JPH0592429A - Volume decreasing machine for foamed plastic - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the title machine usable in a super-market by constituting the grinding means of the machine charging foamed plastic in a hopper and feeding the ground plastic by a screw conveyor fitted with a heating element to shred the same so as to be capable of grinding than matter. CONSTITUTION:A grinding means A is arranged to the funnel-shaped lower part 4 of a charging hopper 3 and constituted of two or more stages of the cutting blades provided to the rotary shaft 6 vertically provided to a central opening part 5 so as to extend at an almost right angle with respect to said shaft 6 and the fixed blade 9 having the opening 8 permitting the rotary cutting blades 7 to pass. It is pref. to provide a control blade 16 to the fixed blade 9 on the underside of the opening 8 so as to capable of adjusting the gaps (d) with the cutting blades 7 passing through the opening 8. Even a thin thing like a tray is inserted in the gaps (d) to be ground. Ground foam is fed by a screw conveyor 17 having a heater 23 provided to the forward periphery thereof to be melted or softened and shredded by the shredding means provided to the leading end of the conveyor 17.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a foamed plastic volume reducing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, foamed plastics such as Styrofoam are lightweight, elastic, heat-insulating, water-resistant and inexpensive, and are therefore used as cushioning materials or packaging materials for various types of equipment.
It is widely and widely used in various fields as a packaging material and as a container or tray for food such as vegetables and seafood. However, this type of styrofoam after use is bulky, inconvenient to handle, and does not rot, so it is not suitable for disposal as waste or landfill treatment. Therefore, the incineration process causes the combustion furnace to be damaged due to the high combustion temperature.

As a processing apparatus for waste plastic foam that overcomes such problems, a processing method has been developed in which the plastic foam itself is crushed and melted to reduce the volume. Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-6205 is disclosed as one of them. It has a coarse crushing device and a fine crushing device installed in the front and rear of the lower half of the machine body, and supplies the finely pulverized foam material to a storage tank located above the machine body by a blower that can be fed by suction. After being temporarily stored, the crushed product is delivered to the volume reducing unit where it is melted by frictional heat by a spiral conveyor extending horizontally from the lower side of the storage tank.

However, the above devices still have some problems to be solved. For example, since the object to be recycled is mainly expanded polystyrene having a high expansion ratio, it is necessary to provide a hopper for temporarily storing the crushed foam, which results in a large overall shape. Inevitably, a supermarket that will be the end user of Styrofoam products,
It was not always satisfactory for use in shops and restaurants.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-39512 discloses a method for treating foamed plastics in which the above-mentioned problems are improved. This is because a crushing shaft having a cutter blade and a rotating shaft having a screw blade are rotatably provided below the hopper, and a tapered compression cylinder is arranged so as to surround the screw blade, and the compression cylinder is supplied from the inside of the compression cylinder. It is a device that melts the crushed foam in a heating cylinder and further cuts it into chips by a rotary cutter through an extruder.

[0006] However, in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-39512, the expanded polystyrene is used as a cushioning material or packing material for various devices, or a packaging material, that is, in the case of processing expanded polystyrene such as a large lump. Is an effective processing device, but containers with a small thickness such as food containers and trays used for vegetables and seafood lined up on shelves in supermarkets etc. do not undergo necessary cutting with screw blades or cutter blades. In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform a sufficient treatment because it is delivered to the heating cylinder while maintaining its shape.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art as described above. The purpose of the present invention is to make the entire apparatus compact and to process foamed plastic such as a tray having a small thickness. It is to provide a foamed plastic volume reducer that can be easily installed and used in a supermarket, a store or a restaurant, which is the end user of a foamed plastic product, or a general household, by configuring it as possible. ..

[0008]

The technical method taken by the present invention to achieve the above object and solve the problems is to provide a foamed plastic charging hopper, a crushing means in the charging hopper, and the charging hopper. From the screw conveyor to carry out the crushed foamed plastic from the, the heating body disposed around the required portion of the screw conveyor for heating the crushed foamed plastic in the screw conveyor, and the discharge side tip of the screw conveyor In a foamed plastic volume reducing machine having shredding means, and
The crushing means in the charging hopper is a rotary shaft positioned vertically in the hopper, a cutting blade extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotary shaft, and a rotary blade positioned in the rotation locus of the cutting blade. And a fixed blade having a passage opening.

