System and method for sorting elements made from textile fibers

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for sorting elements made from textile fibers to be recycled into at least one material and / or into at least one color, the elements being, for example, made of cotton, in particular clothing, characterized in that all the elements to be sorted are conveyed into a cutting system (14, 15), the cutting system being designed to cut the elements into pieces, each piece having a respective surface area, measured on one side, greater than 25 cm2, preferably between 25 and 400 cm2, in particular between 25 cm2 and 100 cm2, and means are provided for passing the cut pieces from the cutting system to means for detecting the material or materials of which each piece is made and / or the color or colors of each piece, in particular infrared (IR) detection means (6), in particular near infrared (NIR) detection means, the pieces detected as being made of the at least one material and / or as being in the at least one color being sent to output conveying means, in order to obtain a reserve (R; N; B), while the pieces detected as not being made of the at least one material and / or as not being in the at least one color are not sent to the output conveying means.

Description

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 spectroscopy (N IR) detection systems, which make it possible to determine the IR spectrum of the garment and consequently its composition, for example if 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, particularly 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 made of the same material and / or color, which distorts the results of the detection and the resulting sorting.

[0004] We also know from application FR number 2313285 of November 29, 2023 in the name of the applicant, a complicated sorting installation implementing a prior NIR detection, followed by a cutting of the sorted elements into pieces for the first time, followed by a second sorting of the pieces by NIR detection.

[0005] From WO2024 / 213671A1, there is also known a fiber recovery facility from textile waste, the textile waste being ground into very fine pieces, without real width or surface, of lengths between 0.5 cm and 30 cm.

[0006] From W02024 / 0111192A2 and CN110180873A, it is known that loaders allow the conveying of clothes, the loaders having bins into which the clothes fall, the clothes being conveyed while in the bins.

[0007] 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, which is simpler to implement while allowing for sorting of equally good quality.

[0008] According to a first aspect of the invention, an element sorting installation is as defined in claim 1.

[0009] Thus, according to the invention, by making the cuts directly on the items to be sorted, without prior sorting, and in particular without prior IR or NIR sorting, especially following pieces of various shapes, for example tiles, of appropriate dimensions, namely having a surface area (measured on one side only) greater than or equal to 25 cm 2 , in particular between 25 and 400 cm 2 , especially between 25cm 2 and 100 cm 2 For example, with A5 sheets, the inventors of the present invention realized that preliminary sorting before cutting into pieces could be eliminated without significantly compromising the quality of the final sort. Furthermore, with such piece dimensions, a loader as described below can be used, further simplifying, accelerating, and improving the reliability of optical sorting following the cutting stage.

[0010] Preferably, the cutting installation includes a first guillotine, in which each item to be sorted, in particular clothing, is cut into pieces of various more or less regular shapes approaching a square or rectangle, to obtain strips which are then sent under a second guillotine making a vertical back and forth movement to obtain the pieces sent to the IR detection means.

[0011] 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 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, zips or the like, in particular by a gravity separation of the pieces according to their weight.

[0012] 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 of which at least one upper strand is arranged inclined upwards, 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 or piece after piece, thus ensuring that the elements are not conveyed in a superimposed manner, in particular an infeed conveyor in the detection means comprises 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 belt of the endless unrolling conveyor, the protrusions being arranged at a distance from each other so as to catch piece after piece, thus ensuring that the pieces are not conveyed in a superimposed position.

[0013] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the pieces of the deposit are transported, in particular in the form of bales, to a shredding facility.

[0014] 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 then passed through a cutting facility, in which the elements are cut into pieces having a surface area (measured on one side only) preferably greater than 25 cm 2, specifically between 25 and 400 cm 2 , particularly between 25 and 100 cm 2 , for example in the form of tiles; and - the pieces resulting from the cutting are passed through means of 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 means of detection by IR, in particular NIR, depending on the infrared spectrum, in particular near infrared, of the material or materials of each piece to be sorted; - depending on the result of the detection, the pieces detected as being in at least one material and / or one color are grouped into a deposit.

[0015] According to a preferred embodiment, before passing through the detection means, a separation is carried out on the cut pieces, from those pieces containing parts made of a high-density material, in particular loops, zips, buttons, decoration and the like, in particular a gravity separation, and only the pieces without parts made of a high-density material are sent to the detection means.

