ES1280270U - Textile recycling plant (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Textile recycling plant, characterized in that it comprises a feeder (1) for textiles that communicates with a series of triage cabins (3) for removal of bulky items, a suction equipment (4) for film, a ballistic separator (5) of heavy rollers behind the triage cabins (3), a spreader (6) that leads to one or more optical separators (7), configured in the near infrared, for classification. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

DESCRIPTION

Textile recycling plant

TECHNICAL SECTOR

The present invention refers to a textile recycling plant, which allows their separation according to the material from which they are made for recovery or recycling.

STATE OF THE ART

Around 16 million tonnes of textiles are disposed of annually in Europe. Of these, around 20% are collected for recovery, while the rest end up in landfill or incineration. 50% of what is collected is recycled, and the remaining 50% is reused through export to developing countries.

Currently in Spain the selective collection and classification of textile waste is carried out seldom and through fully manual processes. This prevents the classification by quality and does not ensure the traceability of the destination of the textile waste.

The separation or treatment of the textile flow is manual, prioritizing the physical aspect of the garment and not its composition. This causes a large amount of rejection without really knowing what goes into deposition (weir), which is the vast majority of the flow recovered after treatment. In addition, the type of textile is extremely variable, for example due to fashion, seasonality or other factors.

Some attempts have been made to classify textiles, for example in WO2020234466, but their effective installation has not been achieved.

No solution is known, at least by the applicant, that allows the recycling of this type of materials in an automated way.

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE INVENTION

The invention consists of a textile recycling plant as described in the claims.

This plant manages to optimize the preparation process for reuse, as it is carried out in a mechanized and automated way. Performs a classification by quality appropriate to the demand of the sector for the treatment of already classified textile waste. It ensures the traceability of textile waste, thus meeting one of the regulatory requirements set by the European Union. It reduces the negative impact that textile waste has on others, by ensuring a greater and selective collection of waste and a reduction in cross contamination.

The proposed innovation, from the point of view of mechanical optical separation technology, allows the differentiation of materials composed of natural fibers from synthetic fibers from petroleum, since the analysis of the reflection of light in the near infrared to the Visible light (spectrometer analysis) is very different. This differentiation is also carried out taking into account that the vibrations are detected at very specific wavelengths in the NIR domain (1 to 2.5 pm).

The plant is automated, counting only on manual processes in the separation of bulky items and in the final quality control of the separated material and its rejection fraction. It allows a separation by materials, instead of the physical appearance of the garment. Therefore, an unknown material, with the problems it can cause, is not sent to landfill or pyrolysis, or other valuation.

The textile recycling plant comprises a textile feeder that communicates with a series of sorting cabins for the removal of bulky items. During this process, a suction equipment for film and other similar light residues is used. After sorting, it passes through a heavy rolling ballistic separator, from where it passes to a spreader that leads to one or more sorting optical separators, configured in the near infrared. These can be assisted by acceleration belts.

Other variants are defined in the independent claims and in the remainder of the specification.

The following figures of illustrative examples are included that do not limit the invention, to better understand its essence.

Figure 1: diagram of an example of the invention.

MODES OF EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The examples shown in the figures, which correspond to a non-limiting variant of the invention, will now be described in more detail.

Figure 1 shows a diagram of the textile recycling plant according to a preferred embodiment. Part of a feeder (1), optionally with a bag opener (2), and a series of sorting cabins (3) for removal of bulky items, which can be manual. A suction equipment (4) removes the film from the plastic bags, for its derivation to the plastics recovery plant, pyrolysis, or other valuation, as deemed convenient. The flow is sent to a ballistic separator (5) for removal of heavy, rolling items, such as footwear.

The remaining flow is diverted to a spreader (6) that ensures the separation of the different textile pieces, the spreader (6) allows no bumps or agglomerations to form to prepare the optical separation, obtaining a linear flow before reaching one or plus optical separators (7) configured in the near infrared (1-2.5 pm), according to the spectrum of textile fibers. The spreader (6) will normally be suitable for plastics, although preferably with a larger effective area. These optical separators (7) will allow to obtain a flow where the textiles have natural fibers; artificial fibers, etc. The optical separators (7) can be assisted by acceleration belts (8) that modify the capacity of the optical separators (7) according to the success of the separation, accelerating or slowing the arrival of material to them. The system allows recirculation between optical separators (7) to improve classification.

Each sorted line is diverted to storage, usually baled.

A second series of cabins (3) perform secondary triage. This secondary manual triage discriminates by appearance and eliminates external elements (zippers, buttons ...) if the garment cannot be reused and has to go to recycling, among other materials from the rejects of the ballistic separator (5) and of the optical separators (7).

The process can be divided into several parallel flows when the capacity of a machine or stage is insufficient. Likewise, recirculation or bypass can be defined and activated according to the incoming or outgoing material in each line.

Claims (1)

1- Textile recycling plant, characterized in that it comprises a feeder (1) for textiles that communicates with a series of triage cabins (3) for removal of bulky items, a suction equipment (4) for film, a ballistic separator (5) of heavy rollers behind the triage cabins (3), a spreader (6) that leads to one or more optical separators (7), configured in the near infrared, for classification. 2- Textile recycling plant, according to claim 1, characterized in that the optical separators (7) are assisted by acceleration belts (8). 3- Textile recycling plant, according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a bag opener (2) prior to the booths (3).