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(11) | EP 3 795 255 A1 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
| published in accordance with Art. 153(4) EPC |
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| (54) | PET BOTTLE CRUSHER |
| (57) The present invention relates to a PET bottle crusher capable of easily crushing
even sealed PET bottles, the PET bottle crusher comprising: a PET bottle input part;
a PET bottle crushing part connected below the PET bottle input part and crushing
an inputted PET bottle; a transfer part connected to the PET bottle crushing part
and transferring crushed PET fragments; a content receiving part installed below the
transfer part and receiving content falling from the crushed PET bottle or the transferred
PET fragments; and a PET fragment receiving part provided to the end of the transfer
part and receiving the transferred PET fragments, wherein the PET bottle crushing
part may comprise an internal pressure removing part for removing internal pressure
from the PET bottle by forming a predetermined hole in the inputted PET bottle, and
a main crushing part for crushing the PET bottle from which internal pressure has
been removed. |
[Field of Invention]
[0001] The present invention relates to a PET bottle crusher, and more particularly, to a PET bottle crusher that can easily crush a PET bottle in a closed state.
[Background of Invention]
[0002] In general, liquid foods such as bottled water, beverages and ketchup are provided to consumers packaged in a PET bottle, which is commonly known as a lightweight and unbreakable polyethylene terephthalate container, in consideration of cost and safety.
[0003] The liquid food packaged in such a PET bottle is manufactured by a process of putting contents into a washed PET bottle, sealing the same with a lid and then attaching a label containing an item name, a barcode or ingredients, and ismanufactured infacilities that can produce at least several tens up to several thousands of articles per second. However, in case of the conventional liquid food packaging equipment as described above, the production capacity is excellent but,if a mistake occurs in the packaging process, for example, a label is incorrectly attached or a product defect occurs, it is not easy to stop the equipment. Further, even if the equipment is stopped, it takes time to stop the equipment and there is a problem that a large numberof product defects occurs, hence causing significant economicloss.
[0004] On the other hand, when the above problems occur, defect costs are typically reduced by recycling and using a large amount of PET bottles. However, in order to recycle PET bottles in large quantities, it is necessary to compress the PET bottles in order to decrease a volume thereof and then crush the same.
[0005] At this time, the PET bottle may be relatively easily compressed if the PET bottle has no content and the lid is already removed. However, when the PET bottle is filled with contents as described above and is in a closed state, the PET bottle may explode due to a pressure generated during compression. Therefore, it is not easy to crush PET bottles.
[0006] Therefore, conventionally, after tearing off the label by hand for recycling the bottles, the lids are removed or the bottles are punctured by a screw-driver, etc., and then the contents of the bottles are poured out to prepare the bottles for compression and collection, following by further pressing the same using a working vehicle such as a forklift. However, the conventional method requires a lot of time and labor because a worker manually works by hand, defect-free recycling of contents is impossible due to foreign matter(or impurities) introduced into the contents in the process of collecting the contents from the PET bottles, and foreign mattermay also be introduced into the PET bottles due to compression in a working vehicle, hence entailing low efficiency in PET bottle recycling.
[Summary of Invention]
[Technical Problem to be Solved]
[0007] The present invention has been proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring when recycling PET bottles, and an object of the present invention is to provide a PET bottle crusher capable of easily crushing a closedPET bottle to reduce manual labor, shorten a working time and prevent foreign matterfrom entering recycled contents or PET bottles.
[Technical Solution]
[0008] The PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention to solve the above problems may include: a PET bottle input unit; a PET bottle crushing unit tocrush the PET bottle,which is connected under the PET bottle input unit; a transfer unit connected to the PET bottle crushing unit to transport the crushed PET pieces; and a content receiving unit, which is disposed under the transfer unitto receive contents flowing down from the crushed PET bottle or the transported PET pieces, and a PET piece receiving unit, which is provided at the distal end of the transfer unit to receive the transported PET pieces, wherein the PET bottle crushing unit may include an internal pressure removal member to perforate a predetermined hole in the introduced PET bottle and remove internal pressure, and a main crushing member to crush the PET bottle with removed internal pressure.