Further, the present invention also discloses a foamed plastic volume reducer in which the gap between the passage opening and the rotary blade passing therethrough is adjustable. By that configuration,
It becomes possible to grind according to the thickness of the foamed plastic, and it is possible to effectively process even the foamed plastic having a small thickness. Further, the present invention also discloses a foamed plastic volume reducer in which a plurality of cutting blades extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotary shaft are provided in the axial direction of the rotary shaft. With this configuration, the foamed plastic can be efficiently pulverized, the transfer from the screw conveyor to the heating body becomes smoother, and the heat treatment can be effectively performed.

[0010]

[Operation] The foamed plastic volume reducing machine of the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, and is processed as follows. That is, the foamed plastic put into the hopper is composed of a cutting blade extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotating shaft and a fixed blade having a passage opening for the rotating blade which is located in the rotation locus of the cutting blade. After being finely crushed by the crushing means, it is sent to the screw conveyor, and the heating element arranged around the screw conveyor and the extrusion pressure of the screw conveyor melt and receive compression defoaming, and discharge from the discharge side tip of the screw conveyor. When it is released, it is shredded into small pieces by the shredding means at the tip of the discharge side and discharged.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5 show a foamed plastic volume reducing machine of the present invention, in which a charging hopper 3 for charging foamed plastic such as Styrofoam is provided in an upper portion of a rectangular frame 2 having casters 1, 1. Same hopper 3
A crushing means A is arranged inside.

The input hopper 3 has a hopper lower part 4 whose lower part is inclined like a funnel, and the hopper lower part 4
Is provided with the crushing means A. The crushing means A is
A rotary shaft 6 which is erected vertically in the central opening 5 of the lower part of the hopper 4, a plurality of stages of cutting blades 7, 7, ... Which extend in a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotary shaft 6, and the same cutting blade. .. and a fixed blade body 9 having a passage opening 8 for the rotating cutting blade bodies 7, 7 ,. The lengths of the cutting blades 7, 7, ... Are sequentially shortened from the upstream side to the downstream side, and the rotation locus of the tip thereof has an inverted trapezoidal shape.

The rotating shaft 6 forming a part of the above-mentioned crushing means A is a bearing at the central opening 5 of the lower part 4 of the hopper.
The first bearing portion 11 is passed through via 10 and the lower end of the rotary shaft 6 is rotatably supported by the second bearing portion 12 via a bearing (not shown) on the frame bottom portion 2a (FIG. 3). .. In addition, at a portion above the first bearing portion 11 of the rotary shaft 6, a predetermined interval is provided so that a plurality of cutting blade bodies 7, 7 extending vertically to the rotary shaft 6 do not interfere with each other. It is welded in. Each of the cutting blades 7 has a projection 7b whose tip 7a projects in the rotational direction.
The blade 7c is formed in an L-shape having a circle, and the blade 7c is formed on the clockwise rotation side as shown by the arrow B (FIG. 5).

A sprocket 13 is attached to the rotary shaft 6 substantially at the center in the lengthwise direction, and a sprocket 14 having the same surface as that of the sprocket 13 is fixed to the motor shaft of the electric motor M1 fixed to the frame side portion 2b. Installed. A chain 15 is fitted between both sprockets 13 and 14, and the rotary shaft 6 is rotationally driven by the driving force from the electric motor M1.

The fixed blade body 9 which constitutes a part of the above-mentioned crushing means A is a plate fixed to the weight-like wall surface of the lower part 4 of the hopper by an appropriate means such as welding or riveting in the axial direction. It is composed of a body. The lateral width of the plate-shaped body has such a width that the edge portion on the hopper axial center side is located within the rotational locus of the cutting blades 7, 7, ... It is appropriately determined experimentally according to the type and size of the foamed plastic to be used. Then, the cutting blades 7, 7, ...
The passage openings 8, 8, ... Are formed so that 7 ,. Further, as shown in the figure, the one in which the upper portion has a width larger than that of the lower portion is more effective from the viewpoint of crushing, but the width may be the same throughout the length.

