Abstract:
An apparatus for recycling synthetic thermoplastic waste material combining heretofore multiple stage processing steps in a single stage shredder grinder pulverizer device. The apparatus has multiple interchangeable material processing blade sets on respective effacing engageable rotating and fixed blade mounts within a cooled material infeed and blade containment enclosure with multiple vacuum outlet ports and communicating vacuum ducts to draw off and transport processed material therefrom for separation and classification, as required. Each replaceable interchangeable processing blade set includes registerable shredding and grinding blades and annular pulverizing blade sets on fixed and movable mediums for progressive processing of waste material into uniform recyclable material.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
       [0001]    This invention relates to recycling process machines used to process synthetic resin plastic waste material into reusable product. 
       2. Description of Prior Art 
       [0002]    Prior art apparatus and methods have been developed to process waste plastic materials into usable compositional sizes and texture by shredding and grinding using machine means and multiple reduction steps. Such prior art apparatus typically have material infeed to movable cutting blades having cutting edges engageable on a stationary cutting blade engaging and shredding continuous infeed waste materials. Examples can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,545,686, 4,004,738, 5,285,973, U.S. Publication 2010/0238650, International Patent WO95/34418. 
         [0003]    U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,686 is directed to a shredder for shredding sheets of polymeric material by having a pair of cutting blades on a rotary arbor and an indexed fixed blade. 
         [0004]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,738 claims a method and apparatus for shredding a web of plastic film having impellor blades movable on a rotating disk and aligned fixed blades to achieve shredding there between. 
         [0005]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,973 illustrates a close tolerance shredding device having multiple rotating shafts with multiple disk shaped blades and spades placed there between. 
         [0006]    U.S. Publication 2012/0238650 is directed to a plant and method for recycling PET type plastics having a first processing line to produce pellets and a second processing line for recycling plastic flakes. 
         [0007]    International PCT Patent WO95/34418 discloses a plastic recycler for a mix of discarded materials by feeding shredded plastic into a rotating chopping blade that shreds material until heat is generated forming a viscous mass. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    A plastic recycling process device for recycling a mixture of waste plastic materials into reusable uniform size product in a single stage including shredding, grinding and pulverization. The utilization of a unique multi-stage blade assembly with interchangeable blade segments on rotating and fixed blade support provides for a single pass combined stage processing product pulverization end use of reusable material eliminating multiple product processing and transfer during recycling with improved outflow product transfer speed and efficiency. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a side elevational view of the plastic recycling processor of the invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is an end elevational view thereof. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is an enlarged side elevational view of the plastic recycler converted for horizontal product infeed. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is an enlarged bottom plan view of a primary rotating multi-stage processing blade. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a side elevational view thereof. 
           [0014]      FIG. 6  is an enlarged plan view of the fixed bed multi-stage recycling blade. 
           [0015]      FIG. 7  is a side elevational view thereof mounted on a housing enclosure support lid assembly. 
           [0016]      FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional view of the recycling blade housing. 
           [0017]      FIG. 9  is an enlarged top plan view of the recycling blade housing enclosure support lid. 
           [0018]      FIG. 10  is an enlarged side elevational view of a shredder grinder blade tooth. 
           [0019]      FIG. 11  is an enlarged partial front elevational view of the grinder shredder blade mount inserts support. 
           [0020]      FIG. 12  is a partial top plan view with portions broken away of the mounting fly wheel with multiple blade sections positioned thereon. 
           [0021]      FIG. 13  is an enlarged partial top plan view of a portion of the fly wheel  24 C showing wedging bars securing the blade sections thereto. 
           [0022]      FIG. 14  is an enlarged partial top plan view of multiple blade inserts on the mounting fly wheel shown in broken lines. 
           [0023]      FIG. 15  is an enlarged side elevational view of the arcuate blade sections. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0024]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2  of the drawings, a plastic recycling processor apparatus  10  of the invention can be seen to provide for a process of recycling a mixture of plastic materials into usable product. The plastic recycling apparatus  10  has a main support frame  11  which includes multiple interconnecting vertical and horizontal support rails  12  and  13  and a pivoting motor and blade housing support frame  14 . The pivoting motor and blade housing support frame  14  has a base  15  with an upstanding bifurcated pivoting motor mount bracket  16  extending therefrom. An electric drive motor  17  is affixed within the mounting bracket  16  initially as shown in vertical orientation in  FIGS. 1 and 2  of the drawings. The motor mounting bracket  16  has a pair of pivot pins P allowing for 90° rotation of the attached motor  17  from a vertical to a horizontal use orientation as will be seen in  FIG. 3  of the drawings and described in greater detail hereinafter. 
         [0025]    A material processing infeed and outflow blade housing  18  is secured to the drive motor  17  via a riser  19 . The blade housing  18  has a contoured upstanding sidewall  20  extending from a corresponding contoured support base  21 . 
