Patent ID: 7134557

Claim:
A lift station for lifting liquid from an open channel flow of liquid, said lift station comprising: a housing having an inlet opening arranged to receive said open channel flow of liquid onto a bottom wall of said housing so that open channel flow continues into said housing: a bladed wheel mounted within said housing for rotation about an axis located above said inlet opening, and a drive motor rotating said bladed wheel therein by drive components coupling said drive motor to said blade wheel; said bladed wheel having a plurality of outwardly extending blades attached to a hub structure, said blades generally conforming to the cross sectional shape of an interior space in said housing receiving said open channel liquid flow and rotated in the same direction of the direction of said flow, said blades each having an outer edge passing over said bottom wall during rotation of said bladed wheel and sweeping said open channel liquid flow entering said inlet opening in said same direction as said direction of said open channel flow; said housing interior space defined by a rear wall surface curving upwardly from said inlet opening along the path along which said outer edge of each of said blades move so as to enable liquid to be swept therealong and upwardly by rotation of said bladed wheel; said upwardly curving surface extending to a rearwardly and upwardly extending exit chute having a weir edge defined at an upper region thereof, liquid slung over said weir edge descending into a collection space disposed below and past said weir edge; said bladed wheel rotated by said drive motor to achieve sufficient blade velocity to sweep liquid upwardly and to sling said liquid up said exit chute and over said weir edge, said liquid thereafter descending into said collection space; the improvement comprising an entryway inclined downwardly sufficiently steeply to said housing bottom wall inlet opening in the direction of movement of said blades to prevent a substantial retardation of said open channel flow upon encountering said blades.