BE1030781A1 - Used tire recovery facility - Google Patents

Abstract

Installation (10) for the recovery of used tires comprising a production line with a plurality of stations connected in series and comprising at least: a preparation station (12) for preparing and regulating the supply of tires, comprising a hopper (22) feeder and a tire cleaner (26); a tire crushing station (14) for crushing and separating materials, comprising at least one crusher (62); a granulation station (16) intended to change the ground material into finer particles or aggregates, comprising at least one granulator (72); and preferably a packaging station (18) for packaging products, comprising means (57, 58, 59) for conditioning the aggregates, in which installation (10) said stations are arranged aligned.

Description

1 BE2023/5717

Used tire recovery facility

Technical area

The present invention generally relates to the field of recovery of used tires, and more particularly to an installation for the recovery of used tires.

State of the art

Nearly 1.2 billion tires (or tires) are produced every year.

When these tires end up being too worn to ensure vehicle safety, the question of their end of life arises.

A tire is made of rubber gum (based on isoprene polymer), steel, textiles and various elements that reinforce the resistance of the rubber.

Non-reusable used tires can be recovered, or even recycled, in several ways, whole, in pieces or crushed. Among the methods of valorization, we know for example the support of silage tarpaulins in agricultural environments; the creation of road embankments or buildings; railway track support, to reduce vibrations and noise; cushioning play areas and synthetic turf for sports stadiums; and TDF (Tire Derived Fuel) type fuels and raw materials for cement and steelworks.

The demand for material recovery in the context of tires continues to increase and companies holding waste must currently evacuate their tires sometimes far away, sometimes exceeding 800 km. In addition, the growing share of the use of aggregates and powders in various applications also demonstrates a growing need.

TDFs are particularly in demand to meet the energy needs of the cement industries. In the context that concerns us, the TDF is used to give a generic term encompassing a certain grain size of material, knowing that in general, the companies using this TDF are looking for “chips” of dimensions between 25 mm and 80 mm.

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The cement industries have become very demanding of TDF due to fluctuations in the prices of petroleum products, and they do not hesitate to pay the

TDF at the market price of petroleum coke (or “pet coke”).

The biomass share of tires is also used in the calculation of carbon emissions.

CO". Thus, tires not only provide a calorie intake equivalent to that of pet coke and coal, but also reduce fossil CO2 emissions significantly due to their biomass (up to 45% of combustion emissions in the case of 100% substitution of pet coke by used tires).

Tire recycling line installations generally include a crushing part, a granulating part, and a packaging part, or commonly put into bags called big bags. Some installations also include an additional micronization part.

Known tire recycling installations are generally rectangular in shape, that is to say that the different production modules are arranged next to each other in a compact manner to save space/volume.

Known installations are also generally limited to the recycling of certain types of tires from industrial or commercial vehicles.

This limitation is determined in particular by the size of tires authorized at the line entry.

In addition, due to the nature of used tires, the steel content passing through different crushers can create sparks in the installations, or even cause a fire, as already observed in other installations.

In conventional installations, fire outbreaks are controlled by temperature regulators. The machines are stopped when the temperature exceeds a threshold temperature. These systems are not very effective in preventing fires from breaking out.

3 BE2023/5717

Object of the invention

The object of the present invention is to propose a used tire recovery line installation which improves the productivity and safety of known systems.

This objective is achieved by a used tire recovery installation according to claim 1.

General description of the invention

To pursue this objective, the invention proposes an installation for the recovery of used tires. The installation includes a production line with a plurality of elements grouped into stations connected in series. The installation comprises at least one preparation station for preparing and regulating the supply of tires, comprising a supply hopper and a tire cleaner; a tire crushing station for crushing and separating materials, comprising at least one crusher; a granulation station intended to change the ground material into finer particles or aggregates, comprising at least one granulator; and preferably a packaging station for packaging the products, comprising means for conditioning the aggregates.

According to the invention, these stations are arranged substantially aligned, or lengthwise.

In the remainder of the description, the terms "chips", "grind", and "aggregates" designate tire fractions separated from an initial tire. The shredded material is a fraction of tire obtained, for example, after grinding. In the context of the description, the three terms above may however be used interchangeably without constituting a limitation.

The tire recycling line is advantageous because it has a lengthwise layout. This allows you to have a clear vision throughout the process. The production stations are precisely separated along a line, and it is easy to determine the efficiency of each part compared to another.

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Another advantage of this installation in aligned stations comprising different parts of the line is to ensure better safety, particularly in the event of fire, because the line is accessible and a fire outbreak is less likely to affect neighboring stations than in a classic layout, for example in a square.

Installing a tire cleaner allows you to supply the installation with clean products.

