Apparatus for the pretreatment and subsequent conveying, plastification, or agglomeration of plastics

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus for the pretreatment and subsequent conveying or plastification of plastics, with a container with a mixing and/or comminution implement that is rotatable around an axis of rotation, wherein, in a side wall, an aperture is formed, through which the plastics material can be removed, a multiscrew conveyor being provided, with at least two screws rotating in a housing, wherein the imaginary continuation of the longitudinal axis of the conveyor in a direction opposite to the direction of conveying passes the axis of rotation, where, on the outflow side, there is an offset distance between the longitudinal axis of the screw closest to the container and the radius that is parallel to the longitudinal axis, and in that the two screws closest to the intake aperture are counter-rotating relative to one another.

Claims

1. An apparatus for the pretreatment and subsequent conveying of a plastic material, the apparatus comprising: a container configured to hold the plastic material to be pretreated; at least one mixing and/or comminution implement within the container, wherein the mixing and/or comminution implement is configured to pretreat the plastic material and comprises at least one blade configured to rotate around an axis of rotation, wherein the blade has a convex edge, and wherein pretreating the plastic material comprises at least one of mixing, heating, and comminuting the plastic material, wherein the container comprises an aperture through which the pretreated plastic material exits the container, wherein the aperture is formed in a side wall of the container adjacent to the mixing and/or comminution implement; at least one multiscrew conveyor configured to receive the pretreated plastic material through the aperture, the multiscrew conveyor comprising: a housing comprising an intake configured to receive the pretreated plastic material from the container, and first and second screws in the housing, wherein the first and second screws are configured to rotate in opposite directions and to convey the pretreated plastic material in a conveying direction away from the container, wherein the imaginary continuation of the central longitudinal axis of the first screw is offset from the axis of rotation of the mixing and/or comminution implement at a point nearest the axis of rotation by an offset distance; and a motor configured to rotate the mixing and/or comminution implement, wherein the motor is structured to rotate the mixing and/or comminution implement such that the convex edge of the blade of the mixing and/or comminution implement leads during rotation, wherein the motor is structured to rotate in a direction which causes the motion of the convex edge to be described by a direction vector such that when the convex edge is nearest the aperture, the motion vector describing the motion of the convex edge nearest the aperture is either perpendicular to the conveying direction or has a vector component which has a direction opposite the conveying direction.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein precisely two screws are provided.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screws are substantially cylindrical and are parallel to one another, and wherein the conveyor is a parallel twin-screw conveyor.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screws comprise two conical screws.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screws are intermeshing or tangential at least in the region of the intake.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screws lie vertically one above the other and the screws in the immediate area of the intake are arranged symmetrically with respect to the center of the intake and are spaced at equal distances away from the plane of the intake.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screws lie one above the other or horizontally one next to the other and only the screw closest to the intake is arranged in the immediate area of the intake.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screw closest to the intake or the lowermost screw, as seen from the start of the screw closest to the intake or container or from the intake, towards a discharge aperture of the conveyor, rotates in the clockwise direction.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor is in contact with the container and the scalar product of the direction vector describing the motion of the blade nearest the aperture when the blade is adjacent the aperture, and another direction vector describing the conveying of the conveyor is zero or negative.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the angle (α) between the direction vector describing the motion of the portion of the convex edge nearest the aperture when the convex edge is adjacent the aperture, and another direction vector describing the direction of the conveying of the conveyor is greater than or equal to 90° and less than or equal to 180°.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the angle (β) between the direction vector describing the motion of the portion of the convex edge when the convex edge is adjacent the aperture, and the conveying direction is from 170° to 180°.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the offset distance is at least one of: greater than or equal to half of the internal diameter of the first screw, and greater than or equal to 7% of the radius of the container.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaginary continuation of the longitudinal axis of the first screw passes through the container.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor is attached tangentially to the container, or wherein the longitudinal axis of the first screw runs tangentially with respect to the inner side of the side wall of the container, or the inner wall of the housing runs tangentially with respect to the inner side of the side wall of the container, or an envelope defined by the rotation of the first screw runs tangentially with respect to the inner side of the side wall of the container, wherein the apparatus further comprises: a drive connected to the first and second screws, a discharge aperture in the housing of the conveyor, and an extruder head connected to the discharge aperture.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein there is immediate and direct connection between the aperture and the intake aperture, without substantial separation, and without a transfer section or a conveying screw.

16. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blade is configured to perform a comminuting, cutting and heating action on the plastic material, wherein the blade is on a rotatable implement carrier, which is arranged in parallel to a basal surface of the container.

17. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interior of container is substantially cylindrical comprising a level basal surface, and comprising a side wall extending perpendicularly from the basal surface.

18. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blade is arranged in the quarter of the container nearest a basal surface, at a distance of from 10 mm to 400 mm from the basal surface.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the description of the inventive examples below of the subject matter of the invention, which are not to be interpreted as restricting, and which the drawings depict diagrammatically and not to scale:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a vertical section through an apparatus according to the invention with extruder attached approximately tangentially, said extruder comprising screws arranged one above the other.

(3) FIG. 2 shows a horizontal section through an alternative embodiment with extruder attached approximately tangentially, said extruder comprising conical screws arranged one next to the other.

(4) FIG. 3 shows another embodiment with minimal offset of the extruder.

(5) FIG. 4 shows another embodiment with relatively large offset of the extruder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(6) Neither the containers, nor the screws nor the mixing implements are to scale, either themselves or in relation to one another, in the drawings. By way of example, therefore, the containers are in reality mostly larger, or the screws longer, than depicted here.

(7) The cutter compactor-extruder combinations shown from different positions in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are very similar in terms of their design and will therefore be described together below. The main difference lies in the arrangement of the screws relative to one another, as will be discussed in detail below.

(8) The advantageous cutter compactor-extruder combinations depicted in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 for the treatment or recycling of plastics material each have a cylindrical container or cutter compactor or shredder 1 with circular cross section, with a level, horizontal basal surface 2 and with a vertical side wall 9 oriented normally thereto with the shape of a cylinder jacket.

(9) Arranged at a small distance from the basal surface 2, at most at about 10 to 20%, or optionally less, of the height of the side wall 9—measured from the basal surface 2 to the uppermost edge of the side wall 9—is an implement carrier 13 or a level carrier disc orientated parallel to the basal surface 2, which carrier or disc can be rotated, in the direction 12 of rotation or of movement indicated by an arrow 12, around a central axis 10 of rotation, which is simultaneously the central axis of the container 1. A motor 21, located below the container 1, drives the carrier disc 13. On the upper side of the carrier disc 13, blades or implements, e.g. cutter blades, 14 have been arranged, and together with the carrier disc 13 form the mixing and/or comminution implement 3.

(10) As indicated in the diagram, the blades 14 are not arranged symmetrically on the carrier disc 13, but instead have a particular manner of formation, set-up or arrangement on their leading convex frontal edges 22 facing in the direction 12 of rotation or of movement, so that they can have a specific mechanical effect on the plastics material. The radially outermost edges of the mixing and comminution implements 3 reach a point which is relatively close to, about 5% of the radius 11 of the container 1 from, the inner surface of the side wall 9.

(11) The container 1 has, near the top, a charging aperture through which the product to be processed, e.g. portions of plastics foils, is charged by way of example by means of a conveying device in the direction of the arrow. The container 1 can, as an alternative, be a closed container and capable of evacuation at least as far as an industrial vacuum, the material being introduced by way of a system of valves. The said product is received by the circulating mixing and/or comminution implements 3 and is raised to form a mixing vortex 30, where the product rises along the vertical side wall 9 and, approximately in the region of the effective container height H, falls back again inward and downward into the region of the centre of the container, under gravity. The effective height H of the container 1 is approximately the same as its internal diameter D. In the container 1, a mixing vortex is thus formed, in which the material is circulated in a vortex both from top to bottom and also in the direction 12 of rotation. By virtue of this particular arrangement of the mixing and comminution elements 3 or the blades 14, this type of apparatus can therefore be operated only with the prescribed direction 12 of rotation or movement, and the direction 12 of rotation cannot be reversed readily or without additional changes.

(12) The circulating mixing and comminution implements 3 comminute and mix the plastics material introduced, and thereby heat and soften it by way of the mechanical frictional energy introduced, but do not melt it. After a certain residence time in the container 1, the homogenized, softened, doughy but not molten material is, as described in detail below, removed from the container 1 through an aperture 8, passed into the intake region of an extruder 5, and received by a screw 6 there and subsequently melted.

