Presses – Methods
Patent
1995-06-28
1997-03-25
Gerrity, Stephen F.
Presses
Methods
100218, 100229R, 100902, B30B 932
Patent
active
056134339
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a compacting method that is particularly adapted to compacting hazardous materials, and in particular radioactive waste.
The present invention also relates to an apparatus for implementing said compacting method.
The invention has been designed and developed in the nuclear context. It is described below more particularly with reference to that context, however, on reading the following text, the person skilled in the art will readily understand that the principle of the invention--compacting along a vertical axis with the compacting skirt being moved in translation between a compacting station and an unmolding station--is transposable to other domains.
Compacting by means of vertical axis presses is conventionally performed in zones that are freely accessible, where maintenance does not pose any special problem. In that context without any contamination problem, materials are compacted inside a compacting skirt by moving compression means in translation vertically downwards. Said compacted materials are unmolded at the same station, by raising said compacting skirt while keeping said compression means in the low position. It is not possible to transpose that technique to contaminated surroundings, e.g. nuclear contamination, given that specific maintenance problems arise, which maintenance can only be performed by remote operation using specific tooling.
The invention proposes modifying that vertical axis compacting technique by separating the functions required for compacting, thereby facilitating access to the mechanical members used and also facilitating disassembly thereof.
The presently claimed compacting method is of the type whereby a container is compacted inside a compacting skirt by co-operation between a support surface on which said skirt is positioned with said container, and compacting means disposed facing said support surface and displaceable along a vertical axis inside said skirt. It is characterized in that it comprises moving said compacting skirt in translation between a plurality of stations, and in particular between a loading station for loading said container, a compacting station where said container is compacted, and an unmolding station comprising unmolding means for unmolding the compacted container, and discharge means for discharging said compacted container downwards.
In characteristic manner, the compacted container is not unmolded in the compacting station. The compacting and unmolding stations constitute two different workstations between which the compacting skirt containing the container is moved in translation.
At the end of compacting, the compacting skirt is not raised to unmold the compacted container in situ. It is the compression means that are raised, thereby releasing said skirt for transfer from said compacting station to said unmolding station.
It is essential to have an unmolding station since the compacted container remains jammed inside the skirt because of the radial pressure that results from compacting.
Various steps are listed below in a preferred variant of the method of the invention. Said method advantageously consists:
in inserting the container loaded with the materials to compact into the mobile compacting skirt in a "loading" station;
in transferring said mobile skirt with the loaded container from said loading station to the compacting station;
in positioning said mobile skirt in said compacting station so as to put said container on the support surface facing the compacting means;
in performing compacting by moving said compacting means along a vertical axis inside said skirt;
in transferring said mobile skirt containing the compacted container from said compacting station to the unmolding station;
in unmolding and recovering said compacted container in said unmolding station; and
in transferring the mobile skirt as emptied in this way to the loading station to receive a new load, or to a maintenance station.
Said method is implemented at four different workstations: the loading station, the compacting station,
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Jacq Patrick
Kerlau Daniel
Kerrien Philippe
Tucoulat Daniel
Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires
Gerrity Stephen F.
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