FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to extrusion systems and methods pertaining to recyclable materials, and more particularly, extrusion systems and methods of recyclable multiphase materials.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Following initial sorting once waste materials are collected, the materials to be recycled (and primarily home waste) may be divided to typical groups of waste materials such as groups of plastic, glass and metal (in addition to the group of typically other, non-recyclable materials). Typically, such sorted groups are not uniform nor homogenous: the plastic group may comprise of a blend of many types of plastic having various different traits such as melting temperatures, hardness and containing different coloring materials. Similarly, the glass group may comprise different types of glass and the metal group, various types of alloys having very different traits. Thereby each such group of materials may be characterized as a multiphase compounded material wherein there is more than one distinct compound in the material and the compounds form distinct regions in the substance with different properties.

Screw extruders for processing recyclable waste, typically comprising plastic and nonplastic particles, are well known in the art. Nevertheless, current general extrusion systems and methods are typically limited to extruding of uniformly mixed highly viscous materials such as

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RECTIFIED SHEET (RULE 91 ) A RECYCLBE MULTIPHASE MATERIAL EXTRUSION SYSTEM AND METHOD

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to extrusion systems and methods pertaining to recyclable materials, and more particularly, extrusion systems and methods of recyclable multiphase materials.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Following initial sorting once waste materials are collected, the materials to be recycled (and primarily home waste) may be divided to typical groups of waste materials such as groups of plastic, glass and metal (in addition to the group of typically other, non-recyclable materials). Typically, such sorted groups are not uniform nor homogenous: the plastic group may comprise of a blend of many types of plastic having various different traits such as melting temperatures, hardness and containing different coloring materials. Similarly, the glass group may comprise different types of glass and the metal group, various types of alloys having very different traits. Thereby each such group of materials may be characterized as a multiphase compounded material wherein there is more than one distinct compound in the material and the compounds form distinct regions in the substance with different properties.

Screw extruders for processing recyclable waste, typically comprising plastic and nonplastic particles, are well known in the art. Nevertheless, current general extrusion systems and methods are typically limited to extruding of uniformly mixed highly viscous materials such as molten plastic or fluid rubbers. Such extruders would not suit the processing of recyclable material which is characterized by being heterogenous and comprising of various materials.

Typically, shredded, crushed, dried or otherwise processed waste is fed into the screw extruder, and the particles flow within the barrel of a screw extruder under high pressure and temperature. The extrusion process is directed at recycling waste materials and obtaining a uniform and substantially homogenous product material which can be appropriated for various uses.

Current extrusion systems and methods support the obtainment of relatively low rate of uniformity and homogeneity output material, thereby limiting the rate of re-appropriation of the recycled materials. Improving the rate of uniformity and homogeneity of output material would diversify and enlarge the scope of appropriations to which the recycled materials can be used and improve the commercial viability and sustainability of the recycling process.

More so, extrusion systems and methods are highly dependent upon the composition of the input waste material. Typically, such methods and systems do not change the ratio of the compounds in the output material. Nevertheless, such ratio would be determinant as to the final use of the material and its shape. It being appreciated that the ability to shape the output product - mostly a of a paste-like substance - to predetermined shapes, would highly depend upon the characteristics of the output material and would affect the ability to form certain three dimensional shapes. Current methods and systems' output would typically be highly dependent upon the type of inputted materials and thereby affect the flexibility or versatility (or lack thereof) of outputted materials. The processing of materials inputted into current typical methods and systems would not affect within the processing the material's composition, compounding nor the chemical reactions between such materials. Some systems and methods are known in the art are directed to such ends by exploiting the different viscosity and flow characteristics of the compounded material while flowing through an extruder. One such method (such as US 4,695,165) suggests the amalgamation of certain compounds in the material by use of a rotor-stator element installed within the extruder barrel thereby increasing pressure on the overall compounded material and thus contribute to the uniformity of the output material. Such system and method and others involve a complex and expensive apparatus while providing a low rate of control of the output material's characteristic (i.e. percent of each designated compound in output material). In this method with the nonuniformity of the waste it can enlarge the voides and fractures in the end product

