Syringe disintegrator

Abstract

A housing is provided with a spring-loaded trap door in the top to receive used hypodermic syringes. A tube under the door conveys the syringe into a hammer mill where it is disintegrated into particles which are deposited in a disposable bag or service drawer. A liquid disinfectant reservoir supplies disinfectant to a pump which discharges it down the tube into the hammer mill to disinfect the particles, and it descends from the hammer mill into the bag or drawer, from which it returns to the reservoir through apertures in the bag or drawer.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to waste disposing apparatus, and more particularly to means for safely disintegrating and disposing of comparatively solid items of small size, such as hypodermic syringes, for example.

2. Description of the Prior Art

For normal reasons of sanitation, and in addition, to avoid accessibility of used syringes to unauthorized persons, a need has arisen to assure the impossibility of reuse of syringes. While various types of disintegrators are known, including ball mills, hammer mills, and garbage disposers, to name a few, none known to me is suitable for disposal of syringes. The present invention answers the need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Described briefly, in a typical embodiment of the present invention, a motor driven mill has a downwardly inclined feed tube into a wall thereof, and particle collecting means positioned to receive particles resulting from milling material fed to the mill through the tube. Means are provided to disinfect and deodorize the mill, particle collecting means, and particles. The mill and feed tube and relationship therebetween are such as to aid the acceptance in the mill, of the material fed to it.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical embodiment of the present invention, with the front door open.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view with a portion broken away to show interior details.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view with most of the top broken away to show interior details.

FIG. 4 is a front end view with the door removed.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary section through the inlet door in the top.

FIG. 6 is a section through the hammer mill illustrating the positions of the hammers as the mill is rotated, the section being taken on a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

FIG. 6A is a top view of the dumping door, hinge, and handle, assembly.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the bottom of the hammer mill housing with the cutting screen disposed thereon.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a table model.

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of the table model with the side of the housing broken away to show interior details and a portion in section.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the housing or cabinet includes a removable top 10, exterior side walls 11 and 12, and a rear wall 13. It includes a front door 14 hinged to wall 12 at 16. All of these walls and the door are preferably constructed of outer and inner face sheets with a sound proofing core secured in place therebetween. This is shown for the rear wall particularly in FIG. 2 where the sheets 13A and 13B are the outer and inner sheets, and the core is at 13C. The side and rear walls are affixed in place by suitable framework, and four casters are provided under the lower corners for convenience in moving.

A hammer mill is provided with an input shaft 18 having a pulley thereon driven by a belt 19 driven by a pulley on the shaft of the electric drive motor 21. This hammer mill is driven in the clockwise direction when viewed from the front, as designated by arrow 22 in FIG. 6.

A feed tube 23 is secured to the rear wall of the hammer mill and projects upwardly at an angle toward the top. A rubber coupling 24 is secured around the tube, and receives the tube 26 secured to the sloping front wall 25 of a sort of hopper 28 below the inlet door 29 in the top.

As is best shown in FIG. 5, the hopper unit also has a rear wall 29' and a pair of side walls 31 and 32. The inclined front and rear walls are formed integral with, or soldered or welded to the sloping wall to provide a unit, and this unit is secured to the face plate 33 exposed at the top, and surrounding the opening in the top of the cabinet through which the hopper projects downwardly.

Referring further to FIG. 5, it can be seen that the inlet door 29 has a tab portion 36 turned down around the upper edge 37 of the rear wall 29' of the hopper. Below that it has the stop portion 38 received along and extending downwardly along a portion of the rear wall 29' to the point where it projects perpendicular thereto at 39 and receives the hook 41 at one end of the return spring 42. The other end of spring 42 has a hook 43 thereon secured to the tab 44 projecting down from the rear wall 29' of the hopper. Thus the inlet door 29 is normally held in the closed position flush with the face plate 33 by the spring 42 and located in that position by means of the abutting engagement of the tab portion 38 with the sloping wall 29'. It can be moved downwardly in the direction of arrow 46 by a slight manual effort to admit items to be disintegrated.

A container 47 (FIGS. 1, 2, and 4) rests on the floor 48 of the cabinet. A liquid disinfectant such as "Tergisyl" marketed by Lehn & Fink Products Corp. of Bloomfield, N.J., for example, is contained at 49 in the bottom of the container. A four legged pan 51 rests on the bottom of the container and supports a plastic bag 52 immediately above the surface of the liquid in the container. The bag extends to the upper margin of the container 47 and is then folded downwardly over the edge and down the sides as shown at 53. The bag is perforated in the bottom as at 54, for example, and has a drawstring 55 near the top to close the top after removal from the container 47.

