Abstrict A glass vessel crusher including an external cylinder 1 and an
internal cylinder disposed in the external cylinder, a glass-vessel
crushing space A of ring shape in section being defined by the inner
wall of the external cylinder 45 and the outer wall of the internal
cylinder. At least one of the external cylinder and the internal
cylinder is freely rotatable and is so designed that the glass-vessel
crushing space is gradually narrowed along a direction from a glass-vessel
throw-in side toward a fragment discharge side, and at least one
of the inner wall of the external cylinder and the outer wall of
the internal cylinder is provided with a spiral projection 57 extending
into the ring-shaped glass-vessel crushing space.
Claims What is claimed is:
1. A glass vessel crusher, comprising:
an external body of revolution (1); and
an internal body of revolution (45) disposed in the external body
of revolution, an annular glass vessel crushing space (A) being
defined by an inner wall of said external body of revolution and
an outer wall of said internal body of revolution, wherein at least
one of said external body of revolution and said internal body of
revolution is rotatable and is so designed that the glass vessel
crushing space is gradually narrowed along a direction from a glass
vessel introduction end toward a fragment discharge end, at least
one of the inner wall of said external body of revolution and the
outer wall of said internal body of revolution is provided with
a projection extending into the annular glass vessel crushing space
for conveying glass vessels towards the discharge end, and at least
one of said external body of revolution and said internal body of
revolution, not provided with said projection, is provided with
a plurality of spaced post members (55) individually projecting
from a side wall thereof into the glass vessel crushing space.
2. The glass vessel crusher as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least
one of said external body of revolution and said internal body of
revolution has a conical portion projecting into the glass vessel
crushing space.
3. The glass vessel crusher as claimed in claim 2 wherein said
conical portion has a spiral projection member which is continuously
or intermittently formed on the surface thereof.
4. The glass vessel crusher as claimed in claim 1 further including
a rotary shaft which is linked to one of said external body of revolution
and said internal body of revolution to rotate the linked one of
said external body of revolution and said internal body of revolution.
5. The glass vessel crusher as claimed in claim 4 further comprising
a rotating mechanism for rotating said rotary shaft.
6. The glass vessel crusher as claimed in claim 6 wherein said
rotating mechanism comprises a motor, a sprocket linked to one end
of said rotary shaft, another sprocket linked to said motor, and
a chain suspended between said sprockets.
Description BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a glass vessel crusher for crushing a
glass bottle or the like into fragments in a proper size.
2. Description of Related Art
It has been a general habit that a glass vessel such as a glass
bottle or the like is used and then thrown away without recycling
because a recycling system for the glass vessel has not been hitherto
established. Such a habit of using and throwing away the glass vessel
has caused a vain use of resources and has been a factor of environmental
contamination. The recycling of glass bottles has been particularly
shunned because they have a bulky body, so that the physical distribution
cost is increased and the cost required for recycling is also heightened.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, there has been conventionally
adopted a method that glass bottles are finely crushed using a glass-bottle
crusher and then recycled in a state where their bulkiness is reduced.
As a conventional glass bottle crusher have been known a propeller-type
crusher and a squash-type crusher. In the propeller-type crusher,
a glass bottle is collided against a propeller rotating at a high
speed, so that it is finely crushed by an impact force at the collision.
On the other hand, in the squash-type crusher, for example, a glass
bottle is sandwiched between two iron plates, and then is squashed
by pressing the iron plates so as to be approached to each other.
In the propeller-type crusher, a glass bottle is excessively finely
crushed, and thus excessively-fine glass fragments of the glass
bottle are generated. If this type of crusher is placed on a street
for example, there would occur a new environmental problem that
these excessively-fine glass fragments are scattered in the street.
Further, the fragments of the glass bottle which have been withdrawn
are required to be washed with water in a glass factory to remove
foreign matters such as metal from the fragments. In this case,
fragments whose size is below several millimeters are frequently
required to be discarded on the basis of a requirement for water
administration. Therefore, if the fragments of a glass bottle are
excessively fined by the crusher, most of the fragments which have
been withdrawn must be discarded, and thus there occurs a problem
that all of glass bottles which have been withdrawn with much labor
can not be effectively used.
On the other hand, the squash-type crusher has the following disadvantage
that a tremendous noise occurs in a crushing operation, and glass
fragments are liable to be scattered at the throw-in side for a
glass bottle. Therefore, this type of crusher is unsuitable to be
placed in a street in consideration of security and environment
problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to provide a glass vessel crusher
capable of crushing a glass vessel into fragments in a proper size
without inducing tremendous noise.
In order to attain the above object, a glass vessel crusher according
to this invention includes an external cylinder and an internal
cylinder disposed in the external cylinder, a glass-vessel crushing
space of ring shape in section being defined by the inner wall of
the external cylinder and the outer wall of the internal cylinder,
wherein at least one of the external cylinder and the internal cylinder
is freely rotatable and is so designed that the glass-vessel crushing
space is gradually narrowed along a direction from a glass-vessel
throw-in side toward a fragment discharge side, and at least one
of the inner wall of the external cylinder and the outer wall of
the internal cylinder is provided with a projection extending into
the ring-shaped glass-vessel crushing space.