Thus, there is a need in the art to provide an extrusion system and method which can handle recyclable multiphase materials with certain flexibilities to affect the processed material (such as the constitution and compound of the inputted material, the chemical interactions between the material components, etc.) while producing a relatively uniform and homogenous output compounded product with predetermined composition of materials while presenting a cost effective solution thereto.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention discloses a cost effective efficient and smart extrusion system and method which can handle recyclable multiphase materials (that may comprise of polymeric and non-polymeric substances, as well as other materials) while producing a relatively uniform and homogenous output compounded product with a controllable composition of materials. The system and method according to the invention subjects the processed compounded waste to a range of pressures and temperatures within the chamber of an extruder in a manner which controls the flow therein and affects certain of the waste components' temperature and pressure, thereby outputting a prescribed compounded material (such as whereby during the flow of the recyclable material along the containing volume, the polymeric substances are designated to melt and encapsulate the non-polymeric substances).

The following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, devices and methods which are meant to be exemplary and illustrative and not limiting in scope. In various embodiments, one or more of the above-described problems have been reduced or eliminated, while other embodiments are directed to other advantages or improvements.

According to some embodiments of the invention, a recyclable material extrusion system is to comprise a containing volume of substantially a barrel shape having an outlet and an inlet, a hopper configured to feed into the containing volume’s inlet recyclable material that comprises various substances, wherein the recyclable material having at least two thermodynamic phases, at least one positive displacement means configured to be mounted within the containing volume, a power source, and at least one heating element, wherein the recyclable material is designated to be conveyed along the containing volume's axis towards its outlet by the positive displacement means coupled with the power source, thereby propelling the recyclable material in accordance with the multiphase flow of the material, wherein at least one physical structure is located on the positive displacement means and configured to affect the multiphase flow of some of the substance/s comprising the recyclable material, wherein while being conveyed along the containing volume's axis and subjected to pressure/s and heat provided by the heating element/s and the positive displacement means coupled with the power source the recyclable material is converted to a designated composite material, and wherein the converted composite material is extruded at a multiphase flow and has different physical properties in comparison to the recyclable material fed into the containing volume.

According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein the conversion to a designated composite material is a result of various interactions between the material components due to pressure/s and heat subjected to the recyclable material (as well as innate chemical reactions between the components at such environment) while flowing along the containing volume and being affected by the physical structure located on the positive displacement means.

According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein the at least one physical structure located on the positive displacement means is configured to create turbulences designated to have a greater effect on the substance/s having a slower thermodynamic phase thereby creating in designated volumes of material vortex motion affecting different pressure at spaces in the processed material. According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein the at least one physical structure is located on the outer circumference of the positive displacement means. While it being appreciated that said physical structure may be of varied shapes (such as a fin, bulge or any protrusion, aperture or slit shape) and according to some embodiments of the invention such physical structure may be configured to delay or otherwise expedite the flow of at least one substance of the multiphase material. It being appreciated that such expediting or delaying may be based on the probability that a substance/s having a slower thermodynamic phase will be accumulated within said aperture/slits or otherwise detained by said physical structure. According to some embodiments of the invention, the said physical structures are to be located on a same perpendicular cross-section plane along the positive displacement means such disbursement at same cross-section may contribute to an effective creation of turbulence and thereby vortex of one of the phase materials. While it being appreciated that by having at least two pairs of physical structures designated to be located on different perpendicular cross-section planes along the positive displacement means may also achieve different desired results of detaining or expediting one or few of the types of compounds in the multiphase material.

According to some embodiments of the invention, one or more heating elements may be positioned along the containing volume (either internally or externally) designated to affect the temperature of the material being processed within the extrusion system. It being appreciated that heating the processed material at different points may contribute to the delaying or expediting of the flow of the processed material as well as affect the encapsulation of polymeric and non- polymeric phases of the material into a compounded material. According to some embodiments of the invention, said heating elements/points may be designated to same cross-section of the containing volume, thus creating a concentrated ramp-up of temperature. According to some embodiments of the invention, said heating elements/points may be designated physical elements positioned at same cross-section of the containing volume, thus coupling the concentrated ramp- up of temperature with coordinated turbulence.

According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein the positive displacement means is a screw- shaped element positioned at the same axis of the containing volume's axis. While according to some embodiments of the invention, the positive displacement means is a screw- shaped element skewed in relation to the axis of the containing volume's axis. According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein the composite material comprises various substances such as organic/nonorganic substances, aggregates, cellulose, polymers, etc.

