Peeling device for lump-shaped cracked glass

Abstract

To provide a peeling device for a lump-shaped cracked glass capable of enhancing the peeling effect of the lump-shaped cracked glass, efficiently peeling the agglomerated cracked glass and collecting only lump-shaped glass pieces.SOLUTION: A panel assembly 101 having a lump-shaped cracked glass 104 in a state of being cracked into a lumpy shape, is heated from a glass surface side to soften a bonded sealing material 105A, while a sealing material 105B and a solar battery cell 102 are cooled by a cooling device 610 provided on a back sheet 103 side, to be fixed to the back sheet 103, thereby, a glass lump 104a of the panel assembly 101 wound around a drive roller 21 is pressed against protrusions (scraping blades) 22a of a peeling roller 22, and rotated at an outer peripheral speed V1 faster than a reference outer peripheral speed V0 of the drive roller 21, so that only the glass lump 104a is peeled from a resin sheet 107.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a peeling device that peels off a chunk of broken glass from a solar cell that is adhered to a resin back sheet. [Background technology]

[0002] The use of renewable energy is being promoted as a measure against global warming. Photovoltaic power generation, one of the renewable energies, is becoming popular as a power generation method that leads to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, some of the photovoltaic power generation panels that have been installed so far have reached the end of their useful life and have been discarded, or have been damaged by accidents during construction or by stone throwing. In the future, photovoltaic power generation panels will be discarded in proportion to the number that have been in use so far (see Non-Patent Document 1). In addition, a large number of photovoltaic power generation panels have been damaged due to large-scale natural disasters, which have been increasing in recent years. Thus, there is a demand for a peeling device that can separate and recover glass, in particular, so that the large number of photovoltaic power generation panels that will be discarded in the future can be recycled and resources can be effectively reused.

[0003] As shown in FIG. 15, the solar panel 100 described above is composed of a plurality of materials with different physical and chemical properties. It is composed of an aluminum frame 108, a cover glass 104, a solar cell 102, wiring material 106, a sealant 105A, a sealant 105B, and a resin back sheet 103 that is a back surface protective material. There are various sizes, for example, a vertical width of 1990 mm, a horizontal width of 990 mm, and a thickness of 35 mm. In this specification, the sealant 105A, the solar cell 102, the wiring material 106, the sealant 105B, and the back surface protective material back sheet 103 other than the cover glass 104 may be simply expressed as a "resin sheet" 107. When the aluminum frame 108 is removed, the thickness of the cover glass 104 is 3 to 6 mm, and the thickness corresponding to the resin sheet 107 is about 1 to 2 mm. Of these materials, in order to recycle the cover glass 104, it is necessary to separate only the cover glass 104 from the resin sheet 107. In this way, the solar panel is configured so that the solar cell 102 is wrapped on both sides with sealing material (resin layers) 105A, 105B, which is also an adhesive, such as EVA (ethylene vinylacetate copolymer) resin, and the cover glass 104 is firmly adhered by the sealing material 105A.

[0004] One of the proposed methods is Patent Document 1. The glass separating device described in Patent Document 1 proposes separating a cover glass 104 from a resin sheet 107 of a photovoltaic panel. To explain in detail, the cover glass 104, which is integrated with the resin sheet 107 after removing the aluminum frame 108, is crushed by passing it through a pair of crushing roller tubes having angular protrusions evenly protruding from the cylindrical outer periphery. Thereafter, a cylindrical scraping roller having a plurality of protruding convex portions equally spaced in the axial direction on its outer periphery is rotated facing the support roller on the crushed glass surface, and glass pieces of the crushed, cracked glass are scraped off by the convex portions of the scraping roller. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 5714741 [Patent Document 2] JP 2022-170953 A [Non-patent literature]

[0006] [Non-Patent Document 1] Journal of Waste Management and Resource Cycles Vol.30 No.6 2019 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] However, the prior art glass peeling device had the following problems. That is, in the glass separation device described in Patent Document 1, the solar cell 102 and the wiring material 106 are attached to the back sheet 103 on one side with the sealing material 105B, and the cover glass 104 is crushed by a pair of crushing rollers and sent, and passes perpendicularly between a pair of the support roller 30 and the scraping roller 40 arranged opposite to each other on a horizontal axis position, so that the glass is scraped off in a state where the cracks in the crushed glass are closed. For this reason, it was difficult to scrape off the glass efficiently by catching the protrusion (scraping blade) on the cracks. When a device with a similar configuration was actually manufactured and subjected to an experiment, the cover glass 104 that could be peeled off from the entire cover glass 104 was about 40%, and further, the peeled cover glass 104 included the sealing material 105A and the solar cell 102 including the sealing material 105A attached thereto, and this proportion reached about 60% of the peeled cover glass 104. For this reason, the recovery rate of only the cover glasses 104 was only about 16% of the total number of cover glasses 104 .

[0008] Therefore, the inventors of the present invention proposed a device for peeling off a chunk of broken glass, as shown in Patent Document 2, in which a panel assembly 101 having a broken, chunk-shaped cover glass 104 is heated from the glass surface side, a resin sheet 107 of the panel assembly 101 is wrapped around the rotating outer circumferential surface of a drive roller so that the resin sheet 107 of the panel assembly 101 is in contact with the outer circumferential surface of the drive roller, and the protrusions (scraping blades) of the peeling roller are hooked on the cracks in the broken cover glass 104 to peel off the cover glass 104 from the resin sheet 107. As a result, the amount of cover glass 104 that could be peeled off from the entire cover glass 104 was 90% or more, and the peeling efficiency was greatly improved.

