Waste removal system

Claim 1

In anti-pollution apparatus incorporating a settling tank inclusive of an upper work area where a mainly liquid fraction is separated from a mainly heavier solid fraction with the liquid fraction being charged outwardly of the upper area and a lower work area where the solid fraction is charged downwardly thereinto from the upper work area and a lowermost discharge opening leading from the lower work area, the improvement in means for the compacting of the solid fraction and the expression of fluent material therefrom comprising: a horizontally-extending housing having a hollow interior of rectangular configuration in cross section and an uppermost central receiving opening in direct communication with the lowermost discharge opening of the settling tank and having an outlet at each opposite outboard extremity, a pair of spaced parallel drive screws journalled at opposite ends of the housing and being extendable through and centrally of the housing interior, a pair of angularly-and-oppositely-disposed compacting ram heads in threaded engagement with the drive screws for reciprocation in alternating in seriatim compacting strokes between the opposite outlets of the housing, each compacting ram head having an outboard compacting face and an inboard non-compacting face and a plurality of tapered passages therethrough with each passage being smaller on the outboard compacting face than on the inboard non-compacting face, drive means for unisonly driving the drive screws in a manner for effecting the in seriatim compacting movements of the compacting ram heads, an adjacently-disposed dehydrating chamber having upper open and lower open ends and being positioned at each end of the housing communicating at its upper open end with and inclining vertically below and away from the respective outlet for receiving a compacted charge of the solid fraction from within the housing during and upon the completion of each respective compacting stroke of the respective compacting ram head, inClined drum-shaped release means for the removal of fluent material expressed from each compacted charge of the solid fraction charged into each dehydrating chamber, a horizontally-disposed drum-shaped residue receptacle communicating with the lower open end of each dehydrating chamber, means within said receptacle for the intermittent collection and removal of the charges of the solid fraction charged thereinto from the housing and respective dehydrating chamber and being rotated for the in-seriatim dumping of a compacted charge of the solid fraction from one compartment while a next-following compartment is being charged.