Industrial rag cleaning process
OwnerJames V. Fierroinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cleaning process for industrial rags to remove petroleum-based solvents in an environmentally safe manner comprises a series of steps. The industrial rags are initially subjected to high speed forces in a rotary drum to physically extract liquid solvent. The high speed extraction step is conducted while preferably maintaining a temperature within the drum of below the flash point of the petroleum-based solvent. Next, the rags are tumbled while being subjected to intermittent forced blasts of cold air and hot air to vaporize solvent remaining in the rags. The vapors are routed from the drum and condensed. The extracted liquid solvent and condensed solvent vapors are both routed to a waste solvent collection line. The industrial rags are finally dried to produce clean rags suitable for reuse.
Claims9
A process for the cleaning of industrial rags contaminated with environmentally unsafe petroleum-based solvent, comprising the steps of:
- (a) placing a load of the industrial rags in a mechanically-driven rotary drum;
- (b) revolving the drum at a high speed sufficient to physically extract liquid petroleum-based solvent contaminate from the industrial rags;
- (c) routing the extracted petroleum-based solvent contaminate from the rotary drum to a waste solvent collection line for environmentally safe disposal;
- (d) revolving the rotary drum to cause a tumbling of the industrial rags while maintaining the temperature within the drum at below the flash point of the petroleum-based solvent;
- (e) intermittently forcing cold air and hot air through the rotary drum to vaporize solvent from the industrial rags;
- and
- (f) routing the vaporized petroleum-based solvent contaminant from the rotary drum to a condenser wherein the petroleum-based solvent contaminate is condensed and thereafter further routing said condensed solvent to a waste collection line for environmentally safe disposal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.