The solenoid-operated pump 56 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is mounted in the housing, this being a conventional pump supported by a set of four springs 57 as shown in FIG. 3 to eliminate transmission of vibrations to the housing. Oscillating pumps marketed by Gorman-Rupp Co. of Mansfield, Ohio are suitable for this purpose. The pump has a flexible intake tube 58 connected to its inlet, this flexible tube being connected to the top of the rigid tube 59 extending through the wall of and into the bottom of the container 47 and having an inlet 61 below the level of the liquid in the container. The pump 56 also has a flexible discharge tube 62 (FIG. 3) connected to the hammer mill feeding tube 23 and directed generally downward therein.

Details of the hammer mill are best shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 wherein a circular housing is provided at 63 and has a plurality of apertures 64 in the bottom thereof and a cutting member 66 welded to the inner surface thereof diametrically opposite the apertures 64. This member 66 is typically a piece of a sheet of heavy gauge expanded metal mesh. A comparatively large discharge opening 67 is provided immediately adjacent the apertures 64 in the clockwise direction therefrom as viewed in FIG. 6.

As shown in FIGS. 3, 4, and 6, a dumping door 68 is mounted to the shell 63 on the outer side, by means of a hinge 69. This door projects outwardly from the cylindrical portion thereof to provide a counterbalancing portion 72. The weight of this counterbalancing portion normally retains the cylindrical portion 68 in a snug relationship with the cylindrical wall of the hammer mill shell 63. A dumping handle 73 welded to portion 72 extends to the side of the axis 75 of hinge 69 opposite that of the counterweight 72 so that, if the handle is pushed downwardly, the dumping door 68 will move in the clockwise direction of arrow 74 (FIG. 6) with respect to axis 75, and unload the contents of the hammer mill. Spring loading, instead of a counterweight, can be used on the dumping door, if desired.

The hammer mill itself has a rotor including a plurality of spokes 76 affixed to the shaft 18 and mounted at equal angles with respect to the next adjacent spoke. Each of these has a hammer bar 77 pivotally mounted thereto at 78 and freely rotatable with respect to the pivot to the extent possible without interference with the next adjacent spoke or hammer. Normally, when the mill shaft 18 is rotating, these hammers will be projecting radially outward with respect to the axis 18 as shown, and can pivot counterclockwise thereto upon impact with any unusually heavy object fed to the mill.

There is a discharge chute in the form of a sheet metal box with convergent lower walls 79 and 81 (FIG. 4) and front and rear walls 82 and 83 (FIG. 2), respectively, combining to form a discharge outlet 84 above the container 47. The side walls 86 and 87 above the inclined walls are spaced laterally far enough from the bottom of the hammer mill so as to receive particles leaving through the holes 64 even if leaving at somewhat of an angle with respect to the vertical. Also, wall 86 is disposed to receive any large particles departing through the large opening 67 when the dumping door 68 is open.

As is best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the handle 73 for the large particle dumping door projects in front of the front wall 82 of the discharge chute so that it is accessible when the front door 14 is open.

As is best shown in FIG. 1, an electric switch button 90 is disposed on the face plate 33 on the top of the unit, and closure of this switch activates both the motor 21 for the hammer mill drive, and the pump 56. When these units are in operation, disinfecting material is circulated from the container into the waste material inlet tube 23 and thereby into the hammer mill 17 from which it drops through the apertures 64 and the discharge chute below it into the bag 52. The liquid can leave the bag 52 and return to the reservoir through the apertures 54 in the bag.

Used hypodermic syringes or other material is deposited through the door 29 by simply pushing the door downward with the material or with the hand. The material descends the tube 23 into the central or vortex area of the hammer mill as best shown in FIG. 6 at 89.

