US3295477A

US3295477A - Incinerator

Info

Publication number: US3295477A
Application number: US362735A
Authority: US
Inventors: Gerald E Mcginnis
Original assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp
Current assignee: CBS Corp
Priority date: 1964-04-27
Filing date: 1964-04-27
Publication date: 1967-01-03
Anticipated expiration: 1984-01-03

Description

Jan. 3, 1967 G. E. MCGINNIS INC 1 NERATOR Filed April 27. 1964 AIR PRESSURE TIMER RECYCLING HOV AC 0 2 m 0 V R E S E R COOLING AIR INJECTION TIN CANS COMBUSTION AIR WITNESSES INVENTOR Gerald E McGinnis ATTORNEY United States Patent Office 3,2hfi77 Patented Jan. 3, 1987 3,295,477 INCINERATOR Gerald E. McGinnis, Plum Borough, Pa, assiguor to Westinghouse Electric (Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Apr. 27, 1964. Ser. No. 362,735 7 Claims. (Cl. 1108) This invention relates to incinerators and particularly to domestic appliance devices where household waste including material which would resist combustion in an open fire is subjected to reduction to a clear and odorless gas with a minimum of ash.

An object of the invention is to clean the face of a compacted imporous plug of oxidizable material in order to maintain combustion thereof. In the device to which the present invention may be applied, an open-top funnelshaped entry combustion chamber is surmounted by an open bottom trash bin and means are provided in the trash bin to compact trash stuffed into said bin into a compacted imporous plug which is halted in its downward advance by the funnel-shaped entry to the combustion chamber so that the bottom face of this plug of trash constitutes a top wall of the combustion chamber. Means are provided to induce and to maintain combustion of a thin layer of this bottom face so that the trash stuffed into this bin is consumed steadily. Such a device will consume material ordinarily found to be difficult of disposal, such as tin cans and magazines normally printed on paper having a high content of clay. The ordinary ash produced in this bottom face of the plug of trash merely drops away particularly when, through erosion and shrinkage, the plug responds to pressure from above and moves downwardly to maintain its face substantially and continuously at the same level. This movement is known as controlled collapse and the slight movement is sufficient to loosen ash which has formed so that it may be stripped along with the gaseous products of combustion from the combustion chamber. However, such material as magazines tend to form a carbonized layer with considerable structural strength so that some sort of agitation of the burning face is required. The incinerator of the present invention is a household appliance and is installed along with other modern day appliances, such as dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, all of which require a minimum of attention by the housewife operator, so that any sort of mechanical agitation by the housewife, as by a poker, is out of the question. Moreover, this incinerator, while designed to reduce such things as tin cans to oxides easily crumbled by very high temperatures, is constructed and arranged to present no fire or personal hazard to the housewife and the hot spot combustion chamber is, so to speak, buried deep within the device and is inaccessible, wherefore the agitation of the burning face is required to be automatic.

In accordance with the present invention, air jets are provided to clean the burning face of the compacted plug of trash and to clear 011? small materials that may have dropped from this burning face to the funnel shaped lower walls of the combustion chamber. Such jets also present temperature gradients to any tin cans present and act as a force to help break up these oxidized bits of metal which by this time have become highly brittle. Tin cans subjected to a temperature above the allotropic transformation value readily oxidize and become brittle and, if the temperature is raised above and then below this value periodically, will readily crumble so that even a slight force provided by a jet stream will reduce them to ash. A means is provided to turn the jets on from time to time so that the burning bottom face of the plug will not become clogged and interpose a ceramic barrier between the heated air in the combustion chamber and the face of the plug. In this type of incinerator the combustion is not induced or maintained by air flowing through the trash, but rather by heat conducted thereto by radiation and since the magazine ash having a large percentage of clay also has a fair structural strength, the ceramic barrier thus produced has to be brushed aside occasionally. Thus the said jets are turned on from time to time for cleaning purposes.

The jets do not constitute combustion air though, un-

doubtedly, they help somewhat in maintaining combustion. There is a source of combustion air steadily flowing into a firing chamber and then delivered to the combustion chamber. This air becomes heated sufficiently to maintain combustion at the temperature value required whereas the cleaning jets, if left to operate over a too long period, would tend to cool the face of the plug and thus interfere with the economical operation of the device.

