EP0150687A2

EP0150687A2 - Vertical press for loose materials, wastes of textile fibres included, with horizontal output of the pressed material

Info

Publication number: EP0150687A2
Application number: EP84830324A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Sergio Gualchierani
Original assignee: Gualchierani & C SpA
Current assignee: Gualchierani & C SpA
Priority date: 1984-01-27
Filing date: 1984-12-03
Publication date: 1985-08-07
Also published as: IT1198773B; IT8409325A0; EP0150687A3

Abstract

A vertically moving presser piston (26) presses the material on the bottom (3) of a compacting well (1); a pusher (5) operating at right angle through the well partially defines the said well wall, during the compacting and pressing operations, at the opposite side of a portion of a mobile gate-wall (9) and of a side channel (16) for the sliding of the pressed material and for its output and binding.

Description

The invention relates to a press for loose materials, able to form compact masses liable to be bound, for textile materials and wastes of them, and for other uses.
The press is provided to avoid dispersions of material, even fine, during the binding, and it is apt also to the packaging with a sack envelope or the like.
The press in object comprises in combination: a presser piston with vertical motion to amass and to press compacted material on the bottom of a compacting well; a pusher acting at right angle through the compacting well, and partially defining the said well wall during the compacting and pressing operations; at the opposite side of said pusher, a portion of a mobile gate-wall and a corresponding side sliding channel, with continuous and closed cross-section, along which the pressed material is made to slide by the pusher for the successive packaging handlings, when said portion of mobile wall is shifted from the position along the well wall and when said presser piston is stopped in the lowered position in alignment with the channel upper wall.
With the side sliding channel a binding equipment is combined, to form annular laces, at right angle to the advancement direction in the channel, the pusher advancing in an intermittent way during the binding operation. The sliding channel may protrude overhanging in order to be wrapped by a sack-envelope for packaging the pressed material, which, coming out from the channel draws with it said envelope.
The presser piston is raisable above a side charging mouth, through which the material to be pressed is fed. Said charging mouth is located at the bottom of a duct or a tank for the bunching of the compacted material; a discharging piston, transversally operating at the bottom of said duct, is capable of pushing the material through the mouth into the pressing well, when the presser piston has been lifted. With the duct, that is, the tank for the bunching of the condensed material, a condenser or compactor especially continuous working, may be associated, and the discharging piston has a plugging wall of the duct by which the condensed material - continuously fed - is temporarily held, during the strokes of the discharging piston.
Advantageously, the presser piston is operated to make more pressing strokes for successive charges of material, to form the pressed bale, before a pusher stroke takes place; the presser piston, from the lowered position, performs fast lifting strokes to allow the discharging of the condensed material; and the pusher has a wall for the well closure to allow the progressive accumulation of material in the well even during the same pusher shifting.
The pusher may be provided with intermittent advancing motion towards and into the side channel, for handling requirements, for binding_or other.
In practice, the mobile gate-wall portion may be hinged along one of its edges.
The channel for the pressed material sliding, with continuous and closed cross-section, may have towards the ends, short longitudinal slots arising from the channel edge and developing in one cantileverly protruding portion of the same channel in order to receive annular lace packaging means to be disposed around said protruding portion. The slots may be of such a width - according to the pressed material nature - that the material itself, by projecting from said slots, engages the lace drawing it along, the lace itself operating thus on the mass coming out from the channel; several laces may be successively applied to carry out bindings spaced at desired distances apart. With the cantilever-protruding portion of the sliding side channel, apt to receive a sack-shaped envelope wrapped thereon to sheathe the coming out pressed mass, a binding equipment may be combined to form annular laces on the outside of the sack-shaped envelope.
The invention will be better understood by reading the following description and the accompanying drawing, which shows a practical non limitative exemplification of the same invention. In the drawing:

Fig.1 shows a diagram of a press for wastes;
Fig.2 shows a local view from line II-II of Fig.1;
Fig.3 is a cross-section according to III-III of Fig.1; and
Fig.4 shows perspectively a waste bale obtained with the press of the preceding Figures;
Figs.5, 6 and 7 show in vertical section the steps of a working cycle;
Fig.8 shows a different embodiment of the invention.

