EP1407876A1 - Compactor for material such as packing waste - Google Patents

Abstract

The waste compactor comprises a reception tank (2) for the waste and a rotating compacting head (1) comprising a rotating shredding roller (11). The compactor also comprises a pressure compacting plate (3) which compresses waste against the bottom of the tank. There are means for moving the compacting head from its inactive position to its active position when the plate is in the inactive position.

Description

The present invention relates to compaction of materials, such as those which ensure the compaction of waste for destruction or recycling. She applies more particularly, although not limitatively, to treatment of cardboard packaging waste and / or materials plastics.

Storage and recycling of materials lost packaging is causing a lot of problems for industrial. The present invention aims to solve these problems better than the materials known to date. Among these problems, there is in particular that posed by the place taken by the materials in a workshop or the need to convey these materials to the place where they are retired.

There are plate presses on the market allowing to exert strong pressure on plates of material to compress, for example in the production of wood chipboard panels. Machines like this don't agree that for materials of nature and structure homogeneous, and certainly not for materials of dimensions variables as are generally the cardboard waste packaging abandoned by stores and manufacturers, and even less when we know that commonly, lost packaging is made partly of cardboard and paper, to part of plastic films, plates and blocks.

For materials of this kind, rotary roller compactors. These compactors include, in a conventional manner, a tank for receiving the materials to be compacted inside which a compacting head carries at least one rotating roller moving on the surface of the contained waste in the tank. The materials to be treated are introduced gradually in the tank. The roller (s) are generally fitted roughness projecting from their surface to better grind the materials while they are being rotated on themselves. In most of the current roller compactors, the compaction head rests directly on the materials already introduced into the tank. It thus exerts a pressure effect on the roller on the materials being compacted due to its own weight, but you can also plan to apply pressure further on materials by other means.

Most roller compactors are rotary head in a circular section tank. The compaction head is there driven in gyration all around the axis of the tank, and it drives with it the grinding roller, which thus acts on all of the materials located in the tank. Such compactors, often called rotary type, are for example described in the patent document European EP 1 023 988. But there are also known compactors rectangular section tank, in which the compacting head is driven by a pendulum movement in the tank, in order to train the rotary roller back and forth from one end to the other of the tank so that, there too, it acts on a maximum of the surface of materials. Such compactors are, for example, described in the European patent document EP 0 042 580. It should be noted that the rotary head compactors are more common in the trade than rectangular bin compactors because they are more simple to carry out. However, they have the serious disadvantage of lead to bales of compacted material which are necessarily cylindrical in shape, while the demand for the industry is generally in favor of cubic bales.

To solve this problem, the principle behind the invention consists in implementing alternately, in a same tank for receiving the materials to be compacted, a rotary roller type compaction and compression device with tray. The first mainly has a grinding effect, the second essentially a pressing effect. In other words, the material compactor according to the invention comprises a tank reception of the materials to be compacted, generally open upwards for progressive loading, if necessary continuously, in which configuration means make it possible to set up works in turn a grinding roller head comprising at minus a rotary roller mounted mobile in rotation on itself and in displacement on the surface of the materials when the head of compaction is in an active position in the tank, as well as a pressure plate compression device associated with translation means for compressing the materials against the bottom of the tank when it is in an active position in the tank.

Said configuration means advantageously have for effect of raising said head from its active position to a position inactive where it is out of the tank above it, and to retract the tray device from its active position by tilting to an inactive position where it is away from the tank.

In its preferred embodiments, the compactor according to the invention meets various characteristics which apply individually or in any technically effective combination, which will now be on display.

In the grinding head, the roller is rotatably mounted about himself as he is known per se. When the grinding head is in an active position in the tank, it is controlled to drive the moving roller on the surface of the materials. lci and in the following, we talk about a roll in the singular, which corresponds to the most frequent case in practice, but it can also well be provided two or even more rollers, driven by the same motorized system. The other device includes a tray of material pressure, which is preferably sized and arranged to extend over the entire surface of the waste when it is in an active position in the tank. The pressure plate is mounted movable in translation in the tank to press the materials against the bottom of the tank when the tray device is in its position active.

