Patent Application
20060011758
The present disclosure relates generally to food waste disposers, and more particularly, to grinding mechanisms for food waste disposers.
Food waste disposers are used to comminute food scraps into particles small enough to safely pass through household drain plumbing. A conventional disposer includes a food conveying section, a motor section, and a grinding mechanism disposed between the food conveying section and the motor section. The food conveying section includes a housing that forms an inlet for receiving food waste and water. The food conveying section conveys the food waste to the grinding mechanism, and the motor section includes a motor imparting rotational movement to a motor shaft to operate the grinding mechanism.
The grind mechanism that accomplishes the comminution is typically composed of a shredder plate with lugs and a stationary grind ring. The motor turns the rotating shredder plate and the lugs force the food waste against the grind ring where it is broken down into small pieces. Once the particles are small enough to pass out of the grinding mechanism, they are flushed out into the household plumbing.
In the operation of the food waste disposer, the food waste delivered by the food conveying section to the grinding mechanism 10 is forced by the swivel lugs 14 against the teeth 21 of the grind ring 16. The edges of the teeth 21 grind the food waste into particulate matter sufficiently small to pass from above the grinding plate 12 to below the grinding plate 12 via gaps between the rotating and stationary members. Due to gravity, the particulate matter that passes through the gaps between the teeth 21 drops onto the upper end frame 24 and, along with water injected into the disposer, is discharged through a threaded discharge outlet 26. Size control is primarily achieved through controlling the size of the gap through which the food particles must pass.
This type of grinding, however, is much more effective on friable materials than on fibrous materials. Long fibrous and leafy food waste particulate often has escaped the grinding and cutting process in known disposer designs, resulting in longer and larger particulate escaping to the sink trap. This creates problems such as plugged traps and plugged plumbing. Known designs that may be more effective on these types of food wastes are often too costly to mass-produce.
The present application addresses these shortcomings associated with the prior art.
In accordance with various teachings of the present disclosure, a grinding mechanism for a food waste disposer includes a grinding ring defining a plurality of window openings therethrough. A backing member receives the grinding ring and defines a plurality of cavities therein corresponding to the window openings. In certain exemplary embodiments, the grinding ring further defines a plurality of notches therein, which may alternate with the windows around the periphery of the grinding ring.
In accordance with other aspects of the present disclosure, a grinding mechanism for a food waste disposer includes a plurality of disks stacked to form a rotatable shredder plate. The shredder plate is situated to rotate relative to the grinding ring. In some exemplary embodiments, at least one of the stacked disks defines teeth therein, which may lie on different planes. A support member may also be attached to at least one of the disks, and define lugs extending through openings in the disks. Moreover, in exemplary embodiments, the disks define different radiuses and/or thicknesses.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
The grinding mechanism 110 includes a stationary grind ring 116 that is fixedly attached to an inner surface of the housing of the grind mechanism 110. A rotating shredder plate assembly 112 is rotated relative to the stationary grind ring 116 by the motor shaft 118 to reduce food waste delivered by the food conveying section 102 to small pieces. When the food waste is reduced to particulate matter sufficiently small, it passes from above the shredder plate assembly 112, and along with water injected into the disposer, is discharged through a discharge outlet 128.
As noted in the Background section hereof, many known grinding mechanisms for food waste disposers do not adequately handle leafy or fibrous food wastes. To better handle such waste, the shredder plate assembly 112 is made up from multiple, stacked plates or disks to provide a plurality of levels for multi-stage chopping or cutting of food waste.
The disks 121, 122 may be made by a stamping process, which is relatively inexpensive and provides sharp corners, angles and levels for cutting the food waste. The lower disk 122 defines teeth 124 about the periphery of the disk 122 for chopping food wastes. Further, in the embodiments shown in
The under cutting arrangement may be especially useful in conjunction with a “pass-through” grind ring assembly that has openings extending through the grind ring 116.
The fineness of the ground waste is controlled by the size of the openings 130, 132 in the ring 116 as seen by the food waste. The apparent opening size is affected by the rotational speed and the trajectory of the food waste into the ring. It is believed that the fibrous materials are able to partially enter the passage 144 behind the opening 130, 132 and are then sheared off by the passing lug 114. The ability to shear as well as break materials during the grinding improves the fineness on a range of materials.
In the embodiment illustrated in
Several different configurations of stacked disks are employed in various embodiments of the shredder plate assembly 112. In addition to the lower disk having a larger radius with teeth extending beyond the periphery of the upper disk as is shown in
The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
This application is a non-provisional application of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/521,151, filed on Feb. 27, 2004, which is incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60521151 | Feb 2004 | US |
