Dental apparatus for preventing loss of precious metal particles

Claim 1

Dental apparatus for separating particles of precious metal from a debris-containing mixture received from the mouth of a dental patient, comprising an enclosure, a baffle and conduit assembly which includes inlet conduit means, outlet conduit means and a baffle means, said baffle means being located in said enclosure for dividing the enclosure into an upper chamber and a lower chamber, said inlet conduit means being in communication with the lower chamber for introducing into the lower chamber said mixture which contains particles of precious metal, said inlet conduit means having a substantially smaller cross section than said lower chamber so that the mixture in said lower chamber will have a lower velocity than the mixture moving through said inlet conduit means and particles of precious metals may settle gravitationally from the mixture in the lower chamber, said baffle means being operable to prevent premature flow of said mixture directly into the upper chamber before gravitational settlement has occurred, aperture means extending through the plane of the baffle means for enabling fluids to flow from the lower chamber to the upper chamber, said aperture means having a greater cross sectional area than the inlet conduit means so that fluids flowing from the lower chamber to the upper chamber will have a lower velocity than the mixture flowing through the inlet conduit means into the lower chamber, said aperture means having a size which permits debris which is suspended in the mixture and is less dense than the particles of precious metal to flow upwardly through the plane of the baffle to the outlet conduit means, said outlet conduit means being in communication with the upper chamber for receiving fluids which have passed from the lower chamber into the upper chamber after particles of precious metal have gravitationally settled therefrom in the lower chamber, means for permitting removal from the apparatus of at least a lower portion of the enclosure means which contains gravitationally settled particles of precious metal.