The so-called configuration means are designed to make pass the rotary roller grinding head alternately in a inactive position outside the waste contained in the tank and in an active position pressing on them, and symmetrically, to make pass the pressure plate device alternately through a position where it is retracted outside the tank and in a active position where it is subjected to the action of drive means lowering it in pressure on the materials contained in the tank. Each movement of one of the devices, rotating roller head or pressure plate, between active position and inactive position and conversely, takes place while the other device is in position inactive, so as to clear the passage for the first. Of particularly advantageously, the grinding head in its active position is rotated around the axis of the tank, normally vertical in operation, while it is driven in translation along the axis of the tank by first means of configuration that lift it out of the tank or release it for that it gradually lowers to the materials being compaction. Symmetrically, the device essentially acting by compression works advantageously on the move vertical, along the axis of the tank, in its active position, while second configuration means switch it around a horizontal axis to retract it laterally to a position inactive away from the tank.

The material compactor according to the invention allows in particular to homogenize the compaction of a bale thanks to the combination of the actions of the grinding roller and the pressure on the materials. Indeed, in head compactors traditional rotary as defined above, the compacting density of materials in the tank decreases as as the material level rises in the tank. This is explained by the fact that the materials at the bottom of the tank not only undergo the weight of the roller, but also the weight of the materials which are piled up above them.

Thanks to the device according to the invention, the materials are pressed against the bottom of the tank by the pressure plate which is applied to them advantageously under high pressure. The plate then ensures uniformity over the entire surface of the materials in the tank, much greater than the weight of the roller and upper layers of material. It also provides homogenization of the compacting density in the bale as and as it descends into the tank. In this way, the compactor according to the invention produces homogeneous bales whose mass is uniformly distributed in volume. All this is obtained in combination with material shredding by the rollers that known movable plate presses cannot achieve.

Particularly advantageously in a industrial exploitation of the invention, the configuration means are designed to automatically pass a stage of operation of the rotary roller head in one step operation of the pressure device as soon as the thickness material in the tank reaches a predetermined value. At most simple, this value translates to a level that the head reaches in the tank when it gradually rises as the materials to be compacted are introduced into the tank. Arrival at this level automatically causes, and successively, the head up to inactive position, device tilting pressure to bring the plate flat on the materials and the translation of the plate downwards in compression of the materials. Of course, the introduction of these is interrupted during the operation of the pressure device.

The compactor according to the invention makes it possible in particular to form a bale of compacted material directly in the tank, thanks to the efficiency of the combined grinding operations and compression, which lead to a homogeneous agglomeration of materials over the entire section of the tank, faithfully matching its interior shape. The user no longer has to worry about a bag packaging become unnecessary. In addition, he can freely choose the shape and the dimensions of the balls that he wishes to achieve by fixing in consequently the shape of the compactor's tank. In general, there are there advantage to be freed from the forms of cylindrical tank which were previously almost mandatory for rotary heads and rather provide for cubic shapes, of rectangular section, or more particularly square, facilitating handling and storage of the bales obtained.

As long as the balls can be shaped directly in the tank, the compactor according to the invention can advantageously include means for making a strapping of the bale obtained at the end of the operations, advantageously after a final stage of compression by the plate, in order to maintain the cohesion of the assembly and facilitate the extraction of the compactor and transportation. For the purpose of such strapping, the compactor according to the invention may in particular include accommodation for reels of strips, means for passing the strips around a ball of compacted material still in the compactor tank, after removing the roller head and pressure plate, and means for ensuring the assembly of two strands of strip joined together to form a closed loop around of the ball.

