Integrated sieve device for particle size screening of soil samples

Abstract

An integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample is provided, the device comprising: a particle size screening unit having at least one sieve and configured to screen the soil sample by particle sizes and to drop the soil sample; a body housing in a cylindrical shape, wherein a part of a lateral surface of the body housing is open, wherein the particle size screening unit is detachably coupled to an inner lateral surface of the body housing; a sample reception unit mounted at a lower portion of the particle size screening unit coupled to the body housing and configured to collect soil and water discharged below the particle size screening unit by being screened by the sieve; and a water supply unit mounted at an inlet formed on an upper end of the body housing and configured to supply water into the particle size screening unit.

Claims

1. An integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample, the integrated sieve device comprising: a particle size screening unit having at least one sieve and configured to screen the soil sample by particle sizes and to drop the soil sample; a body housing in a cylindrical shape, wherein a part of a lateral surface of the body housing is open, wherein the particle size screening unit is detachably coupled to an inner lateral surface of the body housing in a direction that the part of the lateral surface of the body housing is open, wherein a pair of convex portions are formed on an inside of the lateral surface of the body housing, wherein a pair of groove portions are formed on an outside of a lateral surface of the particle size screening unit, and wherein the pair of convex portions are respectively coupled to the pair of groove portions such that the particle size screening unit is pivotable in a predetermined angle; a sample reception unit mounted at a lower portion of the particle size screening unit coupled to the body housing and configured to collect soil and water discharged below the particle size screening unit by being screened by the sieve; and a water supply unit mounted at an inlet formed on an upper end of the body housing and configured to supply water into the particle size screening unit.

2. The integrated sieve device of claim 1, wherein the particle size screening unit is formed as a sieve including a ring-shaped frame and a mesh mounted at a bottom portion inside the ring-shaped frame for sieving the soil sample, and wherein at least one of a plurality of sieves are provided to be stacked in a single or multiple layers.

3. The integrated sieve device of claim 1, wherein the sample reception unit is formed with a material that is transparent or translucent.

4. The integrated sieve device of claim 1, wherein the water supply unit includes: a water control unit mounted at the inlet and configured to control an intensity, an amount and a dispersion of a stream of the water supplied into the particle size screening unit; and a water container configured to contain water, wherein an entrance of the water container is mounted at an upper end of the water control unit.

5. The integrated sieve device of claim 4, wherein the water control unit includes: at least two disk-shaped nozzles each having a plurality of through holes of different sizes from one another, wherein the at least two disk-shaped nozzles are coupled such that sizes of the through holes are controllable by rotating any one of the at least two disk-shaped nozzles.

6. The integrated sieve device of claim 1, wherein the body housing includes the pair of convex portions formed on both insides on a horizontal line of the lateral surface that is open, the pair of groove portions are formed on both outsides of the particle size screening unit in correspondence to the pair of convex portions, respectively, and the pair of convex portions are respectively inserted into the pair of groove portions to be pivotably coupled.

7. The integrated sieve device of claim 6, wherein the particle size screening unit is formed in a shape of an oval disk of which a major axis is connected to the body housing.

8. The integrated sieve device of claim 6, wherein a catching groove in a line shape is formed along an inner circumferential surface of the body housing such that a lower edge of the particle size screening unit is caught to be coupled to the catching groove when the particle size screening unit rotates.

9. The integrated sieve device of claim 1, wherein the particle size screening unit is formed by stacking a plurality of sieves each having a different size from one another, such that a size of mesh hole of each of the plurality of sieves decreases towards a bottom of the stacked plurality of sieves.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

(2) FIG. 2 is a combined perspective view of an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

(3) FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a particle size screening unit in a stack type applied to an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

(4) FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating various mesh sizes of a particle size screening unit in a stack type applied to an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

(5) FIG. 5 is a side view of an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

(6) Before describing the present disclosure in detail, the terms or words used in this specification should not be construed as being unconditionally limited to their ordinary or dictionary meanings, and in order for the inventor of the present disclosure to describe his/her disclosure in the best way, concepts of various terms may be appropriately defined and used, and furthermore, the terms or words should be construed as means and concepts which are consistent with a technical idea of the present disclosure.

(7) That is, the terms used in this specification are only used to describe preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not used for the purpose of specifically limiting the contents of the present disclosure, and it should be noted that the terms are defined by considering various possibilities of the present disclosure.