According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein the recyclable material is a waste material processed to particles. Whereas, according to some embodiments of the invention, the particles having a diameter smaller than 5mm, 8mm or 30 mm.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the processed materials undergo an extrusion as well as prescribed mixing in same volume chamber, whereby certain areas of volume chamber wherein physical structures and or heating points or areas enable the control of such extrusion and mixing combinations.

According to some embodiments of the invention, wherein composite material is configured to undergo an injection molding once exiting the extruder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Some embodiments of the invention are described herein with reference to the accompanying figures. The description, together with the figures, makes apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art how some embodiments may be practiced. The figures are for the purpose of illustrative description and no attempt is made to show structural details of an embodiment in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention.

In the Figures: FIG. 1 constitutes a schematic sectional view of a typical extruding system.

FIG. 2 constitutes a schematic sectional view of a typical extruding system according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 3A & 3B constitute a schematic cross-sectional view of a typical extruding system according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 4A - 4G constitute schematic sectional views of various physical structures and their configurations according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 5A - 5D constitute schematic sectional views of various physical structures and their configurations according to some embodiments of the invention. FIG. 6 constitutes a schematic sectional view of a schematic illustration of material flow through a section of an extruder configured according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 7 A - 7D constitute schematic sectional views of various physical structures with and without heating elements and their configurations according to some embodiments of the invention. FIG. 8 constitutes Table 1 exemplifying test results of a system according to some embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components, modules, units and/or circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the invention. Some features or elements described with respect to one embodiment may be combined with features or elements described with respect to other embodiments. For the sake of clarity, discussion of same or similar features or elements may not be repeated.

Although embodiments of the invention are not limited in this regard, discussions utilizing terms such as, for example, “controlling” “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” “establishing”, “analyzing”, “checking”, “setting”, “receiving”, or the like, may refer to operation(s) and/or process(es) of a controller, a mechanical controller, a computer, a computing platform, a computing system, a cloud computing system or other electronic computing device, that manipulates and/or transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within the computer's registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer's registers and/or memories or other information non-transitory storage medium that may store instructions to perform operations and/or processes, a translation of algorithm steps or orders to a physical medium by way of mechanical or otherwise physical means.

Unless explicitly stated, the method embodiments described herein are not constrained to a particular order or sequence. Additionally, some of the described method embodiments or elements thereof can occur or be performed simultaneously, at the same point in time, or concurrently. The method embodiments may be materialized by the system described herein or otherwise.

The present invention makes use of typically designed extruders modified to implement the invention. A person skilled in the art would appreciate that such modification may be incorporated in the original design and production of the system and/or retrofitted on available extruding systems. As shown in Fig.l, a typical extruding system 100 would essentially comprise of an annular, substantially cylindrical, container 110 substantially enclosing a containing volume 120. Container 110 having at least to openings, opening 130 as inlet to input materials to be processed and opening 140 an outlet to output processed materials. By way of design container 110 may have an additional opening 150 through which a shaft 155 can be installed and coupled with a positive displacement means 160. Positive displacement means may be typically shaped as an Archimedes screw having a substantially helical surface 165 surrounding the central cylindrical shaft 155. A person skilled in the art would appreciate that other positive displacement means may produce same or similar effect according to the present invention. Typical method of extrusion operation would entail the inputting of recyclable materials into hopper 170 which is to be coupled with inlet 130 while through hopper 170 substantial pressure means (not shown) would apply to proceed the processed materials into the containing volume 120 and proceeded by the positive progression means 160 towards containing volume's outlet 140 while being processed, i.e. typically having certain pressures applied to the recyclable materials which are essentially progressed along progression line 180.

One aspect of the invention discloses an extrusion system 100 to which recyclable multiphase materials can be inputted through input inlet 130 via hopper 170. Recyclable multiphase materials may typically originate from waste components containing organic materials, aggregates, cellulose, plastic, polymers, etc., while the waste is shredded to comprise of polymeric and non-polymeric substances. Shredding would typically be conducted to 30mm sized shreds and smaller. It being noes that a person skilled in the art would appreciate that various compounded recyclable and other types of materials may be inputted and processed through such a system.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the processed compounded waste is subjected to a range of varying pressures and temperatures within the chamber of an extruder in a manner which enables the control of the flow therein and affects certain of the waste components' temperature and pressure, thereby outputting a prescribed compounded material such as whereby during the flow of the recyclable material along the containing volume, the polymeric substances are designated to melt and encapsulate the non-polymeric substances.

