Patent ID: 6957784
Filing Date: 2005-10-25
Classification: B02C,Y02W

Abstract:
1. A bottle crushing system for breaking apart bottles into fragments, comprising: an enclosure having an upper component containing region and a lower glass receptacle region, the upper and lower regions being separated from one another by a support panel; a crushing assembly including a drive and a rotating crusher element operably connected thereto, the drive being disposed above the support panel, within the upper component containing region and the rotating crusher element being disposed below the support panel within the lower glass receptacle region, the crusher element defining a rotational path; a chute assembly having an entrance opening in the enclosure for introducing bottles to the crushing system and traversing through an opening in the support panel, the chute system having a discharge at the crusher element, the discharge being positioned immediately above the rotational path of the crusher element, the chute system including a pair of baffle element sets, an upper baffle element set being disposed immediately inside of the entrance opening and including first and second flexible membranes having slits formed therein so as to define at least six flexible panels in the membrane, a lower baffle element set having first and second flexible membranes being disposed intermediate the entrance opening and the discharge and having slits formed therein so as to define at least six flexible panels in the membranes, the upper and lower baffle element sets being spaced from one another along the chute assembly; and a funneling chamber disposed below the support panel, and mounted thereto, the funneling chamber having a generally circular, inwardly tapering wall extending downwardly, away from the support panel, and defining a crushed glass discharge opening, wherein glass bottles introduced into the chute assembly are urged traverse through the upper and lower baffle element sets into the crushing assembly, are crushed by the rotating crusher element and are directed by the funneling chamber into a receptacle positioned in the receptacle region.