AU2002240721B2

AU2002240721B2 - Device to remove side wall from a tyre carcass

Info

Publication number: AU2002240721B2
Application number: AU2002240721A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Michael Raymond Crockford
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-03-27
Filing date: 2002-03-27
Publication date: 2007-10-25
Anticipated expiration: 2022-03-27

Description

WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 1 TITLE: DEVICE TO REMOVE SIDE WALL FROM A TYRE CARCASS THIS INVENTION relates to the reuse of vehicle tyres. In particular, it is directed to a device that can remove the side wall from a tyre carcass.

There is mounting concern by the general public at the disposal of used items such as vehicle tyres. Incineration is now not a preferred option, unless high temperature furnaces are employed, as it is considered to lead to pollution of the environment. However, the high temperature furnaces are relatively expensive to build and to operate. There is thus an increasing desire to find various second uses for these previously disposed of items.

Alternative disposal of such tyres to landfill sites is losing favour as such sites are becoming scarce and the interior of a tyre carcass is difficult to fill with earth and thus sites which contain a significant quantity of buried tyres are unstable, prone to slip, settling etc. and thus have a limited further use.

Usually, such landfill sites are not capable of supporting any substantial building and are thus limited to functioning as playing fields, sports ovals and the like.

Currently, used tyres are finding increasing use in the construction of retaining walls and the like where banks of tyres are stacked together, each tyre being filled with earth or sand, etc. Larger tyres in particular are being used within mining sites as retaining walls around the perimeter of an open cut and they are also increasingly popular in the construction of artificial reefs. However, once again, the interior shape of the tyre makes it difficult to fill with the earth or sand and it becomes a time-consuming exercise to ensure that the interior of the tyre is indeed entirely filled with the earth or the sand as, if it is not so filled, the retaining wall structure is weakened and may eventually collapse.

WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 2 Further, where the larger tyres are to be disposed of by conventional means, they first have to be broken down into smaller pieces to enable those pieces to be fed into a crumbing plant where they can be diminuted into small enough pieces and subsequently reformed into other products such as household articles or road base. The larger tyres, with their greater quantity of rubber and larger dimensions, are difficult to cut easily into these required smaller pieces.

To overcome these problems, it is known that the side wall of a motor vehicle tyre can be cut out, thus opening up the interior of the tyre making it easier to pack with earth or sand or to be further diminuted. One such machine is the subject of Australian Patent Application No. 68065/98 and Australian Petty Patent No. 713060.

Further, an earlier prior art machine is the subject of Australian Patent Application No. 84667/91 where a tyre is cut radially.

However, such machines are limited to the relatively small size of tyre found on a motor vehicle. The machines are not suitable for the larger size tyres found on trucks, earth moving and similar large machinery. This is primarily due to the weight of the tyre, the prior art machines requiring manual placement of the tyre in the correct cutting position.

There thus remains a need for a procedure whereby larger-size tyres can have the side walls removed more easily and efficiently.

Although specific reference has been made above with respect to the need for a device to remove the side wall from items such as vehicle tyres, particularly tyres from larger vehicles, it will be recognized that this is not WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 3 limiting and that the present invention will find use in other areas where it is necessary to cut an annular portion from the side of a flexible item.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device for use in removing a side wall from a tyre carcass, said device including: a support frame for supporting said tyre carcass; a cutting means for cutting said side wall from within the interior of said tyre carcass; a spreading means to spread and maintain apart the beads of said tyre carcass sufficient to enable said cutting means to be inserted within said interior of said tyre carcass to subsequently engage said side wall; and a rotating means to rotate said tyre carcass on said support frame; wherein said tyre carcass is able to be rotated relative to said support frame to thereby enable said side wall to be cut from said tyre carcass by said cutting means.

Preferably, said support frame includes a support table to support said tyre carcass and which is adapted to move sequentially to a number of positions.

Preferably, said support table moves from an initial substantially horizontal first position whereby said tyre carcass can be placed on said table, to a second inclined position whereby said spreading means is substantially in line with the space defined between the beads of said tyre carcass, to a third WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 4 inclined position whereby said spreading means engages and spreads apart said beads and enables said cutting means to be positioned within the interior of said tyre carcass, to a fourth position whereby said cutting means can engage and cut said side wall from said tyre carcass.

Preferably, said rotating means engages the outer surface of the tread of said tyre carcass and is energized to rotate said tyre carcass when said cutting means is in operation.

