Solid material comminution or disintegration – Apparatus – Bottle breakers
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-11
2001-10-23
Rosenbaum, Mark (Department: 3725)
Solid material comminution or disintegration
Apparatus
Bottle breakers
C241S301000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305624
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a system for recycling for the purpose of re-utilizing the components of defective or spent fluorescent tubes.
For lighting purposes in offices, in public areas, workshop halls etc., one usually uses fluorescent lamps that are made of a straight glass tube, whose inside circumference is coated with a fine luminescent powder and whose interior is filled with a low pressure gas. This type of tubular fluorescent lamp is called a fluorescent tube. The ends of the glass tube are sealed and provided with a metal connecting base, which bears contact pins. These universal fluorescent tubes have only a limited life and, therefore, rapidly fall into a defective or spent state. Their components, namely the glass tube, the connecting base and the content material, namely phosphors and mercury, are largely recyclable. For this reason the fluorescent tubes are collected for recycling the components on pallets with suitable superstructures, on which the tubes are deposited in ordered layers.
To recycle the components of these fluorescent tubes there exists a system that comprises a raised longitudinal stage, on whose one end the pallets with the fluorescent tubes can be deposited. Attached to the pallet region in the longitudinal direction is an essentially closed housing, which has a lift beam conveyor, which conveys the fluorescent tubes step-by-step forward, moving them past several processing stations in the housing.
In the feed station the fluorescent tubes are fed manually to a short chain conveyor, where at one end of the conveyor the fluorescent tubes are transferred to the lift beam conveyor.
The processing stations in the housing comprise, first of all, a perforating station, in which stationary oxyhydrogen burners direct a very concentrated thin flame on the glass tube in the vicinity of the respective cap and burn a small hole in the glass tube. The air can flow through this small hole into the fluorescent tube in order to produce a pressure equilibrium.
Then the fluorescent tubes are carried past a severing station, where the fluorescent tubes are turned and the glass tube in the vicinity of the respective cap is severed, i.e. cracked off, using another burner.
Next is a blow-out station, in which a strong blast of air is sent from one side through the glass tube, which has been freed of its caps. The air blows out the bulk of the fine luminescent powder adhering to the inside circumference of the glass tube through the other end of the glass tube.
Finally the cleaned glass tube is comminuted into small free-flowing fragments or splinters.
The caps, the glass and optionally the content materials are collected and fed to recycling. When the recycling of the content material cannot be justified from an economic view point, dumping, e.g. underground landfill, may also be considered.
The existing system has functioned for years satisfactorily, but its efficiency is limited. Namely the single fluorescent tube must remain in the perforating station and in the severing station until the burner has created the hole. This intermittent method is time-consuming.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the problem of providing a system of this type that is more efficient.
The problem is solved by the present invention.
In contrast to the lift beam conveyor, a continuously working conveyor in combination with the burner strips, which extend a certain distance in the conveying direction, instead of the stationary point flame in the perforating station and in the severing station greatly multiples the system's productivity. Tests have demonstrated that a single system can process 11,000 fluorescent tubes per hour.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the conveying device comprises two chain conveyors, which revolve continuously side-by-side in vertical planes and are spaced apart so as to match the length of the commercial fluorescent tubes and whose upper runs carry the fluorescent tubes.
To decouple the work in the processing stations from the fluorescent tube feed, it is advisable to connect to the conveying device a transfer conveyor, onto which the fluorescent tubes can be fed in an ordered manner and by means of which the fluorescent tubes can be delivered individually to the conveying device.
The transfer device can comprise a conveyor, followed by a separating unit.
In order to eliminate the manual feed of the fluorescent tubes in the feed station and the accompanying risk to this person performing the task should one of the fluorescent tubes break, the feed station can comprise a grasping device, by means of which at least one portion of a layer of fluorescent tubes can be grasped at one time and put on the transfer conveyor.
The grasping device can comprise a suction member, which can raise through the suction effect the relatively light fluorescent tubes out of the layer and release them again by way of the transfer conveying device.
The suction member can comprise in particular a suction frame, which is adapted to the layout of the layer or a portion of the layer of fluorescent tubes. The suction frame can be suspended from a lifting device, which is provided with a boom that can be swung up or down and rotated around a vertical axis.
The severing station can comprise a burner strip which extends in the conveying direction at both ends of the fluorescent tubes.
The burner strip, which is used both in the perforating station and in the severing station, can exhibit an effective length ranging from 100 to 300 mm and a longitudinal housing with thirty to eighty nozzle orifices, whose diameters range from 0.2 to 0.4 mm and which are provided, when in operation, on a side facing the fluorescent tubes.
A small number of all of the fluorescent tubes under discussion are provided for use in environments subjected to the risk of explosion and bear metal strips, normally copper strips, which run parallel to the axis over the entire length of the outside of the glass tube, in order to avoid sparks. The copper may not get into the recycled comminuted glass, because it causes a discoloration of the glass during the remelting process.
For this reason such special fluorescent tubes must be excluded from the recycling process.
This occurs with the aid of the detector, which interacts with a suitable separating unit, by means of which the fluorescent tubes, provided with copper strips, can be excluded from the recycling so that the copper cannot get into the recycled glass. The detector can work, for example, optically by detecting the reflection differences when the copper strip on the rotating fluorescent tube passes.
Important embodiments of the invention include features permitting the detection of fluorescent tubes, filled with different phosphors, and a sorting by the type of phosphor that is blown out. A device to detect different fluorescent tubes by their different types of luminescent powder is known, for example, from the WO 98/04904.
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Bonmann Christian
Polman Eckhard
Foley & Lardner
LVG Leuchtstofflampen Verwertungs Gesellschaft mbH
Rosenbaum Mark
LandOfFree
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