JP2886770B2 - Method for manufacturing preforms for recycling flexible urethane foam - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the treatment of flexible urethane foam, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a preform for recycling a flexible urethane foam in which a used flexible urethane foam can be used as another molded product.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Soft urethane foams are used as chairs, cushions, and other pads. When used, they are discarded, buried in soil, or incinerated.
In particular, when incineration is performed, not only must a special furnace be prepared to generate high temperatures, but it also causes environmental problems.

[0003] Therefore, a method of recycling flexible urethane foam is now being considered. One example is a method in which a flexible urethane foam is roughly pulverized and the obtained chips are solidified with a liquid adhesive. It is used as an auxiliary material for filling and as a carpet underlay.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned method, since the chip is impregnated with an adhesive and an adhesive layer is formed,
It is only possible to obtain a material having a higher density, a greater variation in hardness and a lower durability as compared with ordinary urethane.
Furthermore, these chips require a large amount of adhesive due to their large surface area and high swelling degree.

[0005] In addition, many flexible urethane foams used for chairs and the like have a fiber material such as cloth adhered to the surface thereof.
In some cases, the same treatment as described above is performed and used. This is currently treated as a lower grade product because the variation in hardness is further increased and the durability is lower than that of only a flexible urethane foam.

According to the present invention, in recycling flexible urethane foam, not only flexible urethane foam but also flexible urethane foam with a fiber material can be reprocessed to obtain a stable and high-quality molded article with stable quality. This is a recycling method that can be collected, and particularly aims to enable the object to be recycled to be stored compactly before the manufacturing process of a molded article.

[0007]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The soft urethane foam of the present invention
The production method for preforms for recycling
A fine-grained crushed product mainly composed of tanfoam;
Low-melting polyester staple fibers having a melting temperature of less than
Mix and stir in the liquid, mix each uniformly, then
Solidifies by removing the body, soft urethane foam
Spare low-melting polyester short fibers uniformly distributed in the
It is characterized by obtaining molded articles.

Recycling of the flexible urethane foam of the present invention
The method of manufacturing the preformed product for
It is preferable to allow the sediment to settle and separate the agitation and the liquid.
New The flexible urethane foam of the present invention
The manufacturing method of the molded article is that after mixing and stirring, the mixture is stirred with a mesh plate.
It is preferable to forcibly separate the agitated product and the liquid.

[0009]

The pulverized material having a fine particle size mainly composed of soft urethane foam is mixed and stirred in a liquid, so that the pulverized material of the soft urethane foam and the pulverized material other than the soft urethane foam are uniform in the liquid. . Thereafter, by removing and solidifying the liquid, a large number of compact preforms before the heat and pressure treatment can be manufactured and stored.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Reference numeral 1 denotes a backrest of a chair, which is an object to be processed in which a fiber material 2 such as a cloth is adhered to a soft urethane foam 3. is there. As the fiber material 2, chemical fibers made of polyester or nylon are often used. Reference numeral 4 denotes a pulverizer having a cutter 6 inside the lower part of the inlet 5, and is connected to a blower 8 through a duct 7.

The blower 8 communicates with a cyclone 10 through a duct 9. The blower 8 is connected to a hopper 11 and a screw feeder 12 below the cyclone 10. A weighing machine 14 for measuring the amount and controlling the discharge is mounted.

Next, a method of recycling a soft urethane foam based on this embodiment will be described. First, an object 1 in which a fiber material 2 such as a cloth is adhered to a soft urethane foam 3 is put into a crusher 4. As a result, the object 1 is processed into a fine-grained pulverized material 13 by the cutter 6 having a high rotation speed.

The pulverized material 13 is sent to the cyclone 10, the hopper 11, and the screw feeder 12 through the duct by the blower 8, and is stirred in the screw feeder 12, and the pulverized material of the soft urethane foam with the fiber material 2 attached thereto. Approximately three types of pulverized materials 13, which are only the fibrous materials 2 and further only the soft urethane foam, are uniformly sent to the weighing machine 14.

The weighing machine 14 sends out a predetermined amount of the pulverized material 13 through a duct 15 to a stirring cylinder 17 having a bottom plate 18 at a lower portion. At the same time, the nozzle 16
, Water or water containing an organic solvent is supplied to the stirring cylinder 17 to complete the mixed liquid 19 of the pulverized material.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, a stirring blade 21 of a stirrer 20 is inserted into the stirring cylinder 17, and the stirring blade 21 stirs the mixed liquid 19 at a predetermined rotation speed. The pulverized soft urethane foam 3 in the mixed liquid 19 and the fine-grained fiber material 2 are uniformly mixed. afterwards,
By removing the stirrer 20 and allowing it to stand for a predetermined time, the mixed liquid 19 is separated into two layers, that is, a water 22 and a pulverized material layer.

After this separation, the water flows out by raising only the stirring cylinder 17 and the preformed product 2 which is a layer of the pulverized material
3 is completed.