[0016] According to advantageous embodiments, the conveying means at the entry and / or exit of the cutting installation, and / or the detection means and / or the separation installation may be conveyors, in particular endless conveyors, and / or include pneumatic and / or aerodynamic means, in particular pneumatic and / or aerodynamic hoses.

[0017] As an 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.

[0018] Figure 1 describes an installation according to an embodiment of the invention, in which a cutting into pieces step and a sorting step are carried out in succession.

[0019] Figure 2 describes in more detail a part of the installation described in figure 1.

[0020] In Figure 1, the bales 13 of clothing to be sorted or individual garments are introduced into a cutting installation 14, like a guillotine, in which each garment is cut into pieces of various more or less regular shapes approaching a square or rectangle, with a dimension, for example, less than or equal to 400cm 2, to obtain strips which are then sent under a second guillotine 15 making a vertical back and forth movement to obtain the targeted pieces of small size on the surface.

[0021] The cutting installation 14.15 is implemented to ensure that the pieces are preferably in the shape of a square or rectangle, but given the uncertainties, in particular related to the passages, 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 regular or irregular polygons.

[0022] These pieces are then transferred to a separation system for pieces containing high-density materials, 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 materials are lighter and can therefore be drawn upwards by a suction nozzle, while pieces with high-density materials 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 materials.

[0023] The light pieces, i.e. made up solely or almost solely of textile fibers, are then transferred to a 6 N IR gantry to carry out a second sorting to obtain R, N, B deposits.

[0024] This 6-channel NIR scanner, well-known in the field, directs an IR light beam onto the detected object and determines its respective NIR light spectrum based on the beam reflected by the object onto a suitable sensor within the scanner. A detailed description of this type of NIR scanner can be found in document DE19920592A1.

[0025] Thus, each piece can be sorted according to its spectrum. In particular, one can determine the composition of this piece, for example whether it is made of cotton, polyester, a cotton and polyester blend and / or any other material.

[0026] 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 pieces to send them, each according to their respective material(s) determined by their respective spectrum, to three transverse output conveyors 8, 9, 10 to thus form three deposits R, N, B.

[0027] Depending on the material detected by the NIR gantry 6, the nozzles either eject downwards by blowing the pieces intended to fall immediately at the exit of the gantry 6 conveyor into the first deposit R, or do no action on the pieces intended to fall into the second deposit N, or give an impulse to send the pieces intended to fall into the third deposit B.

[0028] Thus, in the example shown, the pieces are sorted into three categories, defined in advance by the user according to the material composition, 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.

[0029] Once the pieces of cotton are obtained, they are passed through a shredding plant to recover the fibers.

[0030] Figure 2 shows a loader 30 for distributing pieces that can be positioned, notably as shown in Figure 1, at the entrance of a gravity separation unit 16' and / or the NIR gantry for the second NIR detection. It could also be positioned at the entrance of the gravity separation unit 16 and / or at the entrance of the detection gantry 6 and / or at the entrance of the cutting unit.

[0031] This loader 30 includes 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 runs around three rollers: a lower roller 33, an upper roller 34, and a front roller 35.

[0032] 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 conveyor, 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.

[0033] The upper roller 34 has a larger diameter than the lower roller 33 and the front roller 35.

[0034] 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 protruding spikes 39 oriented to catch a piece at the front end roller 40 of the infeed conveyor 31. Each spike can thus lift an individual piece 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 N-IR detection station.

[0035] Two outer rollers, 42 rear and 43 front, are positioned respectively upstream and downstream of the upper roller 34. The rear roller 42 is arranged to prevent multiple pieces from catching on the same point of the conveyor belt 32, thus preventing more than one piece from passing through at a time. The front roller 43 is arranged to prevent pieces from remaining caught on the points of the pointed conveyor belt 32, thereby ensuring that the pieces detach cleanly from the belt 32 and fall into the opening 50.

[0036] 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.

[0037] An example with three deposits has been described above. However, while remaining within the scope of the present invention, different numbers than three can be chosen, in particular only two or, on the contrary, more than three, for example four or five.

