Installation and process for sorting textile fibre-based materials

Abstract

Title: Installation and method for sorting textile fiber-based items. An installation for sorting items made from textile fibers to be recycled into at least one material and / or at least one color, for example cotton, including clothing, includes means for detecting the color or colors of each item to be sorted and / or the material or materials constituting each item to be sorted, including infrared (IR) detection means, particularly near-infrared (NIR), enabling the detection of the material or materials constituting the item to be sorted based on its infrared (IR) spectrum, particularly its near-infrared (NIR) spectrum. Items detected as being in at least one material and / or color are sent to first-output conveying means to form a first deposit.while the other elements detected as not being in at least one material and / or color are not sent to the first conveying means, is characterized in that the elements of the first deposit are conveyed into a cutting installation, the cutting installation being arranged to cut the elements into pieces, in particular each having a respective surface area, measured on one side only, of less than 400 cm², preferably between 25 and 100 cm², and means are provided for passing the pieces from the cutting installation into second means for detecting the material or materials constituting each piece to be sorted and / or the color or colors of each piece to be sorted, in particular second IR detection means, in particular NIR, the pieces detected as being in at least one material and / or color being sent to second conveying means of second output, to obtain a second deposit,while pieces detected as not being of at least one material and / or color are not sent to the second conveyor system of the second output. Figure for the abbreviation: Fig. 1,

Description

Title of the invention: Installation and method for sorting textile fiber-based elements

[0001] The present invention relates to an installation and a method for sorting items made from textile fibers, in particular clothing, especially used clothing, with a view to recycling the textile fibers.

[0002] It is already known to sort used clothing according to the textile fiber composition of these clothes, in particular by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy detection systems, which make it possible to determine the IR spectrum of the garment and consequently its composition, for example whether it is 100% cotton, 50-50 cotton polyester, 70-30 cotton polyester or similar.

[0003] However, these sorting facilities suffer from a great deal of inaccuracy regarding the compositions detected, in particular because the clothes subjected to infrared are only detected in terms of their materials and / or colors in their outer parts, while inner parts, for example pockets or linings, which are not detected, may not be of the same material and / or color, which distorts the results of the detection and the sorting that follows.

[0004] The present invention aims to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art by providing an installation and a method for sorting textile elements, in particular clothing, allowing for better quality sorting.

[0005] According to a first aspect of the invention, a sorting installation for items made from textile fibers to be recycled into at least one material and / or at least one color, for example into cotton, in particular clothing, includes means for detecting the color or colors of each item to be sorted and / or the material or materials constituting each item to be sorted, in particular infrared (IR) detection means, in particular near-infrared (NIR), enabling the detection of the material or materials constituting the item to be sorted based on its infrared (IR) spectrum, in particular its near-infrared (NIR) spectrum, the items detected as being in at least one material and / or color being sent to first first-output conveying means to form a first deposit, while the other items detected as not being in at least one material and / or color are not sent to the first conveying means,is characterized in that the elements from the first deposit are conveyed into a cutting installation, the cutting installation being arranged to cut the elements into pieces, in particular each having a respective surface area, measured on one side only, smaller, at 400 cm2, preferably between 25 and 100 cm2, and means are provided for passing the pieces from the cutting installation, through second means for detecting the material or materials constituting each piece to be sorted and / or the color or colors of each piece to be sorted, in particular second IR detection means, in particular NIR, the pieces detected as being in at least one material and / or color being sent to second second output conveying means, to obtain a second deposit, while the pieces detected as not being in at least one material and / or color not being sent to the second second output conveying means.

[0006] Thus, by making these cuts, particularly into pieces of various shapes, for example small tiles, for example having a surface area (measured on one side only) preferably less than 400 cm², particularly between 25 and 100 cm², for example on the order of A5 sheets, it is possible to improve the quality of the sorting, in particular to increase the actual percentage, relative to the sorting objective, of the final material obtained. For example, if the first material has a first sorting accuracy rate with respect to the material and / or color of the item to be recycled, the second sorting accuracy rate of the second material is higher than the first rate.

[0007] Preferably, the first and second detection means are identical, and in particular are confused, that is to say that the pieces are returned to the same first detection means.

[0008] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, which in itself is likely to constitute a second aspect of the invention independent of the first aspect but which can be favorably combined with it, after the cutting installation and before the second detection means, a removal / elimination installation is provided, among the pieces of the elements of the first deposit, of those which incorporate parts of high-density material, in particular buttons, buckles, zip or the like, in particular by a gravity separation of the pieces according to their weight.

