In-facility waste handling method
AssigneeCtps LLC
InventorIngo Gnuechtel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A recycling apparatus for positioning within a canning facility receives pallets of damaged or otherwise unusable unfilled aluminum cans, and discharges the layers of cans within a depalletizer into a discharge chute which communicates with the hopper of a baler which compresses the cans and forms a compact bale which is then shipped to a recycled metal processor. The apparatus may be operated as a service to the canner charged on a per pound recovered basis.
Claims10
A method of disposing of palletized aluminum cans without lids comprising the steps of:
- using a depalletizer to unload palletized aluminum cans into an apparatus which reduces the volume of the palletized aluminum cans;
- and
- transporting the cans thus reduced in volume to recycling, wherein the step of using a depalletizer to unload palletized aluminum cans into an apparatus which reduces the volume of the palletized aluminum cans, comprises:
- freely feeding an entire layer of aluminum cans without lids supported on a sheet of a pallet loaded with aluminum cans without lids, wherein the layer of aluminum cans without lids has a rectangular array having a length and a width;
- ejecting the entire layer of aluminum cans without lids through a depalletizer opening which passes an entire row of cans without lids defining the width of the layer of aluminum cans without lids, thereby feeding simultaneously all the cans without lids in the row directly from the depalletizer opening onto a chute having an inclined bottom wall and side walls which extend upwardly from the inclined bottom wall, wherein the side walls converge toward each other as the chute extends away from the depalletizer opening;
- conveying said ejected entire row of cans without lids fed into the chute to disorder the cans without lids such that the cans without lids tip off a can vertical axis and proceed along the chute to a hopper, and feeding said entire row of cans without lids from the chute to a baler receiving the cans without lids from the hopper;
- and
- crushing the cans received within the baler to form a bale;
- and
- wherein the cans without lids of each layer are advanced into the baler through the chute having the side walls converging toward each other as the chute extends away from the depalletizer opening so the flow of cans without lids is disordered as it empties into the hopper.
A method of disposing of palletized aluminum cans without lids for recycling, the method comprising the steps of:
- introducing into a depalletizer having a frame a pallet having multiple layers of aluminum cans without lids, each layer being supported on a sheet;
- actuating a pusher within the depalletizer to feed each layer of aluminum cans without lids through a discharge opening in the frame directly onto a downwardly extending chute, the chute having upwardly extending side walls, thus causing an entire row of cans without lids to be fed into the chute thereby disordering the cans without lids to be tipped off a can vertical axis, and to advance by the force of gravity along the chute into a baler;
- wherein the cans without lids of each layer are advanced into the baler through the chute having the upwardly extending side walls converging toward each other as the chute extends away from the discharge opening so the flow of cans without lids is disordered as it empties into the baler;
- compressing the cans received within the baler into a dense bale of crushed aluminum;
- and
- transporting said dense bale of crushed aluminum to a remote location for recycling.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.