(13) At the level of the, in the present case single, comminution and mixing implement 3, the said aperture 8 is formed in the side wall 9 of the container 1, and the pretreated plastics material can be removed from the interior of the container 1 through this aperture. The material is passed to a twin-screw extruder 5 arranged tangentially on the container 1, where the housing 16 of the extruder 5 has, situated in its jacket wall, an intake aperture 80 for the material to be received by the screws 6. This type of embodiment has the advantage that the screws 6 can be driven from the lower ends 7 in the drawing by a drive, depicted only diagrammatically, in such a way that the upper ends of the screws 6 in the drawing can be kept free from the drive. The discharge aperture for the plastified or agglomerated plastics material conveyed by the screws 6 can therefore be arranged at this upper end, e.g. in the form of an extruder head not depicted. The plastics material can therefore be conveyed without deflection by the screws 6 through the discharge aperture; this is not readily possible in the embodiments according to FIGS. 3 and 4.

(14) There is a connection for conveying of material or for transfer of material between the intake aperture 80 and the aperture 8, and in the present case this connection to the aperture 8 is direct and immediate and involves no prolonged intervening section and no separation. All that is provided is a very short transfer region.

(15) In the housing 16, two cylindrical screws 6 with compressing effect are each mounted such as to be able to rotate around their longitudinal axis 15. As an alternative, the screws may also be conical, as shown in FIG. 2. The extruder 5 conveys the material in the direction of the arrow 17. The extruder 5 is a conventional twin-screw extruder known per se in which the softened plastics material is compressed and thus melted, and the melt is then discharged at the opposite end, at the extruder head.

(16) In the embodiment according to FIG. 1 the two screws 6 are arranged vertically one above the other, and in the embodiment according to FIG. 2 the two screws 6 are arranged horizontally one next to the other.

(17) The two screws 6 rotate in opposite directions and are therefore counter-rotating screws.

(18) The mixing and/or comminution implements 3 or the blades 14 are at approximately the same level as the central longitudinal axis 15 of the lowest screw 6 in FIG. 1 or of the screw 6 adjacent to the intake aperture 80. The outermost ends of the blades 14 have adequate separation from the flights of the screws 6.

(19) In the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 and 2, the extruder 5 is, as mentioned, attached tangentially to the container 1, or runs tangentially in relation to its cross section. In the drawings, the imaginary continuation of the central longitudinal axis 15 of the lower screw 6 or of the screw 6 adjacent to the intake aperture 80 in a direction opposite to the direction 17 of conveying of the extruder 5 towards the rear passes the axis 10 of rotation and does not intersect it. On the outflow side, there is an offset distance 18 between the longitudinal axis 15 of said screw 6 and the radius 11 that is associated with the container 1 and that is parallel to the longitudinal axis 15 and that proceeds outwards from the axis 10 of rotation of the mixing and/or comminution implement 3 in the direction 17 of conveying of the conveyor 5. In the present case, the imaginary continuation of the longitudinal axis 15 towards the rear does not pass through the space within the container 1, but instead passes it at a short distance.

(20) The distance 18 is somewhat greater than the radius of the container 1. There is therefore a slight outward offset of the extruder 5, or the intake region is somewhat deeper.

(21) The expressions “opposite”, “counter-” and “in an opposite sense” here mean any orientation of the vectors with respect to one another which is not acute-angled, as explained in detail below.

(22) In other words, the scalar product of a direction vector 19 which is associated with the direction 12 of rotation and the orientation of which is tangential to the circle described by the outermost point of the mixing and/or comminution implement 3 or tangential to the plastics material passing the aperture 8, and which points in the direction 12 of rotation or movement of the mixing and/or comminution implements 3, and of a direction vector 17 which is associated with the direction of conveying of the extruder 5 and which proceeds in the direction of conveying parallel to the central longitudinal axis 15 of the screw 6 is everywhere zero or negative, at each individual point of the aperture 8 or in the region radially immediately in front of the aperture 8, and is nowhere positive.

(23) In the case of the intake aperture in FIGS. 1 and 2, the scalar product of the direction vector 19 for the direction 12 of rotation and of the direction vector 17 for the direction of conveying is negative at every point of the aperture 8.

(24) The angle α between the direction vector 17 for the direction of conveying and the direction vector for the direction 19 of rotation, measured at the point 20 that is associated with the aperture 8 and situated furthest upstream of the direction 12 of rotation, or at the edge associated with the aperture 8 and situated furthest upstream, is approximately maximally about 170°.

