Patent ID: 7025890

Claim:
A centrifugal liquid/solids separator comprising: a. a vessel having a cylindrical side wall, and upper and lower end walls forming an interior chamber, said chamber having an upper section and a lower section; b. an inlet in said cylindrical wall near the upper end wall for introducing fluid under pressure at an angle that is tangential to said cylindrical side wall; c. an outlet pipe axially mounted in the upper end wall of said vessel, said outlet pipe having a cylindrical wall of lesser diameter than said vessel, a hollow interior, an upper portion that extends out from said upper end wall to a top, and a lower portion that extends into the upper section of said chamber to a bottom; d. a helical ring attached around the cylindrical wall of said outlet pipe at the bottom thereof such that said ring protrudes into the upper section of said chamber; e. a plurality of radially spaced apart axially-extending openings passing through the wall of said outlet pipe in the vicinity of said helical ring fluidly interconnecting the interior of said outlet pipe and the upper section of said chamber; f. an upper axially oriented circular spin plate of small diameter extending across said chamber in the lower section thereof; g. a lower axially oriented circular spin plate having a larger diameter than said upper spin plate, said lower spin plate extending across said chamber at a location below said upper spin plate and defining an annular gap between the edge of said lower spin plate and the cylindrical wall of said vessel; and h. a discharge opening in the lower end wall of said vessel.