[0009] In this regard, the internal pressure removal member may include two internal pressure removal devices, each of which includes a plurality of auger blades and rotary blades formed to intersect with each other at a predetermined interval along a rotational axis, are disposed opposite to each other at a predetermined interval, wherein these two internal pressure removal devices can rotate in opposite directions.
[0010] Further, the crushing unit may further include a pinch (or jam) preventing member to prevent the crushed PET bottle from rotating along two grinders constituting the main crushing member, and the jam preventing member may include two jam preventing devices which are spaced apart and disposed outside the above two grinders, respectively,in order to correspondto the same, wherein eachjam preventing device includes a plurality of cutter blades axially coupled at a predetermined interval, and both jam preventing devices may rotate in reverse directions with respect to rotational directions of the two grinders, respectively.
[0011] Further, the PET bottle crusher may further include a vibrator installed to hit by rotational force of one of the two jam preventing devices in order to generate vibration, wherein the vibrator is connected to the transfer unit to transport PET pieces by vibration.
[0012] Further, the PET bottle crusher may be further provided with a washing device having a spraying range encompassing the internal pressure removal member and the main crushing member.
[Effect of Invention]
[0014] The PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention may easily crush a PET bottle in a closed state so as to reduce manual labor, shorten a working time, prevent foreign matter from entering recycled contents or PET bottles, and crush different PET bottles, thereby achieving excellent utility and high crushing efficiency and safety.
[Brief Description of Drawings]
[0015]
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating the PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from the side.
FIG. 2 illustrates a PET bottle crushing process using the PET bottle crusher shown in FIG. 1.
FIGS. 3(a) to 3(c) are views for explaining a PET bottle input unit which is one configuration of the PET bottle crusher shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 shows an operation algorithm of an upper barrier shown in FIGS. 3(b) and 3(c).
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a PET bottle crusher, which is one configuration of the PET bottle crusher of FIG. 1.
FIGS. 6(a) to 6(c) are front views of devices included in the PET bottle crushing unit of FIG. 5.
FIG. 7 illustrates a connection configuration of the devices and a reduction motor configured in the PET bottle crushing unit.
FIG. 8 is a schematic view illustrating a state in which all of the configurations further implemented in the present invention are provided.
[Preferred Embodiments for Carrying Out Invention]
[0016] Hereinafter, the description of the present invention with reference to the drawings is not limited to specific embodiments, and various changes may be added and various embodiments may be provided. In addition, the subject matterdescribed below should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutions included in the spirit and technical scope of the present invention.
[0017] In the following description, terms such as "first" and "second" are terms used to describe various components, and are not limited in the meanings themselves, and are used only to distinguish one component from other components.
[0018] The same reference numerals used throughout the present specification refer to the same constitutional elements.
[0019] As used herein, the singular forms include plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.In addition, the terms "comprise", "provide" or "have" described below should be construed to designate the existence of features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification. Further, it is to be understood that the presence or possibility of addition of one or more other features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof are not excluded in advance.
[0020] Hereinafter, the PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8.
[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating the PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from the side, and FIG. 2 illustrates a PET bottle crushing process using the PET bottle crusher shown in FIG. 1.
[0022] First, the present invention will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a crusher housing 10, a PET bottle input unit 100, a PET bottle crushing unit 200, and a transfer unit 300, a content receiving unit 400 anda PET piece receiving unit 500. Specifically, the crusher housing 10 forms an external appearance to protect the PET bottle crusher of the present invention, in which a predetermined space is present to accommodate the PET bottle input unit 100, the PET bottle crushing unit 200, a part of the transfer unit 300 and the content receiving unit 400. Further, the crusher housing 10 may be provided with a moving wheel (not shown) at the bottom surface to move the same, or a compression pad 15 to fix the housing to the ground. When the moving wheel is installed, a stopper (not shown) for restricting movement of the wheel may be further provided.
[0023] The PET bottle input unit 100 is a place throughwhich the PET bottle (PT) is dropped into the crusher, and the PET bottle crushing unit 200 may be located below the PET bottle input unit 100 to finely crush or pulverize PTs dropping from the input unit, resulting in PET pieces (PG).