(8) Further, in this specification, it should be understood that, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the expression in the singular may include a plurality of expressions, and similarly, even if it is expressed in plural, it should be understood that the meaning of the singular may be included.

(9) In the case where it is stated throughout this specification that a component includes another component, it does not exclude any other component, but may further include any other component unless otherwise indicated.

(10) Furthermore, it should be noted that when it is described that a component exists in or is connected to another component, this component may be directly connected or installed in contact with another component, and in inspect to a case where both components are installed spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance, a third component or means for fixing or connecting the corresponding component to the other component may exist, and the description of the third component or means may be omitted.

(11) On the contrary, when it is described that a component is directly connected to or directly accesses to another component, it should be understood that the third element or means does not exist.

(12) Similarly, it should be construed that other expressions describing the relationship of the components, that is, expressions such as between and directly between or adjacent to and directly adjacent to also have the same purpose.

(13) In addition, it should be noted that if terms such as one side, other side, one side, other side, first, second, etc., are used in this specification, the terms are used to clearly distinguish one component from the other component and a meaning of the corresponding component is not limited used by the terms.

(14) Further, in this specification, if terms related to locations such as upper, lower, left, right, etc., are used, it should be understood that the terms indicate a relative location in the drawing with respect to the corresponding component and unless an absolute location is specified for their locations, these location-related terms should not be construed as referring to the absolute location.

(15) Further, in this specification, in specifying the reference numerals for each component of each drawing, the same component has the same reference number even if the component is indicated in different drawings, that is, the same reference number indicates the same component throughout the specification.

(16) In the drawings attached to this specification, a size, a location, a coupling relationship, etc. of each component constituting the present disclosure may be described while being partially exaggerated, reduced, or omitted for sufficiently clearly delivering the spirit of the present disclosure, and thus the proportion or scale may not be exact.

(17) Further, hereinafter, in describing the present disclosure, a detailed description of a configuration determined that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present disclosure, for example, a detailed description of a known technology including the prior art may be omitted.

(18) Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to related drawings.

(19) FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 2 is a combined perspective view of an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a particle size screening unit in a stack type applied to an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating various mesh sizes of a particle size screening unit in a stack type applied to an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and FIG. 5 is a side view of an integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

(20) As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include a particle size screening unit 200, a body housing 100, a sample reception unit 300 and a water supply unit 400.

(21) The particle size screening unit 200 may be configured to screen the soil sample by particle sizes and to drop the soil sample. The particle size screening unit 200 may have at least one sieve to screen the inputted soil sample by particle size and to drop the screened soil sample.

(22) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the particle size screening unit 200 may be formed as a sieve including a ring-shaped frame 210 and a mesh 230 mounted at a bottom portion inside the ring-shaped frame 210 for sieving the soil sample.

(23) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the particle size screening unit 200 may be formed with the single sieve as described above. Alternatively, the particle size screening unit 200 may be formed as a structure where a plural number of the sieves are stacked for screening soil samples in various sizes by their particle sizes.

(24) The sieve may have a size of no more than about 8 centimeters in diameter, and may be inserted from a direction where the body housing 100 is open, such that the sample reception unit 300 (collector) is positioned at a lower portion of the particle size screening unit 200.

(25) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the particle size screening un unit 200 may be formed by stacking a plurality of sieves to form multiple layers. The hole size of mesh 230 of the plurality of sieves may be different to one another. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the mesh 230 in the uppermost layer may have the largest holes, where the holes of the meshes 230 may decrease in size as it goes to the lower layers.

(26) This is to ensure that the different sizes of samples contained in the soil sample can be screened in sequence according to the sizes of the mesh holes. In addition, this is to effectively screen the soil sample by their particle sizes using the stacked multiple meshes 230 having predetermined hole sizes.

(27) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the particle size screening unit 200 may be in a shape of an elliptical disk, where both ends of a major axis of the elliptical disk is connected to the body housing 100. Such structure is to form a gap space between a rear end of the particle size screening unit 200 and an inner surface of the body housing 100, such that the mesh 230 can tilt relative to an axis formed by the both inner surfaces of the body housing 100 where the particle size screening unit 200 is connected.

(28) As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the body housing 100 may be a housing device, that is cylindrical in shape, open on one side, and detachably coupled to an inner lateral surface of the body housing in a direction that the part of the lateral surface of the body housing 100 is open.