         [0026]    A primary material processing blade disk  22  assembly is mounted to an output drive shaft D of the motor  17  for high speed rotation thereon as seen in  FIG. 8  of the drawings. The blade housing  18  has a circular center area  18 A in which the rotating blade disk  22  is positioned with oppositely disposed extending contoured processed material receiving areas  18 B and  18 C. The blade disk  22  assembly, best seen in  FIGS. 4 and 5  of the drawings, has a plurality of arcuate blade inserts  23  removably secured on a blade support mounting flywheel  24 . The multiple inserts  23  form a semi-continuous annular blade surface  25  inwardly from the perimeter edge  24 A of the mounting disk  24 . Each of the arcuate blade sections  23  have a plurality of radially aligned spaced parallel upstanding knife cutting edges  26  milled therein. Each of the blade cutting edges  26  are configured to a predetermined angular inclination dependent on user requirements and will form a progressive material processing application, as will be described hereinafter. Referring to  FIGS. 12-15  of the drawings, the arcuate blade sections  23  can best be seen, each having spaced contoured outer and inner support engagement edge surfaces  60  and  61  respectively, corresponding oppositely disposed interconnecting side edges  62  and  63 , each having an offset tab portion  62 A and  63 A which when positioned for use together on the mounting flywheel  24  in side to side engagement will define a registration slot S therebetween sequentially as shown in broken and solid lines in  FIGS. 12 and 14  of the drawings. 
         [0027]    The mounting flywheel  24  has a central opening at  24 B with an upstanding perimeter edge flange  24 C. Accordingly, the multiple arcuate blade sections  23  are positioned for use on the flywheel  24  abutting the upstanding perimeter edge flange  24 C thereby forming an annular continuous blade band thereabout. 
         [0028]    Each of the hereinbefore described form registration slots S have effacing tapered edges for receiving a locking wedge bar  24  therein as best seen in  FIGS. 12 and 13  of the drawings. 
         [0029]    The wedge bars  65  each have a number of aligned apertures A for fixation fasteners there through and have corresponding interface interference surfaces along respective longitudinal edges  65 A and  65 B. The wedging bars  65  are driven into the defined slots S achieving a friction fit there between wedgeably retaining the so engaged multiple blade sections  23  radially against one another retained by the flywheel&#39;s perimeter edge flange  24 A as illustrated. An annular apertured retainment plate  66  is fitted in this example onto the center of the flywheel  24  thereby abutting against the respective inner edge surfaces  61  of the inserts  23  which along with fixation fasteners F in the wedge bars  65  complete the annular blade assembly. 
         [0030]    Multiple opposing primary shredding and grinding blades  27  are removably secured upstanding from the mounting disk  24  extending in spaced relation from a center axis C to the edge surface  61  of the respective annular blade sections  23  in abutment thereto. The primary blades  27  are in angular offset linear alignment to provide initial infeed product engagement as will be described. 
         [0031]    The primary shredding and grinding blades  27  each have a plurality of replaceable blade sets  28 , best seen in  FIGS. 10 and 11  of the drawings. The multiple blade sets  28  are secured in end to end relation forming an elongated continuous upstanding blade surface. Each of the blade sets  28  in turn have an inclined multiple “saw tooth” knife edge surfaces generally indicated at  29  which will afford multiple material engagement points during a cutting single pass as will be described in greater detail hereinafter. 
         [0032]    Referring now to  FIGS. 6, 7 and 8  of the drawings, a fixed bed blade engagement assembly  30  can be seen secured in spaced relation to a corresponding contoured blade housing closure lid  31  which is registerable over the hereinbefore described blade housing  18 , sidewalls  20  thus defining the enclosed material processing housing. The closure lid  31  defines an opening for a product infeed mount and oppositely disposed vacuum ducts outflow openings and mounts  32 A and  32 B. 
         [0033]    The fixed bed blade engagement assembly  30  has a corresponding multiple arcuate segmented fixed replaceable annular surface blade  33  extending inwardly from an upstanding perimeter support edge  34  on a mounting support disk  35  which in turn is secured in spaced relation to the hereinbefore described closure lid  31 , as seen in  FIG. 7  of the drawings. 
         [0034]    The segmented replaceable annular blade surfaces  33  have a plurality of radially aligned parallel upstanding knife edges  33 A milled therein that correspond to the hereinbefore described rotating annular blade milled surfaces  25  so as to systematically and progressively engage shredded and ground recyclable plastic product for pulverization as required for product consistency and desired final product use level. 
         [0035]    The segmented annular surface blade  33  is secured to the fixed mounting disk  34  by an identical wedging assembly  36  of that of the rotating arcuate blade mounting sections  23 , hereinbefore described. 