We can also take advantage of the quality of compaction, which leads both to a homogeneous structure in the mass and to a uniform density throughout the section, to eliminate the use of pallets for transporting bales, for example from the compactor to a truck. To this end, the compactor tank according to the invention advantageously comprises a partially conforming bottom made up of retractable elements. These elements can in particular consist of retractable bands, advantageously running on the entire width of the bottom of the tank, which protrude from a normally flat tank bottom. The movements of such bands relative to the parts of the bottom of the tank remaining fixed can make intervene, for example, an articulated parallelogram assembly. When the rotating roller head or the pressure plate are in active position, the bands are not retracted and they are in prominent position relative to the bottom of the tank. During the compaction of the materials, the bands create in the bales of compacted material during formation of furrows or corridors able to accommodate the two branches of forklift trucks standard dimensions. For unloading bales from the tank, the bands are retracted in the bottom of the tank so not to hinder the movement of the ball.

The compactor according to the invention preferably comprises a door with a hinged bottom leaf about a horizontal axis forming a hinge and which can be folded down until it hits the ground. These provisions save space compared to the usual solution of a door revolving around a vertical axis and facilitate the unloading of the bale, by the beating folded down forming a ramp. They are advantageously combined with the shaping bottom of the tank and with ejection means, controlled in synchronism with the opening of the door to push the ball out of the bowl from the side wall of the opposite tank.

• la figure 1 représente un mode de réalisation préféré du compacteur selon l'invention vu en perspective, dont la tête de broyage est en position inactive et dont le dispositif à plateau de pression est mis en place dans la cuve ;
• la figure 2 illustre le compacteur représenté en figure 1 vu en perspective, dont la tête de broyage est en position active dans la cuve et dont le dispositif à plateau de pression est en position inactive ;
• la figure 3 montre le compacteur représenté en figure 1 et 2 vu en perspective, dont la tête de broyage est en position inactive et dont le dispositif à plateau de pression est en position active dans la cuve ;
• la figure 4 montre le compacteur représenté en figure 3, muni d'une robe latérale protectrice, vu en coupe longitudinale ;
• la figure 5 représente le compacteur vu partiellement en coupe latérale, dont le fond conformateur présente deux bandes rétractables ;
• et la figure 6 montre le compacteur vu partiellement en coupe latérale, dont les battants de la porte sont ouverts et dont les moyens d'éjection sont mis en oeuvre pour éjecter une balle de matières compactées.

The invention will now be more fully described in the context of preferred characteristics and their advantages, with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6 in which:

• FIG. 1 represents a preferred embodiment of the compactor according to the invention seen in perspective, the grinding head of which is in the inactive position and the pressure plate device of which is placed in the tank;
• FIG. 2 illustrates the compactor shown in FIG. 1 seen in perspective, the grinding head of which is in the active position in the tank and the pressure plate device of which is in the inactive position;
• Figure 3 shows the compactor shown in Figure 1 and 2 seen in perspective, whose grinding head is in the inactive position and whose pressure plate device is in the active position in the tank;
• Figure 4 shows the compactor shown in Figure 3, provided with a protective side dress, seen in longitudinal section;
• FIG. 5 represents the compactor seen partially in lateral section, the shaping bottom of which has two retractable bands;
• and FIG. 6 shows the compactor seen partially in lateral section, the leaves of the door of which are open and the ejection means of which are used to eject a bale of compacted material.

The compactor according to the invention is intended more particularly to treat industrial waste constituted cardboard packaging, but it can also be packaging lightweight plastic, loose papers, wooden components or metal sheets, and, more generally, all materials that are found together with the cardboard in the lost packaging.

As illustrated in Figure 1, the compactor includes a tank 2 for receiving the waste to be compacted resting vertically on its bottom and open upwards. Above the tank 2 is a protective collar 63 which blocks waste being compacted which could be expelled out of the tank, and which also acts as a feed hopper for the waste compactor to compact by which they are manually entered in the context of this exemplary embodiment. The loading takes place gradually, in practice of continuously, but only during operation of the grinding head.

