Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Precedent preparation of items or materials to facilitate...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-19
2001-04-10
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Precedent preparation of items or materials to facilitate...
C209S012100, C209S038000, C209S172000, C209S173000, C209S930000, C241S020000, C241S024120, C241S024150
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213306
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a procedure and an installation for the pure processing, according to general type, of recoverable material refuse with an initial selection of heavy disruptive materials, with a crushing procedure for the remaining raw refuse, with separating procedures for different recoverable materials from the crushed raw refuse up to a mixture of plastic chips and with separating procedures for the recovery of plastics as pure as possible according to type.
Various procedures for the processing of industrial, commercial and/or household refuse, especially of recoverable material refuse, of the aforementioned type described are known.
For example, DE 43 00 870 describes one such procedure for the sorting of recoverable material waste.
In this case, recoverable material waste means waste iron, glass, non-ferrous metals, paper, plastic etc. The sorting procedure begins with the separating of iron by a magnetic separator.
All remaining materials are subsequently crushed with a shredder.
This procedure is followed by the soaking of the shredded refuse with water.
Glass and components heavier than water are separated by means of a float-and-sink separation. A distinction is made between plastics and other recoverable materials on a subsequently following vibrating conveyor on the basis of the differentiated specific density.
Such a procedure is not entirely effective. The magnetic separator does not make it possible to completely separate stones and similar hard materials. The stones or non-ferrous metals are not separated by a magnetic separator.
The hard objects remaining in the refuse, i.e., the heavy disruptive materials, are thus also conveyed into the shredder in the course of the crushing procedure. The tools for the crushing very quickly become blunt or even break. Frequent downtimes combined with long searches for these objects prevent a continuous processing sequence.
The degree of crushing is objectively limited under these circumstances. In many cases, an additional crushing procedure has to be inserted at a later date.
Further deficiencies are also caused by the sequence of the following separating procedures. With the soaking of crushed refuse in water, the approximately palm-sized refuse chips are separated dependent upon the density of the water.
Repeated separating procedures which can possibly be very expensive must subsequently be performed for the separation of different chips consisting of iron, non-ferrous metals, stores and glass.
It is usually unavoidable to remove as much of the water as possible from the refuse chips prior to the majority of these separating procedures. Drying procedures necessitate additional installations and the supply of a great quantity of energy.
The further processing of the light materials in this procedure is accomplished by a vibrating conveyor. The separation, for example between plastic and paper, is unsatisfactory with regard to the purity.
A repeated crushing of the plastic chips and a washing procedure, if necessary, cannot be ruled out prior to the further processing of the plastic parts in the sense of separating them into different types of plastic.
The expenditure for such a procedure is high. The result remains altogether unsatisfactory.
Another procedure for the treatment of refuse is offered by DE 42 22 379 A1. The procedure begins with the screening of the raw refuse in different fractions on the basis of the grain size.
The oversize parts of the raw refuse disturbing the treatment process are detected by manual classification and removed.
The medium and classified and oversize grain fractions liberated from disruptive parts are brought together. This is followed by the crushing, the separation of iron, the screening into several size fractions, the air classification, the repeated mixing of different fractions, a repeated crushing of fractions and other mechanical selective procedures. There is still no separation of the fractions into specified recoverable raw materials at the end of this very expensive treatment process.
Separating procedures of such types have to be performed additionally after such a treatment.
This procedure requires several screening operations. All of these screening operations must be preceded by energy-consuming drying procedures in order to ensure a continuous operation.
The above described procedure for the processing of refuse is extremely expensive.
Furthermore, the number of procedures in which mechanical crushing and selection operations are performed has a considerable impact on the environment.
The necessary efficient air cleaning installations additionally increase the costs for the procedure.
A further procedure for the processing of mixtures of refuse abounding in plastic is known from DE 43 06 781 A1.
In this procedure, the separated refuse is screened—as already described above—and manually liberated from disruptive materials.
This mixture of refuse is subsequently fed to a set of rotating shears and is crushed. This procedure is followed by an airstream sorting by which the mixture is separated into heavy and light material.
In the first instance, the metals are separated from the heady material in several procedural steps.
Then, the remaining heavy material and the light material are fed to a further crushing process and then to the separating operations in which the individual types of plastic are then separated.
This procedure also has decisive disadvantages.
Above all, the manual separation of disruptive parts from the raw refuse is unacceptable in the long run. The preceding screening of the raw refuse certainly simplifies the manual separating process, but there is still no certainty that disruptive parts, especially large stones, are completely removed prior to the crushing process.
The rotating shears frequently break down and often cause long downtimes during which the disruptive parts must be manually located in large refuse storage devices and then removed.
The tools of the crushing installation also wear down quickly in spite of cooling and must frequently be replaced.
This is why the degree of crushing must be low at the first level. A second crushing procedure after the separation of metals is unavoidable.
The fact that there is a considerable development of dust during the crushing process is also disadvantageous. This necessitates a large-scale covering of the installation as well as efficient air-conditioning equipment.
The connected air separation installation additionally requires a similar expenditure.
Experience has shown that in this operation, organic components of the refuse remain adhesive at least up to the first float-and-sink separating installation. The same applies to labels and other removable components of the raw refuse. The quality of the separation of the recoverable materials leaves much to be desired.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a procedure for the reprocessing of refuse materials and the separation of recoverable materials
which in case of a continuous operation wish a scheduled maintenance cycle,
with a minimum number of process steps,
under minimum environmental impact,
with a minimum of energy makes an optimal separation of recyclable raw materials possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
By means of the soaking prior to the process and the selecting of the heavy disruptive materials according to the sinking speed in a cross-flow, in the first instance all of the solid, heavy and hard disruptive materials can be reliably removed from the raw refuse and the lighter raw refuse at a side-located place can be moved from the separating container to further processing.
Thus, the parts which could destroy or blunt the cutting edges of the crushing tools are largely separated from the process prior to the crushing process of the remaining refuse components.
It is then possible to reliably guarantee the crushing of the lighter refuse materials in one single step of the process up to a relatively small chip size suitable for separating and segregating processes.
The complete and/or at le
Fiedlschuster Thomas
Pilz Harald
F & P Sortiertechnik GmbH
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Martin Brett A
Walsh Donald P.
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