Solid material comminution or disintegration – Apparatus – With separation or classification of material
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-20
2002-10-08
Rosenbaum, Mark (Department: 3725)
Solid material comminution or disintegration
Apparatus
With separation or classification of material
C241S101200, C241S166000, C241S236000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06460789
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to an apparatus for enabling manufacturing of feeds or organic fertilizers from food waste, particularly, to an automatic food waste processing system for performing a series of processes, including conveying, crushing or smashing, drying, and cutting the food waste, and removing alien substances and bad odors from the food waste, as well as automatically washing the system and enabling by-products obtained therefrom to be manufactured as feeds or organic fertilizers.
A food waste processing system is generally classified into: a microorganism processing method for ripening or fermenting the food wastes through cultivation of bacteria; and a physical processing method for mechanically crushing or smashing and drying the food waste.
The microorganism processing method has disadvantages in that microorganisms must be separately cultivated and, after throwing them into the food wastes, their growth environment is prepared. Further, it takes a relative long time for the fermentation of the food waste. Particularly, the microorganism processing method has a limitation to a permitted amount of the food waste to be processed because it is impossible to process more than the amount processable by the limited amount of cultivated microorganisms.
On the other hand, the physical processing method has been devoted to the technical development of crushing, compressing, and drying food wastes. Therefore, some degree of improvement in the food waste processing was accomplished, but most of the conventional physical apparatuses failed to process food wastes effectively.
A conventional physical processing apparatus has several problems due to its own properties as follows.
1. Lack of Countermeasures Against Processing Various Food Wastes
Although a physical processing apparatus should be able to process food wastes of hard materials, such as bones and tough fibroid materials (e.g., vegetables), its processing capability was substantially inclined to ignore various technical problems. For example, when the food waste with high viscosity, such as wet boiled rice leftover, is thrown into a crusher or a masher, it causes the apparatus to malfunction due to high viscosity of the wet boiled rice leftover. In addition, it is difficult to sort out various substances contained in the food waste during in the crushing process.
2. Lack of Consideration Regarding Foreign Substances in the Food Waste
A conventional physical processing apparatus did not adequately consider the possibilities that metallic materials, such as spoons and chopsticks, and non-metallic materials, such as vinyl polymers and plastics, may be included in the food waste. Therefore, it becomes apparent in the conventional physical processing apparatus that the foreign substances contained in the food waste without prior checking may cause the system to breakdown or damage.
3. Lack of Consideration Regarding Removal of Bad Odors
A conventional physical processing apparatus did not adequately consider the technology relating to removal of bad odors generated during the food waste processing. While most of the food waste composed of organic matters usually possesses inherent bad odors and releases the bad odor as time elapses or during crushing or smashing process, the prior art failed to remove the bad odor from the food waste.
4. Failure to Recognize a Need for Clean Maintenance During and After Use
A conventional physical processing apparatus has failed to recognize the need for clean maintenance during and after the use of physical processing apparatus. Since the physical processing apparatus for food waste is likely to be considered as unsanitary anyway, it only needs to clean the inner portion of the physical processing apparatus, together with its parts disassembled for keeping its good sanitary condition. For example, Korean Patent Publication No. 97-5419 (Korean Patent No. 172,570) discloses a food waste processing apparatus in which food waste is crushed into an uniform size while passing through the first and second crushing stages, materials of a higher specific gravity are deposited at the bottom of a storage container, and the crushed food waste is then dehydrated through the first and second stages and simultaneously compressed. At that time, the generated wastewater and sludge are finally stored in a separate storage container.
While this patent discloses steps of crushing, compressing, and dehydrating, it fails to disclose the steps of processing, drying, and deodorizing the food waste and cleaning the system. Particularly, the patent fails to provide a method for removing foreign substances, such as metals and woods, from the food waste.
Another automatic food waste processing apparatus is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 98-33544. The apparatus comprises steps of loading, crushing, compressing, and dehydrating food waste, and discharging by-products of the food waste. The technical contents are discussed below.
As shown in
FIG. 7
, the food waste is loaded into a hopper
1
. A crusher
8
is positioned below the hopper
1
to crush the food waste passing through a return cover
69
with a rotary cutters
65
and a space ring
67
assembled thereinto. Thereafter, the crushed food waste is dropped down into a compressor
48
. The compressor
48
is provided with a shaft
39
on which a conveyer screw is integrally mounted to convey the food waste. The return cover
69
is mounted on the crusher
8
to permit a predetermined size of the food waste to pass through and to be introduced into the crusher
8
.
On the other hand, the food waste: not passing through the return cover
69
is re-circulated in the crusher
8
for crushing, or if the food wastes, such as meaty materials and fibroid materials, are piled up on the return cover
69
, they are crushed again or forcibly drawn out of the crusher
8
with a water supply. The compressor
48
includes a dehydrating regulator (not shown) mounted on the discharging outlet
52
to control its inner pressure, whereby, the food waste is dehydrated and then discharged through the discharging outlet
52
. The water waste is then discharged through a drain
83
into a sewer system. Also, the compressor
48
is provided with a cleaning device.
Further, the automatic food waste processing apparatus comprises an overload detecting device
99
to perform fail-safe function of the system when foreign substances, such as metal spoons and metal forks, cause an impediment against the operation of the crusher
8
and/or the compressor
48
. In that case, a reverse-rotation button for a motor
45
provided in a control panel
28
is pushed to remove the foreign substances from the crusher
8
and the compressor
48
. After the processing of the food waste, a cleaning device
27
opens a valve
25
and operates a plurality of spray nozzles related thereto, so that the water jets cleans the inner portions of the hopper
1
, the crusher
8
, and the compressor
48
. A valve
25
is operated to allow washing water to be poured into the system, so that the cleaning and the removal of bad odors can be somewhat accomplished.
However, the automatic food waste processing apparatus permits removal of the foreign substances of metal materials jammed in the system only by manual operation. Further, crushing process of the food waste and/or the removal of the bad odors requires water, in which the used water is subject to sewage-disposal and environmental pollution.
Furthermore, since the automatic food waste processing apparatus focuses especially on the crushing and dehydrating processes, it is inevitable that the processed food waste contains water to some degree. This means that the processed food waste must be ultimately reprocessed through additional drying, fermentation, or freezing for its storage. As a result, it cannot be considered that the above-discussed automatic food waste apparatus processes the food waste efficiently.
Therefore, it is very preferable if the food waste is efficiently and automatically process
AT & G Co., Ltd.
Rosenbaum Mark
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