EP0123825B1 - Sorting plant for extracting valuable products from household refuse, industrial refuse, bulky refuse, dry refuse, and/or difficult and dangerous matter - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a sorting device, in particular for sorting out valuable materials from domestic waste, commercial waste, bulky waste, dry waste, and / or problematic and hazardous substances according to the preamble of claim 1.

In the sign of increasing environmental awareness, numerous campaigns for the recycling of waste materials are running today. In particular, the glass containers with different filling shafts for different types of glass and waste paper collections have become known. Sorting systems are also known, on which a manual or mechanical sorting of the valuable materials into containers takes place on conveyor belts.

After evaluation of tests, the collected recyclables show an even proportion of different recyclables distributed over the year. The proportion of these substances per load or per collection area or after special holidays, after the vacation period etc. can deviate considerably from the average annual distribution. It would not be economically viable to adapt a sorting system to these peak loads, since a 3 to 4 times increase in normal capacity would be necessary. If a sorting system were designed for peak loads, this would normally only be used to about 25%.

In a known system (US Pat. No. 3,595,389), the valuable materials are fed via conveyor belts to various workplaces which have several discharge chutes for different valuable materials. Conveyor belts for further transport are then provided below the soting shafts. However, this system has the disadvantage that it is very expensive, space-consuming and prone to failure with conveyor belts.

Another known sorting device (DE-PS 874 274) uses annular disks as the conveying means, which are less expensive and less prone to failure than conveyor belts. However, this system is also not suitable for cost-effectively processing a large amount of valuable materials to be disposed of. In particular, conveyor belts are used to remove the valuable materials.

A sorting device is also known from GB-A-566 183, in which the material to be sorted is introduced on a conical surface into various sieve segments connected in series and from there into concentric circular disposal channels. However, this is a sieving device that is not suitable for recycling materials from household waste, etc., for sorting.

The known systems can therefore only be adapted to different quantities and sorting tasks with high investment costs and in some cases high personnel requirements. Furthermore, conventional belt tapes are particularly unsuitable for transporting dry waste because, on the one hand, certain valuable materials can become jammed or wound up (e.g. cassette tapes) and, on the other hand, conveyor belts are expensive.

A sorting device for sorting different objects, in particular for sorting out potatoes and stones, has become known from the publication AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING RECORD Volume 2.1949, p. 40. For this purpose, a slightly rising conveyor belt with a retaining curtain placed transversely to the direction of transport is provided. The heavier stones are left on the conveyor belt in the same transport direction and pass under the stationary or moving curtain. Smaller and lighter potatoes, on the other hand, are held back on the curtain and stripped off to the side.

The same principle is listed in GB-A-2 070 978. Here, however, the larger parts are laterally deflected by the preferably moving transport curtain, while the smaller parts can pass under the curtain.

The device according to the publication AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING could also be used for sorting mixtures of valuable materials, whereby heavier materials such as bottles or the like could slide through the curtain, while lighter materials such as paper or the like would be stripped sideways by the curtain. A satisfactory separation effect of these different components could certainly not occur, since a large part of the body-shaped parts would also be deflected laterally by the safety curtain and the increasing direction of transport.

The sorting device according to GB-A-2 070 978 is also not very suitable for sorting valuable materials, since the mixture of valuable materials would completely get caught on the rough surface and would cling to it.

The invention is based on the object of sorting the various constituents of valuable substance mixtures in a sorting device optimized for this purpose, which can be used flexibly, has low production and operating costs and is insensitive to operation.

This object is achieved on the basis of a sorting device of the generic type by the features of the characterizing part of claim 1.

According to the invention, a sorting device is provided which uses a combined belt system to separate the planar from the physical parts. Due to the static friction of the sloping belt as well as a safety curtain to hold back the light, flat parts, the tramboline effect when noticing and the vibrating movement of the vibrating device, as well as by gravity, segregation becomes the heavy body-shaped parts of sheet-like parts. The fractions separated in this way are fed to further stations of a sorting system.

Another advantage is a brush wheel at the end of the sorting machine, the soft bristles of which tangentially eject lighter parts such as paper, plastic or the like, while heavier parts such as glass bottles remain largely unaffected.

In particular, the system according to the invention has the advantage that a wide variety of quantities can be processed and a wide variety of sorting tasks can be solved. Through the rotating sorting table, non-sorted items always get to a next or finally to the same sorting place in order to be finally sorted out. The remaining fraction is carried out between the sorting stations, at the beginning or at the end of the sorting route. Due to the special design of the sorting system, conventional belt straps can largely be dispensed with, which leads to considerable cost savings. The sorting table is a kind of circular disk that is insensitive to dirt and is also inexpensive.

Furthermore, disposal channels running concentrically can be arranged below the circular sorting table. Depending on the local conditions, there may also be straight or curved disposal channels or conveyor belts or containers below the discharge chutes.

The design of the sorting table as divided, circular circular rings in the same direction or in opposite directions with variable transport speeds enables the system to be continuously adapted to the amount of recyclable materials. The fractions already separated in front of the sorting table are fed to the concentric circular rings.

The embodiment of the invention provides sorting platforms which are arranged as displaceable circular segments inside and / or outside the circular sorting table. If necessary, these can travel with the sorting table over a certain range of rotation angles.

The sorting platforms are assigned the same or different sorting shafts, depending on which sorting tasks are to be performed. Normally, each sorting stage assigned to a specific sorting ring has the same sorting function, i. H. On the first sorting platform, the same valuable materials are sorted out into the sorting shafts as in the next one. The sorting shafts are each connected to a specific disposal channel below the sorting table.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the sorted recyclables are discarded in the disposal channels below the sorting table, in which the material therein is transported to an outlet opening to be made at any point. The outlet openings are operated manually or mechanically.

The individual workplaces can be designed as manual or automatic workplaces for sorting. The system can be retrofitted with a machine reading station, for example, for the fully automatic color sorting of bottles, especially at a later point in time.

In the embodiment of the invention, it is provided that, in addition to the sorting table, further intermediate bunker sections or discharge sections are provided, for intermediate storage of the valuable materials or for arranging special workplaces. This measure allows the capacity of the plant to be increased as desired, in particular a sorting of recyclable materials is possible which goes beyond the number of available disposal channels. If the disposal channels are occupied by certain valuable materials to be stored in them, other valuable materials can be stored in the intermediate bunker section in order to be processed later in a separate sorting.

All sorting stations are designed in the same way so that access to the disposal channels or containers is possible at any point on the sorting table, into which the different recyclables are sorted. The disposal channels can be expanded outwards or inwards to create the necessary number of different disposal channels. The sorting workplaces can of course be arranged both inside and outside the rotating sorting table.

• Fig. 1 eine Seitenansicht der Sortiereinrichtung zur Trennung körperförmigen von flächenförmigen Teilen,
• Fig. 2 eine Draufsicht der Anlage nach Fig. 1,
• Fig. 3 eine Draufsicht der, der Sortiereinrichtung nach Fig. 1 und 2 zugeordneten Sortieranlage mit entsprechenden Schnitten zur Darstellung der darunterliegenden Ebene,
• Fig. 4 einen Schnitt entlang der Linie I-I in Fig. 3.

An advantageous and expedient embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawing and explained in more detail in the following description. Show it

• 1 is a side view of the sorting device for separating body-shaped from sheet-like parts,
• 2 is a plan view of the system of FIG. 1,
• 3 is a plan view of the sorting system associated with the sorting device according to FIGS. 1 and 2 with corresponding sections for showing the level below,
• 4 shows a section along the line II in FIG. 3.

The sorting system 10 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is first described. It consists of a circular, planar, horizontally rotating sorting table 11, which is divided into two concentrically rotating circular rings 11, 11 a, the rotational speeds of which are infinitely variable. The sorting table 11 is assigned several identical sorting platforms 12 inside and outside the circular ring, which can be designed as manual or automatic reading stations. The sorting platforms are designed in the form of a segment of a circle and are mounted in a fixed or rotatable manner so that they can be controlled via a foot switch and follow the current sorting table. Each sorting platform can have several sorters, e.g. B. four, record to accomplish the necessary workload. The sorting table is 11 a pre-sorting line 13 upstream, on which large cardboard boxes z. B. detected with a hand-held suction lifter and fed directly to a separate conveyor belt or a container. As a result, the sorting table 11 need not be configured to the size of such large objects.

The sorting machine 14 according to the invention is provided between the presorting section 13 and the sorting table 11 and is explained in more detail below. The incoming valuable materials are guided from the presorting section 13 to the sorting machine 14 or the rotating sorting table 11.

Each sorting platform 12 is equipped with sorting shafts 15 which lead to disposal channels 16 which are arranged below the sorting table in parallel or on concentric tracks. The disposal channels 16 have passage openings 17 at one or more points through which the valuable material collected in the disposal channels is carried out. Containers or conveyor belts can be placed under the passage openings 17, which transport the sorted recyclables away from the sorting system. However, the sorting shafts can also be connected to straight-line or curved disposal channels or directly to containers.

3 and 4 will be described in more detail based on their function.

The materials to be sorted, such as glass, cardboard, paper, plastic, etc., are fed to the sorting system unsorted and arrive at the presorting section 13, where the large cardboard boxes and objects that cannot be sorted in the system are first removed from the conveyor belt. If the load from large cardboard boxes allows, a sorting of other valuable materials such as glass, paper, plastic, etc. can already be carried out at this pre-sorting station. For this purpose, the pre-sorting station is also equipped with appropriate sorting shafts 15.

Analogously to this sorting platform, a further two, three or four sorting platforms 12 are provided on the sorting table 11. Due to their circular arrangement, the greatest distance between the sorting stations is only approx. 5 m. This has the advantage that if two rings 11, 11a are provided, the sorters can be used flexibly on each sorting ring depending on the load. In principle, every sorter sorts everything on a ring.

The material that is not sorted by the pre-sorting section 13 is transferred to the sorting table with a diameter of approx. The sorting platforms 12 are arranged on the inside and / or outside edge of the sorting table 11. A circumferential magnetic tape 21 is expediently provided, which is arranged transversely either on the pre-sorting section 13 or on the sorting table 11.

The concept according to the invention makes it possible for all valuable materials to be sorted out on all sorting platforms. In this way, valuable materials that were either overlooked on previous sorting platforms or could not be sorted out due to overloading can also still be recorded. If an overload occurs, z. B. also occupied a fourth sorting platform and expanded the disposal channel below by additional chambers for other fractions.

The disposal channels are emptied in such a way that a centrally positioned slide runs all around in the disposal channels 16 and transports the material therein to an opening 17 to be arranged at any point. The slide is driven, for. B. via a gear motor acting on the rubber wheel.

To increase the discharge rate, the speed of rotation of the slide or the number of slide or both can be increased. The capacity of the disposal area is also sufficient if the overall system performance is significantly increased by adding sorting machines.

An expansion of the system is possible without any problems by arranging any number of sorting machines around the sorting system in a star shape. If you continue to connect these sorting machines to an intermediate bunker section, this results in further advantages of the system. Via the intermediate bunker, on the one hand, it can be achieved that the different and intermittent assortments of recyclable materials can be fed evenly to a sorting machine or manual reading line designed for the statistical occurrence of the respective assortments. On the other hand, it is possible to save special sorting tasks. These sorting tasks can then be carried out in a separate operation after the supply of recyclable materials has stopped.

The following example is shown here: The sorting of recyclable materials takes place over a period of 6 hours per day, mechanically and manually, into the fractions of cardboard, paper 1, paper 2, glass white, glass green, glass brown, plastics, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. For disposal there are 5 disposal channels 16 which accommodate the different materials. The fractions that go beyond this are disposed of directly or via appropriate funding elements. After the supply of recyclable material to the sorting system has been switched off, the residual fraction still to be sorted, which is stored in an intermediate bunker 19, can be fed to the rotary table via a corresponding discharge device. The sorting then takes place, as described, either manually or mechanically, the disposal taking place via the 5 disposal channels 16, which have meanwhile been emptied by the old fractions. If the containers used for the main sorting are not to be exchanged, all that is required is to open further passage openings which are arranged at any point in the vicinity by means of slides. The different fractions are then moved from the slide directly into another container or thrown onto appropriate conveyor elements. With this procedure, the sorting system can be used to sort significantly more fractions than corresponds to the disposal channels. Of course, the system can be expanded at any time with further disposal channels 16.

1 and 2 is used in the system concept described above as a "sorting machine. This sorting device 14 is expediently arranged between the presorting section 13 and the sorting table 11. The incoming mixture of valuable materials is separated into different fractions, in particular into flat, light and body-shaped, heavy parts, since this enables the subsequent sorting processes to be better dimensioned. The sorting device 14 consists of a wide-dimensioned conveyor belt 24 rising in the transport direction 23 with a transport plane 25 which is inclined with respect to a horizontal plane. This inclined and rising transport belt 24 is set into slight oscillating movements by means of a vibration device 28. The conveyor belt 25 itself has a high coefficient of friction, so that light or flat parts (e.g. paper) adhere to it and are conveyed on the belt 24 in the transport direction 23. Body-shaped or heavy parts such as bottles etc., on the other hand, roll or slide away on the incline and are collected in an underlying flat or troughed conveyor belt 27 which rises in the transport direction and is transported further.