[0024] Further, the transfer unit 300 is connected to the lower side of the PET bottle crushing unit 200 to define a length in one direction, and may transport the crushed and dropped PET pieces to one side. The content receiving unit 400 is provided below the transfer unit 300 and may accommodate contents L such as liquid or the like contained in the PET bottle dropped along with the contents during or after crushing.
[0025] In addition, a PET piece receiving unit 500 may be provided at the distal end of the transfer unit 300 to accommodate the transported PET pieces (PG).
[0026] Herein, one feature of the present invention is to remove internal pressure of the PET bottle before crushing the PET bottle and, for this purpose, aninternal pressure removal member 210 may be provided in the PET bottle crushing unit 200. The internal pressure removal member 210 will be concretely described later with reference to FIGS. 3 to 8.
[0027] The PET bottle crusher according to an embodiment of the present invention as described above may easily crush even a PET bottle closed with a lid ("capped PET bottle") by removing the internal pressure of the PET bottle, and therefore, have an advantage of increasing crushing efficiency because of improved compression rate of the PET bottle.
[0028] Hereinafter, each configuration of the above-mentioned PET bottle crusher will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 8.
[0029] FIGS. 3 (a) to 3(c) are views for explaining a PET bottle input unit which is one configuration of the PET bottle crusher shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 shows an operation algorithm of an upper barrier shown in FIGS. 3(b) and 3(c), and FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a PET bottle crusher, which is one configuration of the PET bottle crusher of FIG. 1.
[0030] FIGS. 6 (a) to 6(c) are front views of devices included in the PET bottle crushing unit of FIG. 5, FIG. 7 illustrates a connection configuration of the devices and a reduction motor configured in the PET bottle crushing unit, and FIG. 8 is a schematic view illustrating a state in which all of the configurations further implemented in the present invention are provided.
[0031] Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the PET bottle input unit 100 may be positioned at an upper portion of the PET bottle crusher and have an inlet 110 formed at one end thereof in side direction, wherein the inlet 110 may be formed to protrude more than the crusher housing 10. This facilitates introduction of the PET bottle, without necessarily being limited thereto. Instead, the PET bottle input unit 100 may have an inlet 110 formed at an upper end thereof.
[0032] Further, the PET bottle input unit 100 may be provided with a drop hole 120 at the other end to face downward inside the crusher housing 10, so as to drop the introduced PET bottle down, wherein a connection surface between the inlet 110 and the drop hole 120 may be formed to be partially or entirely inclined. Herein, although not shown in the drawings, a roller conveyor (not shown) may be installed on a lower connection surface between the inlet 110 and the drop hole 120, so as to easily deliver the introduced PET bottle to the drop hole 120.
[0033] Further, in order to prevent a worker (or operator) from accidentally entering the crusher, or to prevent a large amount of PET bottles from being introduced into the PET bottle crushing unit 200 and causing devicefailure, an upper barrier 130 acting to seal the PET input unit 100 while opening the same only when the PET bottle is crushed may be further provided.
[0034] Specifically, the upper barrier 130 may be installed to be upright or inclined at an upper connection surface between the inlet 110 and the drop hole 120, in order to seal a part of the PET bottle input unit 100. Further, the upper barrier 130 may be formed to rotate by automatic or manual control or to move linearly in the opposite direction to the installation direction, so as to open the PET bottle input unit 100. That is, the upper barrier 130 is normally upright downward or inclined while protruding with respect to the upper connection surface so that the PET bottle or the worker does not pass through the PET bottle input unit 100. On the other hand, under control, the upper barrier may rotate or go straight upward to face the upper connection surface or protrude upward through the upper connection surface.
[0035] Further, the upper barrier 130 may be interlocked with different sensors installed in the PET bottle crusher for automatic control, and the sensors may include, for example, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a photo sensor, a pressure sensor, a weight sensor, and the like, but are not limited thereto. That is, all sensors capable of detecting the worker and the PET bottle may be included.