The grinding head is a conventional compacting head with rotary roller 1, mounted at the end of a support arm 5, advantageously bent, which is fixed to the end of a frame 4 outside the tank 2. To operate alternately with it in the tank by acting on the waste to be compacted, the compactor described also comprises, in accordance with the invention, a compression device mainly consisting of a plate pressure 3, coming flat to cover the waste horizontally and mobile in vertical translation in the tank. The different elements allowing alternating operation of the roller head rotary and pressure plate will be detailed later, after the description of the different elements they each include. They are ordered so as to implement sometimes first the grinding head with rotary roller, sometimes the device to pressure plate, or both alternately.

Conventionally, the head 1 comprises a roller grinder 11 operating essentially by shredding waste, which is associated with rotational drive means on itself, around its own axis. This roller 11, unique in the case described, is cylindrical in shape and advantageously has teeth 13 distributed over its surface. Note, however, that this roller could be tapered rather than shaped cylindrical.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, as described here, is only because of its own weight that the head 1 presses by the roller 11 on the waste to compact in the tank when it is in the active position. Thus, the head 1 rises in the tank 2 as and when the crushed waste is piled up in the tank. Furthermore, in position active from the head 1 in the tank, the roller 11 is driven in rotation on itself at the same time as the head 1 is driven in gyration around the axis of the tank 2, and this advantageously from of the same motor means. In other cases, only one of the two movements is controlled by a motor, the other arising by reaction. Anyway, head 1 is advantageously, as it is described here, of the type of conventional compacting heads of so-called rotary compactors.

As it is notably represented schematically in Figure 4, the means for rotating the roller 11 on himself and in gyration of the head 1 as a whole around the axis of the tank 2 thus comprises a motor 14, located at the end upper head 1, which drives a vertical shaft 51, mounted along the axis of the tank, whose movement is transmitted to an arm 12 driving in rotation of the roller 11 on itself by a angle gear mechanism. The transmission organs of movements are enclosed in a protective casing 15 (Figures 1 and 3), which protects them in particular from damage from waste to compact in the tank.

In operation, the grinding head 1 allows mainly to grind the waste introduced into the tank by the shearing effect of the shredding roller. incidentally, pressure is exerted on the crushed waste which causes them to each passage of the roller 11, this corresponding pressure advantageously on the sole weight of the grinding head 1. When the head turns, these two combined actions of crushing and compression are exerted by the roller successively at any point of the surface it can cover around the vertical axis of the tank.

Arm 5 which supports the grinding head with rotary roller 1 is mounted movable in translation along the frame 4. As it emerges clearly from Figure 1, at its end 52 opposite to that which carries the rotary roller head 1, the arm 5 is mounted telescopically in the frame 4. A hydraulic cylinder, of the single-acting type, is located in the building 4. Its action is exerted only to impose a forced movement in the lifting direction and to lift said head 1, whereas when it is not operational, the latter is in free descent, due to its weight. The hydraulic cylinder in question is powered by a pump, via a two-position distributor which controls either the placing under cylinder pressure, i.e. putting the cylinder at the exhaust to a tank.

Thanks to the telescopic mounting, the head 1 is movable in vertical translation along the axis of the tank 2 progressively that the level of waste gradually introduced during its operation goes up in the tank. But by an order specific under configuration means, we can also raise head 1 to get it out of the tank until it reaches its inactive position where it is high enough to leave move the plate compression device from its inactive position to its active position or vice versa. The same ascent operation of head 1 is carried out at the end of compaction, and it then triggers the procedure for evacuating the bale obtained.

For operational automation purposes, there a roller head level detection sensor is provided rotary 1 in the tank 2, which provides a control cabinet 8 with a lifting signal in inactive position of head 1 when this level reaches a predetermined upper threshold. As shown in Figures 1 to 4, the control cabinet 8 is placed on the frame exterior 4 to be easily accessible in the event of a breakdown.

In accordance with a mode of implementation particularly advantageous compactor according to the invention, it is provided various photo-electric proximity detection sensors which are arranged in the tank at several predetermined levels. Some may determine, for example, a reversal of the sense of gyration of the rotating roller head, others a partial ascent of this head, still others its complete rise above the tank 2. The inactive position of the head 1 occurs either, in course of constitution of a compacted ball, to let pass the pressure plate, either to allow the evacuation of the bale when it is finished. It can also be ordered by the operator, who presses a specific button on the cabinet for this purpose 8, for example in the event of a deficiency in the position sensors.

