US3322355A

US3322355A - Disintegrating machine

Info

Publication number: US3322355A
Authority: US
Inventors: James G Bryant
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1965-03-01
Filing date: 1965-03-01
Publication date: 1967-05-30
Anticipated expiration: 1984-05-30

Description

y 30, 1967 J. G. BRYANT 3,322,355

DISINTEGRATING MACHINE Filed March 1, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 1

INVENTOR. JAMES G. BRYANT DIS INTEGRATING MACHINE Filed March 1, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.

FIG.2.

INVENTOR JAMES 5. BRYANT A T TOR/VEVS United States Patent Oh 3,322,355 DISINTEGR TING MACHINE James G. Bryant, 1504 th Ave.,

Port Huron, Mich. 48060 Filed Mar. 1, 1965, Ser. No. 436,003

14 Claims. (Cl. 241-186) This invention relates to a distinguishing machine and more particularly to a hammermill especially adapted for grinding small glass articles such as hypodermic syringes, bottles, vials, etc.

In many hospitals it is standard practice to destroy all hypodermic syringes once they are used, so that they are rendered unsuitable for further use. The destruction of such hypodermic syringes and other glass articles, such as small bottles and vials, in a hammermill is an ideal solution to the problem. A hammermill designed for such use must meet several requirements. It must be compact in size, it must be capable of handling the loads to which it may be subjected, and it must be relatively inexpensive. The power required for grinding relatively small glass articles, such as hypodermic syringes, bottles, etc., in a hammermill is relatively small. This can be accomplished in a relatively small hammermill having a highspeed rotor. However, it is necessary to feed the materials to the rotor at a relatively slow, uniform rate if the use of a large motor capable of developing a high torque is to be avoided.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a disintegrating machine of compact size, economical construction and which is designed to feed material into the disintegrating chamber at a relatively slow rate even though the material is deposited into the machine as a batch.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a hammermill which includes a hopper at its upper end into which a batch of material to be ground may be deposited and a material-receiving chamber below the hopper, together With a vibrating mechanism for causing the batch of material to be ground to be fed at a relatively slow rate from the material-receiving chamber into the hammermill chamber.

Further objects and advantages of the disintegrating machine according to the present invention will be apparent from the following description and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, with portions broken away, of a disintegrating machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the disintegrating machine.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along the line 3--3 in FIG. 2.

The machine of the present invention generally comprises a sheet metal housing 10 having

side walls

12, 13, front and

back walls

14, 16 respectively, and a top wall 18. At the upper end of housing 10 there is provided adjacent the front end of top wall 18 a hopper 20 defined by walls 22 which converge to an inlet opening 24 in top wall 18. Within housing 10 and spaced below the top wall 18 there is provided a shelf member 26 which extends between

side walls

12, 13 and inclines downwardly from the front wall 14 of the housing. At its rear end shelf 26 terminates forwardly of the rear wall 16 to define an outlet opening 28. Shelf 26 defines at the upper end of housing 10 a material-receiving chamber 30 in which a batch of the material to be disintegrated accumulates. The angle of inclination of shelf 26 is such that the material deposited in hopper 20 rests on shelf 26 but does not gravitate to the outlet opening 28 of its own accord. Thus, the inclination of shelf 26 is no greater than what is commonly referred to as the angle of friction, namely,

ice

the angle of a plane relative to the horizontal greater than which particular material deposited on the plane would have a tendency to slide down the plane.

At the outlet opening 28 there is formed within housing 10 a depending tapered chute 32 which discharges into a hammermill chamber 34. Chamber 34 is generally cylindrically shaped and includes a peripheral wall 36 which is imperforate around the top side thereof and which is perforate around the bottom side thereof, as at 38. Chamber 34 is narrower in cross-section than housing 10, one side thereof being defined by side wall 13 of the housing and the other side thereof being defined by an upright plate 40 which is bent as at 42 so as to extend over to and connect with the side wall 12, as at 44.

The lower portion 46 of wall 40 extends the full length of housing 10 from front to back and cooperates with the horizontally extending wall 48 to form a discharge chamber 50 in which a sliding drawer 52 for the ground material is arranged.