[0036] For example, an ultrasonic sensor or an infrared sensor may be provided on one surface of the crusher housing 10 having the inlet 110, so as to sense motion of a worker. Further, the inlet 110 may be provided with a pressure sensor or a weight sensor in order to sense a pressure or weight of the PET bottle. In this case, the upper barrier 130 may be interlocked with the sensors wherein, when the worker is detected by the ultrasonic sensor or the infrared sensor, the upper barrier is not controlled and, when the worker is not detected by the ultrasonic sensor or the infrared sensor, a weight is measured by the pressure sensor or the weight sensor so as to determine whether to control opening/closing of the upper barrier 130.
[0037] In other words, as shown in the algorithm shown in FIG. 4, the upper barrier 130 may be formed to open the PET bottle input unit 100 when a weight of the PET bottle introduced into the inlet 110 reaches an appropriate weight range. The above operation may be performed only when no operator is detected by the ultrasonic sensor or the infrared sensor.That is, when an operator is detected by the ultrasonic sensor or the infrared sensor, the upper barrier 130 does not open the PET bottle input unit 100, thereby achieving safety of the operator even if the PET bottle reaches an appropriate weight range.
[0038] Due to this, the PET bottle input unit 100 may prevent the operator from accidently slipping into the PET bottle input unit and being sucked into the PET bottle crushing unit 200 when the operator puts the PET bottle or the like into the same. Further, only a proper amount of PET bottles flows into the input unit to prevent generation of load in the above device. In addition, there is an advantage that the PET bottle crusher is not always operated but only when necessary, thereby reducing operation costs of the crusher.
[0039] On the other hand, the PET bottle input unit 100 may be provided with a metal detector (not shown) for detecting introduction of metal. When the metal detector (not shown) detects metal, the upper barrier 130 is not open and may prevent the metal from flowing into the PET bottle crushing unit 200.
[0040] The PET bottle input unit 100 as described above may facilitate introduction of the PET bottle into the PET bottle crushing unit 200, may be provided with different safety devices to ensure safety of the operator, and can prevent damage to the apparatus.
[0041] Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the PET bottle crushing unit 200 may be connected to a lower side of the PET bottle input unit 100 in order to crush PET bottles introduced therein. For this purpose, an internal pressure removal member 210 and a main crushing member 230 are included in the crushing unit and a jam preventing member 250 may be further included. Specifically, the internal pressure removal member 210 is configured to firstly remove internal pressure of the PET bottle before crushing the PET bottle as described above, may be disposed on top of the PET bottle crushing unit 200 adjacent to the drop hole 120, and may include two internal pressure removal devices 220 that face each other and rotate in opposite directions.
[0042] In this regard, each of the internal pressure removal devices 220 may include a first rotary shaft 221 with a predetermined length, a plurality of rotary blades 222 coupled at a predetermined interval along an axis of the first rotary shaft 221, and a plurality of auger blades 223 formed along the axis of the first rotary shaft 221 so as to intersect with the rotary blades 222, wherein bearings may be coupled at both ends of the first rotary shaft 221, and a first power transmission gear 224 may be provided at one end of the first rotary shaft in order to transmit or receive power generated from a reduction motor 270 described below.
[0043] The internal pressure removal member 210 includes the internal pressure removal devices 220 described above, which are disposed opposite on both sides at a predetermined interval to rotate in opposite directions to each other. At this time, the PET bottle dropped from the PET bottle input unit 100 may be punctured by the sharp auger blade 223 to remove internal pressure. Further, the PET bottle may also be compressed and crushed by the rotary blade 220.
[0044] As such, a PET bottle opened without a lid, as well as a PET bottle sealed with a lid, can be easily punctured with the sharp auger blade 223, so as to reduce internal pressure. Further, the PET bottle with reduced internal pressure has low resistance uponreaching the main crushing unit 230, thus improving crushing efficiency. In addition, even if the PET bottle is filled with content, the content may be taken out before crushing, thus achieving an advantage of decreasing deviceload.
[0045] Meanwhile, the auger blade 223 of the internal pressure removal device 220 is preferably formed to have a smaller length than an outer circumference of the rotary blade 222.This is because, if the auger blade 223 is longer than the outer circumference of the rotary blade 222, the PET bottle may be jammed therebetween and cannot continuously rotate along the internal pressure removal device 220.