[0009] On the other hand, the cover glass 104 can be easily peeled off by catching the protrusions (scraping blades) of the peeling roller in the cracks in the cover glass 104 and splitting and peeling off the glass block by rotating it over rather than shearing it, and the number of peeled glass pieces 104c that still have sealing material 105A or solar cell 102 including sealing material 105A attached to them has been greatly reduced, but this still amounts to about 20%. Therefore, there was a need to efficiently separate the cover glass 104, which is adhered with another layer of sealing material, etc., without this sealing material 105A or solar cell 102 being present.

[0010] The present invention has been proposed to solve these problems, and aims to provide a device for removing broken glass chunks, which has a protrusion (scraping blade) that is easily caught in the cracks in the broken, chunky cover glass 104, and which can efficiently remove and recover only the glass that does not contain the sealing material 105A or the solar cell 102. [Means for solving the problem]

[0011] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the inventors have adopted, as means 1, a method in which waste material having chunks of cracked broken glass (in this invention, this refers to, for example, a panel assembly 101 having glass cracked into chunks) is heated from the glass side and cooled from the back sheet 103 side of the panel assembly 101, thereby heating the material to a degree that selectively softens the sealing material 105A between the cover glass 104 and the solar cell 102 without softening the sealing material 105B between the back sheet 103 and the solar cell 102, and then wrapping a resin sheet 107 around the rotating outer peripheral surface of the drive roller 21 so that the resin sheet 107 is in contact with the surface, and the protrusions (scraping blades) 22a of the peeling roller 22 are hooked into the cracks in the broken cover glass 104, thereby peeling the cover glass 104 from the resin sheet 107.

[0012] For this purpose, a heater unit 410 is provided with a length covering the width of the panel assembly 101 and facing the glass side of the panel assembly 101 being transported, and further, a cooler 610 is provided with a length covering the width of the panel assembly 101 from the opposite side across the panel assembly 101. Such heater units 410 are arranged in units of a number capable of heating the resin sheet 107 according to the feed speed of the panel assembly 101, and further, the cooler 610 is arranged so as to have a cooling capacity required to cool the back sheet 103, the solar cell 102, and the sealing material 105B bonding the solar cell 102 to the back sheet 103.

[0013] At least one pair of a feed roller 23 and a first pinch roller 24 are provided downstream of the heater unit 410, which are arranged to convey the panel assembly 101 by rotational drive while sandwiching the panel assembly 101 therebetween. Furthermore, the resin sheet surface side is wrapped around the panel assembly 101 to open up the cracks in the chunk of broken glass, and the feeding direction can be changed, for example, from horizontal to vertical. A drive roller 21 is provided which is cylindrical or cylindrical in shape and longer than the width of the panel assembly 101 and rotates powered around its axis.

[0014] In addition, a peeling roller 22 is provided that is cylindrical or cylindrical in shape and rotates around an axis, and has protrusions (scraping blades) intermittently protruding from its entire circumferential surface so as to substantially cover the width of the panel assembly 101, within the range of the winding angle from the winding start point (on the tangent) where the resin sheet 107 of the panel assembly 101 comes into contact along the rotating outer peripheral surface of the aforementioned drive roller 21 to the winding end point (on the tangent) where the panel assembly 101 is discharged. When the peeling roller 22 is pressed against the cracks in the chunk of broken glass that has been wound around the aforementioned drive roller 21 and rotated at a linear speed faster than that of the drive roller 21, the protrusions (scraping blades) rotate so as to bite into the cracks, and the chunk of glass is peeled off from the resin sheet 107 without including the sealing material 105A or the solar cell 102.

[0015] Furthermore, at least a pair of discharge rollers 25 and a second pinch roller 26 are provided downstream in order to discharge the resin sheet 107 from which the glass chunks have been peeled off and guide it to a recovery tray below. We have proposed a device for removing a chunk of broken glass, which is provided with the above-mentioned components.

[0016] According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the back sheet side of the panel assembly 101 having the broken glass in a state of being broken into chunks is guided so as to be wound around a cylindrical driving roller with a central angle of, for example, about 60° to 130°, a force is applied to the cracks in the broken glass on the glass surface opposite to the contact surface so as to open the cracks. When, for example, a protrusion (scraping blade) of a peeling roller having an angular cross section is pressed against the glass surface in such a state and rotated at a linear speed faster than the linear speed of the driving roller, the protrusion (scraping blade) acts to scratch the corners of the cracks due to the speed difference, and a force is applied to peel off the broken glass chunks from the resin sheet 107. As a result, while the solar cell 102 remains fixed to the back sheet 103 due to the hardening of the sealing material 105B cooled from the back sheet 103 side, only the glass broken into chunks is peeled off from the softened sealing material 105A and is peeled off one after another from the resin sheet surface. Effect of the Invention

[0017] According to Means 1 of the present invention, it is possible to provide a device for removing chunks of broken glass, which can improve the peeling effect of chunks of broken glass, efficiently peel off only the glass without including any sealing material or solar cell, and recover the chunks of glass.

[0018] (Other means to solve the problem) What is proposed as means 2, which is a sub-concept of the above-mentioned means 1, is a chunk broken glass peeling device that is provided with a second heater unit (also called an auxiliary heater) 420 located upstream near the peeling roller 22, for heating the area from the glass surface side of the chunk broken glass to the width of the above-mentioned panel assembly 101, and a cooler 610 or 640, or both, for cooling the area from the back sheet 103 side to the width of the waste material.