Within chamber 34 there is arranged a rotor 54 of generally conventional design having a plurality of hammers 56 pivotally supported around the periphery thereof. Rotor 54 is mounted on a shaft 58 journalled in pillow blocks. One of the pillow blocks, designated 60, is supported on an angle bracket 62 mounted on wall 40. The other pillow block, which is not illustrated, is similarly supported on the outer face of side wall 13 of housing 10. An electric motor 64 mounted on a control box 66 has its output shaft 68 axially aligned with the drive shaft 58 of rotor 54 and directly coupled thereto by means of a coupling 70. A countershaft 72 is journalled in pillow blocks 74 mounted on the top wall 48 of the discharge chamber 50. Shaft 72 has a pulley 76 keyed thereto. Pulley 76 is connected by a belt 78 with a smaller pulley to the rotor shaft 58. A weight 84 is eccentricall'y mounted on pulley 76 by means of a screw 86.

The whole housing assembly is mounted on a bottom plate 88 provided with a plurality of rubber pads 90 for supporting the machine on a floor surface.

In operation, the material to he disintegrated and ground is dumped as a batch into hopper 20, and from the hopper it is deposited upon the inclined shelf 26, as shown in FIG. 2. As indicated previously, the inclination of shelf 26 is such that the material will not gravitate down to the outlet opening 28 of its own accord. However, when the motor 64 is operating the belt drive from pulley causes the unbalanced pulley wheel 76 to rotate and thereby causes the whole machine to vibrate. The vibration is transmitted to shelf 26 and causes the batch of material deposited thereon through hopper 20 to gravitate slowly toward outlet opening 28. Thus, even though motor 64 may be of a high speed, low torque rating, it is capable of driving rotor 54 while the material is being discharged into chamber 34 because the batch of material to be ground is fed at a relatively slow rate to the rotor.

The feeding rate of the material on shelf 26 depends to a large extent upon the frequency of vibration. This can be varied to produce the best feeding rate in relation to the size and speed of rotor 54 by controlling the relative sizes of pulleys 80 and 76. In the arrangement shown, for example, the rate of vibration is substantially less than the speed of rotation of rotor 54. Thus the present arrangement enables the rate of vibration and the rate of rotation of the hammermill rotor to be varied as desired.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a machine for disintegrating or grinding hypodermic needles, vials, bottles, and other small glass articles which is compact in size and economical in construction. The machine as disclosed herein eliminates the need for the provision of a separate motor-driven vibrator for feeding the material 3 m2) at a relatively slow rate to the disintegrating chamber. Nevertheless material to be ground can be fed into the machine as a batch without danger of stalling the rotor. The rubber pads 90 absorb the vibration of the whole machine and prevent such vibration from being transmitted to the floor surface on which the machine 13 mounted. The use of a countershaft for supporting the unbalanced rotor enables the use of a relatively small diameter hammermill rotor with a high speed, low torque motor while obtaining a frequency of vibration desirable for feeding of materials substantially lower than the speed of the drivemotor.

I claim:

1. A machine for disintegrating or grinding materials comprising a housing having a hopper at its upper end, the lower end of said hopper being defined by a shelf inclined slightly downward in a direction away from the upper end of said hopper and defining an outlet opening adjacent the lower end thereof, means forming a hammermill chamber into which a batch of material on said shelf is adapted to gravitate through said outlet opening, a hammermill rotor journalled for rotation in said chamber, a motor for driving said rotor and a vibrator mounted on the housing and driven by said motor for vibrating said housing whereby to cause material on said shelf to gravitate to said outlet opening and discharge into said rotor chamber at a slow uniform rate.