Making reference to Fig.2, according to some embodiments of the invention, a recyclable material extrusion system 100 is to comprise a containing volume 120 of substantially a barrel shape having an outlet 140 and an inlet 130, a hopper 170 configured to feed into the containing volume’s inlet 130 recyclable material that comprises various substances, wherein the recyclable material having at least two thermodynamic phases, at least one positive displacement means 155 configured to be mounted within the containing volume 120, a power source (not shown) coupled to positive displacement means 155, and at least one heating element 190, wherein the recyclable material is designated to be conveyed along the containing volume's axis towards its outlet 140 by the positive displacement means 155 coupled with the power source (not shown), thereby propelling the recyclable material in accordance with the multiphase flow 181 and 182 of the material, wherein at least one physical structure 165 is located on the positive displacement means 155 and configured to affect the multiphase flow 182 of some of the substance/s comprising the recyclable material, wherein while being conveyed along the containing volume's axis and subjected to pressure/s and heat provided by the heating element/s 190 and the positive displacement means 155 coupled with the power source the recyclable material is converted to a designated composite material, and wherein the converted composite material is extruded at a multiphase flow and has different physical properties in comparison to the recyclable material initially fed into the containing volume 120.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the conversion to a designated composite material is a result of various interactions (thermodynamical, chemical, mechanical, etc.) between the pressure/s and heat subjected to the recyclable material comprised of components having different thermodynamical characteristics while flowing along the designated flow paths 181 and 182 in the containing volume 120 and being affected by the physical structure/s 166 located on and along the positive displacement means 155.

According to some embodiments of the invention, an at least one physical structure 166 located on the positive displacement means 155 is configured to create turbulences/vortices 183 designated to have a greater effect on the substance/s having a thermodynamic phase of lower dynamic characteristics. According to some embodiments of the invention, the at least one physical structure 166 is located on the outer circumference of the positive displacement means 155 (as is shown in Fig. 3A). According to some embodiments of the invention, the at least one physical structure 167 is located on the outer circumference of the member of positive displacement means 155 (as is shown in Fig. 3B). While it being appreciated by a person of the art that said physical structures 166 and/or 167 may be of varied shapes (such as a fin, bulge or any protrusion, aperture or slit shape) as exemplified in Figs. 4A - 4G.

According to some embodiments of the invention, said physical structures 166 and/or 167 may be configured to delay or otherwise expedite the flow of at least one substance of the multiphase material. It being appreciated that such expediting or delaying may be based on the probability that a substance/s having a slower thermodynamic phase will be accumulated within said aperture/slits or otherwise detained by said physical structure due to the creation of vortices 183 the size and impact of which will depend on the overall various parameters such as waste attributes, particle size, particle size disbursement, speed of extrusion, and size, shape and location of the physical structure/s 166 and/or 167.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the said physical structures 167 are to be located on a same perpendicular cross-section plane of the positive displacement means 155 such disbursement at same cross-section may contribute to an effective creation of turbulence/vortices of one of the phase materials. While it being appreciated that by having at least two pairs of physical structures 166 and/or 167 designated to be located on different perpendicular cross-section planes along the positive displacement means 155 may also achieve different desired results of detaining or expediting one or few of the types of compounds in the multiphase material, as schematically shown by flow track 182 in Figs. 5A - 5D.

Making reference to Fig. 6, recyclable materials entering in flow path 180 the containing volume 120 comprise of various sizes of particles (larger particles exemplified by dash and smaller particles exemplified by dots thereby exemplifying at least two phases of the recyclable material). While progressing through containing volume 120 due to instigation by positive progressing means 155, materials flow is disrupted by physical structure 166. Per the example in Fig. 6 the physical structure 166 is of a bulge shape which causes the flow vector 180 to depart from positive progressing means circumference 165 thereby causing downstream turbulence/vortex 183 after flow passage over said bulge 166. By nature of flow characteristics and innate viscosity characteristics of the coagulated material, the smaller particles of lower mass and resistance, which are typically the non-polymerics, accumulate in turbulence/vortex volume 183, while larger parts of the material, which are typically the polymeries, concentrate in the un-perturbated volume closer to container volume 120 wall 110. Thereby, the material flow arrives downstream to output 140 wherein the outer layer of vector flow 181 contains substantially polymeric materials which surround and encapsulate the non-polymeric smaller particles residing in the inner vector flow 182. According to some embodiments of the invention, the larger particles of the waste material inputted to hopper 170 would have a diameter smaller than 5mm, 8mm or 30 mm.