The compactor according to the invention chosen here as an example is carried out in such a way as to carry out cleaning operations according to the process described in the published French patent application under the number 2 802 462. For this purpose, the motor 14 is a motor hydraulic which is powered by a motor pump from the same hydraulic fluid reservoir to that to which the cylinder is connected hydraulics causing the head to rise 1. The motor pump is driven by an electric motor. A pressure detector threshold measures the supply pressure at the inlet to the motor 14. When a jam occurs blocking the rotating roller head 1 in its movement around the axis of the tank, the pressure at the inlet of the motor 14 increases, and when it tends to exceed a threshold predetermined, a specific signal is transmitted to a logic circuit for controlling the ascent of head 1 by pressurization of the corresponding cylinder. Then continuing its movement of gyration around the axis of the tank, the head 1 passes on the other side of the pile of crushed waste and the logic circuit passes the cylinder to the exhaust in the hydraulic fluid tank. Therefore, the grinding head descends under the effect of its weight and head 1 is driven in the opposite direction to that of its turning movement before it is lifted.

We will now describe the pressure plate device 3, whose action complements that of the grinding head 1 by compression of crushed waste.

As shown in particular in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the pressure plate 3 is flat and square in shape, under the same dimensions as the section of the tank. In practice its dimensions are fixed in correspondence with the internal dimensions of the tank so that it can be easily moved there vertically by means of vertical translation while covering substantially the entire surface of the ground waste occupying tank. As it would also be for a rectangular section, the tank 2 of the compactor according to the invention was chosen in section partly square to facilitate the movement of the active position in tank 2 in its inactive position when it is retracted away from the tank. Above all, it has the advantage of facilitating the subsequent handling of the bale obtained as well as its storage.

The pressure plate 3 includes reinforcing elements 7 on each of its faces. Two parallel edges 30 and 39 of the pressure plate 9 each have a handle 9 of gripping the tray. These two handles 9 are projecting of each of the two edges 30 and 39. They ensure the descent of the tray in the tank, as will be detailed later.

When the grinding head 1 is put into operation in the tank (active position), as shown in the figure 2, the pressure plate 3 is in the inactive position, retracted in a storage chassis 31. The chassis 31 has two columns 32 in extension of two edges of the tank 2, and preferably, as is notably represented in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the two columns 32 are an extension of two edges of one of the two lateral sides of the tank. In its position inactive, the pressure plate 3 is blocked between the columns 32 of the chassis 31.

To retract the pressure plate 3 laterally to away from the tank, the compactor according to the invention comprises in particular a winch 37 around which is wound and unwound a cable 38 whose end is fixed to part of the edge 39 of the pressure plate 3. Electrical sensors positioned at predetermined levels in tank 2 detect the level of the tray pressure 3 in the tank and they provide the control cabinet 8 signals controlling the winding or cable 38 around the winch 37. The electrical sensors can also be used to provide an indication of the degree of compaction due specifically to compaction by the pressure. Their main utility, however, remains that of ordering automatically change the position of the plate device pressure and either the alternating intervention of the rotating roller head, or the start of bale unloading operations.

In order not to hinder the descent of the tray 3 in the tank 2, the shredding roller 11 is kept in the inactive position at a height above the tank such that it does not interfere with the descent of tray 3 in the tank. In order to clutter as little as possible the space above the tank, and as we can see in Figure 1 for example, the shredding roller 11 located opposite the plate 3 with respect to the axis of the tank, which allows passage to the pressure plate 3 when placed in the tank.