[0019] In the second heater unit 420 proposed in this way, even if the resin sheet 107 is heated to the extent that it softens by the heater unit 410 arranged in means 1, heat is released by the cooler 610 that cools from the back sheet 103 side, and the aforementioned waste material is passed between the pair of feed rollers 23 and the first pinch roller 24, and so on, which causes heat to be released, and the softening of the sealing material 105A returns, which may reduce the efficiency of scraping off the glass.

[0020] For this reason, the second heater unit 420 is arranged to supplement heat from the glass surface side upstream near the peeling portion, which has the effect of enabling scraping without reducing efficiency. In particular, as proposed in Patent Document 2 (see FIG. 8), when the above-mentioned second heater unit 420 is installed at a location where the cracks in the chunk of broken glass in a state where the waste material is in a cracked chunk state have opened up, that is, at a location opposite to the location where the glass is wrapped around while being in contact with the cylindrical driving roller 21, heat can easily reach the sealing material 105A on the cover glass 104 side directly from the cracked part of the glass, so that the heating effect of the above-mentioned resin sheet 107 is high, making it easier to peel off, and making it possible to increase the scraping efficiency. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0021] [Figure 1] 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an entire device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 2 is a cross-sectional perspective view of a part of the peeling roller unit in the first embodiment of the present invention, taken along the line AA in FIG. 1. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional perspective view of FIG. 2 with the peeling roller removed. [Figure 4] 3 is a schematic side view showing the arrangement of the rollers in FIG. 2. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an image of the separated state of a broken chunk of broken glass according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a transport base unit in the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] 1, and is a cross-sectional view of the transport base unit before disassembly in FIG. 6, showing the flow of air in the cooler. FIG. [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a first modified example of a portion of the transport base unit in the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. 8 before disassembly, showing a first modified example of the transport base unit of the present invention, illustrating the flow of air in a cooler. FIG. [Figure 10] FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a second modified example of the transport base part in the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 11] 11 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line CC in FIG. 10 showing a second modified example of the transport base of the present invention before disassembly, illustrating the flow of air in the cooler. FIG. [Figure 12] FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional perspective view of a part of a roller unit according to a second embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 13] FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional perspective view of a part of a roller unit according to a third embodiment of the present invention, taken along an arrow cross section. [Figure 14] FIG. 11 is a schematic side view showing the positional relationship of rollers disposed relative to a drive roller and the positional relationship of a second heater unit in a third embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 15] FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a configuration of a typical solar power generation panel. [Figure 16] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a conveyor belt unit which is a modified example of the roller unit in the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 17] 3 is a partial photograph of a resin sheet portion after a cover glass has been peeled off in the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 18] 1 is a photograph showing the appearance of a peeled cover glass with the surface in contact with the sealing material facing up in the first embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0022] The overall configuration of the apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7. FIG. First, the chunk broken glass peeling device 1 is composed of a base frame 2 made up of multiple angles, a transport conveyor unit 300, a transport table unit 400, a peeling roller unit 200, a collection box 5 for collecting and storing the glass pieces 104c, and a sheet collection table (not shown) below the base frame 2 on which the resin sheet 107 is placed in a folded state after the glass pieces 104c have been peeled off.

[0023] The transport conveyor unit 300 has a plurality of conveyor rollers 302 provided on a conveyor base 301, and is configured to remove the frame 108 from the photovoltaic panel 100, place the pre-crushed panel assembly 101 on it, and sequentially supply them one by one to the transport table unit 400 automatically or manually. In the case of the photovoltaic panel 100, the above-mentioned crushed panel assembly 101 is often about 5 to 30 mm long x 5 to 30 mm wide, and is cracked into lumps of irregular sizes and shapes such as triangles or rectangles when viewed from above. Depending on the type of crack, it may also include pieces of sizes other than these.

[0024] The transport table unit 400 has a transport base 401 provided at an angle from the transport conveyor unit 300 to the peeling roller unit 200, on which the panel assemblies 101 are placed one by one, and a plurality of heater units 410 are provided for heating the panel assemblies 101 across substantially the entire width from the cover glass 104 side. Each heater unit 410 is attached to a connecting beam 402 that connects across the top of the transport base 401, and is capable of heating the panel assembly 101 from the cover glass 104 side. The heater unit 410 has a heater 411 such as an infrared heater, such as a ceramic heater, a sheath heater, or a carbon heater, provided therein, and is partially surrounded by a heat reflector 412, for efficiently heating the cover glass 104 side.

[0025] As shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, the transport base 401 is composed of a receiving base 405 that receives the back sheet 103 side of the panel assembly 101 and a back plate 407 with a base frame 406 sandwiched therebetween, and a cooling unit (cooler) 610 is composed of at least one or more blower fans 450 that blow air into the resulting cavity of the transport base 401. The cavity is simply divided by a plurality of partitions 405b provided from the receiving base 405, and has a form of a plurality of cavities that efficiently circulates the flow of air. If the blower fan is a horizontally long integrated fan such as a horizontally long sirocco fan, it is not necessarily required to divide it by the partitions 405b. However, for example, in the case of a panel assembly 101 with a narrow width, it is possible to heat it using only the heater unit 410 in the center and cool it using only the blower fan 450 in the center, which has the advantage of allowing efficient operation by using only the necessary parts.

[0026] At least one pair of a feed roller 23 and a first pinch roller 24 are provided in the rear of the heater units 410 to convey the panel assembly 101 by rotating the panel assembly 101 while sandwiching it. The feed roller 23 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 by a driving means such as a driving motor (not shown), and the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24 biased against the feed roller 23 sandwich the panel assembly 101 while feeding the panel assembly 101 to the peeling roller unit 200. The drive relationship between the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24 is such that either one can be driven, and the conveying force can be further improved by applying a rotational driving force to both rollers. In addition, since the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24 convey the panel assembly 101 heated by the heater unit 410 in the front stage, it is preferable that the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24 are made of metal or are coated with heat-resistant silicone rubber having a high conveying force.

