JP3001310B2 - Feeding hopper for prefoaming machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a granulating hopper for a prefoaming machine, and more particularly, to prefoaming foamable resin particles by a prefoaming machine at a high foaming ratio of about 15 times or more (hereinafter referred to as "high foaming"). Abbreviated) and a device for drying the pre-expanded particles obtained.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the following three methods have been employed for drying pre-expanded particles obtained by heating and expanding foamable resin particles with steam using a pre-expanding machine. In the first method, after the completion of the prefoaming, a cool air, a warm air or a hot air is blown into the prefoaming machine to be dried. In the second method, after drying by the first method, the pre-expanded particles are further dried by pressure-feeding them to an aged silo with warm air or hot air. The third method is that after pre-foaming is completed,
The pre-expanded particles are discharged without drying in the pre-expanding machine, and the discharged pre-expanded particles are stored in a storage tank or a tunnel-shaped container and dried by blowing hot air.

[0003]

However, according to the first method among the above-mentioned conventional methods, the time required for one cycle (raw material input → preliminary foaming → drying → discharge) of the prefoaming machine becomes long. In addition, the processing capacity of the prefoaming machine decreases. Further, according to the second method, when the pre-expanded particles are foamed at a low magnification, the pre-expanded particles cannot be sent by pressure feeding because the specific gravity is large. In addition, according to the third method, since hot air is blown into the pre-expanded particles in the stored state, it takes a long time to dry,
In addition, when the pre-expanded particles have a low specific expansion and a large specific gravity, a longer time is required, and the installation place of the drying equipment is further increased.

[0004] The present invention is an improvement of the conventional feed hopper,
An object is to eliminate the above-mentioned problems.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a pre-expanding machine having a pre-expanding particle feed hopper which is provided with a pre-expanded particle on an open upper surface of a hopper portion provided at a pre-expanded particle discharge port of the pre-expanded machine. Is attached, and a tubular drying tower having air permeability but not passing pre-expanded particles is erected on the lid, and an ejector mechanism for feeding pre-expanded particles at an outlet at the bottom of the hopper. And a blow nozzle is attached to the side wall of the hopper section toward the drying tower, and the blow nozzle is connected to a pre-expanded particle discharge port side of the ejector mechanism via a switching damper, and the operation of the ejector mechanism is performed. A hot air generator is connected to the fluid inlet. Further, it is also possible to further connect a particle feed blower to the outlet at the bottom of the particle feed hopper.

[0006]

The feed hopper having the above construction is attached to a prefoaming machine for high-magnification foaming, and temporarily stores therein high-foaming prefoamed particles discharged from the prefoaming machine. When the hot air generator feeds the hot air for drying to the ejector mechanism as a working fluid, the ejector mechanism sends the pre-foamed particles under pressure from the outlet at the bottom of the hopper, mixes with the hot air, and switches from the discharge port through the switching damper. The particles are sent to the blowing nozzle and blown up toward the drying tower. Pre-expanded particles have a low specific gravity due to high magnification expansion,
Such pumping is possible. The mixture of the pre-expanded particles and the hot air blown up from the blowing nozzle enters the drying tower, and the hot air dries the pre-expanded particles. Thereby, the evaporated water is released into the atmosphere from the wall surface of the drying tower together with the hot air, and the pre-expanded particles fall and return to the bottom of the hopper. When the drying circulation is repeated a required number of times and the drying is completed, the switching damper is switched, and the ejector mechanism sends the dried pre-expanded particles to the next facility, for example, an aging silo.

[0007] In addition, the pre-foaming machine is not only a high-
When pre-expanding at a low expansion ratio of about 3 to 10 times (hereinafter, abbreviated as “low-expansion”), the low-expansion pre-expanded particles have a large specific gravity and may not be applicable to the ejector mechanism. Therefore, a feeder blower is further connected to the outlet at the bottom of the hopper. Thereby, when the pre-expanded particles are low-expanded, the pre-expanded particles are sucked directly from the outlet of the hopper by the granulating blower, and the pre-expanded particles are beaten by the internal blades, so that the next equipment, for example, another drying equipment And dried and then sent to an aged silo. At this time, the pre-expanded particles of low-expansion do not break even if they are hit with the blades of the granulating blower. Instead of providing another drying equipment, cooling and drying may be performed by blowing cold air into the prefoaming machine after the completion of prefoaming.

[0008]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In the feed hopper of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a hopper section 3 is provided at a pre-expanded particle discharge port 2 of a pre-expanding machine 1 for high-magnification foaming. The hopper 3 is provided with a sieve 4 for sizing therein, a lid 5 attached to an open upper surface, a tubular drying tower 6 standing on the lid 5, and a payout port 7 provided at a bottom. At the same time, a blowing nozzle 8 is attached to the side wall toward the drying tower 6. The lid 5 and the drying tower 6 are made of a wire mesh or the like which has air permeability but does not allow the pre-expanded particles to pass therethrough. The pay-out port 7 is provided with an ejector mechanism 9 for sucking the pre-expanded particles. The ejector mechanism 9 includes a pre-expanded particle discharge port 10 and a working fluid intake 11.

