US3814332A

US3814332A - Apparatus for crushing fragile material

Info

Publication number: US3814332A
Authority: US
Inventors: K Nakao
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-08-21
Filing date: 1972-08-21
Publication date: 1974-06-04
Anticipated expiration: 1991-06-04

Abstract

An improved apparatus for disposing of broken articles, especially broken pieces of fragile material, such as glass, glassware, pottery and earthernware. According to this invention, a large quantity of such material can be disposed of continuously without stopping the operation; the dust produced while the material is being crushed can quickly be settled down, so that immediately upon completion of the crushing operation, the apparatus may be opened to discharge the crushed particles without contaminating the ambient air; sieve means is provided for separating uncrushable articles, such as metal and plastic pieces, from the crushed material; and the crushing means is so shaped and disposed relative to the chamber housing the means that no vacant space is formed between the means and the chamber to allow any of the material getting jammed with the crushing means and preventing its smooth operation.

Description

United States Patent [191 Nakao June 4,1974

[ APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING FRAGILE MATERIAL [76] Inventor: KazutoshiNakao, 8,Tsuruha-cho l-chome, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Japan [22] Filed: Aug. 21, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 282,010

Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Spencer & Kaye [57] ABSTRACT An improved apparatus for disposing of broken articles, especially broken pieces of fragile material, such as glass, glassware, pottery and earthernware. According to this invention, a large quantity of such material can be disposed of continuously without stopping the operation; the dust produced while the material is being crushed can quickly be settled down, so that immediately upon completion of the crushing operation, the apparatus may be opened to discharge the crushed particles without contaminating the ambient air; sieve means is provided for separating uncrushable articles,

[56] References cued such as metal and plastic pieces, from the crushed ma- UNITED STATES ENTS terial; and the crushing means is so shaped and dis- 2,339,961 1/1944 Stevenson 241/30 X posed relative to the chamber housing the means that 2.9 6161 8/1961 Picalarga 241/79 X no vacant space is formed between the means and the Morgan 6! t chamber to allow any of jammed 3,489,354 1/1970 Harper et al 241/99 X withthe crushing means and preventing its Smooth 3,529,779 9/1970 Gorman et a1 241/38 Operation 3,655,138 4/1972 Luscombe 241/99 9 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures 17 I 7 2 3 R l a W 5 7 6 4s 5 4 4b 4c l l l PATENTEDJUN 4mm 1814.332

SHEET 2 (IF 4 PATENTEDJIJH 4 I974 v sum u or- 4 1 APPARATUS FOR CRUSI'IING F RAGIL MATERIAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for disposing of broken articles, particularly broken pieces of fragile articles such as glass, glassware and earthernware.

Broken articles, such as broken glass, glassware and earthernware, discarded from hospitals, apartment houses, factories and the like have hitherto been left to the hands of the appropriate department of the local governmental authorities for the disposal thereof, or have been deposited in dumping places after having been crushed into smaller pieces by a crushing machine having rotary crushing blades, such as shown in FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings. But the crushing machine having rotary crushing blades as shown in FIG. 5 have been unsatisfactory in a number of respects. When the articles to be crushed are put into the machine, some of them get in the gap existing between the lower edges of the crushing blades and the bottom of the machine, and tend to prevent the blades from rotating smoothly during the crushing operation. Moreover,

it is necessary to stop the machine in order to empty it when each charge has been crushed. Furthermore, when the machine is opened to discharge its crushed contents, the dust of broken articles produced during the crushing operation flows out of the machine to contaminate the atmosphere around the machine. It is pos sible to wait until after such dust settles down on the bottom of the machine, and then open the machine to discharge its contents. But it takes a fairly long time before the dust settles down on the bottom of the machine, and the operating efficiency of the machine is considerably reduced, especially when the machine has to be operated repeatedly for one charge after another to dispose of a large quantity of broken articles. Furthermore, the machine is not designed for automatic separation between fragile articles such as glass and pottery, and infragile articles, such as metals, corks and plastics, which are often carried into the machine with fragile articles, but are hard to crush and necessitate troublesome work for subsequent removal of such uncrushable articles. a