[0027] The configuration of the peeling roller unit 200 in the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5. FIG. The peeling roller unit 200 has a structure as shown in Fig. 2 to Fig. 5. A rotatably supported drive roller 21 and a peeling roller 22 are provided between a left frame 11 (see Fig. 1) and a right frame 12, which are connected to each other by two beams 13, so as to face each other with a certain gap P (see Fig. 5). This gap P can be adjusted in advance, and is set to be narrower than the thickness Q of the panel assembly 101 (see Fig. 5). In addition, a discharge roller 25 and a second pinch roller 26 are provided downstream of the drive roller 21 so as to pull and discharge the panel assembly 101 wound around the drive roller 21 while controlling the speed.

[0028] The gap between the left frame 11 and the right frame 12 is wider than the width of the panel assembly 101 to be transported. A lower guide 61 and an upper guide 62 are extended in the direction of the central axis of the drive roller 21 from the nip (sandwich) between the pair of the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24 to the sandwiching part X between the drive roller 21 and the peeling roller 22 so as to guide the panel assembly 101 to the sandwiching part X. The discharge roller 25 is driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 by a driving means such as a drive motor (not shown), and the resin sheet 107 from which the cover glass 104 has been removed is sandwiched between the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26, and transported and discharged. The drive relationship between the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26 is such that either one may be driven, and if a rotational drive force is applied to both rollers, the transport force is further improved.

[0029] Furthermore, between the nip portion X of the drive roller 21 and the peeling roller 22 and the nip portion (nip portion) of the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26, a resin sheet 107 is sandwiched at a fixed interval, and conveying guides 63 and 64 are provided extending in the direction of the central axis of the drive roller 21 so as to guide the resin sheet 107 to the nip portion of the discharge roller 25. The discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26 may be rollers made of metal, but are preferably rollers covered with the above-mentioned heat-resistant silicone rubber, urethane rubber or EPDM (ethylene propylene diene rubber) to improve the conveying force.

[0030] The driving roller 21 is driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 by a driving means such as a driving motor (not shown), and is adapted to wrap the back sheet 103 side of the panel assembly 101 so as to contact it and transport it. To improve the transport force of the panel assembly 101, the driving roller 21 is a cylindrical or cylindrical roller with a diameter D, the surface of which is covered with silicone rubber having a high friction coefficient and heat resistance. The axis of the roller extends in the width direction of the panel assembly 101 and is rotatably supported between the left frame 11 and the right frame 12. That is, when the panel assembly 101 is wound around the driving roller 21, the panel assembly 101 is wound around the driving roller 21 with a radius of curvature R=D / 2 (see FIG. 4). The driving roller 21 may be a metal grid roll that has been treated to improve the transport force, as described in JP-A-2005-247572, for example, or a roller in which ceramics is sprayed onto the surface of a metal roll and then fired.

[0031] On the other hand, the peeling roller 22, which is disposed so as to face the driving roller 21 with a fixed distance P therebetween, is rotated in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 4 by a driving means such as a driving motor (not shown) provided separately from the driving motor of the driving roller 21. The peeling roller 22 is a metal roller made of a steel material or the like having convex protrusions at fixed intervals on its outer periphery and extending in the axial direction to approximately the same length as the driving roller 21. The shape of the convex protrusions on the outer periphery is the same as that proposed in Patent Document 2.

[0032] The glass pieces 104c (see FIG. 5) peeled off from the panel assembly 101 by the peeling roller 22 travel along a recovery pan 51 provided near the clamping portion X and are collected, and are accumulated in the space 5a of the recovery box 5.

[0033] Here, the shape of the conveying guide 63 for reliably guiding the resin sheet 107 to the nip portion (clamping portion) between the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26 and at the same time for reliably collecting the peeled glass pieces 104c in the recovery box 5 will be described. As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the conveying guide 63 extends over almost the entire area in the central axial direction of the drive roller 21, and a plurality of notches 63a are provided in a part of the conveying guide 63 (see Fig. 3). The conveying guide 63 is also bent so that the leading end opens from the vicinity of the leading end of the recovery pan 51 toward the peeling roller 22 to form a gap K (see Fig. 4). This is to ensure that when the leading end of the resin sheet 107 from which the glass chunks 104a have been removed from the panel assembly 101 is discharged from the clamping section X in a substantially tangential direction, the leading end abuts against the inner surface of the conveying guide 63 and is reliably guided to the abutment portion between the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26, while the peeled glass pieces 104c fall from the notches 63a and are guided to the recovery box 5 along the recovery pan 51 without entering the abutment portion between the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26 as much as possible.

[0034] Next, regarding the positional relationship of each roller, particularly the range of possible positions of the clamping portion X of the drive roller 21 and the peeling roller 22, the relationship proposed in Patent Document 2 is preferable, and if the wrap angle of the panel is from the entry point E where the panel assembly 101 enters the drive roller 21 to the separation point F where the resin sheet 107 separates from the drive roller 21, then θ1 ≧ 10° and θ2 ≧ 0° (see Figure 6 in Patent Document 2), and θ1 ≧ 30° is preferable.