According to what is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, by 1 there is indicated a vertical structure forming a compacting and pressing well; along the bottom 3 of said well a pusher piston 5 can slide, driven by a cylinder-piston system 7 for a horizontal thrust sliding. The pusher piston 5 is combined with a horizontal wall 5A capable of closing upwards the cavity of well 1, when the pusher piston 5 is shifted from the rest position aligned with the well 1 wall of (Figs.1, 5, 6) to the right side . hand watching the drawing (Figs.7, 8), according to arrow f5. Facing the pusher piston 5, in the charging arrangement, a gate-wall 9 is located, which is pivoted at 12 and is operated through a cylinder-piston system 14 oscillating at 14A; the gate 9 may be moved from the vertical position illustrated in Figs.1, 5, 6 and corresponding to the charging arrangement, by rotation according to arrow f9, up to a position 9A (Figs.5, 7 and 8) shifted or defiladed from the path that can be covered by pusher piston 5. At the outside of the well structure 1, opposite to the thrust system 5, 7, a channel 16 develops, whose continuous annular cross-section corresponds to that of pusher piston 5 and to the desired section of the pressed waste package to be formed (see also Figs. 3 and 4). The channel 16 is overhanging and at least on two opposed walls (in the drawing the horizontal ones), has slots 18 of some width, slightly spaced each other and of limited lenght in the direction of the channel, which extend starting from the external end edge of the channel 16. The channel 16 structure is developped in projection, that is, as a cantilever, so as to be able to receive, as a cap, an envelope 20 for the going out bale. On channel 16 end, which is provided with slots 18, by means of a stationary binding machine L (Figs.1, 7) a binding element 22 may also be applied, being capable of sliding in a way to be indicated later, to perform the binding; several binding elements 22 may be successively applied to make up repeated bindings. The binding elements 22 may also be applied immediately outside of the channel 16, by means of a binding machine L1, as indicated in Figs.2 and 8, in a different embodiment of the invention.
In the well 1 structure a pressing piston 26 may slide, driven by a cylinder-piston pressing system 28, able to perform repeated vertical displacements in order to successively press many charges of material being progressively fed; piston 26 is capable of reaching the position 26X corresponding to the end of operating stroke, upon which its operating surface is aligned with the wall 5A of the pusher piston 5 and with the upper wall of the channel 16, as well as with the gate 9 when this gate is lifted up to the position 9A.
The well 1 wall in its upper part immediately below the end-stroke position of the lifting of piston 26, has a channel 30 with a side charging mouth, flush to the lower wall 32 of an accumulator of compacted material. The wall 32 delimits the lower side of the path of a discharging piston 34 which is horizontally movable - for example by a truck or by an other suitable means - between the position shown in the drawing and a position near the mouth 30. The piston 34 has an upper wall 34A able to prevent the drop of material according to arrow f10; the material is fed in a substantially continuous way and in a relatively condensed condition while dropping according to arrow f10 into a box shaped tank forming a vertical duct 38, which is closed in its lower part by wall 32, and along the bottom of which the discharging piston 34 slides. The loose material may be fed and condensed in a suitable condenser device overhanging the duct 38. By way of example, by 40 there is indicated a transfer pneumatic duct for the feeding of the loose material, and by 42 there is indicated a condenser of the type with a vacuum-operated drum 44 and performing the suction through its own filtering wall; in this way, the conveyed material - like, and especially, waste fibres and down to be packaged for the ecological discharge of these wastes - is compacted as a carpet filtered on the outer surface of drum 44, from which it is detached to make it fall, according arrow f10, down on the bottom 32.
The running of the described apparatus is as follows. The material to be pressed, properly compacted, that is, condensed, deposits on the plane 34A (Figs.1 and 7) with the piston 34 in forward position so as to be placed in the duct 30. Periodically, the piston 34 is back shifted - in the opposite direction respect to f34 - in order to make the material fall (Fig.5) onto the bottom 32 of the duct 38, and then, said piston 34 is caused to advance again according to arrow f34 so as to discharge the material (Fig.6) through the mouth 30 into the well 1, while the pressing piston 26 is in a raised position. After one or more strokes of piston 34, said piston stops at the advanced position of Fig.6 and the pressing piston 26 is lowered to compact the material against the bottom 3 of the well 1; piston 26 may dwell,a few minutes in this lowered position 26X so that to keep the material pressed while the fresh material is continuously fed in the duct 38 and then, once having reached the selected level, the piston 26 is lifted again from the pressing position 26X so that to permit a new stroke of the piston 34 in the direction opposite to arrow f34 and thus in the direction f34 and therefore a new charging of well 1. Repeated operations of piston 26 and of piston 34 permit to accumulate pressed material while the feeding gets continuously. As already mentioned, piston 26 may be kept in the lowered position 26X during the drop of the material according to arrow f10 into the tank 38 above the wall 34A so as to maintain the material pressed against the bottom 3 and leave it only for a short time during a lifting stroke of piston 26 and the drop of fresh material through the discharging mouth 30 in the well 1, followed by a further lowering stroke of piston 26 again toward the position 26X; in this way it is intended to reduce the re-expansion of the pressed material, which, only for a short time interval, does not undergo the holding and pressing action of the piston 26 lowered in the position 26X. In case the material has the trend to a quick re-swelling the use of a set of disappearance-type retractable blades 48 may be provided, which retract upon the lowering of piston 26 and reinsert themselves into the well 1 as soon as the piston 26 has lifted, thus to be superimposed and to intercept the material which is swelling. In some cases, the piston 26 stroke may be limited up to just below the blades 48, and it performs only the final pressing stroke as far as to the position 26X.