Among the means of automatic piloting, the compactor includes in particular an electrical sensor positioned in the tank 2 which detects that the axis of the roller 11 is in the position desired when the roller 11 passes in front of it during movement of the grinding head 1. When the axis of the roller is in the desired position, the electrical sensor sends a signal to the control cabinet 8 to almost stop instantly the turning movement of the grinding head 1 around the axis of the tank, as well as the rotational movement of the roll 11 on itself. As the roller 11 is in contact with the waste under the effect of the overall weight of the head 1, the resistance that the waste exerts on the roller 11 is such that the movement of rotation of the roller 11 around its axis is stopped, which also causes the head movement to stop grinding 1 through the transmission box angular movement.

When the grinding head 1 is raised vertically out of tank 2 to be locked in the inactive position, the roller 11 is in a position opposite that of the pressure retracted relative to the tank. In this way, it does not does not interfere with the tilting of the pressure plate 3 towards its position active in the tank. When the grinding head 1 is in active position, the pressure plate device 3 is held in inactive position. Similarly, as long as the pressure plate 3 remains found in active position in the tank, the grinding head is kept in the inactive position. The grinding head is not placed in the tank in the active position only once the device has pressure plate 3 is retracted in the inactive position out of the tank. And conversely: the pressure plate device 3 is not put in place in the active position in the tank only when the grinding 1 is retracted in the inactive position out of the tank.

To allow the installation of the pressure plate 3 in the tank, the plate 3 comprises in particular four parts 35 protruding from each of its four corners. Two of the four parts 35 are mounted movable in rails 36 which are provided in each of the columns 32 of the chassis 31. The other two parts 35 are mounted mobile in rails 23 provided in two parallel edges of the tank, these edges being those lying perpendicular to columns 32 (Figures 2, 5 and 6).

When the pressure plate 3 is placed in the tank 2, the parts 35 slide gently in the rails 36 and 23, the pressure plate 3 being retained by the cable 38 unwinding from winch 37. The plate is then placed in the tank while being tilted until it is parallel to the bottom of the tank. His weight brings it down to the surface of the waste beforehand crushed by the rotating roller head.

To drive the plate 3 in vertical translation in the tank, once it is parallel to the bottom of the tank on the crushed waste surface, the compactor according to the invention has two clamps 33. They are each actuated by a jack with hydraulic pressure 34 to keep the tray in position pressure 3 at least by one of these four edges. advantageously and as shown in Figure 4, the two clamps 33 grip the handles 9 of the edges 30 and 39 of the plate 3 (Figure 4). For protect the clamps 33 and the jacks 34 which are arranged to outside of the tank 2, a protective dress 26 is provided, which appears in particular in Figure 4. The orders take place automatically. Sensors sensitive to the presence of the platform in the tank send a signal to the control cabinet 8 to bring the clamps 33 into position on the handles 9 of the edges 30 and 39 and to trigger the vertical translation of the plate in the tank (Figure 4). The pliers 33 pull the plate 3 towards the bottom of the tank by increasing the pressure in the cylinders 34.

Going down into tank 2, tray 3 begins with level the surface of the shredded waste. Indeed, the grinding head 1 making a circular movement in the tank and the tank being square section, the waste being in the four corners of the tank were not completely shredded and distributed in the tank. The pressure plate 3 therefore remedies at first to this uneven distribution of the waste to be compacted in the tank 2. Then, it compresses the crushed waste until it has subsided at a predetermined level.

The tank 2 opens laterally by a door with two leaves 21 and 22, capable of withstanding the forces exerted by the compaction of the crushed waste against the internal walls of the tank. The two leaves 21 and 22 are mounted articulated in two horizontal axes. Specifically, the hinges of the two leaves are parallel to the bottom of the tank, one at the top for the upper leaf 21 and the other at the bottom for the lower leaf 22. This preferred mounting of the tank door reduces the size of the compactor, which saves space in the workshop, and facilitate access to the compacted bale for unloading. Door 21-22 can be opened and closed by a system hydraulic, which when open, retains the upper leaf 21 against gravity, to allow the exit of the bullet from compacted waste. The lower leaf 22 serves as a ramp for unloading bales when open. Indeed, as it is particularly shown in Figure 6, the bottom of the tank compactor is slightly raised above the ground on which the compactor is installed.

