Filtration apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus for filtering and separating a solid from a fluid comprising: a chamber, an inlet to said chamber for a solid-bearing fluid, a solids outlet from said chamber for collected solids; a plurality of filter units mounted and arranged within said chamber in parallel between said inlet and said solids outlet, each such filter unit being a box-like structure comprising walls enclosing a hollow interior, at least one wall being formed by a sheet of filter medium and the remainder of said walls preventing access of said solid-bearing fluid to the interior of said structure, each filter unit having an outlet communicating from the interior thereof for discharging the filtered fluid; means for removing the filtered fluid from the interior of said filter units, said sheets of filter medium presenting a first surface facing outward into said chamber, a second surface facing inward into said hollow interior, said sheets of filter medium being set at an angle of slope to the horizontal and arranged so that fluid passes through the thickness of each said sheet from said first surface thereof to said second surface, leaving substantially all filtered solids retained on said first surface, means to vibrate said filter units, the vibrations assisting to dislodge the retained solids from said first surfaces of said sheets of filter medium, said sheets of filter medium being sloped such as to have one end adjacent said solids outlet, and said plurality of filter units being arranged such as to define paths for sliding gravity travel of said dislodged solids towards said solids outlet whereby said solids travel by gravity while substantially avoiding solids rising appreciably into the atmosphere of said chamber.