A feature of the invention is the use of a timer which automatically turns the jets on periodically each for a time period long enough to blast the burning face of the plug and to dislodge ash which has accumulated on the lower funnel shaped sides of the combustion chamber, but not long enough to substantially lower the temperature within the combustion chamber.

Other features will appear hereinafter.

The drawings consist of a single sheet having a single figure consisting of a schematic diagram of the reservoir, the valve and the timing device applied to the manifold supplying the jets leading into the combustion chamber and the trash bin shown in vertical section.

The appliance consists of a ceramic base portion 1 formed into an open top combustion chamber having a funnel shaped sidewall at its top in what may be termed a restriction ring 3, and a bottom wall 2, also funnel shaped. This is surmounted by an open bottom trash bin 4 in which a compacting bag 5, inflated from any conventional source of compressed air 6 is used to compact the compressible trash into an imporous plug of oXidizable material. This is halted in its downward movement by the restriction ring 3 so that its bottom face 8 substantially forms a top wall of the combustion chamber. The tunnel shaped bottom wall 2 of the combustion chamber is surrounded by a firing chamber 9 in which heating elements ltl are located. Combustion air is brought into the firing chamber 9 through the duct 11 and the heated air is conducted into the combustion chamber through orifices 12 whereby this forms a means to induce and maintain combustion of a thin layer 8 of the bottom face of the plug of trash. The funnel shaped bottom wall 2 of the combustion chamber terminate in a chute 13 by which the combustion chamber is stripped of the products of combustion. A venturi tube 14 is located at the bottom of the chute 13 and functions at that point to cool and transport the products of combustion from the combustion chamber, as indicated by the arrows in the combustion chamber, the chute 13 and the transversely intersecting venturi tube 14.

A particular feature of the present invention is a manifold 15 constructed and arranged about the body 1 of the combustion chamber and having a plurality of nozzles 16 and 17 projecting into the combustion chamber, some, those marked 16, being so pointed that air under comparatively high pressure will blast the bottom face 8 of the plug of compacted material and others, those marked 17, will blast the slanting surfaces of the funnel-shaped bottom wall 2 of the combustion chamber. A reservoir seesaw 18 holds compressed air which is supplied thereto in any conventional manner and which is periodically supplied to the manifold by a valve 19. The valve 19 is operated by conventional timing means 20. Thus the face 8 of the plug of material is periodically blasted to dislodge any ash which may have failed to drop away, such as the clay like magazine ash, and the funnel shaped sides of the combustion chamber are likewise blasted to dislodge ash which may have lodged there or larger pieces, such as the oxidized brittle remains of tin cans. This blasting of the surfaces within the combustion chamber is periodic and of short duration so that the cooling of the face 8 under combustion is not serious.

What is claimed is:

l. An incinerator comprising an open top combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry, an open bottom trash bin surmounted on said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for forcing trash stuffed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizable material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes the top wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, and air jet means for blasting said bottom face of said plug to dislodge ash formed thereon.

2. An incinerator comprising a combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry at its top and a funnelshaped bottom wall, an open bottom trash bin surmounting said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for compacting trash stuffed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizable material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes a top wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, and air jet means for blasting said bottom face of said plug to dislodge ash formed thereon and for blasting said funnelshaped bottom wall of said combustion chamber to dislodge and crumble products of combustion dropped thereon from the burning bottom face of said plug.

3. An incinerator comprising a combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry at its top and a funnelshaped bottom wall, an open bottom trash tin surmounting said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for compacting trash stuffed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizable material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes a top wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, air jet means for blasting said bottom face of said plug and the downwardly sloping funnel-shaped bottom wall of said combustion chamber to dislodge the products of combustion accumulated thereon, and timing means for periodically controlling the operation of said jets.

t. An incinerator comprising a combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry at its top and a funnelshaped bottom wall, an open bottom trash bin surmounting said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for compacting trash stutfed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizable material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes a top wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, air jet means for blasting said bottom face of said plug and the downwardly sloping funnel-shaped bottom wall of said combustion chamber to dislodge the products of combustion accumulated thereon, a reservoir of compressed air, a valve between said reservoir and said jets,

and timing means for periodically controlling the oper ation of said valve.

