Wire rope take-out device and wire rope take-out method

Abstract

To enable recycling a conveyor belt embedded with a wire rope by enabling separating the wire rope portion from a rubber portion, which was previously impossible due to large size and long length thereof and solving the problems of large costs required for cutting them into length acceptable as industrial wastes, as well as, large costs required for processing the industrial wastes.SOLUTION: A wire rope take-out device comprises: a rubber surface cutter configured to scrape a conveyor belt in the vicinity of an upper portion of the wire rope substantially parallel to a longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt in which the wire rope is disposed or makes a cut in the conveyor belt; a wire rope winder configured to wind the wire rope taken out from the scraped or cut part of the conveyor belt; and a conveyor belt winder configured to wind the conveyor belt from which the wire rope has been taken out.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a wire rope extraction device and a wire rope extraction method for extracting a wire rope embedded in a conveyor belt. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there has been no technology to remove the wire rope from a wire rope-embedded conveyor belt, and when a conveyor belt becomes worn and can no longer be used, it cannot be treated as a valuable resource due to the weight of the wire rope. Instead, it is cut to a certain length and disposed of as industrial waste. A typical conveyor belt contains a core made of cloth and plastic, making it light in weight and easy to handle, and therefore useful as a carpet for rough roads, fences, etc., making it a valuable resource. Metallic wire rope conveyor belts are heavy and difficult to cut with a blade, so they cannot be treated as a valuable resource. In order to treat it as a valuable resource in the same way as a regular belt, the wire rope needs to be removed. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2003-205521 A

[0004] Although there is a "tire bead wire removal method and device" that is a technology for separating the rubber and wire, it is difficult to continuously remove a long wire rope that is embedded in a conveyor belt or the like. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] (1) In the first place, the wire rope conveyor belt was large and long, so it was not possible to separate the rubber part and the wire rope part of the conveyor belt. (2) There were large costs involved in cutting the material to lengths acceptable for industrial waste and in disposing of that waste. (3) With the wire rope still embedded in the rubber, it could not be used as recycled rubber. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to remove the wire rope embedded in the conveyor belt, it is first necessary to separate the wire rope from the rubber of the conveyor belt that wraps it. Next, since the thickness of the rubber of the conveyor belt is small in the direction perpendicular to the wire rope, the wire rope can be pulled out of the rubber of the conveyor belt in the direction perpendicular to the wire rope with a small force. The present invention is characterized by comprising a rubber surface processing machine that scrapes or cuts a portion of a conveyor belt in the vicinity of an upper portion of the wire rope approximately parallel to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt in which the wire rope is disposed, a wire rope winding machine that winds up the wire rope taken out from the scraped or cut portion of the conveyor belt, and a winding machine that winds up the conveyor belt from which the wire rope has been removed.Furthermore, the rubber surface processing machine is characterized by being a rotary cutter that continuously cuts the surface of the conveyor belt. The present invention is characterized in that the rubber wrapping the wire rope is cut from the wire rope at the end of the cut conveyor belt with a pipe cutter to lift the wire rope outside the conveyor belt, the wire rope is fixed to a wire rope winder, and while winding up the wire rope, a rubber surface processing machine is used to scrape the conveyor belt near the upper part of the wire rope approximately parallel to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt or to make cuts in the conveyor belt, and the conveyor belt from which the wire rope has been removed is fixed to the belt winder, and the wire rope winder and the belt winder are rotated to separate and recover the wire rope and the conveyor belt. Furthermore, the pipe cutter of the present invention is a cylindrical body having at least an inner diameter larger than the diameter of the wire rope, one end of the cylindrical body being a cylindrical blade, the cylindrical blade being shaped like a saw blade so as to easily make cuts in the direction of rotation, and the pipe cutter is rotated at the end of the wire rope that appears on the cut surface of the conveyor belt to cut the rubber welded to the wire rope in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt. Effect of the Invention

