GB2078161A - Method and apparatus for compacting materials - Google Patents

Abstract

In a method and apparatus in which solid material in a sleeve 11 is compacted against an end wall 19 by a press plate 36, the sleeve 11 is movable in a direction opposite to the compaction direction to expose the compacted material and allow its removal from the sleeve. The sleeve slides along guides 26, 27 secured to the end wall 19 and is movable towards and away from the wall 19 by hydraulic piston and cylinder units 20, 21. The material is fed to the sleeve through an opening 16a closable by a door 17. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Method and apparatus for compacting materials This invention relates to a method and apparatus for compacting materials and has particular application to the compaction of domestic and industrial waste materials.

The compaction of domestic and industrial waste materials to facilitate handling, transport, storage and disposal, is well known in the art and compaction apparatus known and wideiy used generally comprises a sleeve of circular or rectangular cross-section closed at one end by a platen with a movable end wall axially displaceable with respect to the sleeve, the compaction of material in the sleeve being effected by displacing the movable end wall towards the platen end of the sleeve.

The most serious disadvantages of conventional compaction apparatus arise from the charging of the sleeve with material to be compacted and removal of the compacted material. When the platen is fixed to the sleeve the movable end wall must be removed from the sleeve to facilitate charging of the sleeve with material to be compacted and again the end wall must be removed from the sleeve to allow the compacted material to be discharged through that end of the sleeve exposed by removal of the movable end wall. This type of apparatus is clumsy to use, because of the amount of handling of the end wall and, generally, the need to invert the sleeve to discharge the compacted mass. The apparatus has size limitations and the continuous removal and insertion of the movable end wall is time taking so that the performance of the apparatus is poor.

In an alternative arrangement the platen is hinged to the sleeve so as to be pivotally displaceable between a sleeve closure condition and an open condition for the sleeve end but with this arrangement the material to be charged must be entered into the platen end of the sleeve and, during compaction, flowable material in the mass to be compacted can be pushed into the hinges of the platen, to the detriment of the said hinges, or expelled between the platen and the end of the sleeve so as to require constant cleaning and attention.

The present invention seeks to provide a method and apparatus for compacting material which does not require the movable end wall to be dispiaced from the sleeve during charging and which avoids the disadvantages of the hinged platen type apparatus.

According to the present invention there is provided a method for compacting material comprising the step of charging material to be compacted into a compaction chamber, advancing one end wall of the chamber towards the other end wall to compact the material in one end of the chamber, and displacing the side wall or walls of the chamber in the direction opposite to the compacting direction to expose the compacted material and allow the compacted material to be released.

Preferably the method includes the steps of partially withdrawing the advanced end wall, sufficient to release the compaction pressure on the material, before displacing the side walls, and displacing said side walls sufficiently to expose the material-engaging face of the advanced end of the movable wall in its said partially withdrawn position.

Preferably the method includes the steps of loading the material to be compacted through an opening in said side wall or a side wall and closing said opening before compacting said material.

In a preferred mode of operation the method includes the steps of charging material to be compacted into said chamber, advancing said movable end wall to compact the material against said other end wall, withdrawing the movable end wall from the compacted material, adding further material to be compacted to the chamber, and again advancing the movable end wall to compact the material before releasing the compaction pressure on the material and displacing the side walls of the chamber to release the compacted material.

The invention also envisages a compactor comprising a platen, a sleeve axially displaceable towards and away from said platen, and an axially displaceabie end wall in said sleeve.

Preferably the sleeve has a rectangular crosssection.

In a preferred embodiment piston and cylinder arrangements attached to the platen and the sleeve serve to displace the sleeve relative to the platen.

Preferably the platen presents guides for the displaceable sleeve.

Preferably the compactor includes power means for displacing the movable wall towards the platen and, conveniently, said power means are mounted on said guides.

In a preferred embodiment the power means comprise a piston and cylinder arrangement, the cylinder is attached to said guides, the free end of the piston rod is attached to the said displaceable end wall and the axis of said piston and cylinder arrangement is concentric with the axis of the sleeve.

