FR2788467A1 - Domestic waste sorter and compacter has plastic housing and retaining panel, with lower and upper jaws formed by metal grille and compression plate - Google Patents

Abstract

The sorter/compacter has a rectangular plastic housing (14) and a retaining panel (9) forming side walls, and lower and upper jaws formed by a metal grille (2) and a compression plate (1) on hinges (6) allowing it to be rotated through 90 degrees. The under side of the compression plate has a series of parallelepiped projections (3) and rows of teeth (5) which fit into matching holes (12) and grooves (13) in the grille when the upper jaw is closed against the lower one, using a lever made from metal rods (4) passing along slots (10) in the retaining panel. In a variant the compression plate can be actuated by an electric motor.

Description

The present invention relates to a device for reducing the volume of

waste

  domestic and to store them more easily, after a selective sorting.

  Household waste consists mainly of the packaging of the products we consume: water bottles, bottles containing cleaning products, egg boxes, cans ... These objects are most often made of plastic , cardboard or metal and they occupy a large volume for a low mass. Storage requires a lot of space because they are, because of their semi-rigidity, difficult to compact without the aid of an instrument, and some even have the property of returning to their initial shape after crushing. To overcome this difficulty, the invention includes a waste reducer which by compression or shredding will reduce the volume of

  packaging, except, however, glass containers.

  Usually the waste is stored pell-mell in the trash cans and the materials that could be recycled are soiled with food waste which makes all subsequent sorting operations difficult or even impossible. It seems established that in the future, sorting at source and recycling will be necessary, but this waste management requires for storage, the use of several scattered containers, which again generates excessive congestion. To reduce this drawback, the reducer can be associated with one or more storage drawers organized in a compact, space-saving assembly, in

  parallelepiped shape, like a kitchen furniture (width: 22 cm or 45 cm).

  Reducing the volume of waste and packaging in particular is an old problem which has given rise to very many inventions. They use very diverse techniques in terms of shredders with knives, worms, cylinders, hammer crushers (Fr.2711552; Fr.2705051; Fr.2362778, Fr.2761279, WO 98/37969), compactors of all kinds, for plastic bottles (using a heat source: Fr.2718066; Fr.2750073 ), for metal cans EP 0582778 ... but they all have shortcomings: either that they treat all waste in the same way (grinding), without any prior sorting, or that they only apply to only type of waste (compacting plastic bottles or metal cans only). Rarer are the inventions which take sorting and compacting into account (selectors associated with mechanical compactors (Fr. 2749284 or inventions intended for sorting using eddy currents for example ...) but the latter have independent or cumulative drawbacks which are: too bulky devices ill-suited to the domestic space, complex achievements with high manufacturing costs,

difficult and off-putting use.

  Finally, among all the solutions known to date, none has really imposed itself in the problem of sorting waste at source; perhaps because it is a set of operations in which human will and judgment are essential, but above all for lack of suitable equipment. The present invention, being a reducer associated, in the same assembly, with storage drawers, facilitates the implementation of selective sorting by achieving a double objective: - that of reducing the volume of waste, - and, that of limiting the scattering and size of the storage containers, so as to reduce, as much as possible, handling. The main drawbacks inherent in the prior techniques, if they are not completely eliminated, are greatly reduced insofar as the device is not bulky, o its production is simple and of low cost, o its use does not require little more time and labor than bulk storage in an ordinary trash can. By its function, its

  dimensions, its shape, the device is designed to integrate with kitchen furniture.

  The invention relates precisely to the reducer, an essential part of such a device.

  It is a kind of jaw press contained in a rectangular box, open on top to allow loading and whose bottom is constituted by a metal grid. This grid, forming the fixed lower jaw of the press, is attached and articulated by an edge with a compression plate which constitutes the movable upper jaw of said press. The articulation between the two jaws is made by a leg pivoting on hinges. The compression plate, according to a first characteristic, is movable around the axis formed by these hinges and it is actuated manually by a lever. Passing from the vertical position to the horizontal, it describes by a rocking movement a rotation of about 90 and comes to be applied against the bottom grid to compress or shred, depending on the level of lowering, the objects deposited at the inside the box. The compression plate, according to another characteristic, carries on its underside sculptures which are of two types: some are in the shape of a parallelepiped 1.5 to 2 cm high, arranged regularly over the entire surface of the plate, the others have the form of a row of teeth 4 to 5 mm high, surrounding the previous ones. Although they have no use in compaction, these sculptures play

  an essential role in shredding.

  To be actuated, the compression plate includes a lever made of metal rods placed in the thickness of the plate parallel to the length. These rods, longer than the plate, slide and therefore allow an elongation of the lever arm to increase the compression force or an inward withdrawal of the device

to limit their size.

  The metal grid forming the bottom of the box is pierced with rectangular holes and hollowed out with grooves where the sculptures of the compression plate are housed. During shredding, the combined effect of the embedding of the various sculptures of the plate in the cells of the grid, successively creates a stretching of the materials then a shearing and finally a downward discharge, without obturation of the reducer. The holes allow, of course, the evacuation of the shreds which are received in a drawer below. If the desired operation is the compaction of a package or an object, the compression plate is not lowered completely, prevented for this by a wedge that the user has placed on the front of the box, thus blocking the lowering of the lever arms. The "bricks" resulting from the compaction are extracted manually and stored

  in a drawer for recycling.

