초록 ▼

An animal waste handling apparatus having a cylindrical housing with an opening to allow an animal to enter to relieve itself in litter held in the interior volume of the housing. The apparatus has a sifting drawer that is removably mounted in the interior volume of the housing and is carried for ro

An animal waste handling apparatus having a cylindrical housing with an opening to allow an animal to enter to relieve itself in litter held in the interior volume of the housing. The apparatus has a sifting drawer that is removably mounted in the interior volume of the housing and is carried for rotational movement when the housing is rotated about its axis. The sifting drawer includes an open top, an unobstructed interior volume and a filter member spaced from the open top. During a rotational sifting cycle, the sifting drawer enters the litter to capture the litter for filtering to separate animal waste from the litter. The filtered litter remains in the interior volume of the housing and filtered out waste is retained in the sifting drawer. The sifting drawer is removed along a direction that is parallel to the axis of the housing about which the housing is rotated.

대표청구항 ▼

1. An apparatus for handling animal waste comprising: a cylindrical housing mounted for rotation and having two generally opposed ends and a generally circular side and an interior volume for holding litter, the cylindrical housing having an opening generally centrally located in one end of the cyli

1. An apparatus for handling animal waste comprising: a cylindrical housing mounted for rotation and having two generally opposed ends and a generally circular side and an interior volume for holding litter, the cylindrical housing having an opening generally centrally located in one end of the cylindrical housing for allowing an animal to enter the interior volume of the cylindrical housing and relieve itself inside the housing,a second opening in one of the ends and located proximate the cylindrical side for insertion and removal of a sifting drawer into the interior volume of the cylindrical housing;a base for supporting the housing and allowing the housing to be rotated about an axis of the housing;the sifting drawer for sifting through the litter held in the apparatus to separate the litter from animal waste deposited in the litter and to retain the animal waste in the sifting drawer, the sifting drawer removably mounted adjacent an internal side of the cylindrical housing and having a volume contained within the interior of the housing so that the rotation of the housing about its longitudinal axis carries along the sifting drawer for sifting through a mixture of litter and animal waste, the sifting drawer having a first opening and a second opening spaced from the first opening, the second opening having a sifting member disposed therein, the housing being rotatable along its side in a first direction so that the first opening is the lead opening to be passed through a mixture to be sifted to allow the mixture to enter the sifting drawer and move to the second opening as the housing rotation continues in the first direction, the sifting member allows the litter in the mixture to pass through the sifting member and exit the sifting drawer and be contained in the housing while retaining solid animal waste of a particulate size larger than that which can pass through the sifting member in the sifting drawer; andat least one guide member within the interior of the housing for guiding and supporting the sifting drawer to allow the sifting drawer to be removably mounted in the interior of the housing and removed for discarding retained solid animal waste from the sifting drawer, the sifting drawer being inserted into and removed from the mounted position through the second opening in the housing by movement of the sifting drawer along a direction that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis around which the housing is rotated. 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the opening for allowing an animal entry into the interior volume of the housing and the second opening for insertion and removal of the sifting drawer are both located in the same end of the housing. 3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a first guide member located adjacent the internal side of the housing and a second guide member located adjacent the internal side of the housing, the first and second guide members spaced apart for receiving the sifting drawer and supporting the sifting drawer therebetween, and a third guide member spaced inwardly from the internal side of the housing for retaining the sifting drawer in a position between the first guide member and the second guide member; the sifting drawer having an unobstructed internal volume, the unobstructed volume allowing an unobstructed passage of the mixture from the first opening of the sifting drawer to the second opening of the sifting drawer. 4. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising the sifting drawer having a substantially open top side and a bottom side, the first opening in the sifting drawer being the substantially open top side and substantially the entire bottom side of the sifting drawer is a filter member. 5. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising the filter member includes a plurality of spaced apart rods positioned along the bottom side of the sifting drawer and a plurality of openings between the rods, the openings for allowing litter to pass therethrough, and the housing includes a window for viewing the level of the litter placed in the interior volume of the housing. 6. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising the sifting drawer having an outer sidewall and an inner sidewall, the outer sidewall of the sifting drawer positioned adjacent to and extending along the internal side of the cylindrical housing when mounted in the interior volume of the housing, and the inner sidewall of the sifting drawer is in a position that is spaced from the internal side of the housing. 7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising the inner sidewall includes a filter member. 8. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising the bottom side of the sifting drawer is positioned opposite to the top side of the sifting drawer, and the housing is rotated about the longitudinal axis of the housing to conduct a litter sifting cycle wherein the top side is the leading side to enter the litter held in the bottom of the housing and the bottom side is the trailing end when rotated through the litter, the sifting cycle including a rest position after sifting through the litter whereat the plane of the filter member of the sifting drawer is within at least about 20 degrees of horizontal to allow litter of the captured mixture to continue to fall downwardly out the filter member. 9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising at least one stabilizer to inhibit rotation when the housing is in the rest position, and when in the rest position the plane of the filter member is within about 5 degrees of horizontal. 