Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE COMPACTOR FOR REYCYLING
FI~I.D o~ IIIE INVENT
This invention relates to cornpactors, and in
particular to garbage compactors.
BACKGROUND OF TlHE INVE:NTION
Existing garba~e compactors are typically formed
as a sinqle metal container connected to a compacting
unit. The compacting unit includes a charging box in
communication with the container, a ram being provided for
la pushing garbage which has collected in the charqinq box
into the container. In many mal.ls, offices and fact.ories,
compactors are provided for receivin~ a particular form of
waste, for examp:Le, corruqated cardboard, wi)ich is
col.lected for recyc.linq. At some si~es on.ly a siIlc3le
compactor will be provided at a site, and other forms of
garbaqe may be thrown into the charqing box with the
corrugated cardboard~ This may result in the loss of the
entire load of the fil.Led container for recycling, and
such contamination of a load is often not discovered until
the container load of material has been taken to a
recycling depot and un.loaded. If the materia.l has been
spoiled, it is necessary to reload the container and
transport the material to another site for, for examp~e,
incineration or disposa.l in a landfi.l.l site. In addition
to the loss o~ the recyclable material, there is also a
considerable expense in transportinq the material and
thexe will likely be a charge for disposiI)g Or the
material.
SUMI!IARY OF TH;3 INVENTION
According to the present invention there is
provided a compactor for use in compaçtinq at least two
separate classes of material comprisinq a charging box and
a packer ram in combination with a storaqe container. The
charging box is interna.l.ly, longitudinally divided into at
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least first and second charging chambers, each charging
chamber having a charging opening and a discharginq
opening. The storage container is releasably fixed
relative to the charging box and is internally divided
into at least first and second storaqe chambers. Each
storage chamber has a material receiving opening in
communication with a respective discharging opening of the
charging box. The packer ram has at least first and
second compacting faces and in a first confiquration each
face forms a portion of a wall of a respective charging
chamber opposite the discharging opening. The compacting
faces are mounted to a common actuator and are movable
from the first confiquration across the respective
charging chambers to simultaneously push material from the
charging chambers through the discharging openings and
into the respective storage chambers.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DR~WINGS
This and other aspects of the present invention
will now be described, by way of example, with reference
to the accompanying drawin~s, in which:
Figure 1 is a side view of a compactor in
accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present
invention shown in combination with a s-torage container;
l; Figure 2 is a sectional view of the storage
container taken on line 2-2 of Figure l;
Figure 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of
Figure l; and
Figure 4 is a plan view of a packer ram for use
with the compactor of Figure 1.
30 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Reference is first made to ~igure 1 of the
: drawings, which illustrates a compactor unit 10 releasably
coupled to a storage container 12. The compa~tor unit 10
includes a charging area 14, a ram assembly housing 16 and
~ .35 a hydraulics compartment 18. The compactor unit 10 rests
:on the ground, on feet 19, and is attached to the stora~e
container 12 at an extension of the container 20 which
includes openings for receiving material from the charging
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area 14. The storaqe container 12 is in the form of a
large rectangular steel box and, as can be seen in Figure
2 of the drawings, is longitudinally divided into first
and second storage chambers 22, 24, in this examp.le having
widths of 5' and 3', respectively.
The compactor unit 10 and the storage container
12 are intended for use in collecting and storing at least
two different classes of material. Hence the division of
the storage container 12 into the first and second storage
chambers 22, 24. If reference is now made to Figure 3 of
the drawings, it will be noted that the charging area 14,
which is open-topped, is similarly internally,
longitudinally divided into first and second charging
chambers 26, 28. As will be described in more detail
below, the divided charging area and storage container, in
conjunction with a specially adapted ram, allow two
separate classes of material to be co.l.lected and stored
using a single compactor unit and a single storaqe
container.
Referring now in particular to Fiqures 1 and 3,
it can be seen that a hopper 30 is provided above the
charging area 14. The hopper 30 extends upwardly and
outwardly on three sides of the charqing area and
restricts access to the charging chambers, for safety
reasons, and also provides a larqer receiving area for the
: material to be placed in the charging chambers. An
internal divider 32 extends from the charging unit 14 into
the hopper 30, thus dividing the hopper 30 into two
separate catch areas 34, 36, each associated with a
respective charging chamber 26, 23. If desired, bin or
conveyor loading may be provided on both sides of the
hopper 30.