The invention will now be described further by way of example with reference to the accompanying arawings which show, diagrammatically, a perspective view of a compactor in accordance with the invention.

In the illustrated example a rectangular sleeve, generally indicated by reference numeral 11, is defined by side walls 12 and 13, a bottom 15, and a top 16, the top 1 6 including an opening 1 6a closable by a door 1 7 hinged along one edge to the top 1 6 and lockable, in its closure position, by latch 18.

A platen 1 9 is attached to one end of the sleeve 11 by two piston and cylinder arrangements 20 and 21, the cylinder 22 of arrangement 20 being secured to the platen 1 9 whilst its respective piston rod 23 is attached to the side wall 12, and the cylinder 24 of arrangement 21 is secured to the platen 1 9 whilst its respective piston rod 25 is secured to the side wall 1 3. The piston and cylinder arrangements 20 and 21 are double acting hydraulic arrangements the connections to which have been omitted for clarity in the drawings.

The platen 1 9 has two elongate guides 26 and 27 secured thereto and extending perpendicular to the compaction face of platen 1 9 (that face presented to the sleeve 11), the side wall 12 presents two bearings 28 and 29 through which the guide 26 passes, the side wall 13 presents bearings 30 and 31 through which the guide 27 passes, and the bearings 28,29,30 and 31 allow sleeve 11 to slide along guides 26 and 27 towards and away from the platen 1 9.

A bridge piece 32 is secured to the ends of guides 26 and 27 remote from platen 19 and a hydraulic cylinder 33 has its closed end supported against bridge piece 32 and its more forward regions supported by a trunnion type mounting 34 connected across guides 26 and 27 in such manner that the axis of the cylinder 33 is concentric with the axis of the sleeve 11.

A piston (not shown in the drawings) is slidably disposed in cylinder 33 and the piston rod 35 extends from the piston head and has its free end secured to the centre of area of a wall 36 slidably displaceable in the sleeve 11. The piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 is double acting and the connections to the cylinder 33 to effect reciprocation of the piston (not shown) have been omitted for clarity in the drawings.

The movable wall 36 includes an extension 37 which extends from the upper edge of said wall 36 rearwardly with respect to the direction for compaction and said extension 37 serves purposes to be defined hereinafter.

The compaction apparatus operates as follows With the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 contracted the movable wall 36 lies to the right of the opening 1 6a (as viewed in the Drawings) and material to be compacted can be charged into the sleeve 11 through the opening 16a. When charging, the piston and cylinder arrangements 20 and 21 will be contracted so that the platen 1 9 is held firmly against the adjacent end of sleeve 11 fully closing said end.

When the sleeve 11 has been charged with material to be compacted the door 1 7 is closed and secured by the latch 1 8 and, by the supply and exhaust of hydraulic fluid to the cylinder 33, the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 extends to push the movable wall 36 towards the platen 19, thus compacting the material in the sleeve 11.

In one mode of operation, and upon the resistance to further compaction of the material balancing the compacting force exerted by the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35, hydraulic fluid supplied to the cylinder 33 causes piston rod 35, and the movable wall 36, to be partially withdrawn, at least to relieve the compacting pressure on the material in sleeve 11. Thereafter, the piston and cylinder arrangements 20 and 21 are supplied with hydraulic fluid to cause said arrangements to extend, whereupon the sleeve 11 is axially displaced away from the platen 1 9, the displacement of the sleeve 11 is conveniently adequate so that the face of sleeve 11 normally presented to platen 1 9 passes beyond the plane of the compaction face of the movable wall 36, and with the apparatus in this condition the compacted mass falls readily from its position between platen 1 9 and movable wall 36 between the spaced apart platen 1 9 and the adjacent end face of the sleeve 11. Once the compacted mass has been released from the apparatus the piston and cylinder arrangements 20 and 21 are contracted, so that platen 1 9 closes the adjacent end of sleeve 11, and the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 is contracted to withdraw the movable wall 36 to the right (as viewed in the figure) of the opening 1 6a when, the door 1 7 can be opened and the sleeve 11 recharged.