The preform 23 is transferred to a thermostat 24 as shown in FIG.
It is dried at a temperature between 100C and 1000C. Next, the dried and solidified preformed product 23 is sandwiched by a forming device 28 composed of molds 26 and 27, and is hot-pressed, that is, heated at a heating temperature of 140 to 200 ° C. Pressurized in the range of 400 kg / cm ² . here,
First, the final heating temperature in the molding device 28, for example, 180 ° C.
After preheating for 5 to 10 minutes with heating at 180 ° C,
It is preferable to apply a predetermined pressure and perform compression molding for 3 to 15 minutes.

Here, the soft urethane foam is about 140
Although it becomes a fluidized state at a temperature of 140 ° C. or more, it is difficult to obtain a complete molded product at a temperature of about 140 ° C., and the optimum temperature is 160 ° C. or more.
The range of the pressing force may be 1 to 400 kg / cm ² or more, and a molded product having a Shore D hardness of about 10 to 50 can be obtained.

The preformed product 23 thus hot-pressed is conveyed by a conveyor 30 as shown in FIG. 4, cooled by a cooling fan 29 during the process, and cut into a predetermined shape by a cutting blade 31 on a pedestal 32. And a final molded product 33 is obtained. Here, final processing such as polishing and grooving may be performed according to the use of the molded article 33.

Further, as another method for recycling flexible urethane foam, there is a treatment method using low-melting polyester short fibers as a binder. In this method, although not shown, the low-melting-point polyester short fibers put into the screw feeder are sent to a measuring machine, and a duct for low-melting-point polyester short fibers is provided in addition to the duct 15 and the nozzle 16 shown in FIG. 17, a pulverized material 13, water 22 and low-melting polyester short fibers are charged.

This treatment method also goes through the same steps as in the above-mentioned embodiment, except that a heating temperature of 140 ° C. or higher is not used, and low-melting polyester short fibers are softened, but flexible urethane foam is not fluidized. 100 ° C to 140 ° C is optimal. For example, the low melting point polymer used here
Ter staple fiber is a poly with a melting temperature of less than 140 ° C.
Ester staple fiber, especially such a specific example
Heat-welded polyester fiber M, a product of Unitika Ltd.
ELTY (registered trademark of Unitika Ltd.) is suitable,
Melting temperatures of 110 ° C and 130 ° C can be used.
You.

Next, FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the stirring step suitable for continuous processing. At the lower end of the stirring cylinder 17, a bottom plate 18 supported by a piston 34 is arranged. ).

The agitating cylinder 17 reaches the lower part of the pulverized material duct 15 and the water nozzle 16 and is supplied with the pulverized material and water (b).
(C).

When the stirring is completed, the stirrer 20 is removed, and as a next step, the lid having the mesh plate 35 is lowered by the piston 36 (d). Subsequently, when the bottom plate 18 is lifted by the piston 34, only the water 22 is discharged through the mesh plate 35 (e).

When the water 22 is discharged at a predetermined compression, the mesh plate 35 rises, and subsequently the bottom plate 1 is moved by the piston 34.
8 extrudes the preform 23 out of the stirring cylinder 17 (f).

The preform 23 is conveyed to the drying step shown in FIG. 3, where the same processing as in the previous embodiment is performed.

As described above, according to the present invention, the object to be processed, such as the back of a chair, is not stored as it is for recycling, but is left as this preformed product one after another. Will be resolved.

Although the embodiments have been described with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to the embodiments, and any changes or additions without departing from the gist of the present invention are included in the present invention. .

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, the object to be processed, such as the backrest of the chair, is not stored as it is for recycling, but is left as this preformed product one after another, so that the storage space can be saved. The problem is solved.

[0030]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a part of a recycling apparatus used in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a stirring step of the recycling method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing a drying / heating / pressing step of the recycling method of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing a final molding step of the recycling method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of another embodiment of the present invention corresponding to FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Processed object 2 Fiber material 3 Soft urethane foam 4 Crusher 5 Input port 6 Cutter 7 Duct 8 Blower 9 Duct 10 Cyclone 11 Hopper 12 Screw feeder 13 Crushed material 14 Measuring machine 15 Duct 16 Nozzle 17 Stirring cylinder 18 Bottom plate 19 Mixing liquid DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 Stirrer 21 Stirrer blade 22 Water 23 Preformed product 24 Incubator 25 Heater 26 Mold form 27 Mold form 28 Cooling fan 30 Conveyor 31 Cutting blade 32 Pedestal 33 Molded product 34 Piston 35 Mesh plate 36 Piston

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI B29K 105: 12 105: 26

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] (1) Fine urethane mainly composed of flexible urethane foam
Particle size pulverized material and low melting with melting temperature below 140 ° C
The polyester short fibers are mixed and stirred in a liquid,
After mixing evenly, solidification is achieved by removing the liquid
Low-melting polyester short fiber in soft urethane foam
It is characterized by obtaining preforms in which fibers are evenly distributed.
How to make preforms for flexible urethane foam recycling
Law. (2) After mixing and stirring, the stirred substance precipitates in the liquid.
Wherein the liquid and the agitated material are separated from each other.
Preformed product for recycling of the described flexible urethane foam
Production method. (3) After mixing and stirring, the mixture is
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid is forcibly separated from the liquid.
Of preforms for recycling of flexible urethane foam
Method.