Ben G Petrucci

US Patent:

40186750, Apr 19, 1977

Filed:

May 19, 1975

Appl. No.:

5/578611

Inventors:

Ben G. Petrucci - Sacramento CA

International Classification:

B07C 110

US Classification:

209 86

Abstract:

A hexagonal-in-section trommel is rotatably mounted on a frame with the axis of rotation inclined downwardly from a waste material input end to a discharge end. The walls of the trommel include panels formed of screens having various predetermined mesh sizes, some relatively large, others relatively small. Inwardly projecting rods mounted on the interior walls of the trommel are spaced apart in such a way that larger pieces (such as old corrugated paper board, or cardboard, long strips of paper and plastic sheets) are engaged by the rods and are lifted up the side walls of the trommel, thereby allowing smaller pieces of waste material not lifted by the rods to pass downwardly through the screen mesh for removal by a subjacent conveyor. Concurrently, as the larger pieces approach the top of the trommel, they are disengaged from the rods by gravity; and as the larger pieces fall toward the bottom of the trommel, they concurrently move toward the discharge end owing to the trommel's inclination. As the corrugated board, long strips of paper and plastic sheets fall toward the bottom of the trommel, the heavier, more compact, corrugated board with rigid sharp corners tends to force any underlying light flexible plastic sheets or paper strips downwardly against the screen and poke them through the wider meshes for removal by the subjacent conveyor.