[0046] The main crushing member 230 may be formed below the internal pressure removal member 210 to crush the PET bottle from which the internal pressure has been removed, and may include two grinders 240 that face each other and rotate in opposite directions to each other.
[0047] Herein, eachgrinder 240 may include a second rotary shaft 241 with a predetermined length and a plurality of grinding blades 242 coupled at a predetermined interval along an axis of the second rotary shaft 241, wherein bearings may be coupled to both ends of the second rotary shaft 241.
[0048] Further, one of the two grinders 240 may be provided with a first connection pulley 243 to receive power of the reduction motor 270, and a second connection pulley 244 to transmit the received power to the jam preventing devices 260 described later. Further, a second power transmission gear 245 may be provided to transmit power to the internal pressure removal member 210 or the other grinder 240. Such a power transmission structure will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 7.
[0049] The grinder 240 may be formed such that the grinding blades 242 are spaced apart by a width of the grinding blade 242 so that the grinding blades 242 of the two grinders 240 can cross-rotate with each other. That is, the grinding blades 242 of one grinder 240 may rotate with spaced distances between the grinding blades 242 of the other grinder 240. Accordingly, the grinders 240 may have a narrow distance therebetween and efficiently crush the PET bottle with removed internal pressure, there by generating PET pieces.
[0050] The jam preventing member 250 is provided to prevent the crushed PET bottle from rotating together with rotation of the grinder 240, and may include two jam preventing devices 260 spaced apart and disposed outside the two grinders 240, respectively, in order to correspond to the same.
[0051] In this case,eachjam preventing device 260 may include a third rotary shaft 261 with a predetermined length and a plurality of cutter blades 262 coupled at a predetermined interval along an axis of the third rotary shaft 261, wherein bearings may be coupled to both ends of the third rotary shaft 261, and a third connection pulley 263 may be provided at oneend of the third rotary shaft 261 corresponding to a position of the second connection pulley 244 so as to be connected to the second connection pulley 244.
[0052] The jam preventing device 260 may be formed such that a spacing between the cutter blades 262 corresponds to a width between the grinding blades 242 of the grinder 240, so that the cutter blades can cross-rotate with the grinding blades 242 of the grinder 240, respectively. In this case, the jam preventing device 260 may rotate in a reverse direction with respect to the rotational direction of the grinder 240. Accordingly, the PET bottle rotating in the rotational direction may be pushed in the opposite direction, and the PET bottle not yet crushed may also be crushed by the jam preventing device together with the grinder 240.
[0053] As such, the PET bottle crushing unit 200 may firstly remove internal pressure of the PET bottle and crush the PET bottle through the internal pressure removal member 210, secondly crush the same through the main crushing member 230, and serve to prevent backflow of the PET bottle and crush the same through the jam preventing member 250. Therefore, the present invention has excellent crushing efficiency and achieves effects of minimizing load applied to the apparatus. On the other hand, the PET bottle crushing unit 200 may be provided with a guide plate 205 to guide the PET bottle to the internal pressure removal member 220 in the upper portion connected to the PET bottle input unit 100, wherein the devices 220, 240 and 260 of the internal pressure removal member 210, the main crushing member 230 and the jam preventing member 250, respectively, are belt- or chain-connected through the power transmission gears 224 and 245 or the connection pulleys 243, 244 and 264, so as to use power generated from the single reduction motor 270. For this purpose, a direction switching gear 280 may be provided. Specifically, referring to FIG. 7, the reduction motor 270 may be connected through a belt or a chain to the grinder 240 having the first connection pulley 243 among the two grinders 240.
[0054] At this time, the first connection pulley 243 is preferably provided in the grinder 240 disposed close to the center for balance.In addition, the two grinders 240 have second power transmission gears245 corresponding to each other in order to transmit power generated by the reduction motor 270, thereby rotating the grinders in opposite directions. Further, the grinder 240 is provided with the second connection pulley 244, and the jam preventing device 260 is provided with the third connection pulley 263 belt- or chain-connected to the second connection pulley 244 to transmit power, thereby rotating the grinder and the jam preventing device in opposite directions to each other.
