The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 24, 2001
Filed:
May. 03, 1999
Thomas E Pank, Walkersville, MD (US);
Other;
Abstract
Apparatus for separating oil from water is provided. A container has a divider which divides the container into two tanks. These two tanks have three separate paths for the incoming run-off water, one path for a low rate of flow of the run-off water, one for an intermediate rate of flow of the water and one for a high rate of flow. The divider is a resilient plate which relies on its resilience to hold the plate in the container. The divider is a large vortex plate that divides the space in the tank. That space has a lower level than the lower end of the vortex plate. That space allows water to flow under the vortex plate to the part of the tank outside of the vortex plate. An inlet pipe feeds raw run-off water into the upper space. When water enters the container at a slow rate, it passes through a weir to an outlet. When the run-off fluid has an intermediate rate of flow more water enters the inlet tank than can pass through the small opening of the weir. Hence, the level of the fluid within the vortex plate will rise forcing clean water out of the lower end of the space within the vortex plate. This clean water will then flow to the outlet pipe. When the rate of flow of the incoming run-off water is very high, the water passes, over the vortex plate of the inlet tank, directly to the outlet. The vortex plate in the main separation tank improves the separation process in that tank. The fluid enters that tank in a space defined by the vortex plate. Clean water is fed from the main separation tank to the clean water outlet of the apparatus.