# US 10,500,593 B2 · Manufacturing method and manufacturing device for animal excrement treatment material > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,500,593 B2 - Document ID: US10500593B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/022,930 - Filed: 2014-08-04 - Published: 2016-08-11 - Granted: 2019-12-10 - Earliest claimed: 2013-09-19 - Assignees: Unicharm Corporation - Applicants: Uni-Charm Corporation - Inventors: Chiyo Takagi; Takeshi Ikegami - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10500593B2 ## CPC - B02C 25/00: Control arrangements specially adapted for crushing or disintegrating - A01K 1/0152: {Litter} - B02C 23/08: Separating or sorting of material, associated with crushing or disintegrating (B02C23/18 takes precedence {; beater mills combined with sifting devices B02C13/13, B02C13/14; for tumbling mills B02C17/1835}) - B02C 23/10: with separator arranged in discharge path of crushing or disintegrating zone - B07B 1/42: Drive mechanisms, regulating or controlling devices, or balancing devices, specially adapted for screens - B02C: CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING IN GENERAL; MILLING GRAIN ({household tools and machines for pulverising foodstuffs, e.g. coffee and spice mills A47J42/00; pharmaceutical mortars A61J3/02; mechanical processing of refuse and garbage B03B9/06; dressing mould materials by grinding B22C5/04}; obtaining metallic powder by crushing, grinding or milling B22F9/04; {recovery of plastics by disintegrating B29B17/00; crushing raw materials in starch making C08B30/02; beaters for papermaking D21D1/02; crushing devices specially for transport in mines E21F13/002; slag crushing devices F23J1/00; fuel milling devices in combustion apparatus F23K1/00; household devices for crushing coal F24B15/02; ice disintegrating devices F25C5/02}) - A01K: ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS - B07B: SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS BY SIEVING, SCREENING, SIFTING OR BY USING GAS CURRENTS; SEPARATING BY OTHER DRY METHODS APPLICABLE TO BULK MATERIAL, e.g. LOOSE ARTICLES FIT TO BE HANDLED LIKE BULK MATERIAL (wet separating processes, sorting by processes using fluent material in the same way as liquid B03; combinations of dry separating apparatus with wet separating apparatus B03B; using liquids B03B, B03D; sorting by magnetic or electrostatic separation of solid materials from solid materials or fluids, separation by high voltage electric fields B03C; centrifuges or vortex apparatus for carrying out physical processes B04; hand sorting, postal sorting, sorting by switching or other devices actuated in response to detection or measurement of some feature of articles or samples of material B07C) ## Abstract A manufacturing method for an animal excrement treatment material includes: a granulating step; a sorting step at which granules are sorted by a sieve to form an animal excrement treatment material; and a quality control step that includes an extracting step at which a sample is extracted, a comparison data calculating step at which the surface area per unit weight of the sample is obtained, and a sieve replacement step at which the sieve is replaced on the basis of the comparison data. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of manufacturing animal excrement disposal materials, said method comprising: a granulating step of granulating a raw material including pulverizing bentonite into granules, a sorting step of sorting the granules with a sieve having a prescribed mesh size to obtain the animal excrement disposal materials, a quality control step using quality control equipment, and a processing step of processing the animal excrement disposal materials obtained at the sorting step, wherein the quality control step includes: an extracting step of extracting a sample from the animal excrement disposal materials obtained at the sorting step and not yet processed at the processing step, a comparison data calculating step of obtaining a surface area per unit weight of the sample as comparison data, and a sieve replacing step of replacing the sieve based on the comparison data. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a prescribed numerical value of the surface area per unit weight is provided as reference data in the quality control step, and the quality control step further includes a comparing step of comparing the comparison data with the reference data. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the sieve includes a current sieve being in use in the sorting step and a standby sieve having a different mesh size from the current sieve, and the current sieve is replaced with the standby sieve in the sieve replacing step. ### Claim 4 A method of manufacturing animal excrement disposal materials, said method comprising: a granulating step of granulating a raw material including pulverizing bentonite into granules, a sorting step of sorting the granules with a sieve having a prescribed mesh size to obtain the animal excrement disposal materials, a quality control step using quality control equipment, and a processing step of processing the animal excrement disposal materials obtained at the sorting step, wherein the quality control step includes: an extracting step of extracting a sample to be measured from the animal excrement disposal materials obtained at the sorting step and not yet processed at the processing step, a comparison data calculating step of obtaining a surface area of the sample as comparison data, and a sieve replacing step of replacing the sieve based on the comparison data. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method as defined in claim 4, wherein a prescribed numerical value of the surface area is provided as reference data in the quality control step, and the quality control step further includes a comparing step of comparing the comparison data with the reference data. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the sieve includes a current sieve being in use in the sorting step and a standby sieve having a different mesh size from the current sieve, and the current sieve is replaced with the standby sieve in the sieve replacing step. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the sorting step includes a first sorting step by a first current sieve to obtain first animal excrement disposal materials from the granules, and a second sorting step by a second current sieve to obtain second animal excrement disposal materials from the granules, the first and second current sieves having different mesh size from each other, the processing step includes a mixing step of mixing the first and second animal excrement disposal materials obtained respectively in the first and second sorting steps. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method as defined in claim 7, wherein the first sorting step and the second sorting step are simultaneously performed. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) The method as defined in claim 7, wherein the mixing step includes a flow control step of adjusting a mixing ratio of the first animal excrement disposal materials and the second animal excrement disposal materials, and a mixture quality control step of controlling flow rates of the first animal excrement disposal materials and the second animal excrement disposal materials. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the flow control step is performed based on a control result in the mixture quality control step. ### Claim 11 (depends on 4) The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the sorting step includes a first sorting step by a first current sieve to obtain first animal excrement disposal materials from the granules, and a second sorting step by a second current sieve to obtain second animal excrement disposal materials from the granules, the first and second current sieves having different mesh size from each other, the processing step includes a mixing step of mixing the first and second animal excrement disposal materials obtained respectively in the first and second sorting steps. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method as defined in claim 11, wherein the first sorting step and the second sorting step are simultaneously performed. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The method as defined in claim 11, wherein the mixing step includes a flow control step of adjusting a mixing ratio of the first animal excrement disposal materials and the second animal excrement disposal materials, and a mixture quality control step of controlling flow rates of the first animal excrement disposal materials and the second animal excrement disposal materials. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method as defined in claim 13, wherein the flow control step is performed based on a control result in the mixture quality control step.