May be assumed that a high number of piston 26 strokes takes place - according to the materials to be pressed - before than an amount of material sufficient and capable of forming one bale is accumulated and pressed. The pressing takes place against the bottom 3 and with side shoulders represented by the pusher piston 5 and the gate 9 aligned with the corresponding walls of the well 1, which has horizontal rectangular cross-section. Since the desired amount of material and the desired pressing of the same are performed, with piston 26 lowered in the position 26X, after the last pressing stroke, the pusher 5 shifting takes place according to arrow f5, the gate 9 being previously lifted in the position 9A. It should be noted that the material is pressed in the vertical direction by the piston 26, having thus the trend to swell in the pressing direction; but the material has instead a minimum trend to swell in the right-angled direction, that is, in the f5 direction.
The charging operations by drop from the mouth 30 may be achieved even during the displacement of pusher 5; in this case the material accumulates on the wall 5A and falls down on the bottom 3 after pusher 5 has come back.
The material being pressed between the bottom 3 and the piston 26 in the position 26X is made by the pusher piston 5 to slide within the channel 16 (Fig.7) as far as its end opening; this is accomplished practically without any side loss of material since the channel is closed up to the short terminal slots; there is avoided thus the loss of down, for example, which is instead scattered in the presses of traditional type with traditional binding systems.
When the piston 5 has moved the pressed material almost up to the point where it starts its output from the channel 16, the advancement according to f5 is made intermittent; when it is desired to carry out a series of bindings with ribbons of synthetic resin (P.V.C.), polyester, polyethylene or with metal straps, there are then applied bindings 22 in correspondence of the slots 18, by means of a binding machine L. A binding or lace 22, wrapped around the end of channel 16, is dragged by the pressed material M and pushed by the pusher piston 5, because this material has a slight tendency to swell through the slots 18 thus engaging the binding 22 and dragging it along till to make it withdrawn from the channel 16 wall, around which the same binding had been applied. Successive bindings 22 are applied so that to have them spaced apart by the desired final amount, yet being dragged by the bale of pressed material M, in order to bind it as shown in Fig.4. The bindings 22 are effected with the strapping head in fixed position and by making the bale to slide forwards in an intermittent way in order to have straps at lenghts more or less spaced apart to be selected according to the re-expansion degree of the material making up the bale. The strapping head may be positioned in the vicinity of slots 18 or just at the end of the channel 16, for encircling the pressed material bale going out progressively. In the end, a pressed bale takes the configuration shown in Fig-4.
The apparatus in object is also suitable for packaging the pressed material M in a bale with a sack-like envelope - with or without binding straps - when this is required or suitable for example to avoid down scattering. In this case - before effecting the bindings 22 or rather than binding - it is possible to make use of a sack-like envelope 20 put on the end of channel 16 and dragged along by the advancing material according to f5 by the action of the pusher piston 5, until it is completely withdrawn out of the cantilevered structure of the channel 16, and thus wrapping the pressed material, to be then closed after having totally left the channel 16. When bindings 22 are not desired as well, the advancement of piston 5 may be continuous even along the final stretch of the stroke of said piston, while, on the contrary, if the bindings are desired, it is necessary to have an intermittence of the advancement according to f5 for the successive operations for the bindings 22 application.
According to the modified embodiment of Fig.8, there is provided a binding machine L1 arranged to form annular laces immediately after the output of the end of channel 16, rather than in correspondence of the slots 18, which, therefore, may be eliminated.
After the end of the pusher piston 5 stroke for the ejection of the pressed material, the piston 5 comes back to resume its initial position illustrated in Figs.1, 5 and 6, and the gate 9 is taken again from the position 9A up to be in alignment with the well 1 wall, the piston 26 is raised again, while the piston 34 is withdrawn according to f34B. Thus, the bunching of material on the bottom 3 begins again starting from the material that in the meantime has been accumulated on the wall 34A which is made of suitable length in order to plug the tank 38 during the binding and ejecting operation. In.any case, for the bunching to be operated on the side 34A, the operations for the binding or packaging and ejection of a bale made of pressed material do not require any interruption of the feeding which, instead, may be kept continuous.
It will be understood that the drawing shows an exemplification given only as a practical demonstration of the invention, as the same invention may vary in the forms and dispositions without, nevertheless, departing from the ambit of the idea on which the invention itself is based.