The charqing area 14 is generaLIy rectangu~ar in
form havinq a base 38 and upright sidewalls 40, 42. The
side of the charging unit 14 adjacent the storaqe
container 12 is open to provide discharging openings 44,
46 from the respective charging chambers 26, 28 into the
storage container, leading directly to respective material
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receivinq openings 45, 47 of the container 12. Each of the
side~alls 40, 42 includes a clean-out door 48 (only one
shown) which may be used to, for example, remove
undesirable material from the respective storage chamber
or to clear blockages or jams which occur in the chambers.
To secure the compactor unit 10 to the storaqe
container 12, the sidewalls 40, 42 are provided with
container coupling latches 50 tonly one shown) which
engage the sides of extension 20 provided on the end of
the storage container 12.
The remaining wall of the charging area 14 is
formed by the leading face of a ram 54 (Figure 4),
normally accommodated within the ram housing 16, and
details of which are shown in Figure 4 of the drawings.
The ram 54 comprises a ram head 56 mounted on a piston 58
which extends from a sleeve 60 ~Figure 1) located below an
operator platform 61. Movement o~ the piston 58 in the
sleeve, and thus the movement of the ram head 56 is
achieved by use o~ hydraulics provided in the hydraulics
compartment 18 controlled via a contro.l box 62 provided on
one side of the compartment 18. To permit the ram head 56
to be moved through the char~ing area 14, the head 56 is
longitudinally divided to form first and second ram
portions 66, 68 each having a respective compacting face
70, 72. An upright slot 74 extends through the ram head in
alignment with the internal divider 32 such that the ram
portions 66, 68 may be advanced from the charginq position
to a position where the compacting faces 70, 72 are
located in the respective dischar~ing openings 44, 46. Mat
erial placed in the charging chambers 26, 28 is thus
discharged from the char~ing unit 14 throu~h the material
receiving openings 45, 47 into the respective storage
chambers 22, 24. The ram head 56 is then withdrawn to the
charging position to permit more material to be placed in
3~ the charging chambers 26, 28 via the hopper 30.
~ Once one of the storage chambers 22, 24 has been
:~ filled with material, the container coupling latches 50
~ are released and the storage container 12 pu.lled from the
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compactor unit and replaced by an empty container. Doors
are provided for closing the material receivinq openin~s
45, 47 and the storage container 12 is then, for example,
mounted on a suitably adapted truck and transported to,
5 for example, a recycling depot. The end of the storage
container 12, which is normally remote from the compactor
unit 10, is provided with unloading doors 80, 82, one for
each storage chamber 22, 24. The doors 80, 82 may be
opened separately such that, for example, the materials in
the chambers 22, 24 may be separately tipped from the
container.
The container 12 is preferably formed of 5/8"
steel plates with tubular reinforcing at stress points.
Wear-resistant special manganese steel floor and sidewall
wear-bars may also be employed. Container capacity will
typically range from 18 to 42 cubic yards, with wall
height of 87" to 9~" and a skid lenqth of 18' to 24'.
The charging area 14 is preferably of dimensions
36" x 60" x 40" to provide a hopper capacity of 2~ cubic
yards and may be provided with self adjusting wear plates
to provide constant alignment of the ram regardless of
reaction load forces.
The ram head pxeferably has dimensions of 59~"
wide x 30" high and a cycle.time of 33 seconds.
A preferred hydralics system or pack has a
reservoir capacity of 35 gallons and would deliver 7
g.p.m. from a fixed displacement pump with a double action
5" diameter bore cylinder and a normal operating pressure
of 1810 p.s.i
Control of the hydraulics system and ram may be
manual or alternatively could be by means of preprogrammed
automatic control.
Although the charging area and container
described above each have only two separate chambers, for
collecting two different classes of material, further
internal dividers may be provided to form a greater number
of chambers, thus allowing the compactor and container to
handle more than two classes of material. Also, the
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location of the divider may be changed to vary the size of
the chambers, to suit expected proportions of materiaLs.
Further, the internal dividers do not have to be
arranged in upriqht configurations, and could equally be
extended horizontally across the charging area and
container. Clearly, this would require the provision of a
different arrangement for loading the charging chamber.
