Water flow segregating unit with endless screw

Abstract

The segregating unit of the invention is installed in a sewer pipe section having an upstream end and a downstream end, and a peripheral wall including a floor and a ceiling. The segregating unit comprises a bar screen having two straight panels composed of horizontally disposed, vertically stacked, spaced-apart bars. The two panels span the whole width and height of the pipe in a downstream convergent fashion, thus forming a V at their adjacent edges which open adjacent the pipe floor portion into an elongated, rigid, cylindrical sleeve member radially smaller than the pipe and upwardly inclined, extending through the pipe ceiling. The sleeve member comprises an output mouth located outside the pipe section, which opens into a storage box cart. An endless screw is coaxially installed inside the sleeve member and is driven into rotation by a motor. The upstream edge face of each bar is formed with a longitudinal channel, the cross-sectional area of which decreases from the upstream end to the downstream end of the bar. In use, the macroparticulate debris carried by the water flowing through the pipe section upstream end will hit the bar screen and travel therealong being assisted by the water film produced by the water accerelating in the bar channels and laterally overflowing the same. The debris it reaches the merging edge of the two screen panels under the hydrodynamic propulsion of the water flow. Under the effect of gravity, the debris will be dragged down to the bottom of the pipe, where it will be driven by the water flow into the sleeve member. The endless screw will in turn drive the debris up the sleeve member, to be dispatched through the output mouth into the storage box cart. Holes are also provided on the sleeve member wall inside the pipe to drain the interior of the sleeve member from water.