[0055] The direction switching gear 280 may be engaged with the second power transmission gear 245 at one side of the grinder 240 connected to the reduction motor 280 to thus rotate in the opposite direction, wherein the direction switching gear 280 is engaged with the first power transmission gear 224 provided in the internal pressure removal device 220, and the first power transmission gears 224 in the two internal pressure removal devices 220 can rotate while being engaged with each other.
[0056] Due to the above structure, only a single reduction motor 270 may be provided to drive all of the devices 220, 240 and 260 of the PET bottle crushing unit 200. The present invention includes only one reduction motor 270 and thus has an advantage of reducing weight or costs and the like.
[0057] A transfer unit 300 may be provided below the PET bottle crushing unit 200. The transfer unit 300 may have a length in one direction, along which PET pieces dropped from the PET bottle crushing unit 200 are transported in the direction. Specifically, anextended portion penetrating and protruding from one surface of the crusher housing 10 may be formed in the length described above.
[0058] More specifically, referring to FIG. 8, the transfer unit 300 may include a slope part 310 formed inside the crusher housing 10 and a straight part 320 protruding outside the crusher housing 10, wherein the bottom of the transfer unit 300 is configured asa mesh net (not shown) having a grid size through which PET pieces cannot pass while passing contents contained in the PET bottle.
[0059] Further, the straight part 320 may form a very slight and predetermined slope toward one side, and may be provided with a content transfer part 330 inclined toward the content receiving unit 400 under the straight part 320. Herein, the content transfer part 330 may pass through the slope part 310 to transport the content not dropped down to the content receiving unit 400.
[0060] Therefore, the contents may pass through the transfer unit 300 including the slope part 310 and the straight part 320, while being entirely discharged to the content receiving unit 400.
[0061] Meanwhile, the transfer unit 300 may generate vibration and transport the PET pieces. To this end, the PET bottle crusher of the present invention may further include a vibrator 340.
[0062] Specifically, the vibrator 340 may be associated with one of the two jam preventing devices 260 to generatevibration by hitting the same. For this purpose, a strike gear 265 (not shown in FIG. 6) to hit the vibrator 340 may be mounted on the jam preventing device corresponding to the vibrator 340. Therefore, the strike gear 265 rotates by rotation of the jam preventing device 260, while hitting the vibrator 340 with gear teeth.
[0063] Further, the vibrator 340 may be linked with the transfer unit 300, wherein the vibrator 340 is hit by the strike gear 265 and transmits vibration force to the transfer unit 300 through the link, thereby generating vibration. Further, the transfer unit 300 may transport PET pieces with vibration force.
[0064] Further, the transfer unit 300 may include a cover 350 above the straight part 30 protruding outside the crusher housing 10. In this regard, since the slope part 310 is positioned inside the crusher housing 10, PET pieces rarely escape the housing even when the vibrator 340 is operated. However, in the straight part 320, the PET pieces in the straight part 320possibly escape due to vibration. Therefore, using the cover 350 may enclose an upper portion of the straight part 320 so as to prevent the PET pieces from escaping the device. Herein, the cover 350 is preferably installed to rotate so as toopen the upper portion of the straight part 320 when not in use.
[0065] In addition, the transfer unit 300 may be provided with at least one magnetic body 360 on the bottom surface configured of a mesh net, so as to prevent metal or metal powder from dropping into the contents collected in the content receiving unit.
[0066] The magnetic body may be required because the PET bottle to be crushed is not limited to a PET bottle for recycling but a PET bottle with defects in appearance thereof such as a mislabeled bottle or an incorrect bar code imprinted thereon during manufacture, although there is no problem in contents thereof such as liquid. In order to recycle and use the contents such as liquid contained in the PET bottle having a problem in appearance, impurities or foreign matter must not be introduced therein.
[0067] For this reason, the magnetic body 360 is provided on the bottom surface of the transfer unit 300 to filter out magnetic foreign substances such as metal or metal powder generated from the devices 220, 240 and 260 of the PET bottle crushing unit 200.
