[54] FILTER AND FILTER CLEANING SYSTEM FOR A REVERSE VENDING MACHINE
[75] Inventors: Ken R. Powell; Hon Zhang, both of Centreville, Va.
[73] Assignee: Environmental Products Corporation,
Fairfax, Va.
[21] Appl. No.: 148,620
[22] Filed: Nov. 8, 1993
Related U.S. Application Data
[63] Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 132,233, Oct. 6, 1993, Pat. No. 5,355,987, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 851,494, Mar. 16, 1992, abandoned.
[51] Int. CI.6 G07F 7/06
[52] U.S. CI 194/209; 406/172
[58] Field of Search 194/208, 209;
406/171, 172; 55/272, 302
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
2,368,787 2/1945 Skinner.
3,273,943 9/1966 Russell 55/272 X
3,665,547 5/1972 Boylan .
3,735,566 5/1973 Laliwala .
4,113,449 9/1978 Bundy 55/96
4,247,227 1/1981 Gohler et al 406/172 X
4,298,360 11/1981 Poll 55/273
4,576,289 3/1986 Jarrett et al 209/930 X
4,667,832 5/1987 Reinfeld 209/930 X
5,002,594 3/1991 Merritt 55/302
5,030,259 7/1991 Bryant etal 55/302
5,096,473 3/1992 Sassa et al 55/302 X
5,143,528 9/1992 Dongelmans 55/283
5,167,676 12/1992 Nakaishi et al 55/96
5,171,338 12/1992 Baert 55/302
5,226,519 7/1993 DeWoolfson 194/209
Primary Examiner—F. J. Bartuska
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner
[57] ABSTRACT
A commodity densification and storage assembly has a housing having an insert port for receiving a commodity, such as aluminum cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles. The assembly further includes a device for densifying the commodity oriented downstream of the insert port; a storage device for storing the densified commodity; and a pneumatic device for conveying the densified commodity to the storage device. The pneumatic device includes an inlet pipe for receiving the densified commodity from the densifying device. The inlet pipe is in communication with the storage device. The pneumatic device further has a blower for creating suction and an outlet pipe in communication with the storage device and the blower. The blower draws the densified commodity to the storage device through the inlet pipe via suction. Additionally, the pneumatic device includes an air filter system for preventing densified commodity from entering the blower. The filter system includes a cartridge filter and a device for storing and delivering fluid under pressure. The blower draws air that passes in sequence through the inlet pipe, through the storage device, through a primary filter, and through the cartridge filter in a first direction. The device for storing and delivering fluid under pressure to the cartridge filter causes the introduced fluid to pass through the cartridge filter in a second direction opposite the first direction for cleaning the cartridge filter.
22 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets