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an improved method of, and apparatus for, disposing of broken articles in which the apparatus may be emptied of its crushed contents at any time during operation without stopping the apparatus.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved crushing apparatus having means for settling down the dust of broken articles produced during the crushing operation and keep the dust from flowing out of the apparatus when its crushed contents are being discharged.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved crushing machine having means for separating uncrushable articles, such as metals, corks and plas tics, from crushed articles. such as glass and pottery, when the machine is emptied of after fragile contents afterfragile articles have been crushed.

According to this invention, water is sprayed into a crushing chamber, and the dust or fine floating particles produced during the crushing operation are caused to settle down on the bottom of the crushing chamber, and do not flow out through a duct, thereby preventing contamination of the ambient air. In order to open the apparatus, upon completion of the crushing operation for one charge of material, to put the next charge therein, it is not necessary to wait for a long time as has been necessary with the machine known in the art to have dust settle down after the material has been crushed. This means a remarkable reduction in the total length of time required for a series of crushing operation when the apparatus has to be operated repeatedly for crushing one charge of material after another to handle a large quantity of material at a time.

The apparatus of this invention includes inverted frustoconical crushing means having a plurality of hitting plates, and mounted in the bottom of a crushing chamber. The material which has been crushed into smaller pieces as they are hit by the rotating hitting plates in the frustoconical means is caused by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the frustoconical means to move up along the outwardly spread side wall of the frustoconical means, and strike against the side wall of the crushing chamber extending above the frustoconical means to be crushed into still smaller pieces or particles. The material thus crushed is then discharged from the crushing chamber through a discharge outlet provided in a portion of the side wall of the chamber. The outer circumferential edge of the frustoconical means is properly sealed against the side wall of the crushing chamber, so that the apparatus can be used for a long time continuously without any of the material being processed getting into the space between the frustoconical means and the side wall of the crushing chamber, and preventing the smooth rotation of the frustoconical means.

The typical crushing machine known in the art has a dead space or gap formed between the lower edges of the crushing blades and the bottom of the crushing chamber as indicated at g in FIG. 5. It is, therefore, unavoidable that some of the material to be crushed gets jammed in the gap g, and prevents the crushing blades from rotating smoothly. But this problem does not arise in the apparatus of this invention, because there is no such space or gap formed between the hitting plates and the bottom and side walls of the frustoconical means as shown in FIG. 4, but the frustoconical means and the hitting plates are formed integrally for rotation together.

The apparatus according to this invention further in: cludes vibratory sieve means supported at an angle to a horizontal plane in a position above a pair of boxes for receiving the material processed through the apparatus. One of these boxes. is positioned immediately below the sieve to receive the finer-grained particles, such as of glass and pottery, which are sized to pass through the sieve, and the other box is positioned below the lower edge of the slanting sieve to receive pieces of metals, corks, plastics, or the like carried with crushable articles of glass, pottery and the like, and

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the crushingmeans used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. is a perspective view of the crushing blades used in the apparatus known in the art.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings more particularly, a preferred form of the apparatus according to this invention is generally enclosed in a casing 1. A crushing chamber 2 is mounted in the upper portion of the easing 1, and a cover 3 is hinged to the top ofthe chamber 2. An upright rotary shaft" 5 isextended intothe crushing chamber 2 through the holes provided in the center of the bottom walls 2b of thechamber 2. Crushing means 4 having an inverted frustoconieal shape in vertical section is secured to the upper end of the rotary shaft 5, and is positioned in the crushing chamber 2 adjacent to the upper bottom wall 2b thereof. The crushing means 4 comprises a circular bottom wall 4b, an inverted frustoconical side wall 4s spreading upwardly from the outer periphery of the bottom wall 4b, and a plurality of radially disposed hitting plates 4h extending from the centrally disposed rotary shaft 5 and secured to the bottom and

side walls

4b and 4s. The upper circumferential edge 40 of the crushing means 4 slidably rests on an annular projection 6 inwardly extending from the side wall of the crushing chamber 2, and maintains a sliding contact with seal means provided on the annular projection 6, but not shown in the drawings. The upper edges of the hitting plates 411 are sodimensioned as not to projectabove the circumferential edge 40 of the side wall 4s. 1

