US3827347A - Machine for conditioning waste material for recycling - Google Patents

Abstract

A machine which bales waste material to condition it for recycling and thus helps alleviate waste disposal problems which lead to pollution. The machine includes a ram which reciprocates to compact waste material in a container and ultimately eject the waste material in the form of a bale. The resistance of the compacted material to the ram is sensed to reverse the ram automatically. In an automatic mode, the ram keeps reciprocating and compacting as long as the input of the machine is loaded until a full bale is formed and ejected. Excess waste material at the input is sheared off. A manipulator is disclosed which facilitates binding of the compacted waste into a bale. Drive means and control means are disclosed. The ram can move all the way to the discharge end of the container or any compacting position short of the discharge end to give uniformity of compaction. The bale weight is fully adjustable.

Description

United States Patent [191 Gilman 3,827,347 Aug. 6, 1974 MACHINE FOR CONDITIONING WASTE MATERIAL FOR RECYCLING [76] Inventor: Winthrop W. Gilman, 565 16th Ave., South, Naples, Fla. 33940 [22] Filed: Feb. 12, 1973 [211 App]. No.: 331,635

Related US. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 248,709, April 28, 1972.

[52] US. Cl 100/8, 100/34, 100/49, 100/98 R, 100/190, 100/290 [51] Int. Cl B65b 13/20 [58] Field of Search 100/34, 8, 19 R, 3,250, .100/1, 2,52, 190, 289

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 206,865 8/1878 Dederick 100/3 1,201,695 10/1916 Case et a1. 100/190 2,300,511 11/1942 Lamb t 1 100/34 3580166 5/1971 Longo IOU/250 3,587,448 6/1971 Hemphill et a1. 100/3 3,604,345 9/1971 Boje 100/289 3,613,560 10/1971 Bottas et a1 [00/52 3,714,890 2/1973 Moon 100/52 3,762,312 10/1973 Guhl 100/52 Primary Examiner-Billy .1. Wilhite Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Oltman and Flynn [5 7] ABSTRACT A machine which bales waste material to condition it for recycling and thus helps alleviate waste disposal problems which lead to pollution. The machine includes a ram which reciprocates to compact waste ma terial in a container and ultimately eject the waste material in the form of a bale. The resistance of the compacted material to the ram is sensed to reverse the ram automatically. In an automatic mode, the ram keeps reciprocating and compacting as long as the input of the machine is loaded until a full bale is formed and ejected. Excess waste material at the input is sheared off. A manipulator is disclosed which facilitates binding of the compacted waste into a bale. Drive means and control means are disclosed. The ram can move all the way to the discharge end of the container or any compacting position short of the discharge end to give uniformity of compaction. The bale weight is fully adjustable.

10 Claims, 19 Drawing Figures 72 l lllllln H .Milflinwii'llumi" MENU MIG 51974 SHEU 1 BF 5 Minimum whim PTENFH] AUB 81974 saw u m 5 FAIENTEUMIB 61974 SHEH 5 OF 5 m W. F

FIG. 17

MACHINE FOR CONDITIONING WASTE MATERIAL FOR RECYCLING This is a division, of application Ser. No. 248,709 filed Apr. 28, I972.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION At the present time, considerable attention is being directed to pollution of the environment. How to dispose of waste material, such as paper, cardboard, plastics and the like, is one of the problems facing those concerned with protecting the environment. It has been suggested that the most effective way to reduce the harmful effects on the environment caused by known means of disposing of such waste material is to recycle a large portion of the waste material. For example, waste paper can be recycled through the manufacturing process to produce usable paper products.

In order to be recycled, waste paper and other related waste materials should be put into a condition in which it can be handled economically. One way of accomplishing this is to compact the waste material and bind it into bales. Most known equipment for accomplishing such baling has involved a hydraulic press, and the hydraulic system has proved troublesome. The equipment has been heavy and bulky, and in general has not been suitable for installation in many business establishments. Also, operation of knownequipment has required considerable labor which contributes to the overall expense of operation and maintenance of the equipment. The bales produced by such machinery have often been poorly compacted, and the bales sometimes are not uniform in density. Thus, the bales sometimes come apart or deteriorate when they are subjected to the stresses of handling enroute to the recycling manufacturing process. Some machines have not been as fully automatic as desired. A problem with automatic operation has ben how to prevent the machine from either stopping or running out of control when excess waste material is fed into the machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The machine of the invention is an electromechanical machine as contrasted to a hydraulic machine, and it is considerably smaller and lighter than many known hydraulic machines. The machine includes a ram which is preferably driven by an electric motor coupled to the ram with drive screws. The ram reciprocates in a container and can move all the way to the discharge end of the container or to any compacting position short of the discharge end. As the ram compacts material against a releasable closure at the discharge end of the container, the resistance of the compacted material is sensed, preferably by sensing overload current in the motor. This automatically reverses the ram which then moves back toward the input end of the machine. A hopper or other feeding means is provided at the input end, and as the ram moves forward, it shears off any excess waste material in the hopper. The ram pulls behind it a hopper closure which holds back the excess material. The ram moves forward until it is reversed by the overload sensor to give uniform density of compaction. In an automatic mode of operation, the forward stroke of the ram is started by a photocell which senses waste material collected in the hopper. The ram keeps reciprocating until a full bale is sensed, and the ram then stops. The ram is adjusted to a proper position for baling, and binding strands are pulled around the compacted material by means of a manipulator. After binding, the closure at the discharge end of the container is opened, and the ram moves forward to eject the bale. The size and weight of the bale is fully adjustable. The highly automatic nature of the machine cuts down on labor required to operate the machine. Due to the uniform density of compaction, the bales come out in wellformed condition which helps them to resist the stresses encountered in handling.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved machine for compacting and baling waste material to put it in good condition for recycling.

Another object of the invention is to provide a baling machine which is automatic in operation to a large degree.

Another object of the invention is to provide an electromechanical baling machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide a machine which compacts waste material relatively uniformly throughout a bale.

Another object of the invention is to provide an automatic bale trimer for a baling machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine for compacting and baling waste material in which the weight of the bale is fully adjustable.

A further object of the invention is to facilitate handling of binding strands in the baling machine by means of a manipulating mechanism for handling the strands.

Another object of the invention is to eliminate skirts at the trailing edge of a bale compacted in a baling machine.

Another object of the invention is to initiate the automatic operation of a baling machine by sensing collected material at the feeding input of the machine.

A further object of the invention is to move a ram all the way to the discharge end of the baling machine in order to eject a bale from the machine.

Another object of the invention is to pull the platen or ram of a baling machine forward with drive screws.

Another object is to provide a vertically swinging closure at the discharge end of the baling machine.

Other objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a machine in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the feed end of the machine;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the discharge end of the machine;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the machine;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of the machine taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 4 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross sectional view of the machine taken along line 6-6 of F IG. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 7-7 of FIG. and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view, partly in section and partly in dashed lines, illustrating the operation of a hopper closure included in the machine;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the shearing action of a ram of the machine with a trailing edge of an opening at the input of the machine;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view along line ll010 of FIG. 1 illustrating the operation of two manipulators which insert and handle baling strands;

FIG. 11 is an enlarged perspective view showing the lower end of one manipulator being inserted into a loop of the strand;

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary perspective view similar to FIG. 11, but showing the end of the manipulator rotated so that it recaptures the loop of the strand;

FIG. 13 illustrates the manner in which one of the strands loops around the compacted waste material so as to bind it into a bale;

FIG. 14 illustrates acompleted bale;

FIG. 15 is a schematic electrical diagram of a control circuit of the machine;

FIG. 16 is the first of a series of schematic views illustrating the condition of the machine at the beginning of a cycle;

FIG. 17 is another schematic view showing the condition of the machine after the ram has moved forward and compacted some of the waste material;

FIG. 18 is a further schematic view showing the condition of the machine after a full bale has been compacted; and

FIG. 19 shows the completed bale being ejected from the machine.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The machine 20 compacts and bales waste material such as paper, cardboard, plastics and other such material to facilitate recycling of the material. Waste material in bale form is more readily marketable and usable in a recycling process than loose waste material. It is desirable that the bales be well formed and capable of withstanding rough handling. Such bales are produced by'the machine 20.