The bottom 24 of the tank is made to constitute a bottom compactor of compacted waste bales. In particular, it is cut to form two strips 25 which are connected to the parts fixed from the bottom by an articulated parallelogram mounting allowing to bring them up during all the operations of compaction, or conversely to retract them to the same level at when the bale was unloaded. These two bands 25 are linear and parallel to each other. They are at the origin of the formation of two grooves of complementary shape in the balls compacted waste, the purpose of which is to clear the way for two branches of a forklift. The direction of the two bands 25 is perpendicular to the direction of exit of the balls through the door.

The compactor described comprises means for producing a strapping of the waste ball by strands assembled strand on closed loop strand, which occur after compression by the plate 3, at the end of the combined compaction operations.

As it is more particularly represented on the Figures 5 and 6, a housing 74 accommodating strip reels 72 is formed at the foot of the frame 4, in a chosen position of so as to occupy as little space as possible. Besides the coils of strip 74, the housing 74 encloses a launch tube 73 which allows you to guide the end of the strap and propel it in slides 27, 28 and 29 formed in the side walls and in the bottom of the tank 2, with sufficient power for the strip can make at least one full turn around the tank. The slides are open inside the tank. They determine a path of the straps around the ball which is in the direction transverse to the bands 25 of the shaping bottom. The slides continue on these.

The strapping is performed while the pressure plate is still in place to compress the resulting ball. The tray of pressure 3 therefore also has five guide slides 20 strips, open towards the inside of the tank, which match with slides 28 and 29 (Figures 6), in the same vertical plane than these. The opening control system side door of the tank authorizes the opening of the upper leaf 21 regardless of the opening of the lower leaf 22. While the lower leaf 22 remains closed under pressure on the waste, the opening of the upper leaf can allow passage to a machine for crimping the strands of strip end to end.

The ejection means 6 (FIG. 6) of the waste ball that comprises the compactor according to the invention are triggered by control means in synchronism with a tilting pressure plate in its inactive position away of the bale of compacted material, and with the opening of the door side of the tank. In the context of this exemplary embodiment of the compactor according to the invention, it is the operator who operates the control means, by pressing a control button located on the control cabinet 8.

The triggering of the ball ejection means 6 first causes the opening of the lower leaf 22 of the tank door. Then, two plates 61, each associated with a push system 62 clearly visible in FIG. 6, are propelled from a wall of the tank opposite the door to expel the ball out of the bowl. The plates 61 are cut from the tank wall. Advantageously, they can come in support on the ball in the same vertical plane as one of the straps strapping. The push system 62 is made of a structure extendable, the length of which varies according to the angle between the articulated elements that constitute it.

By pressing a button located at the means of command 8, the operator can command the restart of the compactor after checking that the bale has been correctly ejected from the tank. This command successively triggers the closing of the two leaves 21 and 22 of the tank door, the reassembly of the plate 3 in the storage frame 31 by winding of the cable 38 around the winch 37, the descent of the head 1 in the tank 2 and its return to activity, once the gradual introduction of the waste to be compacted has been resumed.

The above description clearly explains how the invention achieves the objectives it has set for itself. In particular, it appears from the description that the compactor according to the invention allows more homogeneous compaction of waste thanks to to the respective combined actions of the grinding head and the pressure plate implemented in turn in the tank. More in particular, it appears from the description that the plate of pressure allows to homogenize the compaction density of waste in the tank. It also makes it possible to press waste towards the bottom of the tank 2 and against the internal side walls of the tank more intensely than the grinding head 1, and to obtain thus a waste ball having the same shape as the shape internal of the tank.

However, it follows from the above that the invention is not not limited to the embodiment which has been specifically described and shown in the figures. In particular, the grinding head could, for example, also include deflector means fixed mounted in the vicinity of the roller drive means, to repel the waste to be compacted away from the organs of transmission of the rotational movement between the head shaft and the axis of the roller and to guide those approaching it nevertheless up to a cutting area where they are subjected to the action of sharp means. In this way, the grinding head would have the advantage of treating waste effectively resistant due to their composition, for example waste in plastic and grind them enough so that the pressure plate compression device then exerts on them roughly the same effect as on simple pieces of cardboard.