[0009] Preferably, and according to a feature which in itself constitutes another aspect of the invention independent of the aspects of the invention described above, and which could thus be the subject of an invention as such, at least one conveyor in the sorting line comprises an endless unwinding belt, at least one upper strand of which is arranged inclined upwards, with hooking means, for example hooks, spikes or the like, projecting from the belt of the endless unwinding belt, the projections being arranged at a distance from each other so as to hook element after element, thus ensuring that the elements are not conveyed in a superimposed manner, in particular an infeed conveyor in the second detection means includes an endless unwinding belt of which at least one upper strand is arranged inclined upwards, hooking means, for example hooks, spikes or the like, protruding from the band of the endless unwinding belt, the protrusions being arranged at a distance from each other so as to hook piece after piece, to ensure that the pieces are not conveyed in a superimposed manner.

[0010] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the pieces of the second deposit are transported, in particular in the form of bales, to a shredding facility.

[0011] The present invention also relates to a method for sorting elements made from textile fibers into at least one material and / or color to be recycled, for example into cotton, comprising the steps in which: - we take a set of elements made from textile fibers; - they are put through initial detection methods for the or materials constituting each item to be sorted and / or the color(s) of each item to be sorted, including means of detection by IR, including NIR, depending on the IR spectrum, including NIR, of the material(s) of each item to be sorted; - depending on the result of the first detection, the elements detected as being in at least one material and / or color are gathered into a first deposit; - the said first deposit is sent to a cutting facility, in which the elements of said first deposit are cut into pieces, for example having a surface area (measured on one side only) preferably less than 400 cm², in particular between 25 and 100 cm², for example in the form of tiles; and - the pieces from the first deposit resulting from the cutting are passed again through second means of detecting the material or materials constituting each element to be sorted and / or the color or colors of each element to be sorted, in particular means of detection by IR, in particular NIR, depending on the infrared spectrum, in particular near infrared, of the material or materials of each element to be sorted, namely either the same first means of detection, or other means of detection; - depending on the result of the second detection, the elements detected as being in at least one material and / or one color are gathered into a second deposit.

[0012] According to a preferred embodiment, a process is carried out on the cut pieces of the first deposit, before passing through the second detection means, separation, among the pieces, of those comprising parts of a high-density material, including buckles, zips, buttons, decoration and the like, including gravity separation, and only the pieces without parts of a high-density material being sent to the second detection means.

[0013] According to advantageous embodiments, the first and / or second conveying means may be conveyors, in particular endless conveyors, and / or include pneumatic and / or aerodynamic means, in particular pneumatic and / or aerodynamic pipes.

[0014] By way of example, a preferred embodiment of the invention is described with reference to the figures, in which an installation and a method according to the invention are schematically illustrated.

[0015] In [Fig. 1], a first part of an installation is described according to an embodiment of the invention, the first part in which a first sorting step takes place;

[0016] In [Fig.2], a second part of the installation of the embodiment of [Fig.1] is described, a second part in which a cutting into pieces step is carried out and in which a second sorting step is carried out.

[0017] In [Fig.3], a part of the first part described in [Fig.1] is described in more detail.

[0018] In [Fig.1], the first part 1 of the installation comprises a conveyor 2 in the form of an endless belt inclined upwards which is fed with used clothing in its lower part.

[0019] In the upper part of conveyor 2, the clothes to be sorted fall onto a horizontal conveyor 3 which carries the clothes to a drum 4 with hooks, hooks which catch garment after garment to make them fall onto a conveyor belt of a detection installation 6 comprising a near infrared (NIR) portal.

[0020] This 6-channel NIR scanner, well-known in the field, sends an IR light beam onto the detected garment and determines its respective NIR light spectrum based on the beam reflected by the detected garment onto a suitable sensor of the 6-channel NIR scanner. Reference may be made, in particular, to document DE19920592A1 for a detailed description of this type of NIR scanner.

[0021] Thus, each garment can be sorted according to its spectrum. In particular, the composition of the garment can be determined, for example, whether it is made of cotton, polyester, a cotton-polyester blend, and / or any other material. It should be noted, however, that the determined spectrum only provides the composition based on the upper surface of the item or garment that was irradiated by the NIR beam, and obviously the composition thus detected may prove somewhat imprecise, especially if the item or garment has parts Internal components that could not be irradiated by the NIR beam and that turn out to be made of a different material than that detected for the upper surface of the element. There is thus an accuracy rate for both detection and the subsequent sorting, the accuracy rate being equal to the actual percentage of material to be recycled compared to that determined by the initial NIR detection, which is necessarily higher than the actual percentage. The object of the present invention is, in particular, to improve the sorting accuracy rate.