[0035] The operation of the present invention will be described below. First, the transport path and transport of the panel assembly 101 will be described with reference to FIGS. When the feed roller 23 rotates, the leading end of the panel assembly 101 sandwiched between the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24 is guided by the lower guide 61 and the upper guide 62 to the entry point E toward the drive roller 21. After that, the panel assembly 101 can be bent along the inner surface 62a of the upper guide 62 so that the cracks in the glass open up because the cover glass 104 is broken into chunks, and is wrapped around the driving roller 21, which rotates, and the peeling roller 22, which rotates in the same way, so that the cracks gradually open up, and is guided to the nipping portion X of the driving roller 21 and the peeling roller 22 while the back sheet 103 side is wrapped around the driving roller 21. Furthermore, while being sandwiched between the driving roller 21 and the peeling roller 22, the cover glass 104 broken into chunks is peeled off from the panel assembly 101 at the nipping portion X (the peeling action will be described later).

[0036] The leading end of the remaining resin sheet 107, coupled with the conveying forces of the drive roller 21 and the peeling roller 22, comes into contact with the inner surface of the conveying guide 63 when discharged from the clamping portion X in a substantially tangential direction, and is reliably guided to the contact portion between the discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26. After being clamped at the contact portion, the resin sheet 107 leaves the drive roller 21 at a separation point F, is guided by the conveying guides 63 and 64, and passes through the clamping portion between the rotating discharge roller 25 and the second pinch roller 26 to be discharged. After passing through, the resin sheet 107 is placed on a sheet recovery table (not shown) so as to be folded.

[0037] The setting relationship between the conveying speed of the panel assembly 101 and the peripheral speed (same as the linear speed in the tangential direction) due to the rotation of each roller will be described with reference to FIGS. The feed roller 23 rotates in the direction of the arrow in the figure at a peripheral speed (linear speed in the tangential direction) of reference peripheral speed V0. The panel assembly 101 sandwiched between the first pinch rollers 24 is naturally transported at linear speed V0. The drive roller 21 also rotates at a peripheral speed (linear speed in the tangential direction) of reference peripheral speed V0 so as to prevent the panel assembly 101 from slackening. Similarly, the discharge roller 25 also rotates at a peripheral speed (linear speed in the tangential direction) of reference peripheral speed V0.

[0038] On the other hand, while sandwiching the driving roller 21 and the panel assembly 101, the peeling roller 22 rotates at an outer peripheral speed V1 (linear speed in the tangential direction) different from the reference outer peripheral speed V0. This speed relationship is set as V0 < V1. That is, a force acts in the direction of pushing out the glass mass 104a by the force due to the speed difference of "V1 - V0" by the peeling roller 22. Here, the feeding roller 23, the driving roller 21, and the discharging roller 25 all rotate at the reference outer peripheral speed V0. However, as described in the above configuration, they may be driven by separate drive motors (not shown) respectively, or may be driven by one drive motor using a drive transmission means. Further, among the drive transmission means, the rotation of each roller may be controlled to be disconnected / connected using an electromagnetic clutch or the like. Note that if the peeling roller 22 can also set the peeling roller outer peripheral speed V1, it can be driven by the above-described one drive motor, but it is preferable to use an independent drive motor.

[0039] The operation of peeling the块状 glass mass 104a from the panel assembly 101 will be similarly described with reference to FIG. 5. It should be noted that the term "块状" in the original text is a bit unclear in this context. It might be a more specific or technical term in the original language that could be more accurately translated depending on the full context. Here, I've translated it as "块状" for lack of a better alternative. If it's a misspelling or an incorrect term, please correct it for a more precise translation.First, in the conveyor unit 400, the panel assembly 101 heated from the cover glass 104 side by a plurality of heater units 410 causes the sealing material 105A to soften. For example, in the case of the aforementioned EVA resin, it softens at about 70°C to 80°C. On the other hand, the sealing material 105B that adheres the solar cell 102 to the backsheet 103 is cooled by the cooler 610. The temperature of this cooled backsheet 103 was measured with a non-contact thermometer and was about 40°C to 55°C, which is set to a lower temperature than the temperature at which the aforementioned EVA resin softens. In this state, when the panel assembly 101 is conveyed while being pinched by the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24, the backsheet 103 side is wound around the drive roller 21 and curves with a curvature R from the entry point E. At this time, the glass mass 104a that has cracked and become块状 has its crack opened and a gap 104b appears. For this gap 104b, the interval P is set in a relationship where P < Q, that is, the interval P is narrower than the thickness Q of the panel assembly 101. The protrusion 22a portion of the peeling roller 22 engages, and among the front cutting edge portion 22c and the rear cutting edge portion 22e of the protrusion 22a, the front cutting edge portion 22c catches on the corner of the crack. Further, due to the peripheral speed difference (the linear speed of "V1 - V0") between the outer peripheral speed V1 of the peeling roller 22, which is faster than the reference outer peripheral speed V0 of the drive roller 21, the front cutting edge portion 22c pushes out the glass mass 104a in the direction of peeling, and the glass mass 104a is peeled (torn) against the adhesive force of the softened sealing material 105A and separated into glass pieces 104c. That is, for the peeling of the glass mass 104a, the conditions of P < Q and V0 < V1 are required.

