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US 4,025,990 AGranted
Process for reclaiming rubber, metal and fabric from whole tires
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorNorris G. Lovette, Jr,
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Scrap tires containing magnetic components and non-magnetic rubber and cord components are cooled in a cryogenic freezer to the embrittlement temperature, comminuted in a comminution device and passed through a series of screening and density classification operations followed by magnetic material separation and further cryogenic size reduction to produce a product rubber crumb having a particle size of about 1/20 inch or less.
Claims9
A process for the recovery of components in tire scrap having magnetic components and non-magnetic cord and rubber components combined therein comprising the steps of:
- (a) cooling the tire scrap in a first freezing zone to the embrittlement temperature;
- (b) comminuting the cooled scrap in a first comminution zone to effect a first size reduction thereof;
- (c) magnetically separating the discharge from the first comminuting zone into a magnetic fraction and a substantially non-magnetic rubber and cord fraction containing residual magnetic components;
- (d) separating the non-magnetic rubber and cord fraction in a first separating zone into at least a fine stream, an intermediate stream and a coarse stream;
- (e) subjecting at least the intermediate stream to density separation by pneumatic fluidization for forming at least a light fraction and a heavy fraction;
- (f) magnetically separating the residual magnetic components present in the heavy fraction from the non-magnetic components, thereby forming a purified rubber fraction;
- (g) subjecting the purified rubber fraction to a second size reduction by substantially simultaneous cryogenic freezing and grinding in a combined freezing-grinding zone to form purified fine rubber particles;
- and
- (h) separating the purified fine rubber particles in a second separation zone to form crumb having a particle size of about 1/20 of an inch or less and a coarse fraction and recovering the crumb as product.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.