Claims

1) A press for loose materials able to form compact masses liable to be bound, for textile materials and wastes of the same, and for other uses, characterized by the fact of comprising in combination: a presser piston with vertical motion for amassing and pressing compacted material on the bottom of a compacting well; a pusher acting at right angle through the compacting well, and partially defining the wall of said well during the compacting and pressing operations; on the opposite side of said pusher a portion of a mobile gate--wall; and a correspondent side sliding channel with continuous and closed cross-section, along which the pressed material is made to slide by the pusher for the successive packaging handlings, when said portion of mobile wall is shifted from the position along the well wall and when said presser piston is stopped at the lowered position in alignment with the upper wall of the channel.

2) A press according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that with the side sliding channel a binding equipment is combined to form annular laces at right angles to the advancement direction in the channel; the pusher advancing in an intermittent way during the binding operation.

3) A press according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the fact that the side sliding channel is cantilever projecting to receive a sack-shape envelope wrapped thereon for packaging the pressed material which, by coming out from the channel drags along said envelope.

4) A press according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the presser piston is raisable above a side charging mouth through which the material to be pressed is fed.

5) A press according to claim 4, characterized by the fact: that this charging mouth is located at the bottom of a duct or tank for the compacted material bunching; and that a discharging piston transversally operating at the bottom of said duct is able to push the material through the mouth into the pressing well while the presser piston is raised.

6) A press according to claim 5, characterized by the fact that with the duct or tank for the bunching of the condensed material a compactor or a condenser especially working with continuity is associated, and that the discharging piston has a wall for the plugging of the duct by which the condensed material - being continuously fed - is temporarily held - during the discharging piston strokes.

7) A press according to claim 1, characterized by the facts that the presser piston is operated to perform several pressing strokes for successive charges of material, in order to form the pressed bale, before a stroke performed by the pusher; that the presser piston, starting from the lowered position, performs fast lifting strokes to permit the discharge of the condensed material; and that the pusher has a wall for the well plugging, to consent the progressive bunching of material in the well even during the same pusher shifting.

8) A press according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the pusher is provided of intermittent advancing motion towards and into the side channel for handling, binding or other requirements.

9) A press according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the portion of mobile gate-wall is hinged along one of its edges.

10) A press according to claims 1 or 2, characterized by the fact that the sliding channel for the pressed material, with continuous and closed cross-section, has towards its ends, short longitudinal slots arising from the channel edge, and developing in a cantilever protruding portion of it, in order to receive packaging means of annular lace type to be placed around said protruding portion.

11) A press according to claim 10, characterized by the fact that the slots are of such a lenght - with regard to the nature of the pressed material - that the material itself, by projecting from said slots, engages the lace dragging it along, the lace itself acting thus on the mass coming out of the channel; more laces being successively applied to perform bindings spaced at desired distances apart.

12) A press according to claims 1, 2 and 3, characterized by the fact that with the cantilever-protruding portion of the sliding side channel, apt to receive a sack-shaped envelope and wrapped thereon to sheath the coming out pressed mass, a binding equipment is combined to form annular laces outside of the sack-shaped envelope.

13) A vertical press for loose materials, wastes of textile fibres included, with horizontal output of the pressed material; all as above described and illustrated by way of exemplification in the accompanying drawing.