Dentistry – Apparatus – Having suction orifice
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-30
2001-08-21
Lewis, Ralph A. (Department: 3732)
Dentistry
Apparatus
Having suction orifice
C210S305000, C210S521000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06276936
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a dental separator. Such separators are used for separating solids from a solid/liquid mixture that result in a dental treatment station upon being aspirated from the mouth of the patient. The solids include drilling dust, bone splinters, mercury-amalgam particles, and possibly also particles of dental metals such as dental gold, and so forth; the mercury, above all, must not reach the wastewater, for the sake of environmental protection.
For about twenty years, at least a substantial portion of the solids has therefore been separated out of the mixture; three fundamentally different options are available for this, namely settling heavy particles out by the influence of gravity, settling with active reinforcement by centrifugal forces in centrifugal drums or the like, and trapping particles over a certain size by means of filters, screens or the like. Examples are found for instance in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,971 and 5,613,851.
Each of these three options has disadvantages: Trapping solids with filters and screens inserted into the flow means that the pores and mesh become stopped up rapidly; settling by gravity demands a slow flow through the solid separation chamber, with as little impediment as possible, which is difficult to achieve in dentistry because the inflow rate fluctuates greatly; and separation by means of centrifuges requires much more complex equipment, with a drive motor, controls, and so forth.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One object of the invention is to improve the separation out of solids by gravity from a dental solid/liquid mixture in a compact separator, in which it should be possible to process flow rates of six to eight liters per minute.
A further object of the invention is an additional separating out of aspirated air that entrains the solid/liquid mixture, before the mixture enters the solid separation chamber, resulting in three-phase separation.
A further object of the invention is to separate out solids from an aspirated air/solid/liquid mixture, where the aspirated air is first separated from the solid/liquid mixture, then the solids are settled out of the liquid by gravity, and finally the aspirated air and the solid-free liquid are mixed together again and delivered jointly to the suction pump.
A further object of the invention is additionally separating environmentally polluting heavy metal ions from the clarified liquid leaving the solid separation chamber.
With the above and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a dental separator for separating out solids from a solid/liquid mixture after aspirated air has been separated off, in a dental aspiration system, comprising:
a sedimentation tank for solids communicating fluidically with an upper inlet line and a lower wastewater conduit;
the sedimentation tank formed with a lower sedimentation zone and an upper sedimentation zone;
overflow ribs dividing the upper sedimentation zone into a plurality of chambers including a last chamber formed with a liquid outlet; and
a tube communicating with the liquid outlet formed in the last chamber and extending downward through the sedimentation tank towards the wastewater conduit.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the upper sedimentation zone is embodied in an insert element adapted to be inserted into the sedimentation tank, the insert element being formed with first and second bottom openings diametrically opposite one another and the overflow ribs disposed as mutually parallel overflow ribs therebetween, the first bottom opening fluidically connecting the lower sedimentation zone located below and the second bottom opening receiving the tube.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, an annular rib surrounds the upper sedimentation zone and forms, outside thereof, a peripheral inlet chamber communicating fluidically with the lower sedimentation zone.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, there is provided an immersion wall protruding variously deeply into the lower sedimentation zone and extending over a portion of a circumference of the annular rib.
With the above objects in view there is also provided, in accordance with the invention, a dental separator for separating out solids from a solid/liquid mixture after aspirated air has been separated off in a dental aspiration system, comprising:
a housing formed with an inlet opening and a wastewater outlet;
a sedimentation tank in the housing and adapted to communicate fluidically with the inlet opening, being formed with a lower sedimentation zone and an upper sedimentation zone, and defining a predetermined sedimentation height, the lower sedimentation zone being formed with a mixture inlet above the sedimentation height and the upper sedimentation zone being formed with a liquid outlet above the sedimentation height; and
an outlet chamber formed in the housing below the sedimentation tank and adapted to communicate fluidically with the wastewater conduit; and
a tube fluidically connecting the liquid outlet of the sedimentation tank to the outlet chamber and extending through the sedimentation tank into the outlet chamber.
In other words, the objects are satisfied with a separator according to the invention, which is provided with a sedimentation tank for the solids, which can be made to communicate fluidically with an upper inlet line and a lower wastewater conduit, and in which a first lower and a second upper sedimentation zone are formed; the second sedimentation zone has at least two chambers, separated from one another by overflow ribs, in the latter of which chambers a liquid outlet is provided, from which a tube which can be made to communicate with the wastewater conduit is extended downward, through the sedimentation tank. Disposing the two sedimentation zones one above the other assures adequately good sedimentation conditions in a small space, even if the flow rates fluctuate greatly. Because the mixture inlet and the liquid outlet are located at the top, the sedimentation tank is flooded, and there is a vertical flow reversal.
The mixture arriving via the inlet line preferably flows through the annular inlet chamber outside the second, upper sedimentation zone, downward into the first, lower sedimentation zone, where it is deflected inward and upward. The inlet chamber, whose width is slight, contributes substantially to the calm in the solid separation chamber, because turbulence from the inlet chamber can hardly reach the interior of the sedimentation tank.
The annular inlet chamber is lengthened at the bottom by an immersion wall, so that the flow reversal is dictated by the lower edge of the immersion wall. The lower edge of the immersion wall extends not horizontally but instead ascends to both sides from a lowermost region under the mixture inlet. The course of the lower edge of the immersion wall is selected such that the spacing between the mixture inlet and the edge is at least the same at every point. At the beginning of separation operation, a flow becomes established in which away from the mixture inlet a vertical downward component predominates, until the material settling out blocks up this preferred flow path on its own. The flow shifts as a result and increasingly gains a peripheral component along the immersion wall. As a result, not only is the sedimentation height raised to a level that is substantially above the lowermost region of the immersion wall, so that not only is a very large holding capacity of the sedimentation tank attained, but also the sedimentation time is not merely maintained, but even increased.
To enable even dissolved mercury compounds to be removed from the liquid, an inlay, for instance of activated charcoal, that binds mercury and/or mercury ions can be associated with the transition between the two sedimentation zones.
With the above and other objects in view there is also provided, in accordance with the invention, a dental aspiration system having a suction nozzle aspirating an air/solid/
Forster Michael
Konzett Alfred
Pregenzer Bruno
Greenber Laurence A.
Lerner Herbert L.
Lewis Ralph A.
Stemer Werner H.
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