Then, a switching damper 13 is provided in a granule feeding tube 12 connected to the pre-expanded particle discharge port 9 of the ejector mechanism 9,
The blowing nozzle 8 is connected to the switching damper 13 via the circulation pipe 14. The switching damper 13 connects the circulation tube 14 to the granulation tube 1
2 is connected to the “circulation” position and the circulation tube 14 is connected to the granulation tube 1
A three-way damper having a "granulation" position to block from the second. Further, a hot air generator 16 is connected to the working fluid inlet 11 of the ejector mechanism 9 via a drying pipe 15. The hot air generator 16 sends a blower 18 to a heater 17.
To supply hot air for drying at a temperature from room temperature to a maximum of about 80 ° C.

In the hopper having the above-described structure, the pre-expanded particles 19 of high magnification expanded discharged from the pre-expanded particle discharge port 2 of the pre-expander 1 are sized by the sieve 4 in the hopper section 3 and then once hoppered. Stored at the bottom of part 3. Subsequently, the hot air generator 16 enters the operating state, and the switching damper 13 is in the “circulation” position. The hot air generator 16 sends hot air for drying to the working fluid inlet 11 of the ejector mechanism 9 through the drying pipe 15.
To the air. Thus, the ejector mechanism 9 uses the hot air as a working fluid, sucks the pre-expanded particles 19 from the outlet 7 of the hopper section 3 by the ejector action, mixes with the hot air, and feeds the pre-expanded particle discharge port 10 to the granulation tube 12, Switching damper 13
The particles are sent to the blowing nozzle 8 via the circulation pipe 14 and blown up toward the drying tower 6. The pre-expanded particles 19 have a low specific gravity due to high magnification expansion, and such a pressure feeding is possible. The mixture of the pre-expanded particles 19 and the hot air blown up from the blowing nozzle 8 enters the drying tower 6, and the hot air flows into the pre-expanded particles 1.
9 is dried. Thereby, the evaporated water is released into the atmosphere from the wall surface of the drying tower 6 together with the hot air, and the pre-expanded particles 19 fall and return to the bottom of the hopper 3. When the drying circulation is repeated a required number of times and the drying is completed, the switching damper 13 is switched to the “granulation” position, and the ejector mechanism 9 sucks the dried pre-expanded particles 19 from the payout port 7 of the hopper section 3 together with hot air. The particles are sent from the pre-expanded particle discharge port 10 to the next equipment, for example, an aged silo via the switching damper 13 and the particle feed pipe 12. Since the pre-expanded particles 19 are sent together with the hot air, curing in the aged silo is promoted.

In this embodiment, the prefoaming machine 1 is used for high-magnification foaming, but when the prefoaming machine 1 is used for both high-magnification foaming and low-magnification foaming, the prefoamed particles of low-magnification foaming have a specific gravity. Since the ejector mechanism 9 may not be applicable due to its size,
As another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, another feeding tube 21 may be connected to the outlet 7 at the bottom of the hopper 3, and a feeding blower 22 may be provided in the feeding tube 21. Thereby, the hopper 3
When the low-expanded pre-expanded particles 23 are discharged, the pre-expanded particles 23 are directly suctioned from the outlet 7 by operating the particle feed blower 22, and the pre-expanded particles 23 are hit with the internal blades to discharge the pre-expanded particles 23. The granules can be sent to the next equipment, for example, another drying equipment via a granulation tube 21, dried and then sent to an aged silo. At this time, since the pre-expanded particles 23 are low-expanded, they do not break even if they are hit with the blades of the granulating blower 22. Instead of providing another drying equipment, cooling and drying may be performed by blowing cool air into the prefoaming machine 1 after the completion of prefoaming.

[0012]

According to the present invention, as described above, since the pre-expanded particles are blown up from the blowing nozzle into the drying tower together with the hot air for drying, the drying can be performed in an extremely short time. Further, since the drying in the prefoaming machine is unnecessary, the time required for one cycle of the prefoaming machine is reduced,
The processing capacity of the prefoaming machine is improved. In addition, since the drying device is provided in the feed hopper, the installation space can be reduced. Furthermore, since the pre-expanded particles are dried by hot air, there is an advantage that the curing of the pre-expanded particles in an aged silo is promoted. The present invention can be applied to a prefoaming machine for both high-magnification foaming and low-magnification foaming by connecting a grain blowing blower to a payout port at the bottom of the hopper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a grain feeding hopper showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a main part of a particle feed hopper showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pre-expanding machine 2 Pre-expanded particle discharge port 3 Hopper section 5 Lid 6 Drying tower 7 Outlet 8 Outlet nozzle 9 Ejector mechanism 10 Pre-expanded particle discharge port 11 Working fluid intake 13 Switching damper 16 Hot air generator 19 Pre-expanded particle (High magnification) 22 Blower for sending 23 Pre-expanded particles (Low expansion)

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B29B 13/06 B29C 31/02 C08J 9/22

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A lid for preventing the passage of pre-expanded particles is attached to the open upper surface of a hopper provided at the outlet of the pre-expanded particles of the pre-expanding machine. The cover has gas permeability but does not allow passage of the pre-expanded particles. A tubular drying tower is erected, an ejector mechanism for feeding pre-expanded particles is provided at a payout port at the bottom of the hopper section, and a blowing nozzle is attached to a side wall of the hopper section toward the drying tower, and the ejector mechanism is provided. A blowing hopper for a prefoaming machine, wherein the blowing nozzle is connected to the prefoamed particle discharge port side via a switching damper, and a hot air generator is connected to a working fluid inlet of the ejector mechanism. 2. A feed hopper for a prefoaming machine according to claim 1, wherein a feed blower is connected to an outlet at the bottom of the hopper.