At an angle to the longitudinal edge of the conveyor belt 24, a catching curtain 29 in the form of a chain curtain is provided in its area facing the conveyor belt 27, which also retains the lighter parts while heavy parts can slide through. The oblique arrangement of the chain curtain 29 with respect to the conveyor belt 24 has the effect that it is not so easily blocked. The material mixture is transferred to the pre-sorting section 14 at the beginning of the belt. The materials are separated by the impact when falling (tramboline effect) and by the slightly oscillating movement of the separating belt 24. The oscillating movement of the conveyor belt results in a spring-back effect on the body-shaped parts, which favors the separating effect. In the sorting machine, therefore, the static friction and the tramboline effect of the separating belt 24, the vibration of the vibrating device 28 and the force of gravity interact. This enables targeted sorting.

The conveyor belts 24, 27 can advantageously also consist of a single, appropriately shaped belt. Optionally, the conveyor belt 27 can be trough-shaped.

At the end of the lower conveyor belt 27 (optionally also on the upper belt 24), a further separating device for parts in the form of a brush wheel 30 is provided. The rotary device shown in FIG. 1 with the horizontal axis of rotation 31 detects the light parts 32 with its soft brush hair and hurls them tangentially, while the heavy parts 33 fall down unaffected. The brush wheel is constructed like a washing brush in a car wash.

The sorting device 14 essentially separates the material mixture into paper and bottles or the like. These fractions are then fed to the two circular rings of the sorting table.

Claims (9)

1. Sorting device for the sorting of valuable materials from household garbage, industrial garbage, bulky garbage, dry garbage and/or substances presenting problems and risks, especially for the separation of three-dimensional from flat objects, comprising a wide conveyor belt (24) ascending in the conveying direction, which possesses a capture curtain (29) disposed at an angle to the direction of movement of the conveyor belt (24), characterized in that the conveyor belt (24, 25) has a conveying plane (25) descending or inclined transversely to the direction of movement, having a high coefficient of friction and capable of being set in vibrational movement, on which the capture curtain (29) extends obliquely to the longitudinal edges of the conveyor belt (24) parallel to the direction of movement, and that a further flat or trough-shaped conveyor belt (27), preferably ascending in the direction of conveying (23), is provided at the lower longitudinal edge (26) of the inclined conveyor belt (24).

2. Sorting device according to Claim 1, characterized in that the inclined, first conveyor belt (24) constitutes, together with the preferably trough-shaped conveyor belt (27) adjoining thereto, a continuous conveying unit.

3. Sorting device according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a rotary brush (30) with horizontal or vertical axis of rotation (31) and having long, flexible bristles is provided at the end of the conveyor belt (27).

4. Sorting device according to Claim 1, characterized in that different annular zones (11, 11 a) of a sorting installation (10) are associated with the conveying plane (25) and with the conveyor belt (27).

5. Sorting device according to Claim 4, comprising a conveying means disposed in an upper plane, which feeds the materials to be sorted to at least two sorting workplaces, sorting shafts leading downwards to the relevant reception points for the individual materials to be sorted being associated with the sorting workplaces, characterized in that at least two flat annular zones (11, 11a), revolving horizontally in the same or opposite directions, are provided, having sorting workplaces (12) and associated sorting shafts (15).

6. Sorting device according to Claim 5, characterized in that the sorting workplaces (12) are disposed on a rotatably mounted sorting platform (12), constructed as a circular segment, inside and/or outside the annular sorting table (11), like or different sorting shafts (15) being associated with each sorting platform (12).

7. Sorting device according to Claim 5, characterized in that annular zones (11, 11 a) with controllable conveying speed are provided.

8. Sorting device according to one or more of Claims 5 to 7, characterized in that concentrically extending disposal shafts (16) for the sorting shafts (15) are provided, which each comprise one or more downwardly or laterally discharging discharge openings (17), means being provided for conveying the sorted materials at these discharge openings, preferably containers, conveying systems or further processing devices such as baling presses for paper, crushing plants etc.

9. Sorting device according to one or more of Claims 5 to 8, characterized in that the sorting workplaces are constructed as hand sorting places and/or as mechanical sorting places (19), and that locking-out zones or intermediate bunker zones (20), for temporary storage and/or for the provision of special workplaces, may be branched off from the sorting table (11).

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