More preferably, said rotating means is adjustable in a multiple of planes to assist in engaging with, and retaining against, said outer surface as said tyre carcass is rotated.

Preferably, said spreading means and said cutting means are adapted so that, once said cutting means is in the required position to cut, said spreading means engages the inner surface of the tread of said tyre carcass and with said rotating means engaging the outer surface of said tread thus maintains said tyre carcass in the required position to enable said cutting means to cut said side wall from said tyre carcass.

Preferably, said spreading means is adjustable in a multiple of planes to assist in engaging with, and retaining against, said inner surface as said tyre carcass is rotated.

Preferably, said device further includes a removal means to first remove a portion of said outer surface of said tread before said side wall is removed.

WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 Preferably, said removal means is adjustable in a multiple of planes to assist in engaging with, and retaining against, said outer surface as said portion of said outer surface of said tyre carcass is removed.

Preferably, said device further includes a bead shearing means for first shearing any bead of said tyre carcass before said side wall is removed.

In one embodiment of the present invention, said device which includes said support table is located at a given, substantially fixed, position.

In another embodiment of the present invention, said device which includes said support table is attached to a vehicle.

In this said another embodiment, preferably, said vehicle is an excavator or similar.

As a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of removing a side wall from a tyre carcass, said method including cutting said side wall from said tyre using a device as hereinbefore described.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG.1 is schematic perspective illustration of a first embodiment of a device constructed in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a support arm from the device of FIG.

1; WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 6 FIGS. 3a-3e are schematic illustrations of the sequential operation of the device of FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a side wall removed from a tyre carcass by the device of FIG. 1; FIG. 5a is schematic perspective illustration of a second embodiment of a device constructed in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 5b is an enlarged schematic view of the area of the device of FIG. 5a; and FIG. 6 is an enlarged schematic view of the area of the device of FIG. Referring first to FIG. 1, there is a support frame comprising a base and two spaced posts (2a,b) at one end of the base extending upwards from the base to be pivotally connected to one end of an upper planar support by pivot pins At or near the other end of the upper support is a powered support arm The support arm upper support and pivot pins (6a,b) are adapted by any convenient means known in the art to enable the support to pivot in the direction A table is moveably fitted to the upper support and is adapted to slide in the direction D-D' by any convenient means known in the art. A post (27) extends upwards from approximately the centre of the table and terminates in a flange A shaped arm (29) has a flange (30) at one end for removable attachment to the flange (28) and a tapered portion (13) at its other end (FIG. The free end of the tapered portion (13) incorporates two rollers A freely rotating WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 7 wheel (11) depends from the lower surface of the arm A circumferential groove (12) is defined in the outer periphery of the wheel A powered disk blade (14) is positioned on the support frame such that, when in use, the blade (14) penetrates through the side wall of the tyre carcass such that its outer edge can be received in the groove (12) of the wheel At the end of the table which faces the rollers (9a,b) there are positioned a set of powered rollers In use, as depicted in FIGS.3a-3e, the table is essentially in a horizontal position. A tyre carcass (15) is positioned on the table over the spreader arm by any convenient means. The table is then pivoted downwards in the direction E' to assume the position illustrated in FIG. 3b placing the rollers (9a,b) substantially in line with the space (16) defined between the beads (17a,b) of the tyre carcass The table is then moved in the direction F whereby the rollers (9a,b) and the tapered portion (13) spread apart the beads (17a,b) if necessary to position the rollers (9a,b) and wheel (11) within the interior of the tyre carcass (15) as illustrated in FIG. 3c. The table is then pivoted upwards in the direction E to assume the position illustrated in FIG. 3d whereby the rollers (9a,b) engage the interior surface of the tread of the tyre carcass The drive rollers (10) are then positioned against the outer surface of the tread. The cutting blade (14) is then moved upwards in the direction E to commence cutting through the side wall of the tyre carcass (15) as illustrated in FIG. 3e. The rollers (10) rotate the tyre carcass on the table until the cutting blade has completed an annular cut of the side wall. The drive rollers (10) are retracted and the table is then pivoted downwards in the direction E' to resume the position illustrated in FIG.

3c. The table then moves in the direction F' to resume the position illustrated in FIG. 3b.

WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 8 Optionally (not illustrated) a further roller can be positioned on the device of the invention to assist eject the thus-cut tyre carcass from the table As illustrated in FIG. 4, the present invention cuts the side wall (18) from the tyre carcass Turning now to the second embodiment illustrated in FIGS 5a, 5b 6, like numerals referto like components as discussed above and it will thus be seen that the device further includes a motorised (99) multi-toothed buffing head (98) which can first remove portions of the outer tread of the tyre carcass before the side wall is removed. The buffing head (98) includes a downwardly extending suction pipe (97) to clear from the table and subsequently collect the portions of rubber buffed from the outer tread.

The second embodiment also incorporates a bead breaking assembly which comprises a cut-out (96) in the flanges (28, 30), adapted such that, when a tyre carcass (15) is initially placed on the table any bead of the tyre carcass (15) can be positioned over the cut-out A powered cutting or shearing ram (95) is adapted to be affixed to the post (27) by any suitable means known in the art and includes a cutting or shearing head On energizing the ram the head (94) can pass through the cut-out (96) to shear or otherwise cut the bead of the tyre carcass (15) before the side wall is removed. Any number of cuts or tears in the bead can thus be made before the side wall is removed.

The various embodiments of the present invention offer a number of advantages which include: WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 9 the fixed embodiment is particularly suitable for permanent locations where the tyres to be disposed of can be readily shipped thereto; the mobile embodiment, which can be attached to an excavator or similar, is particularly suited for the larger tyres of mining vehicles and the like where it is impractical (because of their size and weight) to ship such tyres to a disposal location; and in all embodiments, tyres can have excess rubber removed from the outer surface of the tyre, have the bead broken to facilitate the subsequent removal of the side wall and the side wall removed, all in a single machine.

It will be appreciated that the above described embodiments are only exemplification of the various aspects of the present invention and that modifications and alterations can be made thereto without departing from the inventive concept as defined in the following claims.

Claims

1. A device for use in removing a side wall from a tyre carcass, said device including: a support frame for supporting said tyre carcass; a cutting means for cutting said side wall from within the interior of said tyre carcass; a spreading means to spread and maintain apart the beads of said tyre carcass sufficient to enable said cutting means to be inserted within said interior of said tyre carcass to subsequently engage said side wall; and a rotating means to rotate said tyre carcass on said support frame; wherein said tyre carcass is able to be rotated relative to said support frame to thereby enable said side wall to be cut from said tyre carcass by said cutting means.

2. A device as defined in Claim 1 wherein said support frame includes a support table to support said tyre carcass and which is adapted to move sequentially to a number of positions.

3. A device as defined in Claim 2 wherein said support table moves from an initial substantially horizontal first position whereby said tyre carcass can be placed on said table, to a second inclined position whereby said spreading means is substantially in line with the space defined between WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 11 the beads of said tyre carcass, to a third inclined position whereby said spreading means engages and spreads apart said beads and enables said cutting means to be positioned within the interior of said tyre carcass, to a fourth position whereby said cutting means can engage and cut said side wall from said tyre carcass.

4. A device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 3 wherein said rotating means engages the outer surface of the tread of said tyre carcass and is energized to rotate said tyre carcass when said cutting means is in operation.

A device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 4 wherein said rotating means is adjustable in a multiple of planes to assist in engaging with, and retaining against, said outer surface as said tyre carcass is rotated.

6. A device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 5 wherein said spreading means and said cutting means are adapted so that, once said cutting means is in the required position to cut, said spreading means engages the inner surface of the tread of said tyre carcass and with said rotating means engaging the outer surface of said tread thus maintains said tyre carcass in the required position to enable said cutting means to cut said side wall from said tyre carcass.

7. A device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 6 wherein said spreading means is adjustable in a multiple of planes to assist in engaging with, and retaining against, said inner surface as said tyre carcass is rotated. WO 02/076692 PCT/AU02/00364 12

8. A device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 7 which further includes a removal means to first remove a portion of said outer surface of said tread before said side wall is removed.

9. A device as defined in Claim 8 wherein said removal means is adjustable in a multiple of planes to assist in engaging with, and retaining against, said outer surface as said portion of said outer surface of said tyre carcass is removed.

A device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 9 which further includes a bead shearing means for first shearing any bead of said tyre carcass before said side wall is removed.

11. A device as defined in any one of Claims 2 to 10 whereby said device which includes said support table is located at a given, substantially fixed, position.

12. A device as defined in any one of Claims 2 to 10 whereby said device which includes said support table is attached to a vehicle.

13. A device as defined in Claim 12 wherein said vehicle is an excavator or similar.

14. A method of removing a side wall from a tyre carcass, said method including cutting said side wall from said tyre using a device as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 13.