According to the crusher of this invention, glass vessels which
are thrown away into the external cylinder are oriented in various
directions such as longitudinal, lateral and slant directions in
the glass-vessel crushing space at an initial stage. Through rotation
of the external cylinder or internal cylinder, the glass vessels
are scratched while the orientation angle thereof is gradually varied,
and then slowly squashed with a relatively weak force between the
external cylinder and the internal cylinder. Since the glass-vessel
crushing space is so designed as to be gradually narrowed along
the direction from the throw-in side of the glass vessels toward
the fragment discharge side, the glass vessels are roughly crushed
in a large size at the upper portion of the glass-vessel crushing
space, and fall down in the space while being squashed over several
times, so that the glass vessels are gradually fined while they
fall down from the glass-vessel throw-in side to the fragment discharge
side. Finally, only those glass fragments which are passed through
a gap between an outer peripheral portion at the lower end of the
internal cylinder and an inner peripheral portion at the lower end
of the external cylinder are discharged to the outside of the external
cylinder.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal-sectional view of one embodiment of a
glass vessel crusher according to this invention;
FIG. 2 is a longitudinal-sectional view of a main part of the crusher
as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the upper and lower walls of the
crusher as shown in FIG. 1; and
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a throw-in cylinder for a glass
bottle which is used for the crusher as shown in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
A preferred embodiment of this invention will be hereunder described
with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal-sectional view of one embodiment of a
glass vessel crusher according to this invention, and FIG. 2 is
a longitudinal-sectional view of a main part of the crusher as shown
in FIG. 1. The following embodiment is described particularly in
a case where the crusher of this invention is used to crush a glass
bottle, however, this invention is applicable to other kinds of
glass vessels such as glass plate, glass containers, etc.
In FIG. 1 a reference numeral 1 represents an external cylinder,
and is secured through a flange 3 to a frame 5. As shown in FIG.
2 a lower wall 7 is mounted to an inner peripheral portion of the
lower end of the external cylinder 1 while an upper wall 9 is mounted
to an inner peripheral portion of the upper end of the external
cylinder 1.
FIG. 3 shows the detailed construction of each of the upper and
lower walls 7 and 9. As shown in FIG. 3 each of the upper and lower
walls has a ring and three support portions 7b (9b) which are integrally
formed with the ring so as to radially extend from the ring. Therefore,
when each of the upper and lower walls 7b (9b) is secured to the
external cylinder 1 an opening portion 7a (9a) is formed between
the neighboring support portions 7b (9b).
A rotary shaft 11 is suspended between the upper and lower walls
9 and 7 and both end portions of the rotary shaft 11 are freely
rotatably supported in bearing housings 13 and 15 which are secured
to the lower and upper walls 7 and 9 respectively. Each of the
bearing housings 13 and 15 is designed in a symmetrical structure,
and a conical bearing 17 for supporting the rotary shaft 11 and
an oil seal 19 are accommodated in each of the bearing housings
13 and 15.
The upper end portion of the rotary shaft 11 extends so as to penetrate
through the bearing housing 15 and is fixedly secured to a sprocket
21. A chain 23 is suspended between the sprocket 21 and another
sprocket 25 which is rotated by a motor 27. Therefore, a rotational
force of the motor 27 is transmitted through the sprocket 25 and
the sprocket 21 to the rotary shaft 11. A reference numeral 29 represents
a chain cover for the chain 23.
The motor 27 is secured to the outer wall of the external cylinder
1 through a securing mechanism 31. The securing mechanism 31 comprising
a fixing base 33 which is fixed to the external cylinder 1 and
a motor base 35 which is fixed to the motor 27. Both of the fixing
base 33 and the motor base 35 are linked with each other through
two pairs of bearings 37a to 37d located at the upper and lower
sides respectively and a shaft 39 in such a manner that the motor
base 35 is freely swingable around the shaft 39. A reference numeral
41 represents a jack bolt.
According to this embodiment, a lid member 42 for closing an upper
opening of the external cylinder 1 is further provided at the upper
side of the upper wall 9. The lid member 42 has an opening 42a therein,
and a throw-in cylinder 43 is slantingly engaged with the opening
42a of the lid member 42 as shown in FIG. 4. The throw-in cylinder
43 serves as an opening through which a glass bottle 53 is thrown
into the external cylinder 1.
Inside of the external cylinder 1 is disposed an internal cylinder
45 which is rotatable integrally with the rotary shaft 11. The internal
cylinder 45 comprises a cylindrical portion 45a serving as an upper
portion thereof and a conical portion 45b serving as a lower portion
thereof. As is apparent from FIG. 2 the cylindrical portion 45a
and the conical portion 45b are formed integrally with each other,
and a boss portion 49 is supported through a support 47 on the inner
wall of the conical portion 45b. The rotary shaft 11 is engaged
with the boss portion 49 and both of the rotary shaft 11 and the
boss portion 49 are linked with each other through a key 51.