A discharge opening 7 is provided in the side wall of the crushing chamber 2 in a position above and adjacent to the crushing means 4. The opening 7 is communicated with a duct 8 extending downwardly therefrom. A vibratory sieve 9 is mounted in the enlarged lower end portion of the duct 8, and disposed in a slanting position or at an angle to the horizontal plane. The sieve surface of the sieve 9 by gravity. Both the

boxes

10 and 11 are capable of being pulled out of the casing 1.

A door 12 is provided swingably about one edge of the opening 7, and a lever 13 for opening or closing the door 12 is provided outwardly of the door 12. The lever 13 is connected to the door 12 at one end thereof, and to a worm gear 14 at the other end. The worm gear 14 is engaged with a worm 14 connected to a motor 15.

Downwardly directed nozzle means 16 is provided centrally under the cover 3 of the crushing chamber 2, and connected to one end of a conduit 17 extending through a groove 3 formed on the underside of the cover 3. The other end of the conduit 17 is connected to one end of a vertically extending conduit 21, and the other end of the conduit 21 is connected with the outlet of a pump 20. The inlet of the pump 20 is connected to a water tank by appropriate conduit means. The pump 10 is mounted on a base frame structure 22 which is positioned in the lower portion of the casing l, and on which the crushing chamber 2 is mounted.

A motor 23 is mounted in the base frame 22, and pulley means 27 is connected to the output of the motor 23. Another pulley means 26 is secured to the lower end of the rotary shaft 5 inserted into the crushing means 4 at the upper end and supported intermediate the ends thereof by a pair of bearing means 24 and 25 at the bottom of the crushing chamber 2. Belt means 28 is passed around the pulley means 26 and 27 to transmit rotation from the motor 23 to the rotary shaft 5 through the

pulleys

27 and 26.

In operation, the cover 3is opened to put broken articles of glass, pottery, or the like into the crushing chamber 2. After the cover 3 is closed, the motor 23 is actuated to rotate the rotary shaft 5, hence the crushing means 4.'As the crushing means 4 is rotated, the articles are hit by the hitting plates 4h and crushed into smaller pieces, and those smaller pieces are violently thrown against the wall of the crushing chamber 2 by the centrifugal force developed by the rotation of the crushing means 4, and crushed into still smaller pieces 9 is adapted to vibrate in a slanting direction perpendicular to the surface thereof and can be provided with any suitable, known vibration generator for this purpose. A box 10 is positioned below the sieve 9 for receiving the crushed material discharged from the crushing chamber 2 through the opening 7 and the duct 8, and passed through the sieve 9. Another box 11 is provided below the lower-edge of the slantingly disposed sieve'9 to receive the uncrushed material incapable of passing through the sieve 9, and falling along the or particles. Since the upper edges of the hitting plates 4h are so designed as not to project above the outer circumferential edge 40, it will be understood that there is no possibility of the material being crushed getting jammed between the hitting plates 4/: and the wall of the crushing chamber 2. The pump 20 is actuated to spray water from the nozzle 16 into the crushing chamber 2 to settle down the dust of the material being crushed. When the crushable contents of the crushing chamber 2 are crushed into sufficiently small particles, the motor 15 is actuated to move the lever 13 away from the crushing chamber 2 and thereby open the door 12 for the discharge opening 7 to a position shown in FIG. 2. Upon opening of the door 12, the crushed material is thrown out from the chamber 2 into the duct 8 by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the crushing means 4. It is quite often inevitable that uncrushable articles, such as corks and plastics products, adhere to crushable articles put into the crushing chamber 2 therewith. While such uncrushable articles remain substantially uncrushed, they are discharged from the chamber 2 into the duct 8 with the crushed material when the door 12 is opened. The material thrown into the duct 8 falls through the duct 8 onto the vibrating sieve 9, and the crushed material passes through the sieve 9 and drops into the box 10 positioned immediately below the sieve 9, while the uncrushed material falls down from the lower edge of the sieve 9 into the box 11.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for disposing of broken articles, such as broken glass, glassware and pottery, comprising:

a crushing chamber having rotary crushing means installed in the lower portion thereof, said rotary crushing means having an inverted frustoconical shape in vertical cross section, and comprising: a circular bottom wall; a round side wall spreading outwardly from the outer periphery of said bottom wall; and a plurality of upright hitting plates radially extending from the vertical axis of rotation of said crushing means, and joined to said bottom wall and said side wall;

means for settling down the dust rising from said articles while said articles are being crushed in said crushing chamber;

duct means connected to a closable opening provided in the side wall of said crushing chamber, and extending downwardly from said opening along one side of said crushing chamber;

and box means positioned below said duct means for receiving said articles after they have been subjected to a crushing operation in said crushing chamber.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said crushing means is positioned adjacent to the bottom of said crushing chamber, and secured to an upright rotary shaft extending through the center of said bottom of said crushing chamber into said vertical axis of rotation of said crushing means.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the upper circumferential edge of said crushing means is slidably supported in a sealed manner on the inner wall of said crushing chamber.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the upper edges of said hitting plates are dimensioned to extend no higher than the upper circumferential edge of said side wall, whereby none of the articles introduced into said chamber can get jammed between said hitting plates and the side wall of said crushing chamber.

5. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said closable opening is provided in said side wall of said crushing chamber in a position above the upper circumferential edge of said crushing means.

6. An apparatus for disposing of broken articles, such as broken glass, glassware and pottery, comprising:

a crushing chamber having rotary crushing means installed in the lower portion thereof;

duct means connected to a closable opening provided in the side wall of said crushing chamber in a position above the upper circumferential edge of said crushing means, and extending downwardly from said opening along one side of said crushing chamber;

door means installed swingably about one edge of said opening;

7. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, further including vibratory sieve means mounted in a slanting position within the lower end of said duct means, wherein said box means comprises two boxes placed side by side, one of said boxes being positioned immediately below said sieve means to receive said articles crushed to the extent permitting passage through said sieve means, and the other box being positioned substantially below the lower edge of said sieve means to receive uncrushable material carried into said crushing chamber with said articles.

8. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said dust settling means comprises a device for introducing a supply of water into said crushing chamber.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein said water supply device includes a nozzle provided at the top of said crushing chamber.

Claims

1. An apparatus for disposing of broken articles, such as broken glass, glassware and pottery, comprising: a crushing chamber having rotary crushing means installed in the lower portion thereof, said rotary crushing means having an inverted frustoconical shape in vertical cross section, and comprising: a circular bottom wall; a round side wall spreading outwardly from the outer periphery of said bottom wall; and a plurality of upright hitting plates radially extending from the vertical axis of rotation of said crushing means, and joined to said bottom wall and said side wall; means for settling down the dust rising from said articles while said articles are being crushed in said crushing chamber; duct means connected to a closable opening provided in the side wall of saId crushing chamber, and extending downwardly from said opening along one side of said crushing chamber; and box means positioned below said duct means for receiving said articles after they have been subjected to a crushing operation in said crushing chamber.

6. An apparatus for disposing of broken articles, such as broken glass, glassware and pottery, comprising: a crushing chamber having rotary crushing means installed in the lower portion thereof; means for settling down the dust rising from said articles while said articles are being crushed in said crushing chamber; duct means connected to a closable opening provided in the side wall of said crushing chamber in a position above the upper circumferential edge of said crushing means, and extending downwardly from said opening along one side of said crushing chamber; door means installed swingably about one edge of said opening; and box means positioned below said duct means for receiving said articles after they have been subjected to a crushing operation in said crushing chamber.