[0068] The content receiving unit 400 may be positioned at the lower side of the transfer unit 300 to accommodate the contents dropped from the crushed PET bottle or the transported PET pieces.Further, the content receiving unit 400 may include at least one among a heater, a stirrer and an ultrasonic generator therein. This may be required because the content of the PET bottle is not limited to a liquid having low viscosity such as water or a beverage, but may also be a liquid having high viscosity such as ketchup, red pepper paste, or acidic red pepper paste, etc.
[0069] Accordingly, the content receivingunit 400 may be provided with at least one of the heater, the stirrer and the ultrasonic generator described above so as to prevent the content from being cured or hardening.
[0070] Meanwhile, if the content in the PET bottle is a highly viscous liquid, the PET bottle crusher of the present invention may further include a washing device 600 with a spraying range encompassing all of the internal pressure removal member 210, the main crushing member 230 and the jam preventing member 250, so as to prevent the viscous liquid from being cured in the devices 220, 240 and 260 of the PET bottle crushing unit 200, which in turn generates load.
[0071] Specifically, two washing devices 600 may be installed at both sides in order to correspond to the devices 220, 240, and 260 of the PET bottle crushing unit 200, and each washing device may be formed to spray waterover a range of120°.Accordingly, the washing device 600 may spray hot water or a rinsingsolution to the devices 220, 240 and 260, which are in charge of crushing, in order to prevent the high viscosity liquid substance from hardening or being cured, and to prevent deterioration incrushing efficiency. In addition, the PET piece receiving unit 500 may be provided at the distal end of the transfer unit 300 in order to accommodate the transported PET pieces, wherein the PET pieces accommodated in the PET piece receiving unit 500 may be recycled and used.
[0072] The PET bottle crusher configured as described above according to an embodiment of the present invention may easily crush a PET bottle in a closed state, thereby achieving excellent utility, as well as high crushing efficiency and safety.
[0073] As such, the embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be understood that those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. Accordingly, the embodiments described above are proposed only for illustrative purposes in all respects but not restrictive.
[Industrial Applicability]
1. A PET bottle crusher, comprising:
a PET bottle input unit;
a PET bottle crushing unit to crush the PET bottle, which is connected under the PET bottle input unit;
a transfer unit connected to the PET bottle crushing unit to transfer the crushed PET pieces;
a content receiving unit, which is disposed under the transfer unit to receive contents flowing down from the crushed PET bottle or the transported PET pieces; and
a PET piece receiving unit, which is provided at the distal end of the transfer unit to receive the transported PET pieces,
wherein the PET bottle crushing unit includes an internal pressure removal member to perforate a predetermined hole in the introduced PET bottle and remove internal pressure, and a main crushing member to crush the PET bottle with removed internal pressure.
2. The PET bottle crusher according to claim 1, wherein the internal pressure removal
member includes two internal pressure removal devices, eachof which includes a plurality
of auger blades and rotary blades formed to intersect with each other at a predetermined
interval along a rotary axis, are disposed opposite to each other at a predetermined
interval, and wherein these two internal pressure removal devices rotate in opposite
directions to each other.
3. The PET bottle crusher according to claim 1, wherein the crushing unit further includes
a jam preventing member to prevent the crushed PET bottle from rotating along with
two grinders constituting the main crushing member, and the jam preventing member
includestwo jam preventing devices which are spaced apart and disposed outside the
two grinders, respectively, in order to correspondto the same, wherein each jam preventing
device includes a plurality of cutter blades axially coupled at a predetermined interval,
and both jam preventing devices rotate in reverse directions with respect to rotational
directions of the two grinders, respectively.
4. The PET bottle crusher according to claim 3, further comprising a vibrator installed
to be hit by rotational force of one of the two jam preventing devices in order to
generate vibration, wherein the vibrator is connected to the transfer unit to transport
PET pieces by vibration.
5. The PET bottle crusher according to claim 1, further comprising a washing device installed
with a spraying range embracing the internal pressure removal member and the main
crushing member.
6. The PET bottle crusher according to claim 1, wherein the crushing unit is formed to
be operated by a single reduction motor.