Indeed, if it is customary to accept tires at the site entrance which meet precise specifications, it is not uncommon to find dirty tires in a load, or with some gravel.

Tire cleaning improves safety by cleaning tires from contamination by flammable liquids. The operation of the line also becomes more robust because the incoming tires do not carry pollutants such as, for example, stones.

Another advantage of the cleaner is the opening of the recovery market to tire deposits outside the traditional distribution or replacement circuits in garages, such as for example clandestine deposits, tires on agricultural silos, tires for dismantling center. The installation presented therefore makes it possible to obtain additional deposits, in contrast with the installations known from the state of the art.

Preferably, the grinding station comprises a crusher and/or a pre-crusher configured to process tires of different sizes, in particular light vehicle tires, heavy goods vehicle tires, agricultural type tires, solid or tube tires. industrial air, and civil engineering _ The tire recovery installation makes it possible to modulate the targeted production according to demand. The line is not limited in terms of input tire sizes unlike the lines developed in the state of the art.

Preferably, the grinding station produces chips with a size between 18 mm and 25 mm. The chips from grinding can already be sold as TDF.

> BE2023/5717

Advantageously, the granulation station comprises a first granulator which produces aggregate with a dimension of less than 10 mm, and a second granulator which produces aggregate with a dimension of approximately 1 mm.

In advantageous embodiments, the installation further comprises a micronization station to reduce the size of the aggregate, the micronization station comprises at least one micronizer grinder. The micronizer mill produces powder with a size of approximately 0.8 mm or less.

The micronization station is located downstream of the granulation station, and is aligned with the latter and the packaging station.

Preferably, the installation also includes a fire detection system.

This system includes spark detection units, and automatic spark extinguishing units with spray nozzles. This system is mainly installed in the grinding station where the risks are greatest given the presence of steel in the chips.

The detectors are placed in strategic locations, based on a statistical algorithm analysis, such as a study of the number of sparks per minute, and their position. The sensors are then arranged based on its analyzes and risk calculation.

Spark detection is advantageously supplemented by a pressurized water injection system in risk stations. It should be noted that the fire risks are greatest in the grinding station given the presence of steel in the chips, and that conversely, the granulation and packaging stations have the lowest fire risks. because steel is no longer or only rarely present there.

Detailed description using figures

Other particularities and characteristics of the invention will emerge from the detailed description of at least one advantageous embodiment presented below, by way of illustration, with reference to the appended drawings. These show:

6 BE2023/5717

Figure 1: a principle diagram (top view) of one embodiment of a used tire recovery installation comprising a production line.

The used tire recovery installation 10 is made up of five stations connected in series. The installation includes a preparation station 12 for the preparation and regulation of the supply of tires; a tire crushing station 14 for crushing and separating materials; a granulation station 16, intended to change the ground material into finer particles or aggregate; a micronization station 17, optional, to reduce the size of the aggregate, and a packaging station 18 for packaging the products, and in particular putting them into big bags. The various stations of the installation are arranged aligned in the production space. This production space can be outdoors, or preferably, for environmental reasons, covered and integrated into a building.

Figure 1 shows only the part of the facility dedicated to tire processing machines. The site may, for example, also include office buildings and material loading/unloading stations.

Preferably, the installation is located close to the deposits. The costs and environmental impacts generated by logistics solutions are thus reduced. In an advantageous embodiment, the installation is located near a river transport station.

Depending on the variants, the installation includes a second production line like that shown in Figure 1. The production lines are then independent. It is possible to stop only one of the lines during maintenance operations while continuing reduced production.

Please note that the production line presented here is designed to produce different sizes of aggregates and that the particle sizes indicated below are only examples.

The materials produced from tires are mainly steel for around 25% by weight, textile material for around 15% by weight, and

7 BE2023/5717 rubber which represents 55 to 60% by weight. These materials are reduced and separated.

Upon arrival at the site, the loads of tires are first taken to preparation station 12.

The installation is configured to process different types of tires, such as tires for light civil vehicles (at 70%), or heavy goods vehicles, tires for agricultural, industrial and civil engineering machines.

The preparation station 12 includes a tire feed hopper 22.

The hopper can be fed by grapple or loader (not shown). The hopper 22 includes a container equipped with an unloading conveyor controlled by a variable frequency variator. The hopper 22 allows an operator to take care of other tasks at the same time, while conventional feeding systems without a hopper require one or two people for continuous feeding, implying comfort and arduousness constraints. .

A conveyor 24 conveys the tires from the hopper 22 to a tire cleaner 26. The tire cleaner 26 is configured to remove stones, sand, dirt, ice, snow, water and other impurities. The cleaner 26 is suitable here for small tires or touring type tires. When larger tires are processed, a bypass system (not shown) allows the cleaner to be bypassed and continued on the line as it exits the cleaner.