[0040] Since the panel assembly 101 cannot start peeling until the sealing material 105A is softened, it is necessary to soften the sealing material 105A by heating it from the cover glass 104 side with the heater units 410 in the conveying table unit 400. After that, a switch for starting conveyance is operated manually or the like to rotate the feed roller 23 to convey the panel assembly 101. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, a set sensor 80 is provided at a position of distance L near the upstream of the feed roller 23 to detect the panel assembly 101, and a temperature sensor (not shown) detects the temperature of the panel assembly 101, or the conveying table unit 400 is made to wait for a predetermined waiting time T until the sealing material 105A is softened, and then the feed roller 23 is automatically rotated to convey the panel assembly 101. Note that the heater units 410 do not have to be arranged over the entire vertical width of the panel assembly 101 because the panel assembly 101 can be heated by the heater units 410 while it is being conveyed. Furthermore, since it is sufficient for the cooler 610 to lower the temperature of the back sheet 103 and the sealing material 105B to less than 55° C. when the entry point E is reached, the cooler 610 does not need to be disposed over the entire vertical width, like the heater unit 410.

[0041] In the first embodiment of the present invention, the structure of the cooler 610 and the flow of air will be described. As described above, the cooling unit (cooler) 610 is composed of a conveying base 401 having cavities separated by a plurality of partitions 405b as shown in Figures 6 and 7, and a plurality of blower fans 450 provided near the feed roller 23 for each cavity, and external air near the feed roller 23 is blown along each cavity toward the conveyor unit 300 in the direction of the arrow in Figure 7, and the back surface of the receiving base 405 is cooled by blowing the external air.

[0042] As the receiving stand 405 is cooled, the panel assembly 101 placed on the receiving stand 405 and transported is heated by the heater unit 410 from the glass surface side and cooled by the cooling unit (cooler) 610 from the back sheet 103 side, so that the cover glass 104 and the sealant 105A are heated and softened, and the back sheet 103, the sealant 105B, and the solar cell 102 are cooled. As a result, the sealant 105A is softened and the sealant 105B is cooled, so that the lump-shaped glass mass 104a is easily peeled off at the sealant 105A portion, and the solar cell 102 is fixed by the cooled sealant 105B and is easily left on the back sheet 103 side. Note that, although two blower fans 450 are provided for each cavity in FIG. 6, the number of cavities and the number of blower fans 450 are merely examples and are not limited thereto.

[0043] As the results of an actual implementation of the first embodiment of the present invention, a photograph of resin sheet 107 after cover glass 104 has been peeled off is shown in Fig. 17, and a photograph of peeled glass piece 104c is shown in Fig. 18. It can be seen that solar cell 102 and sealant 105A remain neatly on the surface of resin sheet 107, and glass piece 104c has been peeled off. Also, in Fig. 18, glass piece 104c is photographed with the surface that was in contact with sealant 105A facing up, and favorable peeling can be confirmed, which allows for embossing to increase the bonding strength with the sealant.

[0044] Here, the panel assembly 101 is transported in the direction of the arrow S in Fig. 7. The rear end 101a of the panel assembly 101 also moves on the receiving stand 405 in the direction of the arrow S, and since the upper heater unit 410 is in a heated state, the receiving stand 405 is directly heated by the heat of the heater unit 410 even after the rear end 101a has passed, resulting in poor cooling efficiency. Therefore, it is desirable to stop heating the corresponding heater unit 410 (the heater unit at the left end in Fig. 7) after the rear end 101a has passed. The same applies to other embodiments that will be described separately below.

[0045] The structure and air flow of cooler 620, which is a first modified example of the first embodiment according to the present invention, will be described. 8 and 9, the transport base 409 is composed of a receiving base 408 that receives the back sheet 103 side of the panel assembly 101 and a back plate 407 with the base frame 406 in between, and a cooling unit (cooler) 620 is composed of at least one blower fan 450 that blows air into the cavity of the transport base 409. The receiving base 408 of the cooling unit (cooler) 620 has a plurality of openings 408a formed inward from a position having approximately the same width as the horizontal width W of the panel assembly 101 in a location not facing the heater unit 410 (between the heater units 410).

[0046] As in the first embodiment, the air flow is such that the blower fan 450 blows the outside air near the feed roller 23 along each cavity toward the transport conveyor unit 300 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 9, and part of the air escapes between the heater units 410 through the openings 408a when the panel assembly 101 is not present. As a result, the outside air is blown to cool the rear surface of the receiving base 408, and passes through the openings 408a to directly cool the back sheet 103 of the panel assembly 101. The outside air that passes through the openings 408a enters between the receiving base 408 and the panel assembly 101, reducing the contact friction between the panel assembly 101 and the receiving base 408, which is preferable since it makes it easier to transport the panel assembly 101.

[0047] In this way, by directly cooling the back sheet 103 of the panel assembly 101, the back sheet 103, the sealing material 105B, and the solar cell 102 are cooled more efficiently, the lump glass lumps 104a are more likely to peel off at the sealing material 105A portion, and the solar cell 102 is more likely to remain on the back sheet 103 side, adhered by the cooled sealing material 105B.

[0048] The structure and air flow of a cooler 630 according to a second modified example of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. 10 and 11, the cooling unit (cooler) 630 is composed of a transport base 501 composed of a roller unit 505 having a plurality of rollers 512 supported by three rows of frames 511 that receive the back sheet 103 side of the panel assembly 101 with a base frame 506 in between, a back plate 507, and a plurality of blower fans 450 provided near the feed rollers 23 between each roller unit, and external air near the feed rollers 23 is blown along each roller unit toward the transport conveyor unit 300 in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 11, and the blowing of external air cools each roller 512, and part of the air escapes upward from between the rollers 512. The roller units 505 do not need to be in three rows, and may be in a single horizontal row.

