Hydraulic and earth engineering – Subterranean waste disposal – containment – or treatment – Waste barrier – containment – or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-02
2001-07-31
Bagnell, David (Department: 3673)
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Subterranean waste disposal, containment, or treatment
Waste barrier, containment, or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267535
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an apparatus for depositing particulate material or soil onto plastic film extending over a face of a landfill/or other location.
U.S. Pat. No 5,536,116 discloses a machine secured to or carried by a compactor or bulldozer. The machine had a roller for degradable plastic film. Above the roller, the machine was provided with a hopper structure which carries and distributes particulate material, typically soil, onto edges of the film as the compactor moves over the landfill and covers the landfill with film.
The hopper structure had two augers located within respective hoppers with the augers being oppositely handed and located in lower portions of the hoppers. Lower wall portions of the hopper were closely adjacent to flights of the augers. Each hopper had two discharge openings.
In use, the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116 was traversed over the landfill and the film was unrolled from the roll to cover the landfill. At the same time, the augers were rotated to dispense gravel, dirt or other available material against the film to anchor the film until the covered area of the landfill had more waste deposited on it.
Prior to the development of the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116, the practice of covering or backfilling waste in a landfill with available soil or the like was carried out for health reasons. Such backfilling was carried out periodically during the course of a day and certainly at the end of a working shift at the landfill. Backfilling with available soil, although necessary for health reasons, nevertheless had its disadvantages in that if no soil was available at the landfill, it would then need to be trucked in in considerable quantities. In addition, the very presence of this type of backfill reduced the capacity of the landfill for waste. These disadvantages lead to the development of the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116.
This machine, by employing degradable film to cover waste in the landfill, did not unduly reduce the capacity of the landfill site even though available soil in relatively small quantities was employed to hold the film in place until it was covered with waste in a subsequent waste dumping operation.
Considerable energy was necessary to drive the augers in this earlier machine. The available soil often contained large rocks and other solids which could not be dispensed by the augers and readily jammed the augers leading to damage of the machine. In addition, the augers could only dispense relatively loose soils and tended to bind if the soil had a high clay content or was unduly moist.
Thus, the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116 although providing an advance required suitable soil or the like to be transported to landfill sites to be used in the machine in place of soils with a high clay content or high large aggregate content normally available at the site. This proved undesirable.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for depositing particulate material or soil onto film extending over a face of a landfill which at least minimises the disadvantage referred to above.
Accordingly to one aspect, the invention provides an apparatus having at least one rotatably mounted storage container, at least two outlet openings in the container from which material within the container may be dispensed as the container rotates, the openings being located at longitudinally spaced locations in the container and a respective metering means associated with each said opening for collecting a discrete amount of the material from the container and for dispensing the discrete amount of the material as the container is caused to rotate.
The metering means may consist of one or more baffles. If the metering means consists of one baffle only, it is advantageously located on an exterior surface of the container adjacent a respective opening.
The baffle may extend from or adjacent to one edge of the opening, outwardly of the container and terminate beyond an opposed edge of the opening to provide a receiving space for soil or the like between the baffle and the container. If desired, a deflector plate may extend from the one edge of the opening and into the container.
Alternatively, where the metering means consists of two baffles, these baffles may either be located within the container or one may be within and the other may be located outside the container.
The two baffle metering means functions so that one of the baffles is a collecting baffle into which a discrete quantity of soil or the like is deposited as the container rotates while the other baffle functions as a deflecting baffle which deflects soil falling from the collecting baffle towards the opening as the container rotates.
Where there are two baffles which together make up a metering means and one of the baffles is located outside the container, it is preferred that the outside baffle be adjustable in its position relative to the container to allow the size of the dispensing opening to be varied. Adjustment of the outer baffle between two limit positions is preferred. The outer baffle may selectively be locked at relative to the container at locations between the limit positions.
The baffles are preferably arcuate in shape.
if desired, the metering means in a container at spaced locations along it may be radially displaced relative to one another. More than two metering means may be provided for the container. Preferably, four such metering means are present.
The container may have a lid which allows the container to be filled with material to be dispensed. The lid may be hinged to the container or removably mounted to it. When the lid is hinged to or removed from the container a filling opening is exposed to allow material to be deposited into the container. The opening may include a screen or grid for filtering the material deposited into the container to exclude particles greater than a predetermined size. A grate and in particular a mesh grate, may be used for this purpose.
The container may have any suitable transverse cross sectional shape. Preferably, the container is circular in traverse shape. The metering means, if four are present in a circular container, may be located in diametrically opposed pairs at spaced locations along the container.
It is preferred that the apparatus consist of two rotatable containers of the type discussed. The two containers may be arranged along a common longitudinal rotation axis and spaced therefrom. A common drive may be used to rotate both containers. Preferably the containers are spaced apart from one another and the drive is located between them.
The interior wall of each container may be provided with one or more directing flights. Where there are two outlet openings in a container, one such flight is associated with these openings. Where the container has four outlet openings, a separate such flight is associated with each pair of openings in the body of the container.
The directing flights are constructed such that where there are two containers arranged end to end, the outlet openings have equal quantities of material directed towards them as the containers rotates. In this way, the edges of the film adjacent the outermost outlet are securely anchored to cover the landfill.
The directing flight may consist of a bar secured to an inner wall of the container. The flight may follow a part helical path and have a pitch substantially greater than the diameter of the container. The part helical path may peak at a location near to one of the outlet openings to provide for this preferred distribution of material.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4175496 (1979-11-01), Rehbein
patent: 4786208 (1988-11-01), Raviv
patent: 4909667 (1990-03-01), DeMello
patent: 5230587 (1993-07-01), Pensoneau
patent: 5258217 (1993-11-01), Lewis
patent: 5304014 (1994-04-01), Slutz
patent: 5536116 (1996-07-01), Lammers et al.
patent: 5620281 (1997-04-01), Lammers et al.
patent: 6139663 (2000-10-01), Payne
patent: 3641 780 (1987-09-01), None
patent: 2 129 857 (1984-05-01), None
pa
Brauer John L
Brown Russell B
Harris Jonathan A N
Noller David K L
Bagnell David
EPI Environmental Products Inc.
Lagman Frederick L.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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