Process of reclaiming rubber and refining reclaimed rubber
AssigneeU.S. Rubber Reclaiming Co., Inc.
InventorBryce Maxwell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Previously vulcanized rubber to be reclaimed is fed in particulate form (e.g. ground tire stock) together with reclaiming agents to a passageway between an essentially smooth stator and an essentially cylindrical rotor arranged to provide an axial shear zone therebetween in which the rubber is frictionally propelled by the rotor action and subjected at least to the generated pressure and heat and expelled axially through an orifice. The action may be assisted by mixing a suitable amount of previously reclaimed rubber or of unvulcanized rubber with or in advance of the particulate vulcanized rubber, and/or by supplemental heating. In other aspects of the invention, previously-reclaimed previously-vulcanized rubber is similarly fed and acted upon as a substitute for conventional refining operations.
Claims18
A process of reclaiming vulcanized rubber which comprises feeding said rubber into a peripheral portion of an axial shear zone between essentially smooth, generally radial, axially spaced opposed surfaces defined by an end face of a rotor and the inner face of an end wall of a stator having a central discharge orifice in said end wall and rotating said rotor at a selected speed with selected spacing between said axially opposed surfaces of said rotor and stator to subject said rubber to an alternate arcuate extension and chordal contraction produced by adherence of said rubber to said axially opposed surfaces as said rotor rotates relative to said stator and thereby subject said rubber to mechanical and thermal working with evolved pressure and heat and propel said rubber centripetally to and out of said central discharge orifice while controlling the temperature of said rotor, stator and rubber and regulating the rate of feed of said rubber, the speed of rotation of the rotor and the axial spacing between said axially opposed surfaces to control the amount of mechanical working of the rubber to produce reclaimed rubber of quality and properties dependent of said temperature, rate of feed, rotational speed and axial spacing.
A process of refining reclaimed rubber which comprises feeding said reclaimed rubber into a peripheral portion of an axial shear zone defined by essentially smooth, generally radial, axially spaced opposed surfaces defined by an end face of a rotor and the inner face of an end wall of a stator having a central discharge orifice in said end wall and rotating said rotor at a selected speed with selected spacing between said axially opposed surfaces to subject said rubber to alternate arcuate extension and chordal contraction produced by adherence of said rubber to said opposed surfaces as said rotor rotates relative to said stator and thereby subject said rubber to mechanical and thermal working with evolved heat and pressure and propel said rubber centripetally to and out of said central discharge orifice while controlling the temperature of said rotor, stator and rubber to and regulating the rate of feed of said rubber, the speed of rotation of the rotor and the axial spacing between said axially opposed surfaces to control the amount of mechanical working of the rubber to produce refined reclaimed rubber or quality and properties dependent of said temperature, rate of feed, rotational speed and axial spacing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.