Further, in this embodiment, an adjusting blade 16 is mounted on the lower fixed blade body 9 of each passage opening 8, 8, ... 8
The gap d between the cutting blade 7 and the cutting blade 7 passing therethrough can be adjusted (FIG. 2). Further, the lower end surface 9a of the fixed blade body 9 is arranged so as to be in contact with the upper surface of the bearing portion 11.

On the peripheral surface side of the hopper lower portion 4, there is provided an opening 18 for feeding the crushed foamed plastic into a screw conveyor 17 described later.
The opening 18 has a substantially rectangular shape and is formed above the bearing 11. Further, on the peripheral surface side of the hopper lower portion 4, a foreign matter take-out lid 19 is provided between the bearing portion 11 and the opening 18 so as to be openable and closable.

A screw conveyor 17 having a screw opening (not shown) corresponding to the opening 18 is attached at a position outside the hopper lower portion 4 and having the opening 18. A screw (not shown) is inserted in the screw conveyor 17,
A sprocket 20 is attached to one end of 17 through a bearing, and the sprocket has the same surface as the sprocket 20.
21 is attached to the motor shaft of an electric motor M2 fixedly mounted on the frame bottom 2a, and the sprocket 20, 21
The screw conveyor 17 is rotatably driven by the driving force from the electric motor M2.

Reference numeral 22 denotes a chain for connecting and rotating the sprocket 20 and the sprocket 21. A heater 23 as a heating element is provided around the front position in the transfer direction of the screw conveyor 17, and the crushed foamed plastic in the screw conveyor 17 is heated by the heater 23.

A shredding means C, which will be described later, is arranged at the tip of the screw conveyor 17 on the discharge side. That is, the shredding means C is composed of an extrusion disk 24 having pores attached to the tip of the screw conveyor 17 on the discharge side, and a cutter 25 installed in the front position of the extrusion disk 24. The cutter 25 has a plurality of cutter blades mounted on a rotary shaft, and the rotary shaft is supported by bearings 26 provided at both ends thereof, and one end thereof is connected to an electric motor M3 via a coupling 27. There is.

Reference numeral 28 in the figure denotes a control panel for controlling the foamed plastic volume reducing machine of the present invention. The foamed plastic volume reducer of the present invention configured as described above is moved to a place requiring treatment and then the electric motor M
Drive 1, M2, M3. As mentioned above, this device is compactly constructed as a whole in one frame,
Moreover, since the casters 1, 1 are attached to the bottom, it can be easily moved to any place.

Then, foamed plastic, for example, foamed polystyrene having a small thickness such as a tray is charged into the charging hopper 3. At this time, the rotating shaft 6 is rotated clockwise by the drive of the electric motor M1 via the sprocket 14, the chain 15, and the sprocket 13, and the cutting blades 7, 7, ... At the same time, rotate clockwise. By the rotation of the cutting blades 7, 7, ..., the styrofoam is shredded by the blade 7c at the tip edge thereof, and is attached to the cutting blades and the fixed blades 9 which have been adjusted to values experimentally determined in advance. The fine fragments are further crushed by passing through the gap d between the adjusting blades 16, 16, .... Particularly in the case of the present invention, even if the object to be cut is a thin piece of styrofoam such as a tray of a food container, it has a gap d between the cutting blade 7 and the fixed blade 16 of the fixed blade 9. It will be sandwiched between and will be crushed by the blade 7c of the cutting blade body 7.

Therefore, by changing the position of the fixed blade 16 in accordance with the change in the thickness of the expanded polystyrene to be processed so as to change the gap d, many kinds of flaky plastic can be efficiently crushed. The styrofoam is finely crushed and accumulated on the bottom of the lower part 4 of the hopper, and is delivered to the screw conveyor 17 from the opening 18 provided on the peripheral surface of the lower part 4 of the hopper through the screw opening provided on the screw conveyor 17. To be done. At this time, the screw conveyor is rotated at a predetermined speed by the rotation force transmitted through the sprocket 21, the chain 22, and the sprocket 20 by the drive of the electric motor M2, and the finely crushed styrofoam is conveyed to the screw conveyor 17
While being further crushed by the screw inside and producing frictional heat, they are sequentially conveyed to the right in FIG.

