GB2339708A

GB2339708A - Tyre recycling apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2339708A
Application number: GB9815414A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William John Berry
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-07-16
Filing date: 1998-07-16
Publication date: 2000-02-09
Also published as: GB9815414D0

Description

2339708 TYRE RECYCLING APPARATUS This invention relates to apparatus for

recycling a worn or used tyre into its constituent materials for re-use.

Hitherto there has been no simple means by which used or worn vehicle tyres can be recycled such that their constituent materials can be re used. Most tyres which are currently in use are formed of a synthetic rubber and other polymeric materials such as for example nylon. In order to dispose of these tyres when worn or no longer suitable for use, it has been necessary to burn the tyres and in these circumstances it will be appreciated that it is not possible for any of the constituent materials to be re-used.

It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus in which worn or used tyres can be recycled by breaking the tyres down into their constituent materials whereby these constituent materials can be re-used.

Thus and in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention therefore there is provided a tyre recycling apparatus comprising mounting means to mount a tyre relative to a water supply means, said water supply means being operable to supply water at a high pressure so as to impact a -2surface of said tyre to cause fragmentation of the tyre into tyre material fragments and a separator to separate said material fragments according to their constituent materials.

With this apparatus it is possible to recycle a worn or used tyre by breaking it down into its constituent materials whereby these constituent materials can be re-used.

The term tyre, as used herein, is intended to include a tyre removed from a wheel or a tyre which is attached to a wheel.

Preferably the water supply means comprises at least one water jet and most preferably the at least one water jet ejects water at a pressure of between 22,000 to 36,000 pounds per square inch (151.68 to 248.21 Pa).

Most preferably the water supply means comprises a plurality of water jets, respective ones of said water jets being mounted at spaced positions around a periphery of said tyre. In a particularly preferred embodiment, two water jets are provided equally spaced around the periphery of the tyre and on opposite sides thereof. In these circumstances, rotation of the tyre through 180' will enable substantially the entire tyre to be impacted by water from the water jets and accordingly fragmented.

Preferably the tyre is mounted for rotation in an enclosed housing, said water supply means projecting through at least one opening therein.

Preferably the tyre is mounted on a rotatable mounting which is driven to cause rotation of the tyre by a drive mechanisnp. Most preferably the drive mechanism comprises a motor operatively linked to the rotatable mounting.

Preferably the separator comprises a coarse filter which acts to filter out large material fragments and preferably a mesh type filter is used. In the case where the tyre is mounted within an enclosed housing, the separator may form a bottom wall thereof.

The apparatus may further include a water separator tank into which said material fragments can be received after fragmentation has taken place.

The water separation tank allows materials of differdnt densities to be separated for example any synthetic rubber fragments can be separated from any fragments of nylon due to their differing densities. The water separator tank may form a part of the separator or may be separate therefrom.

Preferably the apparatus also includes a conveyor which receives fragments of material which pass through the separator and transports material fragments to a suitable storage receptacle for example a skip.

Preferably the apparatus also includes water recycling means which receives water which is ejected from the water supply means after the water has impacted the tyre and caused fragmentation and returns this water to a water storage reservoir. The water returned to this water storage reservoir may be used to supply water for the water supply means for subsequent operations.

The invention also provides, in a second aspect, a method of recycling a tyre comprising the steps of impacting the surface of a tyre with water at high pressure to fragment the material of the tyre and separating the said material fragments into fragments of different respective constituent materials.

Furthermore the invention also provides, in a third aspect, the use of water at high pressure to fragment a tyre into its constituent materials whereby the constituent materials can be re-used.

The invention will now be described further by way.of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, the single figure of which shows a diagrammatic representation of one form of apparatus according to the invention.

Referring now the drawings there is shown apparatus 10 for recycling a tyre comprising an enclosed housing 12 within which a used or worn tyre 11 (removed from or attached to a wheel) is mounted on a rotatable mounting 13 for rotation. The rotatable mounting 13 is drivingly connected to a drive mechanism 24 which is operable to cause rotation of the mounting 13 and hence the tyre 11. The drive mechanism can comprise any suitable mechanism and may therefore comprise a motor operatively connected to the mounting 13. A water source in the form of a pair of water jets 14 project into the housing 12 through a respective opening 16 in each side wall 17. The water jet 14 receives water from a water reservoir 18 and ejects this at high pressure (under the action of a high pressure pump 19) so as to impact the surface of the tyre and fragment the tyre into material fragments. It is envisaged that at least one, or both, of the front 18 or rear 19 of the housing 12 will be formed from a transparent material whereby the operation of the apparatus can be observed.

A bottom of the housing 12 comprises a separator 21 which may be formed by a coarse filter mesh. Alternatively the separator 21 may be separate from and disposed underneath the housing 12 and material fragments may pass through an opening in the bottom of the housing 12 into the separator 21 The apparatus may further include a water separator (not shown) which acts to separate material fragments according to their density and hence their composition. The water separator may form part of the separator 21 or may be separate therefrom.

The separator 21 is linked to a conveyor 22 which transports fragments which have passed through the separator 21 to a storage container 23. The storage container can comprise any suitable receptacle or device such as, for example, a skip.

