IES990920A2 - A glass crusher - Google Patents

Abstract

A hammer mill like glass crusher having a hopper including front (2) rear (3) upper side walls (4) and lower side walls (5) which are separable about a parting line (6) so that the portion at the front wall (2) and the upper side walls (4) can pivot in the direction of arrow B to expose of the flail-like hammers (11). An adjustable wear plate (25) allows the size of the crushed material to be relatively easily altered. <Figure 2>

Description

INTRODUCTION The present invention relates to a glass crusher and in particular to a glass crusher of the type comprising a hopper having front rear and side walls, the side walls mounting a rotatable shaft canying a plurality of axially spaced apart sets of circumferentially arranged flail-like hammers, the hopper having an open-mouthed inlet and a discharge outlet below the shaft. Ά such crushers are required for the recycling of glass in glass manufacturing plants or j C in glass recycling facilities. Such glass recycling facilities can be relatively large ; r A establishments that take in considerable quantities of glass or alternatively they can be 15 Relatively small stations handling small amounts of glass. • a . izsrsaiasSs There is also a need for a glass crusher that can be portable and be moved from place to place. This is particularly the case for example in the handling of glass refuse which . can consist of relatively bulky articles which, if crushed down would occupy 2 0 considerably less volume since the articles largely consist of voids.

Conventional glass crushers suffer from a number of disadvantages. Firstly, they often cannot be easily adjusted to handle varying size of waste and secondly they can be difficult to maintain in that access to the hammers can be difficult This is particularly the case with smaller installations. Maintenance of these crushers, so called hammer mills is a universal problem.

The present invention is directed towards overcoming problems inherent in the present construction of such glass crushers.

IE990920 - 2 STATEMENTS OF INVENTION According to the invention there is provided a glass crusher of the type comprising a hopper having front, rear and side walls, the side walls mounting a ratable shaft carrying a plurality of axially spaced apart sets of circumferentially arranged flail-like hammers, the hopper having an open mouthed inlet and a discharge outlet below the shaft characterised in that the front walls and portion of each of the two side walls connected thereto are pivotally mounted on the hopper.

The advantage of this is that the hopper can effectively be hinged apart to allow easy access to the flail-like hammers.

Ideally, a portion of the front and end walls define part of the hopper inlet and extend to adjacent the shaft, thus allowing the shaft to be easily exposed for maintenance.

Ideally, the side wails should be partitioned along a line substantially through the centre of the shaft to ensure that the shaft bearings and flail-like hammers are easily exposed.

Preferably the front wall carries a pivotably mounted wear plate opposite the hammers defining a passageway for glass there-between and adjustment means for moning the wear plate towards and away from the shaft to vary the size of the passageway.. This is particularly advantageous as it allows the easy adjustment of the size of glass being crushed. For example, where the size of glass bring crushed is small the wearplate can be adjusted inwards towards the flail-like hammers thus allowing a finer product to be achieved. In other circumstances it may be necessary to run the glass through the glass crusher in two stages or indeed deliver crushed glass from the glass crusher to another similarly mounted glass crusher with a smaller spacing between the wearplate and the flail-like hammers to get a sufficiently fine end result.

In one embodiment of the invention the shaft mounts a pair of end and intermediate plates carrying a plurality of circumferentially arranged pivot bars each bar carrying in IE990920 - 3 turn longitudinally arranged pivotably mounted hammers.. This is a particularly suitable and efficient arrangement of the flail-like hammers as it allows a set of hammers to be removed easily for maintenance and since the flail-like hammers are pivotally mounted on the bars they will always assume the correct orientation by centrifugal force on rotation of the shaft.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which; Fig. 1 is a typical part sectional side view of a glass crusher according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing by interrupted lines pivoting of portions of the glass crusher, Fig. 3 is a front view of a shaft and flail-like hammers according to the invention, Fig. 4 is an end view of the hammers mounted on the shaft, Fig. 5 is an endplate for mounting on the shaft, Fig. 6 is a typical side view showing the glass crusher mounted on a conveyor, Fig. 7 is a side view of a truck mounting a crusher according to the invention, Fig. 8 is an end view of the truck of Fig. 7, Fig. 9 is a side view of a crusher according to the invention mounted on a tractor, and Fig. 10 is a end view of the tractor and crusher.

IE990920 - 4 Referring to the drawings and initially to Figs. 1-5 there is illustrated a glass crusher indicated generally by the reference numeral 1. The glass crusher comprises a hopper having a front wall 2, rear walls 3, side walls namely an upper side wall 4 and a lower side wall 5 mating along a parting line 6. The hopper has an open-mouthed inlet 7 and a discharge outlet 8. Secured by externally mounted bearings not shown on the lower side wall 5 is a shaft 10 carrying flail-like hammers 11. The flail-like hammers 11 are mounted between end plates 12 having a bore 13 for reception of the shaft 10 and four circumferentially spaced apart holes 14 carrying pivot bars 15. Similarly constructed intermediate plates 16 are mounted along the shaft 10 so that each flaillike hammer 11 is sandwiched between either two plates 16 or plates 12 and 16. Suitable spacers 17 are provided.