Making reference to Fig. 7, according to some embodiments of the invention, one or more heating elements 190 may be positioned along the containing volume 120 (either internally within positive progression means 155 or externally at wall 110) designated to affect the temperature of the material being processed within the containing volume 120. It would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that heating the processed material at different points may contribute to the delaying or expediting of the flow of the processed material as well as affect the encapsulation of polymeric and non-polymeric phases of the material into a compounded material. According to some embodiments of the invention, said heating elements 190 may be designated to same crosssection of the containing volume 120 where physical structures 166 and/or 167 are located. Such coupling of heating element 190 and physical structures 166 and/or 167 may cause the increase of turbulence/vortex 183 as schematically exemplified by comparison of size of turbulence/vortex 183A, without heating element 190, to larger in magnitude and volume turbulence/vortex 183B. Such increase in turbulence/vortex is obtainable by installing heating element 190 within positive progression means 155 and/or at the wall 110 of containing volume 120.

According to some embodiments of the invention, certain arrangement of pairing the heating element 190 at certain longitudinal distance from physical structures 166 and/or 167 may cause turbulence/vortex 183B to be created in the containing volume 120 at a location other than that which it may have been created in absence of heating elements 190. Such movement of location of turbulence/vortex would further contribute to the controllability of the extrusion process.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the positive displacement means 155 is an Archimedes screw-shaped element positioned at the same axis of the containing volume's 120 axis. While according to some embodiments of the invention, the positive displacement means 120 is a screw- shaped element skewed in relation to the axis of the containing volume's 120 axis.

EXAMPLE

By way of exemplifying certain aspects of the invention an extruder according to the invention was operated with various configurations of heating element 190 and physical structures 166 as well as without any such elements or structures (as a control group), using recyclable materials from various waste sites (marked as I through V). For all configurations two cubic tiles (essentially designed for outdoor uses) were produced, having the following dimensions [width* depth*thickness] : Tile 1 - 100[mm]*50[mm]*8[mm];

Tile 2 - 100[mm]*50[mm]*28[mm].

The following configurations of heating elements and physical structures were tested, as defined by location of physical element with relation to the first heating element: Conf. A - 30[mm] after 1st heater; 25 [mm] after 2nd heater; 20[mm] after 3rd heater;

15[mm] after 4th heater; 10[mm] after 5th heater; and at last heater 0[mm];

Conf. B - 20[mm] after 1st heater; 15[mm] after 2nd heater; 10[mm] after 3rd heater;

5[mm] after 4th heater; 0[mm] after 5th heater; and at last heater 0[mm];

Conf. C - 0[mm] after 1st heater; 25[mm] before 2nd heater; 20[mm] before 3rd heater; 15 [mm] before 4th heater; 10[mm] before 5th heater; and at last heater 0[mm];

Conf. D - 0[mm] after 1st heater; 20[mm] before 2nd heater; 15 [mm] before 3rd heater; 10[mm] before 4th heater; 5[mm] before 5th heater; and at last heater 0[mm];

Conf. E - 0[mm] before 1st heater; 25 [mm] before 2nd heater; 20[mm] before 3rd heater; 15[mm] before 4th heater; 10[mm] before 5th heater; and at last heater 0[mm];

Each tile underwent shear and load on point tests till break. The results of such tests are presented in Table 1 at Fig. 8.

As can be seen, the tiles produced without any configuration of elements and structures showed relatively poor resilience to shear and load, whereas the improved mechanical features of tiles produced with various configurations according to the invention were found to be independent to the original waste location. Such results are significantly distinct for Tile 1 which is considerably thinner (8mm as opposed to 28 mm for Tile 2).

Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limited sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments of the invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description of the invention. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover such modifications that fall within the scope of the invention.