FRONTLOADER CONTAINER FOR RECEIVING AND COMPACTING URBAN SOLID WASTE

The present invention concerns a frontloader container for receiving and compacting urban solid waste.

In particular the invention refers to the field of urban solid waste collection, subjected to a fare on the base of the effective amount of waste bestowed to the collection point, and to the maximising of the waste amount that can be stored at each collection point. At present, urban solid waste frontloader containers commonly on trade are comprised of simple containers, having different shapes and sizes, with one or more inlets, covered by lids or walls allowing the insertion of waste/garbage into the frontloader container and the subsequent locking of the same frontloader container, in order to avqid the spread of odours over the surrounding environment.

However, none of the solutions at present on trade allows to evaluate the amount of waste/garbage bestowed to the frontloader container by a single user, as it would instead be necessary on the base of the recent prescriptions concerning the field. Besides, none of the currently available solutions allows, at least in the case of frontloader containers for private use, or of frontloader containers of the kind commonly present in city streets, the compacting of the waste/garbage bestowed.

In this context is provided the solution according to the present invention with the purpose of providing a device of the kind of the frontloader container that is not only capable of identifying different users andevaluating the amount of waste/garbage bestowed thereto, and consequently allowing to apply a different fare in proportion to the amount of waste/garbage actually produced, but also of compacting waste/garbage at its interior, in order to maximise the amount contained in a preset volume.

These and other results are obtained according to the present invention by providing a frontloader container for receiving and compacting urban solid waste, supplied with electronic instruments in order to manage and control the users and of the kind of material bestowed.

It is therefore a specific object of the present invention a frontloader container for receiving and compacting urban solid waste comprising, inside its external shell, an inlet channel for waste/garbage, at

the bottom of which an electronic balance is present and, laterally, at least a compacting device on a side and a stockpiling container on the other side, said compacting device conveying said waste/garbage from said inlet channel to said stockpiling container, said stockpiling container being located on guides allowing its extraction in order to allow substitution or evacuation operation, said device of the kind of the frontloader container being managed by an electronic processor.

According to the present invention, said inlet channel is closed on top by a door, the opening and locking of which is contro led by said electronic processor, and said inlet channel is tilted with respect to a line perpendicular to the ground. i

Moreover, according to the invention, said at least a compacting device comprises a pressing head having a flat or wedge surface, a _, plate for covering the space on the rear of the pressing head being present over said pressing head and on the rear of it.

Further, according to the invention, said at least a compacting device comprises a telescopic piston operated by a hydraulic pump.

According to the invention, on a side wall of said stockpiling container an opening for the passage of waste/garbage coming from the inlet channel is present, provided with an opening and locking door, of the shutter kind, upperly pivoted, or of the sliding kind, with one or two wings.

Preferably, according to the invention, said stockpiling container is constituted by a hollow body with truncoconical shape and its bottom is pivoted on a side to only one of the side walls of the container, the opposing side being fixed in correspondence of the respective side wall through opening and locking means.

Further, according to the invention, on the bottom of said stockpiling container a basin for collecting liquids is present.

Always according to the invention, said guides on which said stockpiling container lays can be extracted by sliding out of the device of the kind of the frontloader container, after the opening of a front door of the external shell.

The present invention will now be described, for illustrative, non limitative purposes, according to its preferred embodiments, with particular reference to the figures of the enclosed drawing, in which:

- figure 1 shows a front view of a first embodiment of the device of the kind of the frontloader container of the present invention, the front

wall of the external shell being represented in transparency in order to allow to observe the internal components;

- figure 2 shows a perspective view of the device of the kind of the frontloader container of figure 1 , wherein the internal stockpiling container has been extracted by sliding;

- figure 3 shows a perspective view of the stockpiling container extracted by the device of the kind of the frontloader container of figure 1 , with the bottom in an open position;

- figure 4 shows a front view of a second embodiment of the device of the kind of the frontloader container of the present invention, the front wall of its external shell being represented in transparency; and

- figure 5 shows a perspective view of the stockpiling container extracted from the device of the kind of the frontloader container of figure 4, with the bottom in an open position. Making preliminary reference to figures 1 - 3, it is shown a device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 for receiving and compacting urban solid waste, according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 is constituted by an external shell 2, the front wall of which is not shown in order not to hide the components of the device which are present in the interior thereof. In fact, said external shell 2, wraps a waste/garbage inlet channel 3, on the bottom of which an electronic balance 4 is present for mesuring the weight of waste/garbage; laterally with respect to the inlet channel a piston compacting device 5 is present, having a hydraulic pump, for transporting waste/garbage towards a stockpiling container 6 and for compacting them in said stockpiling container 6. The device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 is further provided with an electronic processor 7 for controlling and managing data concerning the identity of the user and the quality and quantity of waste/garbage bestowed by the user to the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1.