2. A machine for disintegrating or grinding materials comprising a housing having an inlet opening adjacent its upper end, means forming a material-receiving chamber into which material is adapted to be deposited as a batch through said inlet opening, said material-receiving chamber having a bottom wall which inclines downwardly in a direction away from said inlet opening at an angle no greater than the angle of friction of the material whereby material deposited on said bottom wall through said inlet opening will tend to remain thereon, said bottom wall terminating at its lower end in an outlet opening, means forming a hammermill chamber into which material is adapted to gravitate through said outlet opening, a hammermill rotor journalled for rotation in said chamher, a motor for driving said rotor and a vibrator mounted on the housing and driven by said motor for vibrating said housing whereby to cause material on said shelf to gravitate to said outlet opening and discharge into said rotor chamber at a slow uniform rate.

3. A machine for disintegrating or grinding materials comprising a housing having an inlet opening adjacent its upper end, means forming a material-receiving chamber into which material is adapted to be deposited as a batch through said inlet opening, said material-receiving chamher having a bottom wall which inclines downwardly in a direction away from said inlet opening at an angle no greater than the angle of friction of the material whereby material deposited on said bottom wall through said inlet opening will tend to remain thereon, said bottom wall terminating at its lower end in an outlet opening means forming a disintegrating chamber into which material is adapted to be discharged through said outlet opening, a disintegrating means in said chamber, a motor having a drive shaft operatively connected with said disintegrating means in said chamber and a vibrator on said housing operatively connected with said motor drive shaft for vibrating said housing whereby to cause material on said bottom wall to gravitate to said outlet opening and discharge into said disintegrating chamber at a slow uniform rate.

4. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 3, wherein said vibrator comprises an unbalanced rotor.

5. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 3,

wherein said vibrator comprises an unbalanced rotor journalled for rotation about an axis spaced from the axis of said drive shaft and means interconnecting the drive shaft with the unbalanced rotor for driving the unbalanced rotor at a speed different from that of the drive shaft.

6. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 5, wherein said last-mentioned means drives the unbalanced rotor at a speed less than the speed of the drive shaft.

7. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 5, wherein said last-mentioned means comprises a countershaft on which the unbalanced rotor is mounted and pulley and belt means interconnecting the drive shaft and the countershaft.

8. A machine for disintegrating or grinding materials comprising a housing having an inlet opening adjacent its upper end, means forming a material-receiving chamber into which material is adapted to be deposited as a batch through said inlet opening, said material-receiving chamber having a bottom wall which inclines downwardly in a direction away from said inlet opening at an angle no greater than the angle of friction of the material whereby material deposited on said bottom wall through said inlet opening will tend to remain thereon, said bottom wall terminating at its lower end in an outlet opening, means forming a hammermill chamber into which the batch material deposited on said bottom wall is adapted to gravitate through said outlet opening, a shaft journalled on said housing and supporting a hammermill rotor for rotation within said hammermill chamber, a motor having an output shaft coupled with the hammermill rotor shaft, a vibrator mounted on said housing, means interconnecting said vibrator with one of said shafts for vibrating said housing whereby to cause material on said bottom wall to gravitate to said outlet opening and discharge into said hammermill roto-r chamber at a slow uniform rate.

9. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 8, wherein said vibrator comprises an unbalanced rotor.

10. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 8, wherein said vibrator comprises an unbalanced rotor journalled for rotation about an axis spaced from the axis of said drive shaft and means interconnecting the drive shaft with the unbalanced rotor for driving the unbalanced rotor at a speed different from that of the hammermill rotor.

11. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 8, wherein said vibrator comprises an unbalanced rotor journalled for rotation on said housing about an axis spaced from the axis of rotation of said one shaft and including sheave and belt means interconnecting said unbalanced rotor and said one shaft for rotating the unbalanced rotor at a speed less than the speed of rotation of the hammermill rotor.

12. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 11, wherein the hammermill rotor shaft and the motor shaft are axially aligned and directly coupled.

13. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 8, wherein the housing includes a pair of side walls, said bottom wall being connected to said side walls, said vibrator comprising an unbalanced rotor and including support means connected with said side walls and on which said unbalanced rotor is journalled.

14. A disintegrating machine as called for in claim 13, including a plurality of resilient pads for mounting said housing on a floor surface.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 6,417 4/1891 Great Britain.

WILLIAM W. DYER, IR., Primary Examiner.