Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Physical type apparatus – Apparatus for treating solid article or material with fluid...
Patent
1995-12-28
1998-06-23
Thornton, Krisanne
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Physical type apparatus
Apparatus for treating solid article or material with fluid...
414149, 422300, 422307, 422310, A61L 900
Patent
active
057701695
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a rotary drum structure for a sterilizer of the rotary drum type.
Objects or products in the food and pharmaceutical industries, such as boxes, jars or dishes, flasks, etc. are often sterilized in so-called discontinuous sterilizers or autoclaves into which the products to be treated are inserted and from which they are extracted after the intended treatment cycle. Such products to be treated are disposed in baskets, stackable trays, or other similar storage elements.
For some such products, sterilization heat treatment must be performed while the product is being stirred within its packaging. Stirring is produced by rotating a drum inside the sterilizer, which drum encloses baskets filled with the packages of products to be sterilized that are contained therein. The same type of problem arises when it is desired to drip or tilt certain products into an autoclave type of device which is then referred to as a dripper or a tilter. This operation makes it possible to remove the water deposited on the products by gravity during sterilization.
Patent application WO-A-93/04707 describes a rotary drum autoclave or sterilizer, and in particular means for holding baskets inside the rotary drum.
Accompanying FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the known way of implementing the rotary drum. In this figure, there can be seen a portion of the outer cylindrical case 10 of the sterilizer, and, partially extracted therefrom, the rotary drum assembly 12. The drum 12 is constituted by mutually parallel length members 14 constituted by tubes that define the periphery of the drum structure. The tubes 14 pass through circular sectors such as 16. The length members 14 are welded to the circular sectors 16 which are made of sheet metal. At the ends of this structure, there are to be found firstly a part 18 provided with an opening 20 for receiving baskets, and secondly a part 22 provided with means 24 for co-operating with rotary drive means 26 mounted on the enclosure 10. In addition, in this figure, there can be seen partially extended rails 28 resting on the bottom portion of the structure to enable baskets to be inserted and removed, which baskets contain the products to be treated.
That structure suffers from numerous drawbacks. Firstly, its lifetime is relatively short because of fatigue stresses of greater or lesser extent, because of the high rate at which treatment installations are used, and because of ever-increasing loads installed therein. Also, that type of structure is incapable of achieving a high degree of mechanical strength, thus giving rise to phenomena associated with bending, twisting and/or shear between the various component elements of the drum.
Such deformation has non-negligible effect on the efficiency of devices for holding objects that are secured to the structure. As a result there are high maintenance costs because of the frequent down times of the machine. Finally, such structures are heavy, thereby consuming a large amount of electrical energy in rotating the drum.
An object of the present invention is to provide a rotary drum structure for a rotary drum autoclave or sterilizer that has a structure which is lighter in weight and above all of greater stiffness and thus longer lifetime.
To achieve this end, the rotary drum structure for a sterilizer comprising an outer case having a longitudinal axis about which said drum is mounted to rotate is characterized in that it comprises: rectangular parallelepiped volume; parallelepiped volume, each spacer element having a first end welded to one beam element and a second end welded to another beam element lying in the same face, the spacer elements and the beams forming triangulated structures; rotary bearing disposed on said axis for rotation; inlet opening into said drum; and running path having said axis for rotation as its axis of revolution, said running path being adapted to co-operate with rotary guide means secured to the inside face of the outer case of said sterilizer.
It will be understood that the above all-welde
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patent: 5057288 (1991-10-01), Mollenkamp
patent: 5362456 (1994-11-01), Mollenkamp
Barriquand Steriflow
Thornton Krisanne
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