GB2282547A - Improved bag support - Google Patents

Abstract

A support (10) for connection of a bag (27) thereto, particularly a filter housing for connection of a filter bag, has an outer peripheral flange arrangement formed of spaced, parallel flanges (13, 14) defining a guide channel therebetween. Linearly slidable towards and away from each other by means of the guide channel are a pair of C-shaped arms. In use the bag (27) has its open end stretched over the guide channel with the arms initially disengaged therefrom, the arms then being slid together along the respective opposite ends of the guide channel so as to trap the bag in the channel and secure it to the support. The arms enable the completed assembly to be located into a structure and have hand holds or other location means for manual or mechanical handling. <IMAGE>

Description

IMPROVED BAG SUPPORT This invention relates to a support to which it is intended a bag is connected for material to pass through an opening of the support into the bag. The support is principally intended for use as a filter housing, being used with a filter bag, and has particular application in the filtration of sewage.

A known sewage filter housing is arranged to provide an inlet opening, through which sewage can flow, in use, and to have attached to it at the rear of the opening a disposable filter bag, i.e. a bag of mesh construction. Thus in use, non-degradable materials, such as plastics, rags and balled fat, are collected in the bag, whilst they are continually washed so that faecal matter is removed by flow through the bag. The clean screenings can be disposed of merely by disposal of the bag.

The filter bag is releasably secured to the filter housing by stretching its open end over the rear of the inlet opening defined by the housing.

Upper and lower walis bounding said opening have respective aligned holes at their opposite sides and the releasable securement is effected by passing a rod, in the form of a knitting needle, downwards through the top of the filter bag, a pair of aligned holes and the bottom of the filter bag, the provision of rods at opposite sides ensuring that the bag cannot accidently be displaced off the housing. When the bag is to be removed, the rods have to be lifted out of said holes and clear of the bag. The nature of the collected material makes the manua! removal of such rods an unpleasant task and it is possible that the nature of the working environment may result in it being difficult to effect removal of the rods.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved support which facilitates connection of a bag thereto.

According to the present invention there is provided a support for connection of a bag thereto, the support having an inlet opening for reception of material into the bag, in use, when it is connected to the support, and means for connecting the bag to and releasing it from the support, in use, said means comprising at least two members relatively movable towards and away from one another.

Preferably the members are in juxtaposition when they connect the bag to the support.

Desirably the members are movable linearly into and out of engagement with the bag, in use.

Advantageously the support has a peripheral flange arrangement defining a guide for movement of said members, said bag being stretched over said flange arrangement, in use, prior to said members moving to connect it to said support.

Conveniently each member is generally C-shaped so that when the members are moved to connect the bag to the support, in use, they extend around the periphery of the support. Preferably they then constitute means for locating the assembly into a structure.

Most preferably in the connected state of the bag, in use, the means define location means for handling the support either manually or mechanically.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front perspective view of a support of the invention, with the members for connecting a bag thereto being shown partly open; Figure 2 is an identical view of Figure 1, but showing a support of square cross-section; Figure 3 is a schematic, fragmentary side view on a reduced scale of the support of Figure 1 with a bag connected to it; Figure 4 is a schematic side view, to a still smaller scale, showing the support and bag in use; and Figure 5 shows an alternative form of members for connecting a bag to a support.

The support of the invention is particularly for use with a filter bag, i.e. a bag through which some of the material being filtered can pass, whilst some other of the material is retained therein, and its main use is in the filtration of sewage. However the invention is not limited to the use of the support being for use in filtration, and it will be appreciated that as well as filter bags, the support can be used with impermeable bags, such as those used with litter bins, dustbins and vacuum cleaner bags, which receive material in a "closed" manner without the bag acting as a filter.

Only the means of releasably connecting any form of bag to the support is the concern of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, the support 10, in one embodiment, is of hollow box-shape of constant internal rectangular cross-section, having an inlet opening 11 at its front end and an outlet opening 12 at its rear end. The majority of the external surface of the support is also rectangular, but adjacent its front end a flange arrangement is provided integrally around the periphery of the support.

The flange arrangement comprises a first flange 13 spaced slightly back from said front end and an identical, parallel second flange 14 spaced rearwardly of the first flange by a distance corresponding to a few thicknesses of the flanges to define a guide channel between said flanges.

The flanges 13, 14 are normal to the length of the support and could be secured thereto as separate elements rather than being integral. Each of the flanges is generally rectangular, but its longer sides 15 each have curved ends, whilst its shorter sides 17 are wholly arcuate, the longer and shorter sides joining substantially at the corners of the edges of the box-shaped section of the support.

The guide channel referred to, and identified by numeral 18 in Figure 1, is sized to receive as a sliding fit at its opposite ends, a pair of arms 19, 20 respectively. Each arm is of generally C-shaped with facing upper and lower internal surface 21, 22, respectively being straight and mutually parallel. The thickness of each arm, as well as the spacing apart of the surface 21, 22, is such that without a bag fitted to the support, i.e. as in Figure 1, the arm can be a relatively loose sliding fit both lengthwise and normally of the support. The lengths of the respective upper and lower limbs 23, 24 of a C-shaped arm may be such that they are prevented from engaging the corresponding limbs of the other arm, when both arms are slid to the maximum allowed extent towards one another, by the engagement against the side of the support by the internal surface 25 of the C-shaped arm which extends normally between surfaces 21 and 22. The limbs of the two arms respective thus lie in juxtaposition. Alternatively they could be longer and actually engage, with the surfaces 25 of the arms respectively engaging the sides of the support. As can be seen in Figure 1, each upper limb 23 of an arm has a hand-hold 26 or simiiar opening therein, for a purpose to be described.