(29) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the body housing 100 may include a pair of convex portions 115 formed on an inside of the lateral surface of the body housing 100, and the particle size screening unit 200 may include a pair of groove portions 215 formed on an outside of a lateral surface of the particle size screening unit 200. The pair of convex portions 115 may be respectively coupled to the pair of groove portions 215 such that the particle size screening unit 200 is pivotable in a predetermined angle.

(30) Alternatively, the body housing 100 may include a pair of groove portions formed on an inside of the lateral surface of the body housing 100, and the particle size screening unit 200 may include a pair of convex portions formed on an outside of a lateral surface of the particle size screening unit 200. The pair of groove portions may be respectively coupled to the pair of convex portions such that the particle size screening unit 200 is pivotable in a predetermined angle.

(31) Moreover, the pivotable coupling structure between the body housing 100 and the particle size screening unit 200 may be formed as a detachable hinge structure.

(32) As described above, by forming a detachable structure in which the particle size screening unit 200 can be inserted from an open side of the body housing 100, it may be provided a screening device in which the sieves having various mesh hole sizes can be conveniently attached and detached to screen soil samples by their particle sizes depending on uses and purposes.

(33) Furthermore, the particle size screening unit 200 may be allowed to tilt at a certain angle by the structure in which the groove portions 215 of the particle size screening unit 200 are pivotably coupled to the convex portions 115 of the body housing 100.

(34) That is, the particle size screening unit 200 may be coupled to the body housing 100 such that the particle size screening unit 200 is tiltable. This is to allow the particle size screening unit 200 to tilt toward the user, such that the user can gently brush the soil samples placed on the sieves to facilitate sieving.

(35) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a catching groove 135 in a line shape may be formed along an inner circumferential surface of the body housing 100 such that a lower edge of the particle size screening unit 200 may be caught to be coupled to the catching groove 135 when the particle size screening unit 200 rotates.

(36) In particular, the particle size screening unit 200 may include a cylindrical frame 200 in a shape of a ring or an ellipse having a certain thickness and a mesh 230 formed on an inner lateral surface of frame 200. The body housing 100 may have a structure in which a part of a lateral surface of the cylindrical body housing 100 is open. Although the side of the particle size screening unit 200 that is exposed to the open structure is free to rotates, the rotation of the other side of the particle size screening unit 200 may be restricted due to the proximity of the rear inner surface of the body housing 100 and the particle size screening unit 200. Therefore, the particle size screening unit 200 may have an elliptical shape elongated in the direction of the rotation axis in order to form a spacing gap to enable rotation of the particle size screening unit 200 at a certain angle.

(37) Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the particle size screening unit 200 may be tilt and be fixed in order for the user to conveniently brush the soil sample placed on the mesh 230 with a brush. To this end, a catching groove 135 in a line shape may be formed along an inner circumferential surface of the body housing 100. When the particle size screening unit 200 rotates, the rear lower edge of the particle size screening unit 200 may contact a portion of the rear inner surface of the body housing 100. The catching groove 135 may be formed in this contact line such the rear lower edge of the particle size screening unit 200 may be fixedly secured by being caught or being snapped into the catching groove 135.

(38) Here, the retention force by which the lower edge of the particle size screening unit 200 is caught in the catching groove 135 may be to the extent that the user can easily disengage the disengage the fixation by applying a certain amount of force, while retaining sufficient retention force to reliably perform sieving through the brush.

(39) That is, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a catching groove 135 in a line shape may be formed above the convex portions 115 along an inner circumferential surface of the body housing 100 such that a lower edge of the particle size screening unit is caught to be coupled to the catching groove 135 when the particle size screening unit 200 rotates.

(40) Here, the spacing distance between the rear surface of the particle size screening unit 200 and the inner surface of the body housing 100 may determine a rotatable angle of the particle size screening unit 200 and a position of the catching groove 135 in a line shape as described above.

(41) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the sample reception unit 300 may be a device mounted at a lower portion of the particle size screening unit 200. The sample reception unit 300 may be configured to collect soil and water discharged below the particle size screening unit 200 by being screened by the sieve.

(42) In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the sample reception unit 300 may be formed with a material that is transparent or translucent. Moreover, the sample reception unit 300 may be formed in a shape of a beaker. Such structure of the sample reception unit 300 is advantageous in that the transparent or translucent material enables to facilitate viewing of water and soil samples dropped from the particle size screening unit 200 and the sample reception unit 300 can be easily inserted into the open side of the body housing 100. Therefore, collecting of the sample may be performed simultaneously along with sieving of the soil sample.

