Patent ID: 7810747

Claim:
An inducer comminutor device for a solids-bearing, fluid handling system, comprising: a housing comprising an inducer section and a comminutor section, the inducer section containing an inducer therein and the comminutor section containing a comminutor therein, said housing having and inlet and an outlet, and being adapted for installation in a fluid flow upstream of a main pump impeller, whereby the comminutor is positioned between the inducer and the main pump impeller; and a rotor disposed within the housing so as to occupy both the comminutor section and the inducer section, a first portion of said rotor being a constituent component of the inducer and a second portion of said rotor being a constituent component of the comminutor, said rotor comprising a hub and at least one rotor blade helically disposed thereon, the at least one rotor blade having a blade pitch angle progressively increasing in pitch angle from the inlet to the outlet as a first polynomial function, the rotor having a cross-section spacing from blade to blade which increases from the inlet to the outlet, the hub having a larger diameter at the outlet than the hub diameter at the inlet, the change in hub diameter from the inlet to the outlet being describable by a second polynomial function; said inducer and said comminutor defining a total fluid flow passageway through which fluid and solids transported thereby can flow from the inlet to the outlet, the solids being reduced in size by the comminutor during passage there through without separation of the fluid from the solids.