The front wall 2 and that portion of the upper side wall 4 which are connected to the front wall 2 are pivotally mounted about a bearing 20. Suitable releasable connectors, not shown, are provided to prevent pivoting except as required.

Mounted within the hopper is a wear plate 25 pivotally mounted on a pivot bar 26. A pusher arm 27 is pivotably mounted on the wear plate 26 at 28. The pusher arm 27 is movable into and out of the hopper by a control wheel 29 in conventional manner. Thus the wear plate 25 can be moved towards and away from the hammer like flails 11. A suitable motor 19 is provided with associated drive, not shown.

Preferably the interior of the glass crusher 1 is lined with suitable wear plates usually manufactured by wear resistant steel castings.

In operation Referring to Fig. 2 glass is delivered through the inlet 7 and falls down between the wear plate 25 and the flail-like hammers 11 which are rotating in the direction of the arrow A. The rotating flail-like hammers 11 crush the glass which is then delivered out down beneath the shaft 10 and through the discharge outlet 8. It can be seen how the upper side wall 4 which is attached to the front wall 2 can be pivoted downwards in the direction of the arrow B to allow the shaft 10 and flail-like hammers 11 to be exposed.

IE990920 - 5 It will be noted that the parting line 6 has been chosen so as to allow any bearings carrying the shaft 10 to be securely mounted on the lower side wall 5 while at the same time sufficient of the upper side wall 4 can be pivoted out of the way to allow maintenance both on the bearings and shaft 10 but also on the flail-like hammers 11.

Referring to Fig. 6 there is illustrated a conveyor indicated generally by the reference numeral 30 having an inlet hopper 31 adjacent a tail drum 32 and a glass crusher according to the present invention mounted beneath a head drum 33. In this embodiment the discharge outlet 8 feeds a storage bay 35.

Referring now to Figs 7 and 8 there is illustrated a conventional transport lorry indicated generally by the reference numeral 40 having a tipping body 41 with pivotally mounted rear door 42 and carrying a glass crusher indicated again by the reference number 1. The glass crusher 1 includes a feed inlet conveyor 45 having an inlet hopper 46. The inlet conveyor is pivoted at 47 on the truck 40 such that it can be pivoted from a position projecting laterally from the truck 40 in the direction of arrow C to a transport position illustrated by the interrupted lines.

An even simpler arrangement is illustrated in Figs 9 and 10 where a glass crusher 1 according to the invention is mounted on a tractor 50 by its three point linkage 51. In this embodiment the crusher 1 is fed by an infeed conveyor 52, pivotally mounted at 53 so that it can be pivoted in the crusher direction of the arrow D. The crusher includes a discharge conveyor 54 again pivoted at 56 such that it can be pivoted upwards in the direction of the arrow E as illustrated in Fig. 9 to a transport position.

In Fig. 10 the glass crusher 1 is shown feeding a waste disposal bin 57.

It will be appreciated that in this latter embodiment the glass crasher will more generally be powered by the power take-off of the tractor and will obviously be of 0 relatively low capacity.

In the specification the terms “comprise, comprises, comprised and comprising “ or any variation thereof and the terms 2 include, includes, included and including” or any variation thereof are considered to be totally interchangeable and they should all be IE990920 -6 afforded the widest possible interpretation and vice versa.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment hereinbefore described, but may be varied in both construction and detail.

Claims (5)

1. A glass crusher comprising a hopper having front rear and side walls, the side walls mounting a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of axially spaced sets of circumferentially arranged flail-like hammers, the hopper having an open mouthed inlet and discharge outlet below the shaft characterised in that the front wall and portion of each of the two side walls connected thereto are pivotally mounted on the hopper.

2. A crusher as charmed in claim 1 in which the portion of the front and side walls define part of the hopper inlet and extend to adjacent the shaft,

3. A crusher as claimed in claim 1 or 2 in which the front wall carries a pivotally mounted wear plate opposite the hammers defining a passageway for glass therebetween and adjustment means for moving the wear plate towards and away from the shaft to vary the size of the passageway.

4. A glass crusher as claimed in any preceeding claim in which the shaft mounts a pair of end and intermediate plates carrying a plurality of circumferentially arranged pivot bars each bar carrying in tum longitudinally arranged pivotally mounted hammers.

5. A glass crusher substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.