[0049] As in the first modified example of the first embodiment, the air flow is such that blower fan 450 blows outside air near feed roller 23 along between roller units 505 toward transport conveyor unit 300 in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 11, and part of the air escapes through between rollers 512. As a result, the outer circumferential surface of rotating roller 512 is cooled by blowing outside air, and the outer circumferential surface of roller 512, which is always cooled, rotates while contacting back sheet 103 of panel assembly 101, improving cooling efficiency, and since the air flowing from between rollers 512 directly cools back sheet 103 of panel assembly 101, there is an advantage that cooling can be performed more effectively.

[0050] In the first embodiment of the present invention, a belt type transport unit 700 using a transport belt will be described as a modified example of the roller unit 505 with reference to FIG. In the belt-type transport unit 700, a drive roller 702 and a driven roller 703 are provided on both ends in the feed direction of frames 701 on both sides, and a thin metal transport belt 705 is wound between them. In addition, between the drive roller 702 and the driven roller 703, idle rollers 704 are provided at several points to prevent the transport belt 705 from bending and separating from the back panel 103 of the panel assembly 101.

[0051] The driving roller 702 is driven by a driving motor (not shown) in a direction to feed the panel assembly 101 into the nip (sandwich) between the feed roller 23 and the first pinch roller 24. The feeding speed is set to be the same as the reference peripheral speed V0 of the feed roller 23. The driven roller 703, each idle roller 704, and the driving roller 702 may be connected and driven by a chain or the like. The conveyor belt 705 may have openings at multiple locations to allow air to pass through. Although the conveyor belt 705 has been described as an endless belt here, it may also be a so-called crawler-type conveyor belt in which multiple horizontally long metal plates are connected in the axial direction of the drive roller 702.

[0052] Cooling from the rear surface of the panel assembly 101 is performed by blowing air into the cavity in FIG. 11, similar to the above-mentioned cooler 630. At this time, the air cools the lower surface 705b of the conveyor belt 705. The upper surface 705a of the conveyor belt 705, which has been heated and stored by the heater unit 410, moves downward as the lower surface 705b by the conveyor belt 705 being conveyed (indicated by the arrow in FIG. 16). After passing through the cavity and being cooled by the air from the blower fan 450 of the cooler, the lower surface 705 moves from the driven roller 703 side to the upper surface, and comes into contact with the back sheet 103 again to cool the rear surface of the panel assembly 101. Note that the belt-type conveyor unit 700 does not need to have three rows, similar to the roller unit 505, and may have a single horizontal row. If the conveyor belt 705 has multiple openings (not shown) or multiple metal plates connected together to form a so-called track, the air can pass through the openings and between the metal plates to directly cool the back sheet 103, making the conveyor belt 705 even more effective.

[0053] The configuration of a cooler 640 in the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The second embodiment of the present invention is an example in which a cooler 640 is provided near the upstream of the peeling section, rather than providing coolers 610, 620, 630, etc. at positions facing heater unit 410 across panel assembly 101 as described in the first embodiment. In this structure, feed roller 33 is a hollow metal roller connected by four ribs, and a blower fan 460 is provided near its end face, and feed roller 33 and blower fan 460 constitute cooler 640.

[0054] The air flow of the cooler 640 is blown from one end of the hollow feed roller 33 by the blower fan 460 as shown by the arrow in Fig. 12, thereby cooling the outer circumferential surface of the feed roller 33. As a result, the back sheet 103 of the panel assembly 101 is sandwiched with the outer circumferential surface of the feed roller 33 at a constant pressure, and is cooled from the feed roller 33 side, and the back sheet 103, the sealant 105B, and the solar cell 102 are cooled, and the lump-shaped glass mass 104a is easily peeled off at the sealant 105A portion, and the solar cell 102 is fixed by the cooled sealant 105B and is easily left on the back sheet 103 side. In the second embodiment of the present invention, the cooler 640 is composed of the hollow feed roller 33 and the blower fan 460, but the drive roller 21 may be hollow and composed of a hollow drive roller and the blower fan 460, or both may have coolers.

[0055] The relationship between heater unit 410 and coolers 630, 640 in the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figures 13 and 14. In the first and second embodiments of the present invention, panel assembly 101 is cooled from the backsheet 103 side, thereby cooling backsheet 103, sealant 105B, and solar cell 102, and bulk glass mass 104a becomes easy to peel at sealant 105A, but excessive cooling may cause sealant 105A to be cooled and hardened.

[0056] In the third embodiment of the present invention, in order to solve this problem, a second heater unit 420 is provided as an auxiliary heater between the nip between the feed roller 33 and the first pinch roller 24 and the nip between the drive roller 21 and the peeling roller 22. The second heater unit 420 has a similar configuration to the heater unit 410, and is composed of a heater 421 and a reflector 422. The second heater unit 420 has an equal length so as to be able to heat the entire width of the panel assembly 101, and is provided extending in the axial direction of the drive roller 21. In the third embodiment, the case where both the cooler 630 and the cooler 640 are provided will be described, but it is of course possible to use only one of them.

[0057] 13 and 14, a lower guide 61 and an upper guide 66 having an opening 66a in the center are provided in the clamping portion X between the feed roller 33 and the peeling roller 22, extending in the direction of the central axis of the drive roller 21, so as to guide the panel assembly 101 to the aforementioned clamping portion X. In addition, a second heater unit 420 is provided facing the opening 66a, so as to be able to heat the panel assembly 101 across its width from the glass surface side.

[0058] According to the third embodiment, in order to prevent hardening of the sealing material 105A caused by excessive cooling from the back sheet 103 side by the cooler 630 or the cooler 640 or both of the coolers, which causes the sealing material 105A to be heated and softened before reaching the clamping portion X, auxiliary heating is performed just before the clamping portion X, and the lump-shaped glass mass 104a becomes easily peeled off at the sealing material 105A portion due to the sealing material 105A being reheated and softened before the panel assembly 101 reaches the clamping portion X, and the solar cell 102 is fixed by the cooled sealing material 105B and tends to remain on the back sheet 103 side, so that the glass mass 104a can be reliably peeled off at the clamping portion X.