  The box has a rectangular shape. It has a molded plastic structure forming the side walls. The back side and the front side are cut to allow movement of the lever rods. The front face is reinforced by a metal retaining plate, hollowed out from the vertical slots and provided externally with

  hooks used to support the wedge which controls the lowering of the compression plate.

  According to the embodiment, the waste reducer has a manual operation or an electrical operation. In the case of the electric reducer, the fixing and movement of the compression plate are similar to those described in the manual reducer, but here, in the absence of a lever, the compression plate has 2 metal tabs, in the form of arc of a circle, fixed on its back. They move inside and outside the box by means of a gear and the motor under the control of a

  programmer, located at the rear of the reducer.

  The present invention will be better understood from the detailed, illustrated description of

  drawings, which will follow, with reference to these two embodiments.

  Figure 1 shows an exploded view of the various components of the manual gearbox. Figure 2 shows in section the device with the manual reducer and the drawer below. Figure 3 shows in perspective the device as a whole with the manual reducer and the 3 drawers. FIG. 4 represents, in section, the device according to the other embodiment, here being the electric reducer. Figure 5 shows in section, according to the previous embodiment, the gear and the transmission system of the

  movement by the electric motor.

  With reference to these drawings, the reducer comprises a movable part, the compression plate (1), crossed by one or more metal rods (4) placed here in the thickness of the plate. The compression plate (1) is constituted by two superimposed plates, aimed one on the other, and comprising one or more grooves such that during assembly they form a conduit in which the metal rods can slide. The underside of the compression plate (1) is lined with sculptures in the form of parallelepipeds (3) and rows of teeth (5). The compression plate (1) and the bottom grid (2), which form the two jaws of the press, are attached and articulated on a tab (6) fixed on the edge of each of them. The holes (12) and the grooves (11), hollowed out in the grid (2), are adjusted to the sculptures (3) and (5) of the compression plate in such a way that their embedding produces an effect of stretching and shearing of materials to be shredded. The box itself is formed from a molded plastic element (14), carrying cutouts and an inner rim (15) of 10 to 15 millimeters; the front face is largely cut over the entire height and reinforced by a metal retaining plate (9). This retaining plate (9) has vertical slots (10) for the passage of the metal rods (4), necessary for manually operating the press. The hooks (7) support a wedge (8) on which the metal rods (4) abut. The constituent elements of the box (14) and (9) are fixed by screwing on the walls of the cabinet containing the reducer. The reducer is always placed above a storage drawer (40), in a device which can contain several. In the embodiment according to Figures 4 and 5, the compression plate (1) has two legs (20) fixed on its back. These legs in the shape of an arc of a circle are hollowed out in the central part of an excavation (21) whose contour is serrated. A shaft (30) held by two rings (31) located at the rear of the box on the wall of the cabinet, the ends of which are made of two toothed wheels (24), constitutes with the legs (21), a driven gear by a belt (23) transmitting the movement created by the electric motor (22) and controlled by the programmer (26). The legs (20) move in an arc around the inside and outside of the box, which for this includes

  two slots (25) to allow their passage.

  This invention is particularly intended, in association with storage drawers, to constitute a device facilitating the selective sorting of household waste. It concerns the kitchen furniture industry, household appliances and

  equipment for cleaning collective spaces.

Claims (8)

Claims.   1. Waste reducer, of the jaw press type contained in a rectangular box, open on the top, characterized in that the box is constituted by a plastic element (14) and a retaining plate (9) forming its walls lateral, while the bottom comprises a metal grid (2), constituting the fixed lower jaw of said press on which is attached by an edge and articulated by means of a tab (6) pivoting on hinges, a compression plate (1), forming   the movable upper jaw which is applied to the bottom grid (2).   2. Reducer according to claim 1, characterized in that the compression plate (1) moves around the axis of the hinges, effecting a tilting of 90   which brings it approximately from the vertical position to the low, horizontal position.   3. Reducer according to claims I or 2, characterized in that the plate   compression (1) has on its underside protruding geometric sculptures.   4. Reducer according to claim 3, characterized in that these sculptures are   parallelepipeds (3), surrounded by rows of teeth (5).   5. Reducer according to claim 1, characterized in that the grid (2) has holes (12) and grooves (11) intended to accommodate the sculptures   projecting geometries, produced on the compression plate (1).   6. Reducer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that   that the compression plate (1) comprises a lever made of one or more metal rods (4) placed against the plate or in its thickness, being able to slide forwards and backwards, parallel to the length, serving to operate it manually 7. Reducer according to claim 1 characterized in that the metal retaining plate (9) placed on the front face of the box has vertical slots (10) adapted to the passage of the metal rods (4) of the lever as well as   hooks (7) supporting a wedge (8), serving as a stop for the lever.   8. Reducer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that   that the compression plate (1) has 2 metal tabs (20) in the shape of an arc of a circle, fixed on the back of the plate, hollowed out in their central part of an excavation (21) with a serrated outline, moved by a gear driven to a motor electric (22).