Wear shoe for sludge collector

Details Wear shoe for sludge collector Wear shoe for sludge collector

2000-03-31

2001-10-23

Upton, Christopher (Department: 1724)

Liquid purification or separation

Gravitational separator

Mechanical constituent mover

C210S526000, C210S541000, C198S721000, C198S731000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06305555

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a sludge collector for treating wastewater, and more particularly, to a wear shoe for use with the flights of a sludge collector.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Sludge collectors are commonly used in wastewater treatment plants to scrape settled sludge from the bottom of a settling tank and to skim floating waste off the surface of the wastewater. The settling tank is typically made of concrete with support tracks or rails in the bottom or floor of the tank and support tracks or rails on the side walls of the tank. The sludge collectors typically include a number of flights which are usually elongated members that extend the width of the tank. The flights are typically pultruded fiberglass in various profiles.
The flights are connected at each of their opposite ends to conveyor chains which carry the flights in a circuit along the bottom of the tank to perform the scraping operation and over the surface of the wastewater to perform the skimming operation. As the flights move along the bottom of the tank, the flights are supported by the rails extending along the tank bottom. As the flights move along the surface of the tank, the ends of the flights are supported by the rails mounted on the side walls of the tank.
The portions of the flights which engage the rails at the bottom and side walls of the tank are subject to wear. To minimize this wear, wear shoes are attached to the flights where the flights contact the rails to thereby protect the flights. Typically, wear shoes are attached to the flights with bolts or other fasteners. However, fasteners are subject to corrosion from exposure to the wastewater, making removal and replacement of worn shoes difficult.
Flights most often have a channel shape in cross-section. Wear shoes for this type of flight generally have a simple L-shape with two holes drilled in each leg of the wear shoe, allowing the wear shoe to be reversed after wear has occurred on one leg. In practice, however, most users simply discard the wear shoe without reversing it. This type of wear shoe is mechanically fastened with bolts and locknuts to the flights. In order to save on hardware, wear shoes can be bolted in-line with the chain attachment plates to utilize common mounting hardware. The hardware is often specified as
304
or
316
stainless steel due to corrosion. Therefore, the cost of flight assembly hardware can be very expensive and can become a significant portion of the overall product cost.
Other prior art wear shoes are available which eliminate the need for mechanical fasteners. These wear shoes allow for manual attachment of the wear shoes onto the flights. However, these prior art wear shoes are useable with only a single flight configuration, a flight having specialized ramps, flanges or protrusions. These designs also rely upon the flexing ability of the flight to allow the wear shoe to be installed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes a wear shoe that includes a flexible self-locking member rather than utilizing a flight with a cooperating profile, or rather than relying upon flexing of the flight. The wear shoe snaps into the flight and is able to be utilized with any currently available channel-type flight configuration.
The wear shoe design shown herein provides for the ability to mount the wear shoe to a channel type flight via simple drilling of at least one bore in the flight. For example, the prior art L-shaped wear shoes cannot be used with flights having a diamond configuration. However, by utilizing the wear shoe of the present invention which mounts on a surface of the flight, this problem is eliminated. This wear shoe design also allows the wear shoe to be located anywhere along the flight's length, eliminating the need to be lined up with the chain mounting attachment or any other hardware.
One wear shoe is described herein that is designed to contact the side rails of the settling tank and another wear show is described herein that is designed to contact the floor rails of the tank.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims, and drawings.


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