[0059] As proposed in Patent Document 2 (see FIG. 8) as mentioned above, if the second heater unit 420 is installed at the location where the cracks in the chunk of broken glass that has been broken into a waste lump have opened up, that is, at the location opposite the location where the glass is wrapped around the cylindrical drive roller 21 while in contact with it, heat will be more likely to reach the sealant 105A on the cover glass 104 side directly from the cracks in the glass, so that the sealant 105A softens while the sealant 105B remains cooled, making it easier for the glass chunk 104a to peel off, thereby increasing the efficiency of scraping off only the glass.

[0060] The embodiment and its modifications of the present invention have been described in detail above. To summarize briefly, 1) The first embodiment and its first and second variants are characterized in that a panel assembly 101 having a chunk of cracked broken glass is heated from the glass surface side by a heater unit 410 to soften the sealing material 105A bonding the glass chunks 104a and the solar cell 102, and the panel assembly 101 is cooled from the back sheet 103 side by a cooling unit (cooler) 610, 620, or 630 provided opposite the heater unit 410 across the panel assembly 101, hardening the sealing material 105B to bond the back sheet 103 and the solar cell 102, and only the glass chunks 104a are peeled off from the sealing material 105A. 2) The second embodiment differs from the above-mentioned arrangement of the coolers in that a hollow feed roller 33, which is positioned so as not to face the heater unit 410 across the panel assembly 101, is used as a cooler 640 to cool from the back sheet 103 side, hardening the sealing material 105B to bond the back sheet 103 and the solar cell 102, and only the glass lump 104a is peeled off from the sealing material 105A. 3) In the third embodiment, a cooler of the first embodiment or a cooler of the second embodiment or both are provided, and a second heater unit 420 is provided as an auxiliary heater between the nip between the feed roller and the first pinch roller 24 and the nip X between the drive roller 21 and the peeling roller 22. The hardening of the sealing material 105A caused by excessive cooling from the back sheet 103 side and loss of heat is reheated by the second heater unit 420, thereby softening only the sealing material 105A and peeling off only the glass lump 104a from the sealing material 105A.

[0061] The above has been a detailed explanation based on an embodiment of the present invention, but the embodiment is not limited to this, and the peeling portion may have any number of stages, and it goes without saying that various other configurations are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0062] 1: Chunk glass removal device 2: Base frame 5: Collection box 11: Left frame 12: Right frame 13: Beam 21: Drive roller 22: Peeling roller 22a: Protrusion (scraping blade) 23, 33: Feed roller 24: First pinch roller 25: Discharge roller 26: Second pinch roller 51: Recycled bread 61: Lower guide 62, 66: Upper guide 63, 64: Transport guide 80: Set sensor 100: Solar panels 101: Panel assembly 102: Solar cell 103: Back seat 104: Glass (cover glass) 104a: Glass block 104b:Void 104c: Glass fragment 105A, 105B: Sealing material 106: Wiring material 107: Resin sheet 108: Frame 200: Peeling roller unit 300: Transport conveyor unit 400: Transport unit 405, 408: Receiving stand 406, 506: Base frame 407, 507: Backplate 410: Heater unit 420: Second heater unit (auxiliary heater) 450, 460: Blower fan 505: Roller unit 610, 620, 630, 640: Cooling unit (cooler) 700: Belt type transport unit

Claims

1. A peeling device for peeling off a chunk of broken glass from a waste material comprising a plate glass and a solar cell attached with an adhesive, the solar cell and a resin back sheet attached with an adhesive, the plate glass being broken into chunks of cracked glass, the waste material comprising a solar cell and a resin back sheet, the solar cell and a resin back sheet being attached with an adhesive ... A heater unit that heats the chunk of broken glass from a glass surface side and is arranged to cover the length of the width of the waste material; At least one cooler disposed on the back sheet side so as to cover the width of the waste; At least one pair of a feed roller and a first pinch roller are disposed downstream of the heater unit to pinch the waste material and transport it by rotational drive; A driving roller that is cylindrical or cylindrical in shape and longer than the width of the waste material and rotates under power, the driving roller changing the direction of the back sheet surface along the back sheet surface so as to open the cracks in the chunks of broken glass of the waste material; a peeling roller having projections intermittently provided on the entire circumferential surface of the driving roller within a range of a winding angle from a winding start point where the backsheet contacts the driving roller to a winding end point where the waste is discharged, the peeling roller being cylindrical or cylindrical and rotating at a linear speed faster than the linear speed of the driving roller; At least one pair of discharge rollers and a second pinch roller are disposed with a length covering the entire width of the back sheet; A device for removing broken glass in chunks comprising:

2. 2. The apparatus for separating a chunk of broken glass according to claim 1, wherein the cooler is provided at a position facing the heater unit with the waste material interposed therebetween.

3. 2. The apparatus for peeling off a chunk of broken glass according to claim 1, wherein the cooler is provided on at least the feed roller or the drive roller which contacts the back sheet.

4. The device for peeling off a chunk of broken glass as described in claim 1, characterized in that an auxiliary heater is provided upstream of the vicinity of the peeling roller, between the nipping portion of the feed roller and the first pinch roller and the nipping portion of the drive roller and the peeling roller, for heating the range from the glass surface side to the width of the waste material.

Images