(25) As one continues to proceed downwards along the aperture 8 in FIG. 2, i.e. in the direction 12 of rotation, the oblique angle between the two direction vectors continues to increase. In the centre of the aperture 8, the angle between the direction vectors is about 180° and the scalar product is maximally negative, and further downwards from there the angle indeed becomes >180° and the scalar product in turn decreases, but still remains negative. However, these angles are no longer termed angles α, since they are not measured at point 20.

(26) An angle β, not included in the drawing in FIG. 2, measured in the centre of the aperture 8, between the direction vector for the direction 19 of rotation and the direction vector for the direction 17 of conveying is about 178° to 180°.

(27) The apparatus according to FIG. 2 represents the first limiting case or extreme value. This type of arrangement can provide a very non-aggressive stuffing effect or a particularly advantageous feed, and this type of apparatus is particularly advantageous for sensitive materials which are treated in the vicinity of the melting range, or for product in the form of long strips.

(28) FIGS. 3 and 4 serve only for illustrating the connection possibilities of the extruder with regard to the direction of rotation of the implements. The values for L, B and A are not depicted.

(29) FIG. 3 shows an alternative embodiment in which an extruder 5 comprising two counter-rotating screws 6 arranged vertically one above the other is not attached tangentially to the container 1 but instead is attached by its end 7. The screws 6 and the housing 16 of the extruder 5 have been adapted in the region of the aperture 8 to the shape of the inner wall of the container 1, and have been offset backwards so as to be flush. No part of the extruder 5 or of the screws 6 protrudes through the aperture 8 into the space within the container 1.

(30) The distance 18 here corresponds to about 5 to 10% of the radius 11 of the container 1 and to about half of the internal diameter d of the housing 16. This embodiment therefore represents the second limiting case or extreme value with the smallest possible offset or distance 18, where the direction 12 of rotation or of movement of the mixing and/or comminution implements 3 is at least slightly opposite to the direction 17 of conveying of the extruder 5, and specifically across the entire area of the aperture 8.

(31) The scalar product in FIG. 3 at that threshold point 20 situated furthest upstream is precisely zero, where this is the point located at the edge that is associated with the aperture 8 and situated furthest upstream. The angle α between the direction vector 17 for the direction of conveying and the direction vector for the direction 19 of rotation, measured at point 20 in FIG. 3, is precisely 90°. If one proceeds further downwards along the aperture 8, i.e. in the direction of rotation, the angle between the direction vectors becomes ever greater and becomes an oblique angle >90°, and at the same time the scalar product becomes negative. However, at no point, or in no region of the aperture 8, is the scalar product positive, or the angle smaller than 90°. No local overfeed can therefore occur even in a subregion of the aperture 8, and no detrimental excessive stuffing effect can occur in a region of the aperture 8.

(32) This also represents a decisive difference in relation to a purely radial arrangement, since there would be an angle α<90° at point 20 or at the edge 20′ in a fully radial arrangement of the extruder 5, and those regions of the aperture 8 situated, in the drawing, above the radius 11 or upstream thereof or on the inflow side thereof would have a positive scalar product. It would thus be possible for locally melted plastics product to accumulate in these regions.

(33) FIG. 4 depicts another alternative embodiment in which an extruder 5 comprising two counter-rotating screws 6 arranged vertically one above the other is somewhat further offset than in FIG. 3 on the outflow side, but still not tangentially as in FIGS. 1 and 2. In the present case, as also in FIG. 3, the rearward imaginary continuation of the longitudinal axis of the screws 6 passes through the space within the container 1 in the manner of a secant. As a consequence of this, the aperture 8 is—measured in the circumferential direction of the container 1—wider than in the embodiment according to FIG. 3. The distance 18 is also correspondingly greater than in FIG. 3, but somewhat smaller smaller than the radius 11. The angle α measured at point 20 is about 150°, and the stuffing effect is therefore reduced in comparison with the apparatus of FIG. 3; this is more advantageous for certain sensitive polymers. The inner wall of the housing 16 or the right-hand-side inner edge, as seen from the container 1, is tangential to the container 1, and therefore, unlike in FIG. 3, there is no oblique transitional edge. At this point that is associated with the aperture 8 and situated furthest downstream, on the extreme left-hand side in FIG. 4, the angle is about 180°.