Desludging device for a portion of the total volume of a liquid that
contains suspended solids and/or can form sludge, arranged in a tank for
the total volume of the liquid in such a way that at least a part of said
desludging device including its floor is immersed in the total volume,
wherein said desludging device has an inlet opening located above said
floor through which a portion of the liquid can enter the desludging
device, as well as a discharge device beginning above said floor, in the
form of an exit pipe, a channel, an overflow weir or at least an opening
in the wall, through which the liquid can be removed from the desludging
device, and wherein said floor of the desludging device has at least one
outlet opening through which sludge that has settled in said desludging
device can be returned to the total volume of the liquid or passed to
another settling device for concentrating the sludge. Preferably the
settled sludge is recycled to the total volume through a Venturi-type
nozzle. The desludging device is particularly suitable for use in a
process for taking automatically desludged bath samples for analysis
purposes.