Then, the crushed styrofoam that is sent out is conveyed in the screw conveyor 17 area heated by the heater 23 provided around the front position in the feeding direction of the screw conveyor 17 while being conveyed.
When the resin itself receives heat from the heater 23 and the heater 23 heats the resin 23, the resin itself melts and is defoamed due to the heat generation, which reduces the total volume.

The heating temperature of the heater 23 can be controlled to a temperature at which the Styrofoam is softened but can be granulated without melting, so that the active ingredient added to the Styrofoam can be controlled. It is also possible to reduce the total volume by destroying only the bubbles without thermal decomposition. The defoamed and reduced volume of styrene is pushed by the styrofoam that is conveyed later and is continuously extruded from the pores of the extruder 24. At this time, the electric motor M3 is driven and the cutter 25 of the extruder 24 is moved. Since it is rotating in the front position, the extruded volumetric polystyrene will be cut into small pieces.

The styrofoam to be put into the feeding hopper 3 is a post-use one, that is, a used styrofoam that has been used with vegetables, seafood, etc. is put in. It is likely to be thrown in, in which case the finely crushed Styrofoam itself is very lightweight, so only foreign matter will remain below. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the foreign matter from being fed into the screw conveyor 17 through the opening 18 by opening the foreign matter extraction lid 19 and removing the accumulated foreign matter.

In the above embodiment, the fixed blade is described as one piece, but it is not limited to one piece and a plurality of pieces may be provided. In that case, the fixed blades may have the same shape and are arranged at equal intervals, or the fixed blades may have different circumferential widths or different gaps d between the passage opening 8 and the cutting blade body 7 passing therethrough. It can also be arranged. The latter case is particularly effective in the case where a mixture of different types of foam is put into the hopper to reduce the volume.

Further, the description has been given of the case where the gap d between the passage opening 8 and the cutting blade body 7 can be appropriately adjusted by the adjusting blade at the time of use. However, the foams to be reduced in volume are of almost the same kind, It will be readily appreciated that provision of such adjusting means is not necessary where it is easy to ensure the required clearance during assembly of the device.

[0029]

The foamed plastic volume reducing machine of the present invention is
With the above configuration, a foamed plastic having a small thickness such as a tray can be finely crushed and processed. Also, because the whole is configured in one machine frame, it can be made highly mobile and compact, and it can be freely moved to the desired place, so it is the end user of the foamed plastic product, such as a supermarket, shop or restaurant. Furthermore, it can be easily installed and used in general households.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front view of a foamed plastic volume reducing machine of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a left side view of the foamed plastic volume reducing machine according to the present invention with partial cutaway.

FIG. 4 is a right side view of the foamed plastic volume reducing machine according to the present invention with partial cutaway.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the foamed plastic volume reducing machine of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Input Hopper 6 Rotating Shaft 7 Cutting Blade 8 Passing Opening 9 Fixed Blade 16 Adjusting Blade 17 Screw Conveyor 23 Heater as Heating A A Crushing Means C Shredding Means d Gap

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display B29K 105: 26

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A foamed plastic charging hopper, a crushing means in the charging hopper, a screw conveyor for discharging the crushed foamed plastic from the charging hopper, and a screw conveyor for heating the crushed foamed plastic in the screw conveyor. In a foamed plastic volume reducing machine having a heating element arranged around the required part, a shredding means located at the discharge side tip of the screw conveyor, and a crushing means in the charging hopper is perpendicular to the hopper. And a cutting blade extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotation axis, and a fixed blade located in a rotation locus of the cutting blade and having a passage opening for the rotation blade. Foam plastic volume reduction machine. 2. The foamed plastic volume reducing machine according to claim 1, wherein the gap between the passage opening and the rotary blade passing therethrough is adjustable. 3. The foamed plastic reducing material according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of cutting blades extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotary shaft are provided in a plurality of stages in the axial direction of the rotary shaft. Opportunity.