LOW VELOCITY AIR DENSITY SEPARATOR

摘要

A fan (30) draws air out of a cyclone (28) and through an open-bottomed separation chamber (22) at approximately seven hundred to eight hundred feet per minute. Shredded plastic bottles or other mixed particulate material is metered into the separation chamber and is evenly distributed by a grid (36) of closely spaced narrow bars (38) which extends into the separation chamber. The bars are cantilevered into the separation chamber and are caused to vibrate by an oscillatory mounting. The shredded material may be fed by an ordinary chute (60) without an air lock onto the deck of the grid of bars. Air moving rapidly between the bars lifts and separates the various constituents of the shredded bottles. The denser particles fall down through the bars and are recovered as the heavy recyclable fraction. The lightweight particles including paper are drawn up through the separation chamber and into the cyclone. Dense material such as trash or other inadvertently added substances which are too large to pass through the bars is oscillated along the inclined bars to an exit chute.