The support and/or arms are, in one embodiment, made of high density polyethylene.

As stated above, the main intended use for the support of Figure 1, is as a filter housing for filtering sewage. To this end a disposable filter bag or sack 27 is releasably connected to the housing by means of the slidable arms 19, 20. The bag 27 is of mesh construction and has its open end stretched over the flanges 13, 14 from the rear of the housing, as shown in Figure 3, initially with the arms 19, 20, completely disengaged from the guide channel. Once the open front end of the filter bag is disposed just beyond the first flange 13, the arms 19, 20 are re-engaged in the guide channel 18 as in Figure 1, but now so as to trap the bag 27 in the upper and lower parts of the channel, the thickness of the bag making the arms a tighter fit in the guide channel. The arms are then pushed fully onto the housing as described above until the surfaces 25 also trap the bag against the sides of the channel, thereby tightly securing the bag around the outer periphery of the housing, in the manner shown in Figure 3 which schematically shows the bag trapped in the upper and lower parts of the channel. The engagement of the arms in the channel may be sufficiently tight to prevent accidental or inadvertent release, but if required some form of additional means for retaining the arms in this position could be provided.

In use, the filter housing and connected bag shown in Figure 3 is located as an assembly into a support structure of the sewage filtration system, the parts of the arms extending beyond the boundary of the flanges serving to provide said location. Once in position the support structure prevents movement apart of the arms. Thus in this application additional retaining means are unnecessary once the assembly is in situ, but could be used during transport into position.

Figure 4 schematically shows a relatively long filter bag 27 with its end on a surface 28 when the housing is located into the support structure (not shown). With this arrangement the housing and filter bag assembly is preferably between a primary settlement tank and the filter beds of the sewage works, but it can be used in other locations, for example at a storm tank weir discharge. In use, sewage flows to the housing and whilst there is free flow of water and small particles through the bag 27 and out through the mesh, debris/trash which is too large to flow through the mesh is collected in the bag, initially at the closed end thereof on the surface 28. The collected material 29 is typically plastics materials, rags, balled fat etc. The turbulence of the flow would normally ensure that the trapped screenings are continually washed, thus removing faecal matter which flows through the bag.

To dispose of the clean screenings, the assembly is removed from the support structure, the arms slid apart and off the housing and the bag removed off the housing for replacement by a fresh bag, the original, now filled bag being disposed of in a suitable manner.

As the filter and bag assembly may be used in a relatively inaccessible and/or unpleasant area of the sewage works, manual placement and retrieval of the assembly may be undesirable or unduly difficult.

Accordingly, the provision of the hand holds 26 enable the assembly to be handled mechanically so as remotely both to place and remove the assembly as required, for example by means of lifting forks or the like.

Figure 2 shows a support 10a of exactly the same form as that of Figure 1, but which is of square section. Other numerals used are the same as with the Figure 1 embodiment. The shape of the support can be varied as required, normally being built to order. A variety of shapes and sizes, as well as materials and constructions, is possible for the bags intended for use with the variously sized and shaped supports.

Instead of the two arms of the embodiment described, the support could have a different number of arms greater than two. Moreover instead of linear movement effecting connection and release of the bag, pivotal or other non-linear movement could be used. The members effecting connection and release could be interconnected, for example by linking arms, rather than being separate.

Such an alternative arrangement is shown in Figure 5, where hinge pins and links 30, preferably of stainless steel, pivotally connect respective end of P-shaped arms 31,32 to a straight connection member 33. As with arms 19,20, the arm assembly made up of arms 31,32 and member 33 is guided in the channel between the flanges 13,14. Initially, with the arms 31,32 pivotted apart, only member 33 is received in the channel, namely the lower part thereof as viewed in Figures 1 and 2. Then with member 33 held firmly against the part of the bag trapped in said lower channel part, the arms 31,32 are pivotted together to be received in the sides and top of the channel, tightly to clamp the remainder of the bag. This hinged arm assembly is considered easier to fit over a bag and around the support, and to hold the bag more effectively, when there is only a short portion of the bag available to clamp.

One or more of the members could be fixed relative to one or more of the members which are movable. The connection and/or release movement could be effected non-manually.

Claims (14)

1. A support for connection of a bag thereof, the support having an inlet opening for reception of material into the bag, in use, when it is connected to the support, and means for connecting the bag to and releasing it from the support, in use, said means comprising at least two members relatively movable towards and away from one another.

2. A support as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the members are interconnected by link means.

3. A support as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the members are unconnected.

4. A support as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the members are in juxtaposition when they connect the bag to the support, in use.

5. A support as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein there is engagement between the members when they connect the bag to the support, in use.

6. A support as claimed in any one of Claims 2 to 5, wherein the members are movable linearly into and out of engagement with the bag, in use.

7. A support as claimed in any one of Claims 2 to 5, wherein the members are movable pivotally into and out of engagement with the bag, in use.

8. A support as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, wherein said means comprise two members.

9. A support as claimed in any one of Claim 1 to 8, including a peripheral flange arrangement defining a guide for movement of said members, said bag being stretched over said flange arrangement, in use, prior to said members moving to connect the bag to said support.

10. A support as claimed in Claim 9, wherein said guide is formed as a channel between a pair of parallel, spaced flanges.

11. A support as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 10, which is of quadrilateral shape, and wherein each of the members is generally C-shaped so that when the members are moved to connect the bag to the support, in use, they extend around the periphery of the support.

12. A support as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein when the members connect the bag to the support, in use, they constitute means for locating the assembly into a structure.

13. A support as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein each member has location means for handling the support either manually or mechanically.

14. A support for connection of a bag thereof substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to, and as shown in the accompanying drawings.