GB2232069A - Container washing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus for washing out residues of toxic or corrosive chemicals from containers e.g. bottles comprises an open- ended pipe 21 removably mountable within the fill opening of a sprayer tank, support 24 for supporting pipe 21 within the opening, and means 25-27 for supplying water to the pipe. The support may comprise two arcuate hose portions. The pipe may be fitted with a spray nozzle at its open end, and may be so mounted that it may swing from side to side in the opening. <IMAGE>

Description

Washing Apparatus This invention relates to washing apparatus, and concerns in particular such apparatus for the rinsing out of containers of toxic or corrosive chemicals.

Agrochemicals - those chemicals employed in agriculture - come in many types, and are for a multitude of uses. Typical varieties are those herbicides and pesticides utilised for weed and insect control. Many of these are commonly sprayed in diluted aqueous form from a giant tractor-drawn tank, the solution or dispersion being prepared immediately prior to application by the simple expedient of pouring several bottles or cans of concentrated chemical into the tank, which is then filled up with water.

Most agrochemicals are inevitably toxic or corrosive, and great care is needed in handling them.

More particularly, the containers of the concentrate need washing out to retrieve the dregs, which are both expensive and likely to cause ecological damage if carelessly thrown away. It is therefore the operator's usual practice to pour the contents of the containers into the tank one by one, and then to collect up the empties, and then wash them out (filling them with water, and shaking well), pouring the washings into the sprayer tank. This sounds simple, and in principle it is. In practice, however, it is a boring, time-wasting and potentially dangerous job, involving the operator repeatedly handling the containers, as well as climbing up and down from the sprayer tank to the water supply.

The invention seeks to overcome all these problems by suggesting a novel, and highly effective albeit simple, piece of washing apparatus that fits temporarily into the sprayer tank opening, on top of the filter usually present therein, by which each bottle or other container may be washed immediately its contents have been emptied into the tank, the washings from the bottle falling directly into the tank for subsequent spraying with the rest of the dilute material.More specifically, the invention proposes a fountaingenerating pipe removably mountable in the tank's opening to project outwardly therefrom, and fed with water from the supply used for filling the tank, whereby a bottle (or other container) may be up-ended over and onto the pipe so that the fountain of water issuing therefrom shoots directly into the interior of the bottle and washes it out, the washings falling down into the tank.

In one aspect, therefore, the invention provides washing apparatus including: an elongate open-ended pipe removably mountable within the fill opening of a sprayer tank to project up out therefrom; mounting means whereby the pipe may be so mounted; and water supply means, along which water may be supplied to the pipe to issue from the open end thereof in the required fountain form.

It will be clear that the invention's bottle washing apparatus provides, in use, a fountain of water that is directed up into a bottle (or other container) placed therovr, the water washing iOhtn the interior walls of the bottle, with the effluent - the washings therefrom falling down out of the bottle through the tank fill opening and into the tank volume below.

Depending on the water pressure, the spray volume of the fountain, and the way the bottle is held (and possibly manoeuvred) when in place over the pipe - and, of course, on the nature and consistency of the chemicals involved - the bottle contents will be washed down neatly and safely into the tank in a matter of a few seconds ... and without the need to carry the bottle anywhere, or to get down from the sprayer.

The elongate pipe utilised in the washing apparatus of the invention should be of such a size, and sufficiently long, that, when a bottle (or other container) of the sort commonly employed to contain agrochemical concentrates is up-ended over and onto the pipe, the pipe can project through the bottle mouth and almost all the way into the bottle, the fountain of water issuing therefrom then impinging upon, and washing down, the complete interior wall surfaces of the bottle.

A typical pipe length is thus around 25 cm (10 in) but, as is explained further hereinafter, because the pipe is most preferably in a U shape, the length of the pipe, measured along and round the U, is conveniently almost twice as long - 50 cm (20 in).

The pipe, which is conveniently made of a rigid plastics or metal material, typically aluminium, may be of any suitable sectional shape and size - a circular section pipe of about 1 cm (0.4 in) internal diameter is very satisfactory.

The pipe generates a fountain of water issuing therefrom (when the water supply is attached and turned on). To assist in providing the fountain with the necessary cleaning action the pipe may be fitted with a suitable nozzle (to produce a strong spray), though in practice having a simple open end seems quite acceptable.

The pipe is mountable within the tank's fill opening - usually a circular aperture of some 12 in (30 cm) in diameter - to project out therefrom, and the apparatus includes mounting means whereby this may be achieved. The mounting means may take any appropriate form, including that of a suitably shaped and sized frame that sits on the opening's edges, the pipe projecting therefrom, but advantageously it is in the form of a circlet, of metal or plastics, that is sized to fit neatly into the tank fill opening and on top of the filter conventionally housed just below that opening. The circlet may be adjustable, to fit different sizes of tank opening, but generally it will be fixed, either because most openings are of a single, standard size or because it is more convenient to have different washing apparatus for different tanks.

