EP0598306A2 - Shredder especially for household and garden refuse - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a chopper for chopping refuse material, in particular household and garden refuse. The chopper contains a housing (3) having a feed chute (4) and a rotor (12) which is rotably mounted between the latter and a discharge opening, is connected to a rotating drive (9) and interacts with a holding element (22). The rotor (12) is constructed so as to be funnel-shaped and has a side wall (14) which is provided with at least one penetration gap and at least one cutting knife (19) and is essentially conically enlarged upwardly and outwardly from a central bottom part (13) connected to the rotating drive (9) towards the feed chute (4). <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a chopper of the type specified in the preamble of claim 1.

This type of chopper is available in numerous embodiments (e.g. DE 36 12 997 A1). As far as they are used in the home and garden, many variants are inexpensive, but also often unsatisfactory in terms of cutting performance and susceptibility to failure, e.g. against jamming or constipation. On the other hand, if the choppers are sufficiently insensitive to faults and powerful, they are also comparatively expensive and therefore more suitable for municipal purposes or the like than for the home and garden.

To avoid these disadvantages, a chopper of the type described at the outset has become known (DE 32 17 433 C2), which has a frustoconical rotor. However, this chopper tends to tend, especially when using soft or moist, e.g. Waste materials containing leaves or grass, for jamming or clogging, especially in the area of the radial gap between the outer, lower edge section of the rotor and the surrounding housing wall. As a result, either the cutting performance is reduced or a comparatively large, gap-avoiding annular gap must be provided, which adversely affects the size reduction effect.

The invention is therefore based on the object, the chopper of the aforementioned Train genus so that it is immune to interference and powerful, but still inexpensive to manufacture.

The characteristic features of claim 1 serve to solve this problem.

The invention has the advantage that the funnel shape of the rotor, in conjunction with the cutting knives and passage gaps attached to its inside, enables a very effective treatment of the waste material. During operation, the waste material is collected in the funnel, pressed outwards against the side wall by the centrifugal forces generated and crushed by the cutting knives and conveyed out through the passage gap, where it reaches an ejection chute. The geometry of the passage gaps and cutting knives can be changed in many ways and can always be selected in such a way that a high cutting performance is obtained. Congestion and the associated jamming or blockages are hardly possible. In contrast to a frustoconical design of the rotor, the waste material is repeatedly thrown radially outwards and upwards until it is completely shredded, and is reflected on the surrounding housing walls towards the central axis, so that there is constant circulation and the material to be shredded is continually re-introduced reaches the area of the cutting knives and passage gaps until it is sufficiently comminuted and discharged through the passage gaps. In this way, the centrifugal forces and gravity generated during operation are optimally used.

Further advantageous features of the invention emerge from the subclaims.

• Fig. 1 eine schematische, teilweise geschnittene Seitenansicht eines erfindungsgemäßen Häckslers;
• Fig. 2 die Vorderansicht des Häckslers nach Fig. 1, ebenfalls teilweise geschnitten;
• Fig. 3 die Unteransicht eines Rotors des Häckslers nach Fig. 1 und 2;
• Fig. 4 die Draufsicht auf den Rotor nach Fig. 3 und ein schematisch angedeutetes Halteelement;
• Fig. 5 und 6 Schnitte längs der Linien V-V und VI-VI der Fig. 4;
• Fig. 7 und 8 zwei der Fig. 4 entsprechende Draufsichten auf den Rotor in Verbindung mit zwei weiteren Ausführungsformen des Halteelements;
• Fig. 9 einen der Fig. 2 ähnlichen, jedoch nur teilweisen Vertikalschnitt durch einen erfindungsgemäßen Häcksler gemäß einer zweiten Ausführungsform; und
• Fig. 10 eine schematische Innenansicht eines Teils einer weiteren Ausführungsform des Rotors für den Häcksler nach Fig. 1 bis 8.

The invention is explained in more detail below in connection with the accompanying drawing using exemplary embodiments. Show it:

• Figure 1 is a schematic, partially sectioned side view of a chopper according to the invention.
• FIG. 2 shows the front view of the chopper according to FIG. 1, also partly in section;
• 3 shows the bottom view of a rotor of the chopper according to FIGS. 1 and 2;
• FIG. 4 shows the top view of the rotor according to FIG. 3 and a schematically indicated holding element;
• Fig. 5 and 6 sections along the lines VV and VI-VI of Fig. 4;
• 7 and 8 two plan views corresponding to FIG. 4 of the rotor in connection with two further embodiments of the holding element;
• 9 shows a vertical section, similar to FIG. 2, but only partially, through a chopper according to the invention according to a second embodiment; and
• 10 shows a schematic interior view of part of a further embodiment of the rotor for the chopper according to FIGS. 1 to 8.