More in particular, the waste/garbage inlet channel 3 is in communication with the esterior of the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 through a door 8 positioned in the upper part of the external shell 2. The opening of the door 8 is operated by the electronic processor 7, which in turn has to receive the data concerning the identity of the user and the kind of waste/garbage. In particular, the electronic processor 7 is connected to a magnetic card reader 9, inside wich a personal magnetic

card must be inserted, the card being delivered to the single users or single families by the society in charge with the collection of waste/garbage. After the insertion of the personal magnetic card inside the reader, the user can select the kind of waste to throw away. Such information is useful in case a plurality of devices of the kind of a frontloader container 1 according to the present invention are arranged together, in such a way to be managed by a common electronic processor 7, each device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 being devoted to the separate collection of a determined kind of waste. In such a case, once the kind of waste has been selected, the electronic processor 7 will command the opening only of the door 8 corresponding to the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 devoted to the separate collection of such waste/garbage.

Once it is inserted, waste/garbage falls along the inlet channel 3, appropriately tilted in order to accompany the waste/garbage down to the plate 10 of the electronic balance 4, preventing it from gaining an excessive speed as a consequence of the acceleration due to its free falling. In fact, the waste/garbage slides on the walls of the inlet channel 3, the friction limiting its speed of falling. If heavy waste/garbage should fall on the plate 10 of the electronic balance 4, without any appropriate limitation of its speed, the electronic balance 4 could be damaged.

Once the waste/garbage arrives on the plate 10 of the electronic balance 4 (or load cell), its weight is measured and communicated to the electronic processor 7, showing such an information on the monitor 11 and storing it both on the memory of the user's personal magnetic card and on its own internal memory. In particular, an appropriate software will execute the following operations: saving of the user's identity data, recording of the weight an kind of waste/garbage, updating of the user's personal magnetic card, updating of the database of the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 , resetting of the load cell.

The user's personal magnetic card is only returned to the user after the door 8 was closed by the electronic processor 7 and all said operations have been executed. Further, only after a sensor has communicated to the electronic processor 7 that the locking of the door 8 is completed, the compacting and stockpiling operations of the waste/garbage can start.

In particular, the pressing head 12 of the compacting device 5, pushed by the telescopic piston 13, moves forward pressing the waste/garbage and making it pass an opening 14 on the side wall of the stockpiling container 6 and positioning inside said container 6. Thus, the inlet channel 3 and the piatto 10 of the electronic balance 4 are made free from the waste/garbage and, after the returning of the pressing head 12 of the compacting device 5 in its starting position, it is possible to insert new waste/garbage into the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1.

The pressing head 12 of the compacting device can be flat or can have a wedge shape (with flat front). The wedge shape improves the side distribution of the waste/garbage inside the stockpiling container 6, and allows to obtsain a more homogeneous compactation of the waste/garbage, with a consequent better distribution of the stresses and a decreasing of the necessary pressing force. On the other side, the use of a wedge shaped pressing head 12 needs a deeper penetration of the pressing head 12 into the stockpiling container 6 and, consequently, needs a longer stroke of the telescopic piston 13.

In both cases, on the upper part of the pressing head 12 a plate 15 can be present, forming an angle with respect to the pressing head 12 and substantially parallel to the ground, covering the top of the area behind the pressing head 12 and in particular the telescopic piston 13. The size of the plate 15 is slightly smaller than those of the horizontal section of the waste/garbage inlet channel 3, in order to prevent the waste/garbage that are possibly present in the inlet channel 3 in a position higher than the pressing head 12, and that are not moved forward by the pressing head 12, through the opening 14, into the stockpiling container 6, can fall in the rear space of the pressing head 12, thus forming an obstacle against its coming back in its starting position.