Tire cleaning improves safety by cleaning tires from contamination by flammable liquids. The operation of the line also becomes more robust because the incoming tires do not carry pollutants such as, for example, stones.

We will appreciate that the integration of the cleaner into the production line has the great advantage of opening up recycling to tires outside of traditional circuits (clandestine dumps, agricultural silos) — generally excluded from granulation.

A conveyor 28 transports the tires from the cleaner 26 to the tire crushing station 14. The shredding station 14 includes a pre-shredder — 3O to reduce the tires into large chips. Any type of pre-crusher

8 BE2023/5717 suitable can be used, in particular of the Super Chopper type, preferably with two rotors. A speed modulator (not shown) is provided depending on the incoming materials.

The decalibration of tires, in particular of heavy-duty types, is not necessary before crushing in the pre-crusher 30. The latter can be set up in the preparation station 12 if a request for steel bead from tires of heavyweight guy makes himself known.

The pre-crusher 30 includes a control station 32 and a power supply cabinet 34. Two access platforms 36 are provided for maintenance operations on the pre-crusher 30.

At the outlet of the pre-crusher 30, the chips are transported successively by a vibrating discharge conveyor 36, via a feed conveyor 38, to a disc sorter 42, commonly called a screen.

The role of the screen 42 is to convey the chips after the pre-grinding phase while sorting and separating them according to their size. Dimensions that are too large return to the pre-crusher 30, via two conveyors 44 and 40.

At the exit of the screen 42, the material passes onto a feed conveyor 48 and through an electromagnetic separator on a belt 46 for the de-reinforcement of the crushed rubber. This system makes it possible to clean the steel fibers still present in the ground material. Once cleaned, the steel is extracted by conveyors 54, 56.

The conveyor 48 opens onto a feed conveyor 50 which conveys the crushed material to two multifunction crushers 62. The crushers each include a loading and pre-storage hopper 58. The hopper 58 makes it possible to regulate the flow towards the crusher continuously. Control of the power flow is done by a frequency variator.

The crushers 62 also include access platforms 60 for maintenance operations.

The two crushers 62 are multipurpose rasper type machines, but any type of suitable crusher can be

9 BE2023/5717 used. At this point in the line, the crushers ensure the grinding of the materials.

Compared to the pre-grinding carried out previously by the super choppers 30, the grinding makes it possible to obtain shredded materials of relatively large size but which already constitute a reusable raw material, particularly in the field of construction, and in particular serving as a base, or even for roads or buildings. The 62 crushers can be equipped with electric or hydraulic motors.

Note that at this point, the line divides into two parallel branches of identical (or similar) construction. This makes it possible to increase production capacity and diversify production. In fact, the sizes of the aggregates obtained can be different in one or other of the branches. Furthermore, in the case of a technical intervention, for example maintenance, the use of a single branch would be sufficient to continuously supply the granulation installation. These two parallel branches do not call into question the linear arrangement of the installation's stations. In the following we will therefore only describe the equipment and machines of the lower branch in the figure.

A vibrating unloading conveyor 64 moves the crushed material leaving the crusher 62 towards an electromagnetic separator on belt 66, for the de-reinforcement of the crushed rubber. The magnetic separator 66 is located above the discharge conveyor 64.

The metal produced here is of good quality. It can be transported to containers for delivery in bulk or in briquettes, for example, to steelmakers interested in this product.

At this stage, the crushed material is small (approximately 25 mm to 18 mm). A pivoting screw transfer 68 conveys the ground material to the granulation station 16.

The screw transfer 68 communicates with a buffer hopper 70 of the granulation station 16.

The role of the hopper is to balance the output of the crusher, because the capacity of the granulation station 16 depends on the size of the desired aggregate and the incoming ground material.

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According to the variants, before the buffer hopper 70, a transport belt is added evacuating the crushed materials of a predetermined size to be used for specific needs, in particular in cement works.

A first finishing crusher, also called a first granulator 72, makes it possible to reduce the size of the crushed materials. The outgoing aggregate is, for example, less than 10 mm. The aggregate is transported by a pneumatic aggregate transport 74, to a sorting table 78 which is also called a shaking table.

The 78 table includes a sieve with two layers, a bottom plate, and an anti-jam system with rubber balls.

The sorting table also includes two access platforms 76 (mobile type) for maintenance operations.

Following the sorting table 78, the aggregate passes through two electromagnetic separators on belt 80, for further removal of reinforcement. Usually, there is almost no steel left at this stage, since most of it has already been removed in the previous stages. On the other hand, there may remain many fine steel filaments which must be separated from the rubber.

