Plastic Processing Apparatus with Inverted Mixing and Deflector
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing plastic recycling apparatuses face challenges in achieving high-quality output with high throughput while minimizing energy consumption and space requirements, particularly when processing sensitive or strip-shaped materials, due to issues like premature melting, blockages, and inhomogeneous material treatment.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus reverses the direction of rotation of mixing and comminution implements relative to the conveyor, with a bar-shaped deflector inside the container to assist in material intake, allowing for efficient and non-aggressive introduction of materials into the screw, reducing feed pressure and preventing overfilling, and using a deflector with a specific angle and height profile to enhance material flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the screw rotation rate is increased to increase quantitative output, then productivity is improved, but the plastics material is subjected to higher mechanical and thermal stress causing damage to molecular chains
Solution Approach 1:
The plastics material undergoes preliminary treatment in the container including comminution, mixing, and heating to achieve thermal homogeneity before entering the screw. This preliminary action reduces the need for high screw rotation rates and associated mechanical/thermal stress during extrusion.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state and temperature parameters of the plastics material in the container before it enters the screw, transforming it from a cold, heterogeneous state to a warm, homogeneous state, thereby reducing the energy input required in the screw and minimizing molecular chain damage.
2Manufacturing precision
If the flight depth of the metering zone of the screw is increased and screw rotation rate is decreased to improve product quality, then manufacturing precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The container performs preliminary comminution, mixing, and heating of the plastics material, achieving thermal homogeneity before the material enters the screw. This allows the screw to operate at higher rotation rates without compromising quality, as the material is already well-prepared.
Solution Approach 2:
The container acts as an intermediary device between material feeding and screw extrusion, performing preparatory functions that reduce the burden on the screw and enable it to operate at higher speeds while maintaining quality standards.
3Manufacturing precision
If the temperature profile of the extruder is raised to compensate for inhomogeneity, then manufacturing precision is improved, but use of energy increases and thermal damage to plastics material occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The container performs preliminary heating and mixing of the plastics material, achieving thermal homogeneity before the material enters the screw. This reduces or eliminates the need to raise the extruder temperature profile, thereby reducing energy consumption and preventing thermal damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system achieves inherent feedback control for homogeneity through the container's mixing and heating action, which automatically ensures uniform material properties before extrusion, eliminating the need for compensatory temperature increases.
4Productivity
If the direction of conveying of the conveyor and direction of rotation of mixing implements are made identical to maximize stuffing effect, then productivity is improved, but harmful factors increase due to premature melting and blockages
Solution Approach 1:
The invention inverts the conventional arrangement by making the direction of conveying of the conveyor opposite to the direction of rotation of the mixing implements. This creates a non-aggressive stuffing effect that prevents premature melting and blockages while maintaining adequate material introduction into the screw.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design improves intake performance, increases throughput, and maintains high-quality output with reduced energy consumption and space requirements, allowing for effective processing of various materials, including those close to melting, by preventing premature melting and blockages, and ensuring thermal and mechanical homogeneity.
Implementation Method 1
The circulating mixing and/or comminution implement( s) 3 heat and soften the plastics material introduced into the container 1
Implementation Method 2
The circulating mixing and/or comminution implement( s) 3 heat and soften the plastics material introduced into the container 1 by the mechanical frictional energy introduced
Implementation Method 3
the lower end region or the lower end 58 of one or more deflectors 50 is within this region 70
Implementation Method 4
provides non-aggressive introduction of material into the screw 6
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is an apparatus for the processing of plastics, having a container with a rotatable mixing implement, where a conveyor is provided, with a screw rotating in a housing, wherein the imaginary continuation of the longitudinal axis of the conveyor in a direction opposite to the direction of conveying passes the axis of rotation, where, on the outflow side, there is an offset distance between the longitudinal axis and the radial that is parallel to the longitudinal axis, wherein on the internal wall area of the container, there is at least one bar-shaped deflector which is directed into the interior of the container, and the height profile of which decreases in the direction of rotation of the mixing implement, seen from above, and the angle included thereby, over its length, with a plane (E) perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the mixing implements is an acute angle (α).