10. An apparatus for handling animal waste comprising: a cylindrical housing mounted for rotation and having two generally opposed ends and a generally circular side and an interior volume for holding litter, the cylindrical housing having an opening generally centrally located in one end of the cylindrical housing for allowing an animal to enter the interior volume of the cylindrical housing and relieve itself inside the housing,a second opening in one of the ends and located proximate the cylindrical side for insertion and removal of a sifting drawer into the interior volume of the cylindrical housing;a base for supporting the housing and allowing the housing to be rotated about an axis of the housing;the sifting drawer for sifting through the litter held in the apparatus to separate the litter from animal waste deposited in the litter and to retain the animal waste in the sifting drawer, the sifting drawer removably mounted adjacent an internal side of the cylindrical housing and having a volume contained within the interior of the housing so that the rotation of the housing about its longitudinal axis carries along the sifting drawer for sifting through a mixture of litter and animal waste, the sifting drawer having a first opening and a second opening spaced from the first opening, the sifting drawer having an unobstructed internal volume, the unobstructed volume allowing an unobstructed passage of the mixture from the first opening of the sifting drawer to the second opening of the sifting drawer, the second opening having a sifting member disposed therein, the housing being rotatable along its side in a first direction so that the first opening is the lead opening to be passed through the mixture to be sifted to allow the mixture to enter the sifting drawer and move to the second opening as the housing rotation continues in the first direction, the filter member allows the litter in the mixture to pass through the sifting member and exit the sifting drawer and be contained in the housing while retaining solid animal waste of a particulate size larger than that which can pass through the sifting member in the sifting drawer; andthe sifting drawer being insertable into and removable from a removably mounted position through the second opening in the housing by movement of the sifting drawer along a direction that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis about which the housing is rotated. 11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising at least one guide member within the interior of the housing for guiding and supporting the sifting drawer to allow the sifting drawer to be removably mounted in the interior of the housing and removed for discarding retained solid animal waste from the sifting drawer. 12. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising the second opening is located proximate to the periphery of one of the ends so that when the sifting drawer is removed from the housing the second opening may be used to dump litter from the housing, and the housing includes a window to allow viewing the level of litter in the housing. 13. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising a window positioned in one of the ends of the housing for allowing the level of the litter in the interior volume to be viewed through the window. 14. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising the second opening for insertion and removal of the sifting drawer is located in the end of the housing that includes the opening for allowing entry of the animal, and the second opening is located adjacent the periphery of the end in which the second end is located so that when the sifting drawer is removed from the housing the second opening provides an opening adjacent the periphery for dumping litter from the interior volume of the housing. 15. The apparatus of the claim 10 further comprising a stabilizer member for inhibiting rotation to maintain the housing in position when a pet enters, uses, and exits the housing. 16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising at least one wheel positioned on the base, a circumferential groove in the cylindrical side of the housing, and the wheel is positioned within the groove so that the wheel and groove cooperate to maintain the housing aligned on the base when rotating the housing. 17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a rest position for the apparatus and the apparatus includes a stabilizer to inhibit rotation to maintain the housing in the rest position when a pet enters, uses, and exits the housing, and the stabilizer is a recess in the circumferential groove, and the wheel is positioned in the recess when the housing is in the rest position. 18. A method of handling pet waste comprising: providing a rotatable cylindrical housing having a central axis, and an interior volume for holding litter and for allowing a pet to enter and relieve itself in the litter;providing an ingress and egress opening in the housing for allowing a pet to enter the interior volume of the housing;providing a sifting drawer for sifting a mixture of the litter and pet waste interspersed therein, to separate the pet waste from the litter, the sifting drawer including an interior volume, a substantially open top side and opposite bottom side including a filter member;removably mounting the sifting drawer within the interior volume of the housing, the sifting drawer mounted to the housing so that rotation of the housing carries the sifting drawer, and the sifting drawer is mounted in a position so that when the housing is rotated in a first direction the open top side is the leading side of the sifting drawer to pass into and out of the litter;rotating the housing and the sifting drawer in the first direction about the central axis of the cylindrical housing to cause the mixture to enter the interior volume of the sifting drawer through the open top side; thereaftercontinuing the rotation of the housing in the first direction to cause the mixture captured in the interior volume of the sifting drawer to be moved towards the filter member in the bottom side of the sifting drawer;filtering the captured mixture to separate the litter from the pet waste contained in the mixture by rotating the housing in the first direction to cause the captured litter to move to the filter, whereat the filter member allows litter to pass through the filter member and out the bottom of the sifting drawer and the filter member retains pet waste within the interior volume of the sifting drawer;thereafter removing the sifting drawer from the housing by withdrawing the sifting drawer along a direction that is parallel to the axis about which the housing is rotated; and thereafterdiscarding waste retained in the interior of the sifting drawer. 19. The method of claim 18 further comprising; stopping the rotation at a first position after passing through the mixture whereat the filter member is substantially horizontal to allow litter of the captured mixture to fall from the sifting drawer; andshaking the sifting drawer at the first position before fully removing the sifting drawer from the housing to discard the waste, the shaking including moving the sifting drawer back and forth along the direction that is parallel to the axis of rotation of the housing to thereby cause captured litter remaining in the sifting drawer to be filtered and fall through the filter member. 20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the interior volume of the sifting drawer is an unobstructed volume between the top side and the bottom side of the sifting drawer so that the mixture entering the top side has an unobstructed passage to the filter member.