A crushing space A in which the glass bottle 53 is crushed is defined
between the inner wall of the external cylinder 1 and the outer
wall of the internal cylinder 45. The crushing space has a ring
shape in section, and is so designed as to be gradually narrowed
along a direction from the upper portion of the external cylinder
1 to the lower portion thereof. Therefore, the glass bottle 53 is
gradually fined while it falls down along the direction from the
upper portion of the external cylinder 1 to the lower portion thereof.
In this embodiment, the gradually-narrowed shape of the crushing
space is caused by the conical shape of the internal cylinder 45
as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In addition, a plurality of post or stud members such as bolts
55 are secured to the outer wall of the external cylinder 1 in its
axial (longitudinal) direction and in its peripheral direction at
a substantially constant interval, and the tip portion of each bolt
55 is projected at a suitable length through the side wall of the
external cylinder 1 into the crushing space A. The tip of portion
of each bolt 55 is preferably pointed, and the length at which the
tip portion of each bolt 55 is projected into the crushing space
is preferably variable. The number of the bolts 55 which are located
in the peripheral direction on the external cylinder is preferably
from 6 to 12 and the bolts 55 which are located in the axial direction
on the external cylinder are preferably disposed at an interval
of 50 to 70 mm.
A chain or spiral member 57 is formed on the outer peripheral surface
of the conical portion 45b of the internal cylinder 45 in such a
manner as to be projected from the outer peripheral surface into
the crushing space A. The spiral member 57 and the plural bolts
55 are so disposed that the glass bottle 53 which is thrown into
the crushing space A is scratched in cooperation therebetween in
the crushing space A. The spiral member 57 is not necessarily formed
as a continuous body on the external cylinder 1 but may be formed
as an intermittent body.
The following features are required for the crusher. Firstly, the
noise must be small in a crushing operation, and secondly the glass
fragments are not excessively finely crushed. In order to achieve
these requirements, various experiments have been attempted. Through
these experiments, it has been proved that the glass bottle 53 should
be beforehand scratched and then slowly squashed with a relatively
weak force to effectively crush the glass bottle 53.
According to this embodiment, the glass bottle 53 which is thrown
into the ring-shaped crushing space A through the throw-in cylinder
43 is first scratched by the tip portions of the bolts 55 and the
spiral member 57 and then gradually squashed with a relatively
weak force through the gradually-narrowed crushing space A.
At an initial stage where the glass bottles 53 are thrown into
the crushing space A, the glass bottles 53 are oriented in various
directions (longitudinal, lateral and slant directions). When the
motor 27 is rotated in this state, interlockingly with the rotation
of the internal cylinder 45 the glass bottles 53 are rotated with
the orientational directions thereof being varied. Through this
operation, the glass bottles 53 are scratched by the bolts 55 and
the spiral member 57 and then the scratched glass bottles 53 are
slowly squashed between the external cylinder 1 and the internal
cylinder 45 with a relatively weak force. In this case, the rotational
speed of the internal cylinder is preferably set to 4 to 40 rpm.
The glass bottle 53 is roughly crushed at the upper portion of
the crushing space A, and the roughly-crushed bottle 53 is squashed
several times in the crushing space A while falling down from the
upper portion of the crushing space A to the lower portion thereof,
so that it is gradually fined. Finally, only those glass fragments
which are passed through a gap between the outer peripheral portion
of the lower end of the internal cylinder 45 and the inner peripheral
portion of the lower end of the external cylinder 1 are discharged
to the outside of the external cylinder 1. The openings 7a of the
lower wall 7 serve as a discharge port for the glass fragments,
and the crushed glass fragments are stored in a hopper 61 located
beneath the discharge port. The hopper 61 can be freely drawn out
from the crusher as shown in FIG. 1.
According to the crusher of this embodiment, the glass bottle 53
is crushed by squashing it with a relatively weak force while scratching
at. Therefore, in comparison with the conventional crusher, the
noise occurring in the crushing operation is more suppressed, and
the glass bottle 53 can be crushed into glass fragments of a more
proper size. Accordingly, even if the crusher thus constructed is
placed on a street for example, no environmental problem occurs,
so that a recycling system for the glass bottles can be promoted
using this crusher.
When the crusher of this embodiment is applied, no restriction
is imposed on color, shape and components of a glass bottle. Further,
even when the glass bottle is coated with a label or resin on the
surface thereof, it can be easily crushed.
This invention is not limited to the embodiment as described above.
The following modifications may be made to the above embodiment
without departing from the subject matter of this invention.
In the above embodiment, the external cylinder 1 is fixed, and
the internal cylinder 45 is rotated relatively to the external cylinder
1. However, the external cylinder 1 may be rotatable relatively
to the internal cylinder 45 which is fixed. Otherwise, both of the
external cylinder 1 and the internal cylinder 1 may be rotatable.
Further, at least one of the external cylinder 1 and the internal
cylinder 45 may be formed in a conical shape. Therefore, in this
embodiment the internal cylinder 45 is provided with the conical
portion 45b, however, the conical portion may be provided to the
external cylinder 1. |