horizontal guide rails  40  having an L-shaped cross section are welded inside of the side plate  36  opposing each other at a level slightly lower than an upper edge  41  of the front plate  37  to provide a safety stop against an involuntary slippage of the tray  32  out of the main body  30 . To remove the tray  32 , a user starts by pulling the handle  33  slightly upward to clear the safety stop and draw the tray  32  out to empty the tray of food particles. The minimum food particles caught by the tray are preferably between 2-5 mm in size. This would capture most rice, grains and small sized bread particles. The food particles retained within this tray may increase in size as they absorb water.  
      A reservoir  42  is formed in the bottom half of the main body  30  below the top half area devoted to the tray area. The guide rails  40  hold the tray within the tray area above the reservoir  42 . The reservoir  42  is formed between the sidewalls  36  and front wall  37  above the main body drain  34 . During normal use, when the tray  32  is pulled out to remove wastes the reservoir  42  initially receives newly introduced debris through the upper tray area and passes it down to the lower drainage section  14  for the subsequent collection at the drain basket  22  as described above with reference to  FIG. 1 .  
      Then, the reservoir  42  may fill up in case of drainage block. The reservoir thus operates as a buffer against water overflowing from the front opening  31  over the front edge  41 .  
       FIG. 3  shows one of the legs  21  supporting the garbage unit main body  30  in greater detail. The leg  21  comprises an inverted frusto-conical pillar  43 , a cylindrical core  44  bored centrally with female threads and the foot  23  having its top extension  45  threaded into the cylindrical core  44 .  
      The cylindrical core  44  is fixed concentrically to the interior of the pillar  43  through a plurality of vertical vanes  46  and has a top shaft  47  threaded externally to allow fastening the leg  21  to the body  30 . Nut  48  and washer  49  may be used to secure the top shaft  46  of the leg  22  penetrating a bolt hole  50  through the bottom wall of the main body  30 . In addition, the foot  23  is provided with engagement faces  51  at its bottom end to facilitate turning the foot  23  about the pillar  43 .  
      The garbage disposer replacement unit  10  of the present invention is not limited in installation to replace single existing garbage disposer but multiple compartments of more than one sink may be connected to the single disposer unit  10  in order to achieve a concentrated and thus quick sanitary disposal of food wastes even from a heavy-duty kitchen sinks.  
      Therefore, while the presently preferred form of the garbage disposer replacement unit has been shown and described, and several modifications thereof discussed, persons skilled in this art will readily appreciate that various additional changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, as defined and differentiated by the following claims.