The stockpiling container 6 is constituted by a hollow body, preferably having the form of a truncated pyramid with the angles of the base very close to a right angle. The slight widening, from the top to the bottom, of the stockpiling container 6, allows a better emptying of the container 6 occurring, if necessary, by falling through a lower opening of the stockpiling container 6, as will be better seen below. The bottom 16 of the stockpiling container 6 is pivoted with only one side to one of the side walls of the container 6. On its internal surface

it is provided a basin 17 for receiving liquids that can pourf from the waste/garbage.

The side opening 14 of the stockpiling container 6, through which the waste/garbage moved forward by the compacting device 5 are inserted, can be locked by the door 18. A side of the door 18, preferably its top side, is pivoted to the side wall of the stockpiling container 6, in order to be opened or locked simply by pivoting around the pivot. Alternatively, the side opening 14 of the stockpiling container 6 can be locked by a sliding door having one or two wings. Making reference to figures 4 - 5, an alternative embodiment of the device of the kind of the frontloader container of the present invention is shown, wherein the door 18 is of the sliding kind with two wings 18', covering the whole heigh of the side wall of the container 6. According to this embodiment two compacting devices 5 are provided, arranged one on top of the other. Such a disposition allows to obtain a better compactation of the waste/garbage inside the container 6, because the applied pression is distributed over the entire height of the pile of waste/garbage gradually forming inside the container 6. In particular, it is possible to provide for the two compacting devices 5 operating independently one from the other, the upper compacting device being operated by the electronic processor 7 only when the amount of waste/garbage so requires.

In the same way according to any of the different embodiments previously shown, once the stockpiling container 6 reaches its maximum capacity, the electronic processor 7 commands the blocking of the door 8, in order to prevent the insertion of further waste/garbage. Further, in order to prevent the waste/garbage from loosing and going out through the opening 14, the compacting device 5 is positioned in such a way to maintain the pressing head 12 in a posizione in line with the side wall of the stockpiling container 6. The loading operations of the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 comprise the opening of a front door (not shown) of the external shell 2, the extraction of the stockpiling container 6 by sliding on the appropriate guides 19 thanks to wheels on which it lays. The full stockpiling container 6 can be taken away and substituted with an empty container 6 of the same kind, or can be emptied and positioned again on the sliding guides 19, in order to be put again inside the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1. In order to obtain a better sliding of the

stockpiling container 6 during the operations of insertion and extraction from the external shell 2, at the same time assuring the position of the container 6 inside the external shell 2 during the waste/garbage compacting operations, involving forces pressing the container 6, together with its content, along lateral directions, it is further provided, on the upper side of the container a longitudinal protrusion 20 extending in a direction parallel to the direction of insertion and extraction of the container 6, i.e. in a direction transversal with respect to the pressing direction of the compacting device 5. The protrusion 20 is slidingly fitted inside a track guide 21 , extending in the same direction and forming an upper stop with respect to the lateral pushing of the compacting device 5, without forming an obstacle against the operations of insertion and extraction. The lower portion of the stockpiling container 6 is laterally fixed by means of a support 22. The substitution of a full stockpiling container 6 with an empty one, rather then its emptying on place, is preferable since all the emptying operation occurs in an appropriate environment, reducing the risks of possible contamination due to the dispersion of the waste/garbage. Obviously, during transportation, the door 18 is locked and fixed in locked position.

The emptying of the stockpiling container 6 occurs by lifting the container, through its grab top tabs 23. Susequently, by rotating the locking hooks 24 in the lower part of the side wall of the container 6, on the side of the container 6 opposed to that on which the bottom 16 is pivoted, the respective locking pins 25 on the bottom 16 are disengaged. In this way, as a consequence of its weight and the weight of the overwhelming waste/garbage mass, the bottom 16 pivots around its pivot and the lower part of the stockpiling container 6 opens and let the contained waste/garbage fall. As already said, the shape of the stockpiling container 6, which is wider on the bottom and less wide on top, improves the falling of the waste/garbage.

It is evident the advantage of providing for a stockpiling container 6 that can be extracted from the device of the kind of the frontloader container 1 in order to accomplish the emptying operations. In fact, it is thus possible to move the stockpiling container 6 only, avoiding the more delicate parts of the device, in particular the electronic balance 4, from undergoing mechanical stresses.

The present invention was described for illustrative, non limitative purposes, according to its preferred embosiments, but it is to be understood that any change and/or modification can be made from thos skilled in the art without as a consequence falling away from the pertaining scope of protection, as defined in the enclosed claims.