[0022] A plurality of ejection nozzles, not visible in the figure, are positioned directly downstream of the gantry 6 NIR and, via a central control system 7, connected to the gantry 6 and the nozzles, eject the garments to send them, each according to their respective material(s) determined by their respective spectrum, to three first transverse first exit conveyors 8, 9, 10 to thus form three first deposits R, N, B.

[0023] Depending on the material detected by the NIR gantry 6, the nozzles either eject downwards by blowing the VR garments intended to fall immediately at the exit of the gantry 6 conveyor into the first deposit R, or perform no action on the garments intended to fall into the second deposit N, or give an impulse to send the VB garments intended to fall into the third deposit B.

[0024] Thus, in the example shown, the clothes are sorted into three categories, defined in advance by the user according to the composition of material, a first category R consisting of pure cotton, a second category N consisting of a mixture of cotton and polyester, and a third category B consisting of everything that is not cotton or cotton and polyester.

[0025] The garments from each deposit R, N, B are sent from the exit of the first transverse conveyors forming the first deposits R, N, B into respective inclined conveyors 11 to be baled in a packing station 12.

[0026] In [Fig.2], the bales 13 of at least one R of the first three deposits, namely that consisting of the clothes which have been determined to be made up, in terms of textile fibers, of 100% cotton, are introduced into a cutting installation 14, such as a guillotine, in which each garment of said first deposit R in question is cut into pieces of various more or less regular shapes approaching a square or rectangle, of a dimension preferably less than 400cm2, in particular between 25 and 100cm2, to obtain strips which are then sent under a second guillotine 15 making a vertical back and forth movement to obtain the pieces aimed at having a small surface area.

[0027] The cutting installation 14.15 is implemented to ensure that the pieces are preferably square or rectangular in shape, but taking into account the uncertainties, particularly those related to the passage, on the one hand from the unpacking station to the first cutting station and on the other hand from the first to the second cutting station, which tend to orient the cut elements randomly, the shapes of the pieces can be very diverse, generally in the form of polygons, regular or irregular.

[0028] These pieces are then transferred to a separation system for pieces containing high-density material elements, such as zippers, buttons, buckles, and other decorations, particularly metal ones. The system performs this separation in two gravity separation stations 16, 16' arranged one after the other. Pieces without high-density material elements are lighter and can thus be drawn upwards by a suction nozzle, while pieces with high-density elements cannot be drawn upwards due to their weight and thus fall downwards to be grouped and rejected and / or reprocessed to recover, if desired, the materials, particularly metal, from the high-density elements.

[0029] The light pieces, i.e. made up solely or substantially solely of textile fibers, are then transferred into the gantry 6 NIR, or, as shown in [Fig.2], another gantry 6' NIR, to carry out a second sorting to obtain second deposits R', N', B' sent into second transverse conveyors 17, 18, 19 according to the same sorting criteria as the sorting carried out at the exit of the first detection means in the first part of the installation.

[0030] For example, if it is desired to recover mainly cotton fibers, the first deposit R is cut into pieces and the same sorting is carried out to send back the pieces containing only cotton to the second deposit R', the pieces containing a mixture of polyester and cotton to the second deposit N' and the pieces not containing only cotton or a cotton / polyester mixture to the second deposit B'.

[0031] Thus, thanks to this "purification" operation, higher accuracy rates can be obtained for the second deposits than for the first deposits. It is also possible to repeat the operation of passing the pieces from the second deposit through the second detection device once or several times to further improve the accuracy rate.

[0032] The operations described above in connection with the first deposit R in 100% cotton can be implemented in the same way for the first deposit N of cotton and polyester blend.

[0033] Furthermore, the criteria for the second sorting could also be modified, if desired, compared to those of the first sorting. For example, in the second sorting, after cutting into pieces, the first deposit N, consisting of cotton and polyester blends, can be further refined by creating second deposits based on the percentage composition of the blend; for example, one of the second deposits for a 50-50 cotton polyester blend and one of the second deposits for a 70-30 blend.

[0034] Once the pieces of cotton have been obtained, they are passed through a shredding installation to recover the fibers.

[0035] In [Fig.3], a loader 30 is shown for the distribution of pieces which can be placed, in particular as shown in [Fig.2], at the entrance of a gravity separation installation and / or of the NIR gantry for the second NIR detection.

