Mobile apparatus for turning and aerating compost materials in a compost windrow
AssigneeWoods End Research Laboratory, Inc.
InventorWilliam F. Brinton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile apparatus for turning, and otherwise agitating, compost materials in an elongated windrow, is described. The invention includes a chute structure, that can be moved into, and along, the windrow. A toothed drum, at the leading end of the chute structure, penetrates the compost material, and throws it upwardly, and rearwardly, onto an inclined conveyor. The conveyor transports the materials upwardly to a discharge point, located at the trailing end of the chute structure. Gravitational forces cause the materials to intermittently fall back toward the drum, thereby churning and mixing the materials. Pressurized air is continually sprayed onto the materials on the conveyor, in order to aerate the materials while they are being churned and transported.
Claims4
A mobile apparatus for turning and recombining sub-divided compost material in an elongated compost windrow, wherein the compost windrow has a length dimension, a width dimension, and a height dimension;
- said apparatus being adapted for movement into and along the windrow in the direction of the windrow length;
- said apparatus comprising a chute means having a centerline defining the movement axis of the apparatus;
- said apparatus being operable so that the chute means is advanceable into and along a compost windrow with its movement axis coincident with the longitudinal centerline of the windrow;
- said chute means having a leading end and a trailing end;
- a transversely-extending rotary drum at the leading end of said chute means, said drum having teeth thereon for propelling compost materials upwardly over the drum as said drum penetrates the windrow;
- a conveyor means located within said chute means;
- said conveyor means having a leading end in near proximity to said rotary drum, and a trailing end at the trailing end of said chute means;
- said conveyor means being inclined from its leading end to its trailing end so that compost materials are caused to move progressively upwardly as they are transported by the conveyor means from said rotary drum to the trailing end of the chute means;
- a first power means for rotatably driving said drum so that the drum deposits compost materials on the leading edge of the conveyor means;
- a second power means for driving the conveyor means so that said conveyor means transports the compost materials through the trailing end of the chute means;
- the trailing end of said conveyor means being elevated to at least the windrow height so that the entire windrow is churned and relocated as the apparatus advances into and along the windrow length;
- means for injecting pressurized air into the compost materials while they are being transported by said conveyor means;
- said air injecting means being located within said conveyor means for directing jets of air through the conveyor means into the compost materials while they are located on the conveyor means;
- and
- said air injecting means comprising an array of perforations occupying the space between the leading and trailing ends of said conveyor means, so that air is injected into the compost materials for a significant percentage of the time that said materials are locate don the conveyor means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.