(43) In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the water supply unit 400 may be a device mounted at an inlet formed on an upper end of the body housing 100 and configured to supply water into the particle size screening unit 200. The water supply unit 400 may store the water to be supplied to the particle size screening unit 200 for sieving and screening soil samples.

(44) Further, the water supply unit 400 may include a water control unit 410 mounted at the inlet of the body housing 100. The water control unit 410 may be configured to control an intensity, an amount and a dispersion of a stream of the water supplied into the particle size screening unit 200. The water supply unit 400 may also include a water container 420 configured to contain water. Here, an entrance of the water container 420 may be mounted at an upper end of the water control unit 410.

(45) That is, the water control unit 410 may be mounted at the inlet formed in the top center of the body housing 100, and the water container 420 in a shape of a bottle may be mounted at the water control portion 410 in a shape of a small tube.

(46) Here, although it is not illustrated in the figures, the water control unit 410 may have a structure of a shower head including at least two disk-shaped nozzles each having a plurality of through holes of different sizes from one another. The at least two disk-shaped nozzles may be coupled such that sizes of the plurality of through holes can be controlled by rotating any one of the at least two disk-shaped nozzles.

(47) In other words, the water control unit 410 may be a shower head structure in which two or more disk-shaped nozzles having different sizes of water through holes are combined to allow the size of the water through holes to be adjusted by rotating any one of the nozzles.

(48) As described above, the nozzle structure having different sizes and different arrangements of the through holes stacked in a vertical direction has the advantage that when one of the nozzles is rotated, the size of the through holes formed by the common through holes of each nozzle varies as the two nozzles are staggered with each other, such that the opening and closing function of the water supply unit 400 can be performed, as well as the water injection pressure can be adjusted by controlling the size of the holes through which the water passes.

(49) Therefore, the integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure has the following advantages and effects 1) Easy to operate: The sieve is directly and easily accessible to the user, allowing the user to visually monitor and manage the sieving process; the sieve and beaker-shaped collector can be separated, which simplifies the cleaning process, and has the advantages of replacing or exchanging parts according to the requirements of the sieving process. 2) Improved sieving efficiency: The rotatable sieve design promotes more dynamic sieving, allowing the soil sample to move across the sieve surface, increasing the likelihood of fine particles passing through.

(50) In addition, the inclined structure of the sieves makes it easier for the user to brush, which can help remove soil particles and improve the sieving process, especially when dealing with sticky or clayey soils. 3) Optimized for wet sieving: As a one-piece construction, the integrated wet sieving unit further simplifies the entire process and eliminates the need to assemble or configure multiple components. 4) Control of water supply: The integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure can improve the efficiency of wet sieving by being able to control the amount and pressure of water supply to the soil sample.

(51) Furthermore, wet sieving is particularly useful for samples that are prone to agglomeration or for particles that are difficult to sieve under dry conditions. 5) Minimizing sample loss: By using a beaker-type collector or sample reception unit 300, the sieved sample can be effectively oriented and collected, reducing the potential for sample loss or spillage. 6) Screening by particle sizes and versatility: Users can select the appropriate sieve from a plurality of sieves with different mesh sizes depending on the user's requirements. In addition, a stacked structure with a plurality of sieves of different mesh sizes can be formed, which facilitates particle size screening of soil samples. This makes it versatile for different soil types and specific particle size requirements.

(52) As described above, the integrated sieve device for particle size screening of a soil sample according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure a harmonious balance of functionality, efficiency, and user-friendliness, and can streamline the sieving process to ensure more consistent results, thus providing an extremely useful device for soil analysis and similar applications.

(53) In the above, although several preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been described with some examples, the descriptions of various exemplary embodiments described in the Specific Content for Carrying Out the Invention item are merely exemplary, and it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present disclosure can be variously modified and carried out or equivalent executions to the present disclosure can be performed from the above description.

(54) In addition, since the present disclosure can be implemented in various other forms, the present disclosure is not limited by the above description, and the above description is for the purpose of completing the disclosure of the present disclosure, and the above description is just provided to completely inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the present disclosure, and it should be known that the present disclosure is only defined by each of the claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

(55) 100: body housing 115: convex portion 135: catching groove 200: particle size screening unit 210: ring-shaped frame 215: groove portion 230: mesh 300: sample reception unit 400: water supply unit 410: water control unit 420: water container