5. An incinerator comprising a combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry at its top and a funnelshaped bottom wall, an open bottom trash bin surmounting said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for compacting trash stuffed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizibale material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes a wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, periodically-operated air jet means for blasting said bottom face of said plug and the downwardly sloping funnel-shaped bottom wall of said combustion chamber to dislodge the products of combustion accumulated thereon, a reservoir of compressed air, a valve between said reservoir and said jets, timing means for periodically controlling the operation of said valve, a source of combustion air, a firing chamber in receipt of air from said source and substantially surrounding said combustion chamber, heaters in said firing chamber, and orifices leading from said firing chamber to said combustion chamber to direct hot air onto said bottom face to induce and to maintain combustion thereof and for maintaining a predetermined temperature within said combustion chamber.

6. An incinerator comprising a combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry at its top and a funnelshaped bottom wall, an open bottom trash bin surmounting said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for compacting trash stuffed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizable material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes a wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, a reservoir of compressed air, a manifold surrounding said combustion chamber, a valve between said reservoir and said manifold, timing means for automatically and periodically operating said valve, and a plurality of nozzles leading from said manifold into said combustion chamber, certain of said nozzles constructed and arranged to direct air jets over said bottom face of said plug and others of said nozzles constructed and arranged to direct air jets downwardly over said funnel-shaped bottom wall of said combustion chamber.

7. An incinerator comprising a combustion chamber having a funnel-shaped entry at its top and a funnelshaped bottom wall, an open bottom trash bin surmounting said combustion chamber, means in said trash bin for compacting trash stuifed therein to an imporous plug of oxidizable material pressed downwardly by said compacting means and halted in its downward movement by said funnel-shaped entry to said combustion chamber, where the bottom face of said plug constitutes a wall of said combustion chamber, means to induce and to maintain combustion of said bottom face of said plug, a reservoir of compressed air, a manifold surrounding said combustion chamber, a valve between said reservoir and said manifold, timing means for automatically and periodically operating said valve, a plurality of nozzles leading from said manifold into said combustion chamber, some of said nozzles being constructed and arranged to direct air jets over the said bottom face of said plug and others to direct air jets downwardly over said funnel-shaped bottom wall of said combustion chamber, an ash chute opening downwardly from the lowermost part of said bottom wall, and means to flow cooling air transversely across the lowermost termination of said chute to cool products of combustion passing through said chute and to transport said products to discard areas provided therefor.

(References on following page) 5 6 References Cited by the Examiner FOREIGN PATENTS UNITED STATES PATENTS 941,105 6/1948 France. 248,391 10/1881 Baum 126 223 19,083 1913 Gmt 597,716 1/1898 Hwass 6821 4 2,932,712 4/1960 Levin X 5 FREDERICK L. MATTESON, JR., Pumaly Examine). 2,932,713 4/1960 Powers 11018 H. B. RAMEY, Assistant Examiner.

2,979,897 4/1961 Studhalter et a1. 158-50'.1 X 3,133,492 5/1961 Czulak et a1. 6821 X

Claims

1. AN INCINERATOR COMPRISING AN OPEN TOP COMBUSTION CHAMBER HAVING A FUNNEL-SHAPED ENTRY, AN OPEN BOTTOM TRASH BIN SURMOUNTED ON SAID COMBUSTION CHAMBER, MEANS IN SAID TRASH BIN FOR FORCING TRASH STUFFED THEREIN TO AN IMPOROUS PLUG OF OXIDIZABLE MATERIAL PRESSED DOWNWARDLY BY SAID COMPACTING MEANS AND HALTED IN ITS DOWNWARD MOVEMENT BY SAID FUNNEL-SHAPED ENTRY TO SAID COMBUSTION CHAMBER, WHERE THE BOTTOM FACE OF SAID PLUG CONSTITUTES THE TOP WALL OF SAID COMBUSTION CHAMBER, MEANS TO INDUCE AND TO MAINTAIN COMBUSTION OF SAID BOTTOM FACE OF SAID PLUG, AND AIR JET MEANS FOR BLASTING SAID BOTTOM FACE OF SAID PLUG TO DISLODGE ASH FORMED THEREON.