In its U form the pipe is mounted on the mounting means in an upright manner - that is, as a letter U is conventionally written - so that it depends down from the mounting means into the tank, and then curves around and up to allow its free end to project up out of the tank. This arrangement allows a bottle (or other container) to be "threaded" upside down onto the pipe and down into the tank, so that when the water is turned on, and the washings run down inside the bottle and out of its mouth, they fall safely and harmlessly into the tank proper.

Most preferably, the pipe, in its U form, is so mounted on the mounting means that it can be swung from side to side in the opening, to allow for different sized and shaped bottles.

The mounting circlet may be a separate part of the apparatus. Preferably, however, the circlet is formed as an integral part of the water supply means feeding the pipe, as now discussed further.

Supplying the pipe with water (from a source thereof) is the water supply means. In its most basic form this supply means is little more than a length of plastics hose pipe (or other similar means of feeding water) by which the fountain pipe may be connected to the water source (either directly or via another length of pipe). Most preferably, though, the supply means is an integral part of the mounting means - indeed, is the mounting means. More specifically, it is highly advantageous to construct the mounting means as a circlet of (hose) pipe to which the fountain pipe is connected (by a T-piece) and which may in turn be connected (by another T-piece) to a further pipe leading to the water supply. When employing conventional plastics hose pipe as the circlet pipe there is the added advantage that the inherent flexibility of the hose pipe material permits the circlet to be adjusted and flexed so as the more easily to be fitted into the tank fill opening.

The water source will probably be associated with a valve (tap) allowing the water to be turned on and off as required. However, in case that is not so, and in any event, it is convenient to provide a tap Ca flow control valve) within the water supply means, and when this latter is in the form of a circlet of hose with a T-piece by which it may be connected to another hose to the water source then it is preferred to incorporate the valve within this T-piece. In addition, it may be desirable - and even legally necessary - to provide a non-return valve in the water supply means (to prevent the unlikely possibility of chemical-contaminated water being "sucked" back into the water source). This, too, is best mounted in, or adjacent, the T-piece (with the flow-control valve) connecting the water supply means circlet to the pipe to the water source.

An embodiment of the invention is now described, though by way of illustration only, with reference to the accompanying Drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a side view, partly in see through, of a sprayer tank fitted with a washing apparatus of the invention; Figure 2 shows a plan view from above of a washing apparatus of the invention; and Figure 3 shows a detail (partly in section) of the washer apparatus (as mounted in Figure 1), with a bottle in position being washed.

Figure 1 shows a spray tank (generally 11) with a filler opening (12) having a filter basket (13) mounted therebelow. In the opening 12 is a washer apparatus (generally 14) of the invention supplied with water along a hose pipe (15) connected to a water source (stand pipe 16).

As best seen from Figures 2 and 3, the washing apparatus of the invention comprises a U-shaped fountain-generating pipe (21) swivellably connected to a T-piece (22) that forms part of a circlet (generally 23) joining together two short lengths of hose pipe (as 24). These are joined at their other ends by a second T-piece (25) that includes a flow control valve (tap 26) and a non-return valve (ball valve 27).

The circlet of T-piece-connected pipes is mounted within the tank opening 14, and fed with water via tap 16, pipe 15, ball valve 27 and flow control valve 26. When a bottle (28) is fitted over and onto the'free end of the pipe 21, and the water is turned on, a fountain (29) is generated inside the bottle, washing the dregs down and out (as 30) into the tank.

Claims (9)

1. Washing apparatus including: an elongate open-ended pipe removably mountable within the fill opening of a sprayer tank to project up out therefrom; mounting means whereby the pipe may be so mounted; and water supply means, along which water may be supplied to the pipe to issue from the open end thereof in the required fountain form.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the elongate pipe is in a U shape, and is mounted on the mounting means so that it depends down from the mounting means into the tank, and then curves around and up to allow its free end to project up out of the tank.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the pipe, in its U form, is so mounted on the mounting means that it can be swung from side to side in the opening.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding Claims, wherein the pipe's mounting means is in the form of a circlet that is sized to fit neatly into the tank fill opening and on top of the filter conventionally housed just below that opening.

5. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the mounting circlet is formed as an integral part of the water supply means feeding the pipe.

6. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the water supply means is constructed as a circlet of (hose) pipe to which the fountain pipe is connected (by a T-piece) and which may in turn be connected (by another T-piece) to a further pipe leading to the water supply.

7. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 6, wherein there is a tap within the water supply means, within the T-piece by which it may be connected to another hose to the water source.

8. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 7, wherein there is a non-return valve in the water supply means, in, or adjacent, the T-piece.

9. Washing apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding Claims and substantially as described hereinbefore.