Blast media recovery and cleaning system

A dense particle separator for cleaning heavy particles from blasting media, the dense particles separator comprising:

• a chamber for receiving bulk recycling materials;
• means for delivering the bulk recycling materials to be separated to the chamber;
• a fluidized bed incorporated into the chamber;
• air delivery means for delivering compressed air to the fluidized bed and arranged to pass the air upward through the bulk recycling materials to classify the agitated materials by specific gravity, the higher density materials falling towards the bottom of the chamber and the lower density materials piling over the denser materials and spilling out of the chamber into a media collection means;
• means for periodically discharging the materials collected within the chamber to a trash collection means;
• a frame for supporting the chamber;
• means for moving the chamber between a sealed position that retains the heavy materials within the chamber and a discharge position which discharges materials within the chamber to the trash collection means;
• and
• a knife carried by the frame and arranged for movement back and forth above the chamber to a withdrawn position that leaves the space above the chamber open, wherein when the knife is positioned in the sealed position, the chamber may be moved to the discharge position to discharge the materials disposed therein without discharging substantial portions of the blasting media.

A method of recovering recyclable plastic blasting media from bulk spent blasting materials, the method comprising the steps of:

• passing said bulk spent blasting materials through a first separator to remove a substantial portion of the lighter particles from said spent blasting materials;
• passing said bulk spent blasting materials through a second separator that separates the materials passing therethrough by size into large, medium and small groups, wherein the medium sized materials include substantially all of the recyclable plastic blasting media;
• and
• passing the medium sized materials into a dense particle separator to separate any non-reusable high density materials from said recyclable plastic blasting media, wherein said non-reusable high density materials are discharged from the dense particle separator and said recyclable plastic blasting media is delivered for reuse.

A blast media recovery system for recycling reusable plastic blasting media from bulk spent blasting materials, the system comprising:

• a first separator for remove a substantial portion of lighter particles from said spent blasting materials;
• a second separator for classifying the materials passing therethrough by size into a plurality of classes, wherein a selected one of the classes includes substantially all of said reusable plastic blasting media;
• and
• a dense particle separator coupled to said second separator for receiving said selected materials, said dense particles separator being arranged to separate any high density materials from the desirable reusable plastic blasting media, wherein said high density materials are discharged from said dense particle separator and said reusable plastic blasting media is delivered for reuse.

A blast media recovery system for recycling reusable plastic blasting media from bulk spent blasting materials, the system comprising:

• a first separator for removing a substantial portion of lighter particles from said spent blasting materials, such first separator being a cyclone separator;
• a second separator for classifying the materials passing therethrough by size into a plurality of classes, wherein a selected one of the classes includes substantially all of said reusable plastic blasting media;
• a dense particle separator coupled to said second separator for receiving said selected materials, said dense particle separator being arranged to separate any high density materials from the desirable reusable plastic blasting media, wherein said high density materials are discharged from said dense particle separator and said reusable plastic blasting media is delivered for reuse;
• a bulk storage tank for receiving said spent blasting materials exiting said first separator;
• a flow controller for monitoring the delivery of said spent blasting materials from said bulk storage tank to the second separator;
• an air lock disposed between said cyclone separator and said bulk storage tank;
• and
• a level detector mounted on said bulk storage tank for monitoring the level of spent blasting materials within said bulk storage tank, wherein when said level detector determines that the spent blasting material within said bulk storage tank exceeds a designated level, a signal is sent to shut down the supply of materials to said cyclone separator.

A blast media recovery and cleaning system for recycling reusable blasting media from spent blasting materials, the system comprising:

• a first separator for removing a substantial portion of the lighter particles from the spent blasting materials;
• a second separator, for classifying the materials passage therethrough by size into a plurality of classes, wherein a selected one of the classes includes substantially all of the reusable blasting media;
• a dense particle separator coupled to the second separator for receiving the selected materials, the dense particle separator being arranged to separate any high density materials from the desirable cleaned blasting media, wherein the high density materials are discharged from the dense particle separator and the cleaned blasting media is delivered for reuse comprising;
• a chamber for receiving the selected materials;
• air delivery means for delivering compressed air to the chamber and arranged to pass the air upward through the selected materials to agitate the selected materials to classify the agitated materials by specific gravity, the materials having higher specific gravities falling towards the bottom of the chamber and the materials having lower specific gravities piling over the higher density materials and spilling out of the chamber into a media collection means;
• means for periodically discharging the materials collected within the chamber to a trash collection means;
• a frame for supporting the chamber;
• means for moving the chamber between a sealed position that retains the high density materials within the chamber and a discharge position which discharges materials within the chamber to the trash collection means;
• a knife carried by the frame and arranged for movement above the chamber between a sealed position that seals above the chamber to a withdrawn position that leaves the space above the chamber open, wherein when the knife is positioned in the sealed position, the chamber may be moved to the discharge position without discharging substantial portions of the reusable blasting media;
• and
• control means for selectively moving the knife into the sealed position and for selectively moving the chamber into the discharge position, wherein the chamber is only moved into the discharge position after the knife has been moved into the sealed position and wherein the knife is returned to the open position only after the chamber has been returned to the sealed position.

A continuously operable blast media recovery and cleaning system for automatically recycling reusable plastic blasting media from spent blasting materials without requiring the assistance of an operator, the system comprising:

• a first separator for removing a substantial portion of the lighter particles from said spent blasting materials;
• intake mean for continuously delivering spent blasting media to said first separator;
• a second separator for separating the materials passing therethrough by size into large, medium and small groups, wherein the medium sized materials include substantially all of said reusable plastic blasting media;
• and
• a dense particle separator coupled to the second separator for receiving said medium sized materials, said dense particle separator being arranged to separate any high density materials from said reusable plastic blasting media, wherein said high density materials are discharged from said dense particle separator and said reusable plastic blasting media is delivered for reuse.