[0007] (1) The wire rope can be extracted at low cost. (2) There is no need to pay for industrial waste disposal costs, and both the conveyor belts and wire ropes can be sold as valuable materials. (3) Since the rubber used in the conveyor belt does not contain any impurities, it can be recycled as recycled rubber raw material. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a cross-section showing the conveyor belt and wire rope and the location where the conveyor belt is cut on the wire rope. [Diagram 2] FIG. 13 shows an initial method of using a pipe cutter to separate the wire rope and rubber in a conveyor belt. [Diagram 3]FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the direction in which the pipe cutter is lifted after the conveyor belt and the wire rope are separated. [Figure 4] This is a diagram showing the state in which the wire rope is raised from the rubber of the conveyor belt. [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 illustrates a method for continuously extracting a wire rope from a conveyor belt. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a rotary blade according to the present invention. [Figure 7] 1 is a wire rope winding machine according to the present invention. [Figure 8] 1 is a belt winder according to the present invention. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 is a top view of a device for continuously removing a wire rope from a conveyor belt. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. Conveyor belts that require large-scale transportation over long distances have wire ropes embedded inside them in the longitudinal direction to give them the tensile strength required for transportation. The wire ropes embedded in the conveyor belt are arranged in the center of the thickness direction of the conveyor belt as shown in Figure 1, and the number of wire ropes is proportional to the guaranteed tensile strength of the conveyor belt. The upper side (Fig. 1) 1 where the wire rope is arranged is called the cover rubber. To separate the wire rope, first make a slit about 30 cm long in the upper cover rubber of the wire rope using a cutter or similar tool in the opposite direction from the cut surface of the conveyor belt at position 3 in Figure 1. Next, a pipe cutter with a saw-like blade at the end of a pipe with an inner diameter slightly larger than the wire rope is attached to the tip of the cut surface of the conveyor belt, for example a pipe cutter with a nut at the top that can be attached to a drill and a saw-like cutter at the end, and while rotating, the pipe cutter is pushed along the wire rope from the tip of the wire rope at the cut surface of the conveyor belt, using the wire rope as a guide in the direction of travel as the pipe cutter advances, and the rubber wrapping around the wire rope is cut by the blade of the pipe cutter to the length of the pipe cutter, separating the wire rope from the rubber of the conveyor belt. Then, tilt the pipe cutter in the Y direction in Figure 3 along the cut made in the cover rubber of the conveyor belt to lift the wire rope outside the conveyor belt. The pipe cutter is then pulled out from the wire rope, leaving the end of the wire rope pulled out from the conveyor belt as shown in Figure 4. The same procedure is repeated for each wire rope embedded in the conveyor belt, and the wire ropes are extracted. When carrying out these operations, the work can be carried out stably by fixing the cut portion of the conveyor belt to a wooden frame or the like shown in FIG. 4 with fastening screws 5 such as wood screws.

[0010] Next, a method for continuously separating and recovering the wire rope and the conveyor belt will be described. The end of the wire rope pulled out from the conveyor belt is inserted between the plate shown in FIG. 10 and the pipe-shaped shaft shown in FIG. 7, and fixed between the pipe-shaped shaft and the plate by tightening the bolt shown in FIG. 7, 13. After that, the wooden frame 7 in Figure 4, which secures the end of the conveyor belt, is removed while still attached to the conveyor belt. Next, the motor M2 shown in FIG. 7 is rotated to wind the rope around the pipe shaft. The method of fixing the wire rope of the present invention is not limited to this, and a fixing method generally used when winding a wire rope may be used.