[0036] This loader 30 comprises a horizontal, smooth, endless infeed conveyor 31 onto which the pieces to be processed (e.g., gravity separation or IR detection) are deposited (for example, by another endless outfeed conveyor from the cutting unit) at the loader's exit. Following the infeed conveyor 31 is a spiked endless conveyor 32. This endless conveyor 32 extends around three rollers: a lower roller 33, an upper roller 34, and a front roller 35.

[0037] The conveyor belt 32 comprises a first strand 36 extending between the lower roller 33 and the upper roller 34, inclined upwards, in particular at an angle greater than 45° to the horizontal direction of the infeed belt, in particular at an angle greater than 60°, for example 75°. A second strand 37 extends between the upper roller 34 and the front roller 35, being substantially vertical. A third strand 38 extends between the front roller 35 and the lower roller 33, the three strands 36, 37 and 38 following one another to form the endless conveyor belt.

[0038] The upper roller 34 has a larger diameter than the lower roller 33 and the front roller 35.

[0039] The front roller 35 is at an intermediate height between the height of the lower roller 33 and that of the upper roller 34. The outer surface (opposite the rollers) of the three-strand conveyor belt has points 39 that protrude from the belt and are oriented so as to be able to catch a piece at the front end roller 40 of the infeed conveyor 31. Each point can thus pull upwards an individual piece taken from the end roller 40 and release it after the upper roller 34, causing it to fall through an outlet opening 50 of the loader. The pieces then fall downwards through this opening onto an upstream conveyor belt, introducing them, well separated from one another, into a further processing station, such as a gravity separation station or an NIR detection station.

[0040] Two outer rollers 42 rear and 43 front are arranged respectively upstream and downstream of the upper roller 34. The rear roller 42 is arranged so as to prevent several pieces from being caught by the same point of the conveyor belt 32, by preventing more than one piece from passing through at a time. The front roller 43 is arranged to prevent pieces from getting caught on the spikes of the spiked conveyor 32, thus ensuring that the pieces detach cleanly from the conveyor 32 and fall into the opening 50.

[0041] The two outer rollers 42 and 43 preferably have the same diameter, have pointed parts protruding from their periphery and rotate in opposite directions, the rear outer belt 42 preferably rotating in the same direction as the pointed belt 32.

[0042] An example with three first conveyors and three second conveyors has been described above. However, while remaining within the scope of the present invention, different numbers of these first and second conveyors can be chosen, in particular only two or, on the contrary, more than three, for example four or five.

[0043] In the embodiment described in the figures, sorting is carried out according to the material of the textile fibers to be sorted for recycling. Sorting according to the invention could also be performed with an installation according to the invention, either as a replacement for sorting according to material or as a complement to it. For sorting colors, an optical visualization device is preferably used, in particular cameras that allow for easy color detection and therefore sorting.

Claims

Demands

1. Conveyor in an installation for sorting items, such as clothing or pieces of clothing, characterized in that it comprises an endless unwinding belt (32), of which at least one upper strand (36) is arranged inclined upwards, and hooking means (39), for example hooks, spikes or the like, protruding from the belt of the endless unwinding belt, the protrusions being arranged at a distance from each other so as to hook item after item, to ensure that the items are not conveyed in a superimposed manner.

2. Conveyor according to claim 1, characterized in that the endless belt (32) extends around three rollers, a lower roller (33), an upper roller (34) and a front roller (35).

3. Conveyor according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the first strand (36) extends between a lower roller (33) and an upper roller (34), being inclined upwards, in particular at an angle greater than 45° with respect to the horizontal direction, in particular at an angle greater than 60°, for example 75°.

4. Conveyor according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a second strand (37) extends between an upper roller (34) and a front roller (35).

5. Conveyor according to claim 4, characterized in that the second strand (37) extends while being substantially vertical.

6. Conveyor according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that the upper roller (34) is of greater diameter than the lower roller (33).

7. Conveyor according to any one of claims 2 to 6, characterized in that the front roller (35) is at an intermediate height between the height of the lower roller (33) and that of the upper roller (34)

8. Conveyor according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that a rear outer roller (42) is arranged upstream of an upper roller (34).

9. Conveyor according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that an outer front roller (43) is arranged downstream of an upper roller (34).

10. Conveyor according to any one of claims 8 and 9, characterized in that the two outer rollers (42, 43) rear and front have

11. pointed parts protruding from their periphery and rotating in opposite directions, the rear outer mat (42) preferably rotating in the same direction as the pointed mat (32). Installation for sorting items such as clothing or pieces of clothing comprising at least one conveyor according to one of the preceding claims.

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