         [0036]    In this example, the fixed bed blade assembly  30  has single fixed shredding bed blade  37  which extend radially from an inner edge of the segmented annular blade surface  33  as best seen in  FIG. 6  of the drawings. The fixed bed blade  37  has multiple replaceable teeth inserts  37 A that corresponding for progressive mesh alignment with modified saw teeth blade sets  28  of the primary rotating blades  27  so as to achieve an efficient one pass multi-surface shredding of infeed material IM by multiple material knife edge surface impacts due to the orientation and aligned integrational engagement of the respective corresponding cutting knife edges compound angular geometry. 
         [0037]    Referring now to  FIGS. 1 and 8  of the drawings, a cooling system  38  can be seen having a compressor/fluid chiller  39  with supply and return lines  40 A and  40 B which extend to an integrated blade housing cooling jacket  41 , best seen in  FIG. 8  of the drawings. The cooling jacket  41  in this example has an integrated cooling coil  43  extending around the housing  18  so as to reduce and dissipate the heat buildup during the shredding, grinding and pulverization of product material that occurs within. It will be evident that by reducing the processing material temperature, a more efficient uniform processing can be achieved without the material&#39;s propensity to stick together when heated as is common in synthetic resin processing material applications. 
         [0038]    The cooling also enables better material transfer as the now processed material in loose form will accumulate in the defined outflow housing areas  18 A and  18 B directly under the vacuum outflow opening lid mounts  32 A and  32 B so as to be drawn outwardly by a dual vacuum tube assembly  43 , best seen in  FIGS. 1 and 2  of the drawings. 
         [0039]    Selected waste material for reprocessing defined as raw product RP for product inflow is delivered to the processing housing  18  from a supply hopper  44  supported on the vertical and horizontal support rails  12  and  13  of the support frame  11 . The supply hopper  44  provides for metered and control release of raw product RP through a rotary control feed valving  45  delivering the raw product RP to a pair of vibrating conveyor trays  46  and  47  which move and separate raw product RP for delivery to an upstanding central infeed housing  48  extending from the closure lid infeed opening  31 A. The raw product RP is transferred into the housing  18  rotating and fixed bed blade engagement assemblies for blade engagement and reduction as hereinbefore described. 
         [0040]    As noted, once the raw product RP has been processed by the multiple stage blade assembly expelled by centrifugal force collecting in the cut flow areas  18 A and  18 B, it is drawn out of the housing  18  by a dual vacuum transfer assembly  48  having a first and second vacuum transfer nozzle conduits  49 A and  49 B which combine upstream into a single vacuum transfer tube  50 . 
         [0041]    A force vacuum flow of material entrained airstream AS is achieved by a vacuum blower assembly  51  which draws the material up into a cyclonic particle separator  52  as seen graphically in broken lines in  FIGS. 1 and 2  of the drawings. The cyclonic particle separator  52  uses specific gravity to draw off the lighter material while the heavier processed material HPM drops downwardly and is accumulated and sequentially dumped into a material classifier  53  positioned directly below. The material classifier  53  is typical within the art having multiple gradation screens S of different mesh size achieving a separation of product, as desired. The processed material which does not meet the screen criteria is diverted back at  54  into the infeed of the material processor housing  18  for reprocessing. 
         [0042]    The finished and classified product FP is transferred out of the classifier  53  through, in this example, a magnetic metal separator  55  which achieves a final separation of any possible entrained ferrous metallic material assuring that only usable synthetic resin thermoplastic material now fully processed is passed on for recycling use. 
         [0043]    Referring now to  FIG. 3  of the drawings, it will be seen that the present invention can be convertible from a fixed vertical material feed processor as described above into a horizontal linear continuous fixed product processor  56 . In this format, the motor  17  and attached material processing infeed and outflow blade housing  18  with processing blades are pivoted 90° by the hereinbefore described mounting bracket  16  to a horizontal orientation as shown. The vacuum outflow conduits  49 A and  49 B may be extended, in this example, by flexible tubular extensions  57 A and  57 B and the product infeed modified for an axial eccentric material opening having a horizontal material infeed assembly  58  within a guide housing  59  and multiple powered product engagement rollers  59 A. In this example, a roller conveyor table  59 B is also provided for support for a variety of elongated linear extending products LP represented by broken spaced parallel line arrows. In this manner, elongated waste material can be continuously fed directly into the processing housing  18  and processed by the multiple stage blade assembly  18  therein as previously described. 
         [0044]    It will be seen therefore that with the adaptability of the present recycling processing apparatus  10  of the invention, that a single material processing installation can replace multiple processing staged equipment overall installation and associated inner transport cost to independent processors heretofore required. 
         [0045]    It will thus be seen that a new and useful adaptable plastic recycling processing apparatus  10  has been illustrated and described and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention, therefore I claim: