Patent ID: 8557127

Claim:
A separator system for separating solids from a slurry comprising: a spillway from a storage pit; a horizontal conveyor formed as a trough horizontally disposed across a flowpath of the slurry below the spillway, the trough including a channel defined by a pair of opposed side members extending upward from a bottom plate having a pattern of perforations sized to be large enough to pass the slurry including any suspended solids contained therein but small enough to trap solids having physical dimensions too large to pass through them; a continuous conveyor drive running along the center and the bottom of the trough in a direction parallel to the channel; a plurality of paddles extending across a width of the channel and longitudinally spaced from each other along the length of the channel, said continuous conveyor drive extending through a center of each of said spaced apart paddles and being affixed thereto, a downstream end of the trough being open, allowing the paddles to be pulled by the continuous conveyor around a pulley or wheel and then pass under the trough; and a conveyor below the downstream open end of said trough and positioned to catch solids that have been carried along by the paddles and convey said solids out of the slurry stream.