Claims (12)

Compactor for materials such as waste, in particular cardboard-based packaging waste, characterized in that it comprises a tank (2) for receiving the materials to be compacted, in which configuration means make it possible to implement in turn a roller grinding head (1) comprising at least one rotary roller (11) mounted to rotate in rotation and on the surface of the materials when the grinding head is in an active position in the tank , as well as a pressure plate compression device (3) associated with translation means for compressing the materials previously crushed by said head when it is in an active position in said tank. Compactor according to claim 1 wherein said tank (2) is of rectangular section, if necessary square, and advantageously open upwards for loading progressive in materials to be compacted, said head (1) is mounted mobile in vertical translation with its roller resting on the materials being compacted and it is associated with means for driving in rotation about a vertical axis when it is in the active position, said pressure plate (3) is sized to come flat cover the entire surface of materials when it is brought into its active position and the means of translation with which it is associated are designed to train it in vertical translation to compress the materials previously ground against the bottom (24) of the tank. Compactor according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said configuration means comprise first configuration means which have the effect of raising said head (1), from its active position where its roller is supported on the materials during compaction, up to an inactive position where it is out of the tank above it, and second configuration means which have the effect of retracting the pressure plate device (3), from its active position, by tilting to an inactive position where it is laterally away from the tank. Compactor according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized by means for automatically ensuring the passage of a first operating stage where said grinding head is active in the tank while the pressure plate device is in the inactive position , in a second operating step where the pressure plate device is active in said tank while the grinding head is in the inactive position, since in said tank (2), the thickness of the materials reaches a predetermined value. Compactor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said tank (2) has, on a rigid bottom (24) resistant to the pressure exerted by the pressure plate device, two opposite side walls, one of which is constituted by a door (21, 22) opening for the evacuation of a ball of compacted material, and another of which includes ejection means (6) for pushing said ball out of said tank (2) through said door (21, 22). Compactor according to claim 5, characterized in that the ejection means (6) comprise plates (61) cut out from the corresponding wall which are each moved by a pusher system (62) with articulated elements. Compactor according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that said door is at least partially constituted by a lower flap which can be folded down towards the ground outside the tank around a horizontal hinge, said flap thus forming a discharge ramp for the bale obtained at the end of compaction. Compactor according to claim 5, 6, or 7, characterized in that it comprises automatic control means (8) determining the implementation of said ejection means (6) in synchronism with the opening of said door (21 , 22) of the tank once after a last stage of operation of the compactor where the pressure plate device was active in said tank (2), this device has been retracted out of the tank (2). Compactor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said tank (2) comprises a shaping bottom (24) partially made up of retractable bands (25) advantageously running over the entire width of the bottom (24) of the tank (2 ), said strips (25) being protruded from the rest of the bottom (24) of the tank (2) during the compacting operations to provide hollow grooves in the bale finally obtained, which can in particular be used for transporting the bale by a forklift. Compactor according to any one of preceding claims, comprising strapping means of a bale obtained at the end of the compaction operations by straps propelled directly around the ball still in said tank. Compactor according to claim 10, characterized in that it comprises an upper door leaf (21) for the introduction of a machine for crimping two strands of strip between them, and that, in the case where said door is a double leaf door also comprising a lower leaf (22) for discharging a bale of compacted material, a control system is provided for determining the opening of said upper leaf (21) independently of the opening of said lower leaf (22), the latter thus being able, during the strapping operation, to maintain the bale in the lower part of said tank (2). Compactor according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that said tank (2) has slides (20, 27, 28, 29) for guiding the passage of the strapping straps of the ball, when those are propelled from distributing coils (72) installed in reception housings (74) presented by said compactor, said slides being provided in the internal walls of the tank (2) as well as the pressure plate (3), and in that , in the case where the tank has a shaping bottom according to claim 9, said slides are oriented in a direction transverse to that of the retractable strips of said bottom.

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