JP2902851B2 - Sorting device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sorting device for sorting plastic bottles and the like that can be recycled from waste.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, lightweight and round so-called plastic bottles made of synthetic resin have been used as containers for soft drinks, for example, and the amount of use has been extremely large. This PET bottle can be reused as fuel by pelletizing it. For this reason, the plastic bottles are sorted out from the garbage in which the plastic bottles are mixed. In the sorting of the PET bottles, the garbage in which the PET bottles are mixed is transferred by a conveyor device, and the worker manually sorts the PET bottles from the garbage during the transfer.

[0003]

However, in the above manual sorting operation, the operator is forced to work in a place where the working environment is poor such as dust and odor. There were problems such as injuries of hands and arms due to garbage. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sorting device capable of safely and reliably sorting lightweight recyclable articles such as plastic bottles without relying on humans. Aim.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a sorting apparatus comprising a conveyor device in which an endlessly rotating belt is wound between a pair of rollers spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance. On the upstream side in the conveying direction of the conveyor device, an alignment portion is provided in which the belt is gradually inclined toward the center side in order to roll and align the round objects included in the objects to be sorted toward the center in the width direction of the belt. At the same time, on the downstream side in the transport direction of the alignment unit of the conveyor device, a blower that sorts out light-weight round items among the round items aligned by the alignment unit by blowing them off in a direction crossing the transport direction by air blow. It is characterized in that it is provided.

[0005]

According to the sorting apparatus having the above-mentioned structure, the unaligned round materials among the garbage sequentially put on the belt can be rolled toward the center of the belt by the aligning section and aligned in the conveying direction. . Then, the light-weight among the aligned round articles can be sorted by being blown off in a direction intersecting with the conveying direction by air blowing by a blower. At this time, since the lightweight round articles are aligned in the transport direction, the air pressure of the blower can be received in a large area, so that the round articles can be reliably blown off and sorted. .

[0006]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 1 is a view showing an embodiment of a sorting apparatus according to the present invention, in which (a) is a front view and (b) is A in (a).
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line A. Reference numeral 1 denotes a conveyor device for transferring refuse forward (in the direction of arrow X).
Is configured such that the endless rotating belt 4 is wrapped around the front and rear rollers 2 and 3 and the front roller 2 is rotated by a drive motor (not shown) to rotate the belt 4.

[0007] At the rear of the conveyor device 1 (upstream side in the transport direction), there is provided an alignment unit 5 for aligning, in the transport direction, round objects such as PET bottles contained in the trash thrown into the belt 4. On the front side (downstream in the transport direction) of the sorting section 5, a sorting section 6 for sorting lightweight bottles or the like among the aligned round articles by air blow is provided. ing.

As shown in FIG. 1 (b), the aligning section 5 has three aligning rollers 8 rotatably supported by a supporting section 7 and a central roller 8 at a low position. , So that the rollers 8 on both sides are gradually lowered toward the center,
The belt 4 placed on the alignment roller 8 is bent by its own weight, and is curved so that the center side becomes gradually lower. In the aligning section 5, round objects such as PET bottles roll toward the center side and are aligned with their axes directed in the transport direction. However, in addition to the case where the belt 4 is bent in a curved shape, the alignment portion 5 may be bent in a substantially V shape so as to be linearly inclined toward the center side.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sorting unit 6 places the belt 4 on a roller 10 horizontally and rotatably supported by a support unit 9 and holds the belt 4 flat. I have. A blower 11 is provided on a side of the sorting unit 6 to blow out a lightweight round item such as a PET bottle among the round items aligned by the aligning unit 5 by an air blow and to sort out the other round items. ing. This blower 11
A flow regulating plate 13 is provided in a cylindrical casing 12 so as to be swingable, and an opening 14 is formed between the casing 12 and the tip of the flow regulating plate 13, and the opening 14 faces the direction of the belt 4. Not. In addition, the flow rate adjusting plate 13
The swing adjustment can be performed by the air cylinder 15. By adjusting the swing by the air cylinder 15, the opening area of the opening 14 can be changed and the amount of air blown can be adjusted. Further, a blower fan 17 and a dust filter 18 are connected to the base side of the casing 12 via an air pipe 16. A cover 1 that covers the periphery of the sorting unit 6 is provided on the distal end side of the casing 12.
5 is formed, and the air blown through the opening 14 is circulated to the blower fan 17 through the air pipe 16 a communicating with the upper end of the cover 15.

Further, on the side of the sorting section 6 opposite to the blower device 11 with the conveyor device 1 interposed therebetween, a transfer device for collecting light-weight round objects such as PET bottles and transferring the same to the next step. 20 is provided, and the transfer device 20 is provided.
Guide plates 1 on both sides of the
9 are provided. In addition, reference numeral 21 in the drawing denotes a chute for throwing dust on the belt 4.

Next, the operation of the sorting device will be described. First, when garbage mixed with lightweight round objects such as PET bottles is gradually thrown into the rear part of the conveyor device 1 by the chute 21, the garbage passes through the sorting unit 5 on the belt 4. At this time, since the belt 4 is concavely curved, a round object such as a plastic bottle rolls toward the center of the belt 4 and is aligned in the transport direction. Then, the aligned round articles are further transferred to the sorting section 6 by the belt 4, and among the round articles, lightweight round articles such as plastic bottles are used.
The air is blown off in a direction intersecting the transport direction by the air blower 11. At this time, since lightweight round objects such as PET bottles are aligned in the transport direction in the alignment unit 5, the air pressure from the blower 11 is applied to the side surface having a large area, and It will be blown off reliably. Further, the air blown through the opening 14 is supplied to the casing 12 and the air pipe 16.
a and is circulated to the blower fan 17 through the dust filter 18. For this reason, it is possible to prevent dust contained in the dust from scattering into the room.

The recyclable lightweight round material such as the PET bottle selected as described above is transferred to the next step, for example, a pellet forming step, by the transfer device 12. Garbage such as wood chips, rubble, and the like that are not sorted by the sorting unit 6 are further transferred forward by the belt 4 and discharged. In the above-described embodiment, the belt 4 is held flat in the sorting unit 6, but may be held in a curved shape like the sorting unit 5. In this case, the same operation and effect as described above are also possible. Can be played.

Further, the sorting apparatus of the present invention can be applied to the sorting of lightweight round articles other than refuse.

[0014]

As described above, according to the sorting apparatus of the present invention, after aligning lightweight round items such as PET bottles in the transporting direction in the aligning unit, the sorting units are air blown by the sorting unit. Since the sorting can be performed by blowing off the pieces, the sorting of the round articles can be performed automatically without relying on humans, and the operator can be released from a poor environment.

In addition, since the air blow is performed on the side surface of the round piece having a sufficient pressure receiving area, the round blow can be reliably blown off by the air blow, thereby improving the sorting efficiency of the round piece. It has a unique effect that it can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one embodiment of a sorting device of the present invention, in which (a) is a front view showing an entire configuration,
(B) is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line AA of (a).

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the sorting device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Conveyor apparatus 4 Belt 5 Alignment part 6 Sorting part 11 Blower

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B07B 4/00-15/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A conveyor device comprising an endlessly rotating belt wound between a pair of rollers spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance. To the center of the belt in the width direction to align the belt, the belt is gradually inclined toward the center side to provide an alignment portion, the conveyor unit downstream of the alignment unit in the transport direction, the alignment unit, A sorting device, comprising: a blower that blows out and sorts light-weight round items among the aligned round items in a direction intersecting with a conveying direction by air blow.