1 and 2, the chopper according to the invention is supported on a frame 1, on which rollers are rotatably fastened, in order to be able to transport the chopper comfortably when the frame 1 is inclined. The frame 1 carries e.g. hollow cylindrical housing 3, at the upper end of which a loading shaft 4 with a hopper 5 is arranged. On its underside, the housing 3 is provided with a preferably circular support plate 6 which assumes a substantially horizontal position when the chopper is in use and from which an essentially cylindrical section 7 of the housing 3 protrudes upwards. In this section 7, a radially outwardly leading ejection opening is provided, to which an ejection chute 8 or the like can be connected for the comminuted material.

Attached to the underside of the support plate 6 is a rotary drive 9, preferably designed as an electric or internal combustion engine, which is switched on or off by means of a switch 10 and with its essentially vertically arranged drive shaft 11 upwards through a bore formed in the support plate 6 protrudes.

Above the support plate 6 is a rotary bearing, not shown Rotor 11 rotatably mounted, which is funnel-shaped. This is understood here to mean that the rotor 11 consists of an upwardly open pot with a base part 13 which has a smaller diameter than the support plate 6 and how it has a circular cross section. A protruding and upwardly and outwardly projecting lateral surface or side wall 14 protrudes from this base part 13, which is arranged coaxially to section 7 of housing 3 and is only spaced apart from section 7 by a narrow annular gap with an upper, outer edge section. Below the side wall 14, the section 7 and the support plate 6 of the housing 3 form an essentially closed space 5, which is only open through the ejection opening to the ejection channel 8.

The bottom part 13 of the rotor 12 is provided with a central opening which is penetrated by the part of the drive shaft 11 which projects upwards above the support plate 6. This part is used for the rotationally fixed connection of the rotary drive 9 to the rotor 12. For example, the rotor 12 can be supported on a shoulder, not shown, of the drive shaft 11 and the attachment can be effected by means of a screw 16 which is screwed into an axial threaded bore of the drive shaft 11 and has a head supported on the top of the bottom part 13.

A central axis 17 of the chopper is preferably at the same time an axis of rotation about which the drive shaft 11 and thus also the rotor 12 rotate when the rotary drive 9 is switched on by means of the switch 10.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6 in particular, a plurality, for example two diametrically opposite passage gaps 18 are preferably formed in the side wall 14, which are arranged obliquely to the vertical central axis 17 of the chopper. On the trailing edges of the passage gaps 18 trailing in the direction of rotation of the rotor 12 (arrow v in FIG. 4), cutting knives 19 are fastened, for example, with screws, which are preferably designed as planing knives and therefore have the trailing edges of the passage gaps 18 in the direction of rotation from the outstanding cutting edges 20. This results in a planing effect, as is the case with conventional planing, the cutting knives 19 acting analogously to the action of a planer, for example on branches, twigs or the like given in the loading chute 4 and the chips removed through the passage gaps 18 to the outside into the Let room 15 escape. There, the comminuted material reaches the area of drivers 21, which are provided on the underside of the side wall 14 of the rotor 12 at intervals and consist, for example, of ribs, which are preferably made in one piece with the rotor 12 and up to section 7 reach the housing 3. In the exemplary embodiment, two such drivers 21, which are spaced apart by 180 °, are shown, each offset by 90 ° relative to the passage gaps 18. The crushed material passing through the passage gaps 18 is taken along by these drivers 21 and then pushed into the discharge chute 8 in the region of the discharge opening by centrifugal force.

During operation, the cutting knives 19 interact with an essentially wedge-shaped holding element 22, which is preferably fastened above the section 7 to the inner wall of the loading chute 3 and whose position relative to the rotor 12 is indicated schematically in FIGS. 4 to 6. The holding element 22 protrudes into the funnel-shaped rotor 12 and preferably has a lower edge 23 (FIG. 5) which is parallel to the side wall 14 and at a short distance from one another and which extends radially from section 7, e.g. extends about half or a little more along the side wall 14 (FIG. 5). Therefore, the cutting knives 19, e.g. Fig. 6 shows, preferably sunk in radial pockets of the side wall 14 such that they can also pass under the lower edge 23. The effect of the holding element 22 is, in particular, to prevent the material to be comminuted from rotating within the loading chute 4 and thereby to enable it to be comminuted quickly. In addition, the holding element 22 serves, when the rotor 12 is rotated, to catch the material which has not yet been sufficiently comminuted and is thrown upwards and radially outwards by the side wall 14 and the cutting knives 19, so that it quickly falls back into the funnel-shaped rotor 12 due to its gravity.

While the wedge-shaped holding element 22 according to FIGS. 4 to 6 has a side surface 24 on its side facing the cutters 20 of the passing cutting knife 19, which is curved slightly concave inwards, a holding element 25 according to FIG. 7 has one with the same design of the chopper flat side surface 26, which forms a comparatively large angle α with the associated radius. 8 shows a holding element 27, the side surface 28 facing the incoming cutting edges 20 of the cutting knives 19 is likewise essentially flat, but forms a substantially smaller angle β with the associated radius. The chopping process can be further optimized by appropriate arrangement and design of the respective holding element.

Moreover, on the bottom part 13 of the rotor 12 there is preferably also a cutting, e.g. cone-shaped, star-shaped or T-shaped shredder 29 (FIGS. 1, 4 and 5) is provided, which is effective in addition to the cutting knives 19 and e.g. can cause before shredding the waste material.

The chopper described so far is preferably used for hedge and tree pruning with predominantly woody material, which is fed in when the rotor 12 is rotated via the hopper 5 and the feed chute 4.

In order to avoid that the cutting knives 19 become blunt too quickly when processing soft materials, such as sheets, newspapers, kitchen waste or the like. According to the invention, it can be provided that a rotary drive 9 is used which, when the switch 10 is set accordingly, can also be rotated in the direction of an arrow w (FIG. 4), ie opposite to the arrow v . In this case, the rotor 12 does not act on the waste material with its cutting knives 19, but with other cutting knives or bare cutting edges, which are formed, for example, on the edges 30 (FIG. 4) of the passage gaps 18 opposite the cutting knives 19.

1 to 6, the side wall 14 is provided on its radially outer side with a vertically upwardly extending, parallel to section 7 of the housing 3, cylindrical edge section 14a, so that this with the Section 7 forms an annular gap into which a lower end 4a of the feed chute 4 is inserted, as can be seen above all from FIGS. 5 and 6. This results in the additional advantage that material which has not yet been sufficiently comminuted and is thrown radially outwards and upwards by the side wall 14 or the cutting knives 19 does not penetrate into the annular space formed between the section 7 and the side wall 14 and there Jams, blockages, traffic jams or the like can cause. Rather, the entire material is thrown obliquely upwards, reflected on the inner wall of the feed chute 4 and conveyed from there back into the funnel-shaped rotor 12, so that it is continuously circulated, which significantly reduces the crushing effect even in the presence of leaves, grass or the like promotes.

In the embodiment shown schematically in FIG. 9, a hollow cylindrical loading chute 31 is provided, which is closed at its lower end by a support plate 32 arranged essentially horizontally during operation and has an ejection opening 34 opening into an ejection chute 33. Analogously to FIGS. 1 to 6, a funnel-shaped rotor 35 is rotatably mounted on the support plate 32 and is coupled to a rotary drive 36. The rotor 35, like the rotor 12 according to FIGS. 1 to 6, is provided with a base part 37 and a side wall 38 which projects from it and extends obliquely upwards and outwards, which has passage gaps (not shown) and a cutting knife 39 on its inside. A holding element 40 is designed according to one of the exemplary embodiments in FIGS. 4, 7 or 8.

In contrast to FIGS. 1 to 6, the bottom part 37 of the rotor 35 not only extends to the beginning of the side wall 38, but also extends to the cylindrical inner wall of the loading shaft 31. Radial, rib-like drivers 42 are provided at intervals on the annular extension 41 formed in this way, which catches the shredded chopped material which passes through the passage gaps of the side wall 38 into a space 43 between the inner wall of the loading shaft 31 and the outside of the side wall 38 and transported to the discharge opening 34, where it is pushed into the discharge shaft 31 by the centrifugal force.

In the center of the bottom part 37 of the rotor 35, as an alternative to the shredder 39 according to FIGS. 1 to 6, a cone 44 is provided, which has a raised, protruding spiral rib 45 in its conical surface, which automatically rotates in one direction when the rotor 35 rotates of the waste material. Alternatively, however, as in the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 6, provision could be made to optionally rotate the rotor 35 in opposite directions.

FIG. 10 shows an embodiment with a number, size and angular inclination of cutting knives 46 and 47 which differ from FIGS. 1 to 6. The cutting knife sections that at least partially cover the associated passage gaps 48 and 49 are shown in black. 10 also shows a view from the inside of part of the side wall of a rotor designed according to FIGS. 1 to 6.

In Fig. 10 two superimposed rows of cutting knives 46 and 47 are provided, which, like the passage gaps 48, 49 assigned to them, are arranged obliquely to the generatrices of the funnel-shaped side wall such that their upper ends each track the lower ends when the rotor rotates. In addition, the cutting knives 46, 47 and passage gaps 48, 49 each only extend over approximately half the height of the side wall of the rotor, while at the same time the cutting knives 47 and passage gaps 49 are positioned between the cutting knives 46 and passage gaps 48. As a result, the engagement length of the cutting knives 46, 47 on the waste material is less, which favors a smooth, impact-free running of the engine.

Alternatively, three rows of cutting knives and passage gaps could also be provided, some of the cutting knives serving for one-way and the other part of the cutting knives for rotating the associated rotor in the opposite direction, and the planing knives also each being about could extend a third of the height of the associated side wall, possibly with a corresponding offset from row to row, so that the cutting blades do not come into effect when the rotor rotates, but one after the other.

Apart from this, the shapes and sizes of the funnel-shaped rotors can also be different. In all cases, passage gaps are preferred which are closed at both ends, so that closed side wall sections are obtained at their upper and lower ends, which ensure the required mechanical stability of the rotors or their side walls. The size of the passage openings can be chosen larger or smaller depending on the shredding capacity required.

The invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments described, which can be modified in many ways and used in any combinations other than those shown. This applies on the one hand to the number, size and inclination of the cutting knives or passage gaps, on the other hand to the distances of the cutting edges 20 or other cutting edges from the side wall that are set perpendicular to the associated side wall and define the cutting depth. The cutting blades could also be arranged adjustably in the side walls to produce different distances. The circumstances selected in the individual case are to be selected in particular with regard to the desired cutting performance, smooth running of the rotor and the desired service life of the cutting knives or adapted to the respective needs, the presence of a single cutting knife or driver being sufficient for the described mode of operation . It is also possible, in particular the cutting edges e.g. easy to manufacture by the fact that the rotors are cast by metal and the leading edges of the passage gaps perpendicular to the inner surface of the side wall are poured deeper or the trailing edges are poured out correspondingly higher. Furthermore, it is possible to choose any angle of inclination between 0 ° and 90 ° for the side walls 14.38 relative to the bottom part 13.37, whereby angle of inclination between 20 ° and 70 ° should be the most expedient. Furthermore, the design of the feed chute 4 or 31 and the type and attachment of a rotary drive for the rotor 12 or 35 can largely be chosen as desired. The same applies to the distances of the holding elements 22, 25, 27 and 40 from the side wall 14 and 38. Finally, the axes of the passage gaps are preferably formed obliquely to the inside and outside of the side walls 14 and 38, that during rotation of the rotors 12 or 35 at high speeds (for example approx. 2800 or more rpm) results in a suction effect which pulls the separated chips outwards.

Claims (14)

Chopper for chopping waste material, in particular domestic and garden waste, comprising: a housing (3) with a filling and an ejection opening for the waste material, a substantially vertically mounted in the housing (3) between the filling and ejection opening Rotary axis (17) and connected to a rotary drive (9) rotor (12, 35), which has at least one cutting knife (19, 39, 46, 47) on its upper side, at least one driver (21, 42) and at least on its underside has a passage gap (18, 48, 49), and at least one holding element (22, 25, 27, 40) cooperating with the rotor (12, 35) for the waste material, characterized in that the rotor (12, 35) is funnel-shaped and has a side wall (14.38) provided with the passage gap (18, 48, 49) and the cutting knife (19, 39, 46, 47), which is connected by a central base part (13, 37) upwards and outwards for filling opening is flared out substantially. Chopper according to claim 1, characterized in that the rotor (12) is provided with two diametrically opposed cutting knives (19). Chopper according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a housing section (7) surrounding the rotor (12) is substantially cylindrical and the rotor (12) with an upper end of its side wall (14) up to the housing section (7) reaches. Chopper according to claim 3, characterized in that in a gap remaining between the housing section (7) and the upper end of the side wall (14) a lower end (4a) of a loading chute (4) having the filling opening projects. Chopper according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the upper end of the side wall (14) has a raised, cylindrical edge section (14a) arranged parallel to the housing section. Chopper according to claim 5, characterized in that the cutting knives (19) are arranged radially between the base parts (13) and the edge section (14a). Chopper according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the cutting knives (19, 39, 46, 47) are designed as planing knives. Chopper according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the base part (37) is provided with an extension (41) which projects radially outwards over the base part (37) and between itself and the side wall (38) of the rotor ( 35) forms a space (43) connected to the discharge opening (34). Chopper according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the cutting knives (19, 39, 46, 47) and passage gaps (18, 48, 49) are arranged obliquely to the surface lines of the side wall. Chopper according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that a rotary drive is provided for rotating the rotor (12, 35) in opposite directions of rotation. Chopper according to claim 10, characterized in that cutting knives are provided for one or the other direction of rotation. Chopper according to claim 11, characterized in that the cutting knives for one of the two directions of rotation consist only of cutting edges. Chopper according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the rotor (12, 35) is provided in its center with a shredder (29) serving for pre-shredding or a feed cone (34). Chopper according to one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the passage gaps have axes extending obliquely to the inner and outer sides of the side walls.

Images