Patent DE-10052262-A1 (DE)
Title: Assembly for ripping textile materials, to recover usable fibers, has a rotating drum within a housing both fitted with structured and overlapping ripping tools within a suction air flow to extract fibers while waste drops down
Inventor: WUESTENBERG DIETER
IPC: D01G11/00
Filed: 2000-10-19
Abstract: To rip apart textile materials, for the recovery of useful fibers, a vertical drum (1) is within a cylindrical housing (2). The ripping tools (5,6) are at the drum and the housing as conventional pins on pin boards and also plates with ripping teeth and spacer plates clamped together. The ripping pins or teeth overlap from the drum and housing, without contact, so that the material is ripped along the housing periphery and over the whole drum height.  To rip apart textile materials, for fiber recovery, a targeted air flow is generated by suction from above and the drum rotation, so that the released fibers move upwards in a spiral path through the ripping zone between the drum and the housing. The loosened matter is separated into heavy waste which drops through gravity and free fibers which are extracted at the top. The level of the separation between waste and usable fibers is set by the rotary speed of the drum and the strength of the suction air flow. Free ripping zones are at the housing, in addition to the ripping tools, to give a deflection to the material through a structured air flow at the rippers, with an additional suction action on the loosened fibers. The ripping tools, and their intervals, are selected over the height of the ripping zone according to the level of separation required in the material, and the ripping tools are deployed around the housing and drum according to the recovered fiber quality. The gaps between the ripping tools, and their overlap, can be varied according to the nature of the material being worked, and can allow for a space without a ripping action. The height of the ripping zone is set according to the nature of the material to be reduced to fibers. The shape of the drum can be a cone, instead of a cylinder, with a reducing diameter tapering upwards, in a conical housing where the diameter increases upwards. The side feed for the material can be at an adjustable height through the feed shaft (9) at the housing, and the material feed path can be set from a radial line to the drum to a tangent at the drum. The waste matter is collected at the bottom of the assembly, under the drum, to be separated by a sieve (10). The suction is applied from above, as a ring over the drum, through the whole ripping free zone.. By a selective closure of the separate suction openings, a targeted air flow can be directed through the ring sectors. The suction can also be applied at the upper end of the housing at a tangent to the drum rotation. A number of air suction openings are at the lower part of the housing, which can be closed selectively. The ripping tools are mounted at the drum and the housing by specially-designed trapezoid clamping bars, secured by external screw bolts through the housing without dismantling the drum. An Independent claim is included for the ripping tools, as plates with ripping teeth and spacer plates. Preferred Features: The shape of the ripping teeth is set according to the nature of the material and the stresses. They are clamped in place by two threaded rods through two drillings in the ripping and spacer plates. The ripping tools have trapezoid flanks to be secured at the housing and the drum by trapezoid clamping bars.