The machine includes an elongated container 22 which, in this embodiment, has horizontally spaced channel members 24 and 26 (FIG. 4) at the top and bottom sides of the container. The vertical sides of the container, in this embodiment, are continuous sheets 28. Thus, the container 22 is essentially an elongated box.

The feeding end of the container is at 30, and the discharge end of the container is at 32. The feeding end 30 is closed permanently by a rigid wall 34 surrounded by tubular bracing members 36. The discharge end 32 has an opening which is normally closed by a closure 38 in the form of a vertically swinging door. l-Iinging means 40 connects the top of the closure door 38 to the top of the container, the fixed portions of the hinges being mounted on tubular bracing members 42. A latch 44 is pivotally connected to the vertical tubular member 42, and the latch 44 has a slot 48 which receives a pin 50 mounted on the lower end of the door 38. With pin 50 in slot 48, the door 30 is latched closed. To release the door, the operator depresses the left end 46 of the latch 44 thus raising the slotted end off the pin 50. This releases the door 38 so that it can swing upward to a raised open position as the bale is ejected. Identical latches 44 are provided on both the left and right side of the machine as shown in FIG. 3.

Just behind tubular braces 52 located near the midpoint of the machine, there is an upstanding hopper 54 through which waste material is fed into the machine. Mounted on the hopper 54 is a control panel 56 containing switches which are part of the control circuit of the machine as will be explained. At the right side of the hopper 54 as viewed in FIG. 1, there are two manipulators 58 and 60 which facilitate handling of binding strands that are used to bind the compacted material. A photocell 62 is also mounted on the hopper, and it serves to initiate the automatic cycle of the machine, as will be described further. In general, in the automatic mode of the machine, the hopper may be filled up to the level of the photocell 62 and then the machine will start operating automatically.

Referring particularly to FIG. 5, it may be seen that inside the container 22 there is a ram 64 which is movable back and forth along the length of the container. The ram can move from a first position at the feed end 30 of the machine where it is shown in FIG. 5 all the way along the length of the machine to a second position at the discharge end 32 where the ram is shown for example in FIG. 18. The ram 64 can move to other positions short of the discharge position as shown, for example, in FIG. 17.

The ram 64 is essentially a platen reinforced by tubular elements 66. The ram 64 has two vertical recesses 68 and 70 formed in its front face as shown in FIG. 6.

The drive means for the ram 64 includes two long drive screws 72 and 74 mounted on opposite vertical sides of the machine as shown in FIG. 4. The drive screws 72 and 74 are journalled in bearings such as the bearing 76 shown in FIG. 1. Bearings for the screws may be mounted in the tubular bracing members 36 and 42. The screws threadably engage receivers 78 and 80 mounted in blocks 82 and 84 which are attached to opposite sides of the ram 64 as shown in FIG. 7. The blocks 82 and 84 may be braced as by gussets 86 and 88.

An electric motor 90 is mounted at the feed end 30 of the machine.

The motor 90 is a reversible three-phase type in the illustrated embodiment, and its drive shaft 92 is coupled by chains 94 and 96 to sprockets 98 and 100 which are connected to the drive screws 72 and 74 respectively. The threads of the drive screws are arranged such that as the motor 90 operates in one direction (forward) both drive screws pull the ram 64 forward toward the discharge end 32 of the machine, and as the motor 90 operates in the other (reverse) direction, the drive screws 72 and 74 move the ram 64 backward toward the feed end 30 of the machine. Because the platen can move over the full length of the machine completely to the discharge end, it is possible for the bale to be ejected by the platen on ram 64.

Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, it may be seen that one knife edge member 102 is mounted on top of the ram 64 as with screws 104, and another knife edge member 106 is mounted on the container 22 just under the bracing member 52 at the trailing edge of the opening be tween the hopper 54 and the container 22. These knife edges 102 and 106 constitute shearing means for shearing excess material in the hopper 54 off from waste material in the container 22 as the ram 64 moves forward past the opening at the lower end of the hopper 54. In FIG. 9, the knife edge members 102 and 106 are shown as they are about to shear a piece of waste material 110.

In FIG. 8, a closure for the opening at the bottom of the hopper 54 is shown which consists of three telescoping door sections 112, 114 and 116. These door sections ride or slide on upper edges 118 near the top of the machine and these edges may be slots formed in the wall of the machine. The edges 118 slant upward slightly. The door sections 112, 114 and 116 are shown in dashed lines in a fully telescoped condition at the left side of FIG. 8. Door section 112 has a lip 120 which projects down from its leading edge into a slot 122 at the top of ram 64. Door sections 112 and 114 have upwardly projecting lips 124 and 126 at their trailing edges, and door sections 114 and 116 have downwardly projecting lips 128 and 130 at their leading ends. Lips 128 and 130 are picked up by lips 124 and 126 as the door sections move across the opening at the bottom of the hopper 54. When the door sections are fully ex tended, they close this opening as shown in solid lines in FIG. 8. When the ram 64 reaches the position shown in FIG. 8 in solid lines, the lip 120 has risen out of the slot 122 so the ram 64 is free to advance further leaving the door sections in the condition shown in FIG. 8 in solid lines. Thus, the ram not only shears off excess material in the hopper, but it also pulls a door behind it which closes off the hopper to keep the excess material in the hopper. The overall effect of this operation is to prevent a skirt from forming at the trailing edge of the table while it is being compressed.

When the ram 64 moves in reverse, the lip 120 is engaged by the rear edge of the knife edge member 102 and gradually comes down into the slot 122. A dog 132 on top of section 112 picks up on the leading edge of section 114, and another dog 134 on top of section 114 picks up on the leading edge of section 116 to push the door sections back into the fully telescoped condition shown in dashed lines in FIG. 8.

The operation of the manipulators 58 and 60 is shown in FIGS. 10, 11 and 12. Cooperating with the manipulators 58 and 60, there are two retainers 136 and 138 mounted in the spaces between channel members 26 at the bottom of the container 22, as shown in FIG. 10. Each of these retainers includes a pair of spring biased jaws such as the jaws 140 and 142 shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. The manipulators 58 and 60 may be rods having handles 144 and 146 at their upper ends that normally hang on hooks such as hook 148 shown in FIG. 1. The lower end of each manipulator is slotted as illustrated in FIG. 11 for the manipulator 60. Manipulator 60 has a flattened portion 150 at its lower end, and the flattened portion 150 has slots 152 which extend toward each other from opposite vertical edges. When a binding strand such as a wire is to be inserted into the retainer 136, a loop 154 at one end of the strand is placed in one of the slots 152, and the manipulator 60 is inserted down through spaces between the channel members 24 to insert the strand 156 between the jaws and 142 which spread apart slightly to receive the strand in an opening 158. The jaws then close under spring pressure, the spring not being shown. While the loop is being inserted, the flattened portion is in the position shown in FIG. 12. The manipulator is then removed by rotating it to the position shown in FIG. 11 and lifting it out of the top of the container.

The free end of the strand 156 is laid along the bottom of the container 22 and up past the door 38 out the top of the container where the free end 160 is shown in FIG. 13. However, it will be remembered that the loop is still retained in the retainer 136 at this stage. After a bale 162 has been formed in the machine, the manipulator 60 is pushed down to insert the flattened portion 150 through the loop 154, and is rotated to the position shown in FIG. 12. The manipulator 60 can then be pulled up to bring the loop up to the position shown in FIG. 13. Then the free end 160 can be tied off at the loop 154. Both manipulators 58 and 60 are operated in the same way, so two binding strands 156 are shown binding the bale 162 in FIG. 14.

At the time the manipulators are inserted down to recapture the loops 154, the ram 64 is at a position known as the full bale limit position. As shown in FIG. 6, the ram 64 has vertical slots 68 and 70 through which the manipulators 58 and 60 may be inserted to reach the retainers 136 and 138.

The control means of the machine will be described with reference to FIGS. 15 through 19. Three phase electrical current is supplied to the windings of the motor 90 through lines L1, L2 and L3. A load 164 for the control circuit is connected across lines L1 and L3. Fuses 166 may be provided in lines L1, L2 and L3. Line Ll divides into branches L'll and L"1 which are in parallel with each other. Similarly, line L2 divides into branches L'2 and L"2, and line L3 divides into branches L3 and L"3. Branches Ll, L'2 and L'3 contain reverse mode contacts 168, 170 and 172. Branches L"1, L"2 and L"3 contain forward mode contacts 174, 176 and 178. All of these contacts are normally open. Contacts 174, 176 and 178 are wired to the motor 90 in the reverse of contacts 168, 170 and 172 such that the former contacts control the forward operation of the motor, and the latter contacts control the reverse operation.

The line 180 connects to line L1, and line 182 connects to line L3. A normally closed momentary contact switch 184 is connected in line 180 and interrupts power to the control circuit when opened for stopping the machine. The various controls are connected between lines 180 and 182.

A line 186 connected between lines 180 and 182 includes the coil 188 of the forward relay with which contacts 174, 176 and 178 are associated. This relay also has normally open contacts 190 in line 186. The coil 192 of the reverse timing relay is connected in a line 194 across lines 180 and 182.. Relay 192 has normally closed contacts 196 in line 186, and also has contacts 198, 200, 202 and 204 which will be explained.

The coil 206 of a reverse relay is connected to line 186 and in a path which branches off from line 194.

The reversing contacts 168, 170 and 172 are associated with the relay coil 206. Relay coil 192 provides reverse delay as will be explained.

The coil 208 of a control relay is connected in a line 210 across lines 180 and 182 and also connected in this line is a normally open switch 212 which establishes the control circuit in an automatic mode when it is closed. Switch 212 is bypassed by latching contacts 214 for relay 208. A lamp 216 lights up when the circuit is in the automatic mode. A line 218 connects from line 182 back to line 186, and contacts 220 of relay 208 are connected in this line. The contacts 222 represent the photocell 62 and they are also located in line 218. Also the line 218 is the coil 224 of a relay which provides forward delay action, and this relay has contacts 226 in line 218 near the point where it connects to line 186.

For manual control of the machine, a forward switch 228 may be closed to drive the ram of the machine forward, and a reverse switch 230 may be closed to drive the ram of the machine backward. A reverse limit switch has contacts 232 and 234, and a forward limit switch 236 is connected in line 186. A full bale limit switch 238 is opened by the ram and held open when the bale is fully formed. The reverse limit switch is shown at 232 in FIG. 5, and the full bale limit switch is shown at 238 in this figure. The forward limit switch 236 is shown in FIG. 1.

The coil 240 of a current sensing relay is located in line L"2. This relay has contacts 242 located in line 194. The relay 240 senses overload current being supplied to the motor when it is operating in the forward direction, and it serves to switch the control circuit from the forward mode to the reverse mode when the motor current exceeds a predetermined threshold level. This results when the resistance of the compacted material reaches a desired level.

In describing the operation of the control circuit, it will be assumed that the ram 64 is in the position shown in FIG. where it actuates the reverse limit switch to close contact 232 and open contact 234. The circuit is in the condition shown in FIG. at this time.