In an alternative method of operation, of particular advantage when processing materials which can be greatly reduced in volume when compacted, the sleeve 11 is charged with material to be compacted, as defined above, the door 1 7 is closed and locked, and the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 is extended to compact the charged material against the platen 1 9. The compaction applied by the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 through wall 36 may be the full compaction pressure exertable by the arrangement or a reduced compaction, simply serving to reduce the volume of the material.

Thereafter, the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 is retracted to allow further material to be charged into the cylinder 11 whereupon, after closing and locking the door 17, the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 can extend to effect the full compaction of the material and the compacted material may then be released from the sleeve 11 in the manner described above.

It will thus be seen that the compaction apparatus described above can deliver one compacted mass of material per stroke of the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 or, for low mass high volume waste, the apparatus may perform a plurality of compacting operations per compacted mass released from the sleeve 11.

As stated hereinbefore the movable wall 36 includes an extension 37 which, when the movable wall 36 is retracted to allow access into sleeve 11 through the opening 1 6a extends over the piston rod 35 and at least part of the cylinder 33 so that the piston and cylinder arrangement 33, 35 is protected against misdirected waste to be compacted.Further, when that edge of the opening 1 6a adjacent the platen 1 9 is sufficiently spaced from the platen 1 9 that with the advance of the movable wall 36 up to said edge the material in sleeve 11 is not so pressured as to rise upwardly out of the opening 16a, the door 17 and latch 18 can be omitted and the opening 1 6a will be closed by the extension 37 when the movable wall 36 has passed beyond the plane of the edge of opening 1 6a adjacent platen 19, It will be seen that with the compaction apparatus described above material to be compacted is readily charged into the sleeve 11 through an opening in said sleeve and the compacted mass is released by simply displacing the sleeve 11 away from the platen 1 9 so that a relatively rapid charging and discharge of material, to obtain a relatively short compaction cycle, is obtained.

Claims (11)

1. A method for compacting material comprising the step of charging material to be compacted into a compaction chamber, advancing one end wall of the chamber towards the other end wall to compact the material in one end of the chamber, and displacing the side wall or walls of the chamber in the direction opposite to the compacting direction to expose the compacted material and allow the compacted material to be released.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 including the steps of partially withdrawing the advanced end wall, sufficient to release the compaction pressure on the material, before displacing the side walls, and displacing said side walls sufficient to expose the material engaging face of the advanced end of the movable wall in its said partially withdrawn position.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 including the steps of loading the material to be compacted through an opening in said side wall or a side wall and closing said opening before compacting said material.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1,2 or 3 including the steps of charging material to be compacted into said chamber, advancing said movable end wall to compact the material against said other end wall, withdrawing the movable end wall from the compacted material, adding further material to be compacted to the chamber, and again advancing the movable end wall to compact the material before releasing the compaction pressure on the material and displacing the side walls of the chamber to release the compacted material.

5. A compactor for practicing the method set forth in claim 1 comprising a platen, a sleeve axially displaceable towards and away from said platen, and an axially displaceable end wall in said sleeve.

6. A compactor as claimed in claim 5 in which the sleeve has a rectangular cross-section.

7. A compactor as claimed in claim 5 or 6 including piston and cylinder arrangements attached to the platen and the sleeve and serving to displace the sleeve relative to the platen.

8. A compactor as claimed in claim 5, 6 or 7 in which the platen presents guides for the displaceable sleeve.

9. A compactor as claimed in claim 5, 6, 7 or 8 including power means for displacing the movable wall towards the platen.

10. A compactor as claimed in claim 8 and 9 in which the said power means are mounted on said guides.

11. A compactor as claimed in claim 10 in which said power means comprise a piston and cylinder arrangement and the cylinder is attached to said guides and the free end of the piston rod is attached to the said displaceable end wall, the axis of said piston and cylinder arrangement being concentric with the axis of the sleeve.

1 2. A compactor substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.