In use, the worn or used tyre 11 is placed into the housing and is mounted on the rotatable mounting 13. The water supply 18 is then activated which causes the ejection of water from each of the pair of water jets 16 at a pressure of between 22,000 to 36,000 pounds per square inch (161.68 to 248.21 Pa). In the apparatus of the invention, each of the water jets 16 comprises three water heads (not shown) through which water is ejected.

After actuation of the water jets 16, the drive mechanism 24 to the mounting 13 is activated so as to commence rotation of the tyre 11. As the tyre 11 rotates, a respective part of the surface of the tyre 11 is fragmented, by the impact of the high pressure water, onto the surface into material fragments. Once the entire surface of the tyre 11 has been fragmented then the drive mechanism 19 to the rotatable mounting 13 is deactivated and the tyre stops rotating. It will be appreciated that the use of two water jets 14 on opposite sides of the tyre means that the tyre only needs to be rotated through 180' from its starting position for the entire tyre to be fragmented. If desired a braking mechanism (not shown) can be included which operates to brake rotation of the tyre 11 after the drive mechanism 19 has been deactivated. It is particularly preferred that operation of the drive mechanism 19 and braking mechanism will be such that the tyre 11 will rotate only through 180 and no further.

As the tyre 11 is fragmented by impact of the high pressure water from the water jets 14, fragments of tyre material fall to the bottom of the housing 12. The bottom wall of the housing is formed by the coarse mesh filter 21 which filters out fragments of material according to size. This enables the separation roughly of the larger fragments which generally are rubber fragments from the smaller fragments which generally will be nylon fragments. Thus, nylon fragments having a size below the pore size of the filter 21 pass through the filter 21 and onto a conveyor 22 which -8transports the nylon fragments into a storage or collection receptacle or skip 23. The largerer fragments of rubber remain on the filter 21 and can be collected from this filter 21.

As mentioned above the separator by the filter 21 is only rough and it may therefore be necessary to use a water separator (not shown) which separates fragments of different materials according to their density (i. e.

composition). Thus, a water separator can be associated with the filter 21 and may further filter the coarse filtered fragments from the filter 21.

Alternatively the water separator may be separate from the filter 21 and may be used to further separate fragments after collection from the storage receptacle and/or filter.

Water used for fragmentation also passes through the coarse filter 21 and the conveyor 22 into a water recycling tank 26 positioned below the housing 12. A fluid connection is provided from the water recycling tank 26 to the water reservoir 18 used to supply water to the water jets 14. If necessary a water pump 27 can be provided to assist in the return of the water from the recycling tank 26 back to the reservoir 18 through this connection. The water pump 27 can be of any type as appropriate or as desired but it is thought that air pumps are particularly appropriate and these can be driven from a source of compressed air, such as an air compressor.

A safety cut out switch 28 is provided between the high pressure pump 19 and the water jet 14 in order that the supply of high pressure water can be cut off in the case of an emergency.

It will be appreciated that with the apparatus of the invention a tyre can be recycled in a particularly simple and convenient manner. The apparatus also permits re-use of the water used to fragment the tyre.

It is of course to be understood that the invention is not intended to be restricted to the details of the above embodiments which are described by way of example only.

Claims

1. Tyre recycling apparatus comprising mounting means to mount a tyre relative to a water supply means, said water supply means being operable to supply water at a high pressure so as to impact a surface of said tyre to cause fragmentation of the tyre into tyre material fragments and a separator to separate said material fragments according to their constituent materials.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the water supply means comprises at least one water jet.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the water supply means ejects water at a pressure of between 22,000 to 26,000 pounds per square inch (151.68 to 248.21 Pa).

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the water supply means comprises a plurality of water jets, respective ones of said water jets being mounted at spaced positions around a periphery of said tyre.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2 or claim 4, wherein the water jets are provided equally spaced around the periphery of the tyre and on opposite sides thereof -

6. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the tyre is mounted for rotation in an enclosed housing, said water supply means projecting through at least one opening in said housing.

7. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tyre is mounted on a rotatable mounting which is driven to cause rotation of a tyre by a drive mechanism.

8. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drive mechanism 10 comprises a motor operating linked to the rotatable mounting.

9. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the separator comprises a coarse filter which acts to filter out material fragments predetermined size. 15

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the separator comprises a filter mesh.

11. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said separator forms a 20 bottom wall of said enclosed housing.

12. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11, further comprising 12 a Water separator which receives material fragments after fragmentation and separates these according to their density.

13. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12, further comprises a conveyor which receives fragments of material which pass through the separator and transports fragments to a suitable storage receptacle.

14. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 13, further including water recycling means which receives water after ejection from the water supply, and after fragmentation and returns this water to a water storage reservoir.

15. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the water returned to the water storage reservoir is used to supply water to the water supply for use by the water source.

16. A method of recycling a tyre comprising the steps of impacting a surface of a tyre with water at high pressure to fragment the material of the tyre and separating the said material fragments with fragments of different respective constituent materials.

17. Use of water at high pressure to fragment a tyre with its constituent -13materials whereby the constituent materials can be re-used.

18. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing. 5

19. A method substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

20. Use of water to fragment a tyre substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.