In the manual mode of operation, the forward switch 228 is closed, and this pulls in forward relay coil 188 to close contacts 174, 176 and 178, thus operating the motor 90 in the forward direction to drive the ram 64 forward. Contacts 190 also close to latch in the coil of relay 188 and keep it energized after switch 228 opens. As soon as the ram 64 leaves the position shown in FIG. 5, reverse limit switch contact 232 opens and contact 234 closes. Assuming that there is waste material in the machine in the manner shown in FIG. 16, the ram goes forward and compresses this waste material to the condition shown in FIG. 17. Excess waste material in the hopper is sheared off as shown in FIG. 17. When the motor current exceeds the predetermined threshold level referred to previously indicating that the resistance of the compacted material has reached the desired level, the coil 240 of the current sensing relay for the motor pulls in, and this closes contacts 242. Reverse timing relay 192 then pulls in opening contacts 196 to drop out the forward relay 188 and open contacts 174, 176 and 178. The motor 90 then stops. After a delay, contacts 204 of reverse timing relay 192 also close, and this energizes the reverse relay coil 206 which then closes contacts 168, 170 and 172 to drive the motor 90 in reverse. The ram 64 then goes backward through the machine until it strikes the reverse limit switch 232 to open contact 234 and close contact 232. The opening of contact 234 drops out reverse timing relay 192 and reverse relay 206, thus again stopping the motor.

In the automatic mode, switch 212 is closed. This pulls in the control relay coil 208, and contacts 214 and 220 close while contact 221 opens. The closing of contact 214 latches in the coil 208 of the control relay.

The lamp 216 lights to indicate that the machine is in the automatic mode. When the electric eye 222 closes indicating that the hopper is full, line 218 is completed to pull in the forward timing relay 224. This closes contact 226 which completes a branch circuit to relay coil 188, so this realy coil pulls in closing the forward contacts 174, 176 and 178 to operate the motor forward and drive the ram forward. Relay 188 latches through contacts 190. As soon as the ram leaves the reverse limit switch 232, contact 232 opens and contact 234 closes.

Relay coil 240 pulls in when the current in the motor exceeds the predetermined threshold level referred to previously, and this closes contact 242. Reverse timing relay 192 then pulls in opening contact 196 to drop out the forward relay 188 and stop the motor, closing contacts 198 and 204, and opening contacts 200 and 202. The closing of contact 204 completes a circuit to reverse relay 206 through full bale limit switch 238, so reversing relay 206 pulls in to close contacts 168, 170 and 172, thus driving the machine in reverse. When the ram 64 strikes reverse limit switch 232, contact 232 closes and contact 234 opens thus dropping out the relays just referred to. As long as the electric eye 222 is closed, the ram will again go forward to compact further material, and it will keep reciprocating as long as the electric eye 222 is closed.

When the bale is fully formed, the ram will come to rest at full bale limit switch 238, thus opening this switch and holding it open. Therefore, the reverse relay 206 is not pulled in when the timing relay contact 204 closes. Instead, it is necessary to open stop switch 184 momentarily to drop out all relays and then close reverse switch 230 momentarily to jog the ram until the slots 68 and line up with the manipulators 58 and 60. The manipulators are then operated to bind the bale in the manner described previously. The reverse switch is further operated to bring the ram back to the initial position to close contact 232 and open contact 234.

Then the forward switch 228 is closed pulling in the forward relay 188 to operate the motor in the forward sense and drive the ram forward. The latches 44 are operated to release the door 38, and the ram 64 pushes the fully formed bale out through the discharge opening and at the same time opens the door 38. The ram is returned to the starting position by operating the reverse switch 230, and this completes the cycle of operatron.

Thus, it is apparent that the invention provides a primary recycling machine which has a number of features and advantages. The machine can be operated either manually or automatically. Reversing of the ram is initiated automatically by a current sensing element. Automatic operation is initiated by a photocell sensor. The machine has a telescopic hopper closure which eliminates skirts, and it shears excess material in the hopper off from the bale. Uniform density of compac- 4 tion is achieved, and the bale weight is fully adjustable. Bale ejection is fully automatic.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: 1. A machine for conditioning waste for recycling comprising a container, a reciprocative ram in said container, said ram being movable back and forth between first and second positions adjacent to first and second end portions of said container, closure means for said second end of said container movable between open and closed positions, means to releasably latch said closure means, feeding means to feed waste material into said container between said first and second positions, drive means to reciprocate said ram, said drive means including a reversible electric motor and means coupling said motor to said ram, control means for said motor operative to actuate said motor for reciprocating said ram forward from said first position toward said second position and then backward toward said first position, the forward motion of said ram serving in operation to compact waste material against said closure means and ultimately to eject the compacted waste when said closure means is opened, said control means including sensing means responsive to the action of said ram and said drive means to switch said control means from forward mode to reverse mode and from reverse mode to forward mode, and means for binding the compacted waste in said container before ejection thereof, said binding means including retainer means at one side of said container between said end portions thereof, and plunger means movable across said container from a side thereof opposite said one side, said plunger means being operable to place a binding strand in said retainer means and remove the same from said retainer means.

2. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said sensing means includes a current responsive element in circuit with said motor operative to change said control means from the forward mode to the reverse mode when the motor current exceeds a threshold level.

3. The machine as claimed in claim 2 in which said sensing means further includes first and second limit switch means for said first and second end portions of said container respectively, with said first limit switch means being operative by said ram to change said control means from the reverse mode to the forward mode and said second limit switch means being operative by said ram to change said control means from the forward mode to the reverse mode.

4. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said coupling means between said motor and said ram includes at least one drive screw.

5. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said plunger means has a flat end portion with slotted edges to receive a loop of said strand and to release and recapture the same.

6. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said feeding means includes a hopper communicating into said container.

7. The machine as claimed in claim 6 including photocell means for said hopper to sense when said hopper is full.

8. The machine as claimed in claim 6 in which said feeding means further includes a knife edge at a trailing side of the junction of said hopper and said container having a shearing action with said ram.

9. The machine as claimed in claim 8 including door means actuated by said ram to close said junction when said ram moves forward.

10. The machine as claimed in claim 8 in which said ram has a further knife edge to shear with the knife edge of claim 8 for shearing off waste material extending from said container through said junction toward said hopper.

Claims (10)

1. A machine for conditioning waste for recycling comprising a container, a reciprocative ram in said container, said ram being movable back and forth between first and second positions adjacent to first and second end portions of said container, closure means for said second end of said container movable between open and closed positions, means to releasably latch said closure means, feeding means to feed waste material into said container between said first and second positions, drive means to reciprocate said ram, said drive means including a reversible electric motor and means coupling said motor to said ram, control means for said motor operative to actuate said motor for reciprocating said ram forward from said first position toward said second position and then backward toward said first position, the forward motion of said ram serving in operation to compact waste material against said closure means and ultimately to eject the compacted waste when said closure means is opened, said control means including sensing means responsive to the action of said ram and said drive means to switch said control means from forward mode to reverse mode and from reverse mode to forward mode, and means for binding the compacted waste in said container before ejection thereof, said binding means including retainer means at one side of said container between said end portions thereof, and plunger means movable across said container from a side thereof opposite said one side, said plunger means being operable to place a binding strand in said retainer means and remove the same from said retainer means.

2. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said sensing means includes a current responsive element in circuit with said motor operative to change said control means from the forward mode to the reverse mode when the motor current exceeds a threshold level.

3. The machine as claimed in claim 2 in which said sensing means further includes first and second limit switch means for said first and second end portions of said container respectively, with said first limit switch means being operative by said ram to change said control means from the reverse mode to the forward mode and said second limit switch means being operative by said ram to change said control means from the forward mode to the reverse mode.

4. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said coupling means between said motor and said ram includes at least one drive screw.

5. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said plunger means has a flat end portion with slotted edges to receive a loop of said strand and to release and recapture the same.

6. The machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said feeding means includes a hopper communicating into said container.

7. The machine as claimed in claim 6 including photocell means for said hopper to sense when said hopper is full.

8. The machine as claimed in claim 6 in which said feeding means further includes a knife edge at a trailing side of the junction of said hopper and said container having a shearing action with said ram.

9. The machine as claimed in claim 8 including door means actuated by said ram to close said junction when said ram moves forward.

10. The machine as claimed in claim 8 in which said ram has a further knife edge to shear with the knife edge of claIm 8 for shearing off waste material extending from said container through said junction toward said hopper.

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