[0038] In the embodiment described in the figures, sorting is carried out according to the material of the textile fibers to be sorted for recycling. A system according to the invention could also be used to sort the fibers according to their color, either as a replacement for or in addition to sorting by material. For color sorting, an optical imaging device is preferably used, particularly cameras, which allow for easy color detection and therefore sorting.

Claims

Demands

1. A sorting installation for items made from textile fibres to be recycled into at least one material and / or at least one colour, for example cotton, in particular clothing, characterized in that all items to be sorted are conveyed into a cutting installation (14, 15), the cutting installation being arranged to cut the items into pieces, each having a respective surface area, measured on one side only, greater than or equal to 25 cm² 2 preferably between 25 and 400 cm 2 , in particular between 25 cm 2 and 100 cm 2and means are provided for passing the cut pieces from the cutting installation to means for detecting the material or materials constituting each piece and / or the color or colors of each piece, including means (6) for infrared (IR) detection, including near-infrared (N IR), the pieces detected as being in at least one material and / or color being sent to output conveying means, to obtain a deposit (R; N; B), while the pieces detected as not being in at least one material and / or color are not sent to the output conveying means.

2. Installation according to claim 1, characterized in that the means (6) for detecting the material or materials constituting each piece to be sorted are near-infrared (N IR) detection means allowing the material or materials constituting the piece to be sorted to be detected according to its spectrum (NIR).

3. An installation according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pieces each have a respective surface area, measured on one side only, less than or equal to 400 cm² 2 preferably between 25 and 100 cm 2 .

4. An installation according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cutting installation comprises a first guillotine, in which each item to be sorted, in particular clothing, is cut into pieces of various more or less regular shapes approaching a square or rectangle, to obtain strips which are then sent under a second guillotine making a vertical back-and-forth movement to obtain the pieces sent to the IR detection means.

5. Installation according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that after the cutting installation (14, 15) and before the detection means (6), there is a separation installation (16, 16') for separating, among the pieces of the first deposit, those which incorporate parts of high-density material, in particular buttons, buckles, zips or the like, in particular by a gravity separation of the pieces according to their weight.

6. An installation according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an infeed conveyor in the detection means (6) comprises an endless unwinding belt (32) of which at least one upper strand (36) is arranged inclined upwards, hooking means, 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 piece after piece to ensure that the pieces are not conveyed in a superimposed manner.

7. An installation according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an infeed conveyor in the cutting installation (14, 15) comprises an endless unwinding belt (32) of which at least one upper strand (36) is arranged inclined upwards, hooking means, 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 element after element to ensure that the elements are not conveyed in a superimposed manner.

8. An installation according to any one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that an infeed conveyor in the separation installation (16, 16') comprises an endless unwinding conveyor belt (32) having at least one upper strand (36) inclined upwards, and hooking means, for example hooks, spikes or the like, projecting from the belt of the endless unwinding conveyor belt, the projections being arranged at intervals between them so as to hook piece after piece to ensure that the pieces are not conveyed in a superimposed manner.

9. A method for sorting items made from textile fibers into at least one material and / or color to be recycled, for example into cotton, in an installation according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising the steps in which: - we take a set of elements made from textile fibers; - They are passed through a cutting facility, in which the elements are cut into pieces, having a surface area (measured on one side only) greater than or equal to 25 cm 2 preferably between 25 cm 2 and 400cm 2 , specifically between 25 and 100 cm 2 , for example in the form of tiles; and - the pieces resulting from the cutting are passed through means of detecting the material(s) constituting each piece to be sorted and / or the color(s) of each piece to be sorted, in particular means of detection by infrared (IR), in particular near-infrared (N IR), according to the infrared spectrum, in particular near-infrared, of the material(s) of each piece to be sorted; - depending on the result of the detection, the pieces detected as being in at least one material and / or one color are grouped into a deposit (R; N; B).

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, before passing through the detection means (6), a separation is carried out on the cut pieces, from those pieces comprising parts made of a high-density material, in particular buckles, zips, buttons, decoration and the like, in particular a gravity separation, and only the pieces without parts made of a high-density material are sent to the detection means (6).

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