After de-reinforcement, the aggregate passes into a second granulator 82. The second granulator 82 operates identically to the first granulator 72, but makes it possible to obtain a smaller aggregate size. It is also possible to use only one of the branch's granulators during a maintenance operation, for example.

At the outlet of the second granulator 82, a pneumatic aggregate transport 84 transports the aggregate to a new sorting table 86, similar to the previous sorting table 78.

In order to guarantee an aggregate completely clean of any steel pollution, an electromagnetic pulley 88 extracts ferrous materials at the outlet of the table 86.

The aggregate then passes onto a vibrating discharge conveyor 90 then a pneumatic transfer 92 to a vacuum cleaner 94. In the vacuum cleaner 94, the material passes through an air flow and the textile is sucked up. The vacuum cleaner is designed to separate the

11 BE2023/5717 textile rubber granulate and sort the rubber fraction into three sizes.

The particle size produced can be modified simply by changing grids and sieves in the granulators and/or in the vacuum cleaner. We can obtain a branch which produces a type of aggregate different from another branch. At this stage, we have an aggregate which is free of approximately 99.9% textile and steel.

The aggregate passes through sieves for fractionation into 3 parts. Fractions larger than a predefined threshold size pass through a return loop 98 which passes back into the buffer hopper 70, and the material is returned to the first granulator 72 to be crushed again.

The fine fractions, below 1 mm, are sent to packaging station 18.

The coarser fractions are sent to a micronization station 17.

The micronization station 17 includes a micronizer grinder 106 (see for example the company Lleal s.a., Barcelona, Spain). The particles reach the micronizer mill 106 by two pneumatic transfers 100, 102, and a storage hopper 104 fed by a screw conveyor.

The micronizer mill 106 is placed on a frame. The micronizer mill 106 is used for the production of powder whose dimensions produced are of the order of approximately 0.8 mm up to 10 microns.

The line includes 108 refrigeration equipment which keeps a temperature of around 55°C. Maintaining a predetermined temperature makes it possible to avoid fires at the outlet of the micronizers.

The micronizer crusher is connected to a screen 114 supplied with material by a screw conveyor 110, 112. The screen 114 carries out screening control of the particle size, while ensuring a predetermined flow rate. The screen preferably includes a double sieve to ensure effective control. Once screened, the aggregate is sent to packaging station 18.

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In the packaging station 18, the materials are packaged in big-bag stations 124, 126, 128 each comprising a weighing unit before putting the finished product into big bags.

The vacuum cleaner 94 and the screen 114 communicate with the big-bag stations 124, 126, 128, by pneumatic transfers 116, 120, 122, and screw conveyors 118.

The line also includes 67-69 controls and power supply cabinets.

Claims (9)

13 BE2023/5717 Claims 1. Used tire recovery installation, the installation (10) comprising a production line with a plurality of stations connected in series and comprising at least: a preparation station (12) for the preparation and regulation of the supply tires, comprising a feed hopper (22) and a tire cleaner (26); a tire crushing station (14) for crushing and separating materials, comprising at least one crusher (62); a granulation station (16) intended to change the ground material into finer particles or aggregates, comprising at least one granulator (72); and preferably a packaging station (18) for packaging products, comprising means for conditioning (57, 58, 59) of the aggregates, in which installation (10) said stations are arranged aligned. 2. Installation according to claim 1, in which the grinding station (14) comprises a grinder (62), and preferably a pre-crusher (30), configured (s) to grind tires of different sizes, and in particular tires for light vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, agricultural type tires, solid or inner tube tires for industry, and civil engineering. 3. Installation according to one of claims 1 or 2, in which the grinding station (14) produces chips with a dimension between 18 mm and mm. 4. Installation according to any one of claims 1, 2, or 3, in which the granulation station (16) comprises a first granulator (72) which produces aggregate with a dimension less than 10 mm, and a second granulator (82) which produces aggregate with a dimension of approximately 1 mm. 5. Installation according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a micronization station (17) to reduce the size 14 BE2023/5717 of the aggregate, the micronization station (17) comprises at least one micronizer grinder (106). 6. Installation according to claim 5, in which the micronization station (17) is arranged downstream of the granulation station (16) and aligned with the latter and the conditioning station (18). 7. Installation according to claim 5 or 6, in which the micronizing mill (106) produces powder with a size of approximately 0.8 mm up to 10 microns. 8. Installation according to any one of the preceding claims further comprising a fire detection system. 9. Installation according to claim 7 wherein the grinding station (14) further comprises spark detection units, and automatic spark extinguishing units with spray nozzles.