Dredge Rotary Cutterhead
Invented By: William J. Wetta
DSC holds the patent on the Viscous Excavator which is used in environmental cleanup applications. In October 1994, William Wetta designed this Dredge Rotary Cutterhead. The Viscous Excavator is an improved dredge apparatus with an enhanced rotary cutterhead element that removes viscous materials more efficiently. DSC's Viscous Excavator is comprised of rotary cutter elements that include a minimum of one pair of circular rings, each having an open center, with the pair of rings defining an inlet and an outlet for dredged material passage.
The more viscous the material being dredged, the more difficult for suction dredges to move the material. Hazardous waste pits, paper sludge, petrochemical plants, compacted sand and other similar industries with more viscous material to move, require greater dredge power than conventional cutter heads allow.
The Viscous Excavator was developed to satisfy the dredging demands of an ongoing Texas Superfund environmental cleanup. After one company applied an auger machine without dredging success, DSC experimented with a swinging ladder dredge. When this did not prove to work effectively, DSC went back to the drawing board. The result was the Viscous Excavator, with its patented name of Dredge Rotary Cutterhead. This advanced design was conceived, designed and built within a month and proved immediately successful -- even more so than anticipated!
The Viscous Excavator was called to action for many other uses including, but not limited to, recovery of:
- coal fines
- sand/clay mixture for land reclamation projects
- chemical residue
- tar sand residue
- large environmental cleanup operations
- phosphate clay (recovery and mixing)
To obtain more information about our Viscous Excavator, please contact us.