The downward incline of the feed tube 24 with respect to the plane of rotation of the hammer mill (FIG. 2) and with the entrance of the tube into the rear end wall 98 of the hammer mill, to the right hand side (viewed from the front) where the rotor spokes 76 and hammers 77 are moving downward, places the line of discharge from the tube (101 for example in FIGS. 2 and 6) tangent the direction 102 of movement of a point 103 on the rotor in the path of discharge from the tube into the hammer mill (FIG. 6). This facilitates entry of material into the hammer mill. Thus it is ingested and digested readily and is not likely to be thrown back up through the tube. Even if it were, the orientation of the door is such that it would not be opened by any material thrown upwardly through the tube 23. As a matter of fact, the upward action does not occur and the material is taken into the hammer mill and worked on by the hammers and the cutting screens until the particle size is reduced sufficiently to pass through the apertures 64 and through the chute below it, into the bag. The ingesting action enables continuous feeding of material to the mill, without hazard. The size of the apertures 64 is small enough to preclude the possibility of any deposits in the bag being reassembled into a syringe.

In the event that for some reason there is a need to rapidly empty the hammer mill, or to permit passage of a large object having minimal or no adaptability to reuse, the large door 68 can be opened by pushing downward on the handle 73.

Referring now to the embodiment of FIGS. 8 and 9, which is a compact, economy model, the drive motor is shown at 21 directly in line with the hammer mill 17. Also, a drawer 91 is provided under the hammer mill and has a partition 92 therein with apertures therein at 93. Disinfecting liquid is contained in both the front portion 94 and rear portion 96 of the drawer. Particles from the hammer mill are deposited in the front portion, and excluded from the rear portion by the apertured partition 92. The drawer may be removed by pulling it out by means of the handle 97. The partition enables the emptying of the liquid first and then the solid materials from the drawer.

Claims

We claim:

1. Disintegrator apparatus comprising:

a mill for milling objects fed thereto into particles and having a plurality of openings in the bottom thereof;

a motor driving the mill;

a feeding tube associated with the mill for conveying syringes and the like to the mill;

particle collecting means associated with said mill and positioned to receive from the mill, the particles derived from milling the items fed to the mill through said tube, and

fluid storage means communicating with said collecting means for contact of said particles therein with a fluid to disinfect said particles,

said collecting means including a drawer having a portion open at the top and disposed below said mill directly under said openings in the bottom thereof and collecting particles which have fallen through said openings in the bottom of said mill and are received through the open top portion of said drawer from said mill; and wherein:

said storage means include a liquid container connected to said drawer and containing liquid communicating with particles in the interior of the drawer through apertures in a wall of said container,

said mill has a horizontal input shaft; and

said motor is behind the mill and drives said input shaft.

2. Disintegrator apparatus comprising:

a mill for milling objects fed thereto into particles and having a plurality of openings in the bottom thereof;

a motor driving the mill;

a feeding tube associated with the mill for conveying syringes and the like to the mill;

particle collecting means associated with said mill and positioned to receive from the mill, the particles derived from milling the items fed to the mill through said tube, and

fluid storage means communicating with said collecting means for contact of said particles therein with a fluid to disinfect said particles,

said storage means including a container having a liquid therein; and

said collecting means including a bag disposed in said container and open at the top of said container directly under and in line with said openings in the bottom of said mill, said bag having a perforate bottom permitting drainage of liquid from particles in said bag into said container,

a pump for liquid, said pump having intake means having an inlet in said liquid in the container, and said pump having discharge means opening into said tube for directing liquid down said tube, into the mill, for moving through the mill into said bag and therefrom into said container; and wherein:

said mill includes a shell and a rotating central shaft having a rotor thereon and a wall having said shaft extending therethrough,

said mill having inlet in said wall communicating with said feeding tube, said inlet being located between the shell and the shaft.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein:

said feeding tube is inclined at an angle with respect to a plane perpendicular to the rotational axis of the shaft and the direction of discharge from the tube into the mill is such that a line in said direction is tangent the path of movement of a point on the rotating rotor in the line of discharge.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein:

said feeding tube is inclined with respect to a plane perpendicular to the rotational axis of the shaft;

and the direction of rotation of the rotor is such that points on the rotor adjacent the mill inlet are moving downward in a direction aiding entry of items from the feeding tube into the mill.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 and further comprising:

a cutting member secured to and extending along a portion of the interior of the shell above the shaft,

said shell having a plurality of particle discharge apertures through the wall thereof below said shaft.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

said cutting member is a portion of an expanded metal screen.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

said inlet is between said cutting member and said apertures.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

said shell has a large particle dumping opening therein following said apertures in the direction of movement of particles in said shell;

and a counterweighted dumping door is pivotally mounted to said shell and normally closes said dumping opening.