[0011] Figure 6 shows a rotary cutter that continuously cuts into the cover rubber as an example of a rubber surface processing machine that processes the surface of the cover rubber of a conveyor belt. The rotary cutter is a thin disk-shaped plate with the tip sharpened like a blade attached to an axis 9 in Figure 6, as shown in 8 in Figure 6. It is set in a position where it can make cuts in the cover rubber for the number of wire ropes, in accordance with the arrangement pitch of the wire ropes, and the M1 motor is rotated to make cuts in the cover rubber of the conveyor belt on the wire rope. The rubber surface processing machine may be a plate-like cutter that cuts the cover rubber by pressing a blade against the rubber, or may be a machine that cuts off a thin strip of rubber near the upper part of the wire rope. Furthermore, the rubber surface processing machine may be a machine that scrapes off the surface of the rubber, and is not limited to these as long as it processes the rubber near the upper part of the wire rope. Although it is possible to remove the wire rope without making any cuts, this method causes less rubber to adhere to the wire rope, making it possible to remove a more commercially valuable wire rope with less force.

[0012] The conveyor belt advances in the Z direction in Fig. 5 by the pulling force that winds up the wire rope as the motor M2 shown in Fig. 7 rotates, and advances to a position where it can be wound up by the belt winder shown in Fig. 5 at 15. After that, the wooden frame with the belt cutting part fixed thereto shown in Fig. 2 at 7 is fixed to the rotor part 16 of the belt winder shown in Fig. 5. Next, rotate the M3 motor in Figure 8 to wind up the belt. The method of fixing the belt to the winding rotor is not limited to the fixing method of the present invention, and a general method of winding and fixing a belt may be used.

[0013] By combining the rotary cutter of Figure 6, the wire rope winding machine of Figure 7, and the belt winding machine of Figure 8 in the arrangement shown in Figure 9 and operating motors M1, M2, and M3, the belt can be wound up while continuously removing the wire rope. The wound wire rope can be cut off at the joint shown at 12 on the winding machine in Figure 7 above, and sold as recycled rope or scrap metal. The belt from which the wire rope has been removed can be wound up on a belt winding machine equipped with a drum shown in FIG. 8 at 15 and used as recycled rubber. The motors M2 and M3 used in this case should be torque geared motors that can detect and drive the torque of the wire rope and conveyor belt, since the winding speeds of the wire rope and conveyor belt are different. [Explanation of symbols]

[0014] 1 Cover rubber 2. Wire rope 3 Cutter cut 4. Pipe cutter 5 Retaining screws 6. Drill 7 Fixed stand (wood, etc.) 8. Belt Rotating Cutter 9 Rotating cutter shaft 10 Wire rope fixing plate 11 Wire rope winding pipe shaft 12 Release flange 13 Fastening bolt 15 Belt winder 16 Belt winding shaft

Claims

1. A wire rope extraction device comprising: a rubber surface processing machine that scrapes or cuts a portion of a conveyor belt in the vicinity of an upper portion of the wire rope approximately parallel to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt in which the wire rope is disposed; a wire rope winding machine that winds up the wire rope removed from the scraped or cut portion of the conveyor belt; and a winding machine that winds up the conveyor belt from which the wire rope has been removed.

2. 2. The wire rope extractor of claim 1, wherein the rubber surface processing machine is a rotary cutter that continuously cuts into the surface of the conveyor belt.

3. A method for extracting a wire rope, comprising the steps of: cutting rubber encasing the wire rope from the wire rope at the end of the cut conveyor belt with a pipe cutter to lift the wire rope outside the conveyor belt; fixing the wire rope to a wire rope winder; winding the wire rope while scraping the surface of the conveyor belt near the upper part of the wire rope with a rubber surface processing machine approximately parallel to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt or while making cuts in the conveyor belt; fixing the conveyor belt from which the wire rope has been removed to the belt winder; rotating the wire rope winder and the belt winder to separate and recover the wire rope and the conveyor belt.

4. The wire rope removal method according to claim 3, characterized in that the pipe cutter is a cylindrical body having at least an inner diameter larger than the diameter of the wire rope, one end of the cylindrical body having a cylindrical blade, the cylindrical blade having a saw-like blade shape that makes it easy to make cuts in the direction of rotation, and the pipe cutter is rotated at the end of the wire rope that appears on the cut surface of the conveyor belt to cut the rubber welded to the wire rope in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt.

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