Patent Application
20140203208
The present invention relates to a body waste treating material, a method for manufacturing the body waste treating material, and an apparatus for manufacturing the body waste treating material. More particularly, the present invention relates to a body waste treating material, a method for manufacturing the body waste treating material, and an apparatus for manufacturing the body waste treating material, in which the body waste material treating material is manufactured by mixing a non-defective fibrous material suitable for forming paper with a defective fibrous material unsuitable for forming paper by using a pulpable raw material.
As for a body waste treating material used for treating a body waste of pets such as a cat and a dog bred in a housing or a body waste in a simple toilet upon disasters, sand is conventionally used. In recent years, however, a body waste treating material in which paper powder or wood flour, tea grounds, coffee grounds after exhaustion, water absorptive polymer, and the like has been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-178951 discloses a body waste treating material for pets with a structure in which corrugated paper is minced into plate paper strips and surfaces of the minced plate paper strips are covered by starch or absorptive agent such as water absorptive polymer.
The body waste treating material as disclosed in above patent literature 1, however, has a problem in that it needs water absorbing agent as a material for complementing a water absorptive property and a water retention property of corrugated material paper so that when a water absorptive polymer is used as the water absorbing agent, the material cannot be flown to drainage to be discarded, and thus needs to be incinerated or degraded. Accordingly, it causes greater loads on an environment and a problem severe to the environment. Further, the body waste treating material as disclosed in above patent literature 1 uses the corrugated material paper shaped as a plate, which paper is minced to be used, causing a problem in that it needs an unnecessary step in manufacturing process. Further, since the corrugated material paper is a perfect material aimed at being used for a packaging material or the like, there is a problem in that the use thereof as a raw material for the body waste treating material may lead to wasting of resources.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a body waste treating material, a method for manufacturing the body waste treating material, and an apparatus for manufacturing the body waste treating material, which can be manufactured by mixing a non-defective fibrous material suitable for forming paper and a defective fibrous material unsuitable for forming paper at a certain ratio using a pulpable raw material without water absorbing agent as a material for complementing water absorptive property and a water retention property and a useless step in manufacturing easily at a low cost, and efficiently use resources, and be well dissolved and flown into drainage to be easily discarded, and be environment-friendly with a high water absorptive property, and reduce weight.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a fibrous material is obtained by defiberizing and dehydrating a pulpable raw material in which a non-defective fibrous material suitable for forming paper and a defective fibrous material unsuitable for forming paper are mixed at a certain ratio to form a body waste treating material with a certain shape.
A body waste treating material according to the present invention can be manufactured from a non-defective fibrous material suitable for forming paper and a defective fibrous material unsuitable for forming paper using a pulpable material without water absorbing agent as a material for complementing water absorptive property and a water retention property and a useless step so as to be manufactured easily at a low cost, so that resources can be efficiently used. Further, the body waste treating material can be well dissolved, flown into drainage to be easily discarded, be environment-friendly with a high water absorptive property, and be lightened.
In the present invention, in a body waste treating material, an object of providing the body waste treating material that can be manufactured from a non-defective fibrous material suitable for forming paper and a defective fibrous material unsuitable for forming paper using a pulpable material without water absorbing agent as a material for complementing water absorbing property and a water retention property and a useless step in manufacturing easily at a low cost, and efficiently use resources, and be well dissolved and flown into drainage to be easily discarded, and be environment-friendly with a high water absorptive property, and reduce weight is achieved by using the pulpable raw material, namely the non-defective fibrous material suitable for forming paper.
As for the pulpable raw material, pulp itself can be used without using the used paper.
The disintegrator 2 includes agitating blades, adds, for example, water to used paper A as the pulpable raw material, and disintegrates the used paper A to generate a dissolved material B.
The deinking machine 3 deinks the dissolved material B generated by the disintegrator 2. The dehydrator 4 dehydrates the dissolved material B deinked by the deinking machine 3 to generate a fibrous material C. The bleaching machine 5 bleaches the fibrous material C generated by the dehydrator 4. The classifying machine 6 classifies the fibrous material C (also referred to as “pulp”) bleached by the bleaching machine 5 into a non-defective fibrous material D (also referred to as “wet” or “pulpa”) suitable for forming paper and a defective fibrous material E (also referred to as “sludge”) unsuitable for forming paper.
A mixing machine 7 mixes the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper classified by the classifying machine 6 with the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper. A molding machine 8 molds a fibrous material M mixed by the mixing machine 7 to form the body waste treating material F with a certain shape.
In the defiberizing step of the used paper A, the fibrous material C containing therein fibers having a variety of thicknesses and lengths is generated. In forming paper, since the fibers are entwined and thinly molded, fibers with a thick and/or a long property are suitable. As for short fibers with a thin and/or a short property, however, since they are hard to be entwined and unsuitable for forming paper, they are usually discarded. Accordingly, the fibrous material C includes the non-defective fibrous material D formed by the fibers with a thick and/or a long property suitable for forming paper and a defective fibrous material E formed by the fibers with a thin and/or a short property unsuitable for forming paper.
Accordingly, the classifying machine 6 classifies the fibrous material C containing therein fibers with different properties into the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper and the non-defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper using a filter.
In the classifying step according to the present embodiment, for example, a filter with a slit having a width (size) of 0.15 mm is used to classify the fibrous material C into the non-defective fibrous material D with a fiber diameter greater than 0.15 mm, which remains on the filter and the defective fibrous material E with a fiber diameter smaller than 0.15 mm, which passes through the filter.
This numeral value tends to be adopted relatively frequently.
Accordingly, the numeral value of the fiber diameter in the present embodiment is merely an example and does not limit a scope of the numeral values.
Next, a method for manufacturing the body waste treating material F is described.
As shown in
As for the pulpable raw material, pulp itself can be also prepared.
Upon manufacturing the body waste treating material F, first, in the preparing step (step S1), the used paper A as a material is prepared and a foreign material is removed from the used paper A.
In the defiberizing step (step S2), water and necessary agents (such as sodium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, sodium silicate) are added to the used paper A to be fed into the disintegrator 2 and agitated according to rotation force of the agitating blades rotating at a high speed to mix the water with the used paper A and disintegrate the used paper A so as to generate dissolved material B (step S3).
In the present embodiment, in principle, refining beating used for forming paper is not performed. Accordingly, the fibers are not compressed in vain so that the fibers are maintained as flexible. Namely, the fibers themselves are not compressed, and the fibers tangled with each other are not compressed as well. Accordingly, upon forming the body waste treating material F, porosity in an inside thereof can be increased and a water absorptive property can be improved.
In this step S3, the refining beating may be performed on the disintegrated fibers according to the needs.
In the deinking step (step S4), the dissolved material B generated in the defiberizing step (step S2) is deinked using air bubbles in the deinking machine 3. In this case, deinking agent (chemical agent) is added into the deinking machine 3 to swell the dissolved material B so as to allow an ink to be dissolved from and be come off the fibers.
In the dehydrating step (step S5), the dissolved material B deinked in the deinking step (step S4) is dehydrated by the dehydrator 4 to generate the fibrous material C (step S6). In this dehydrating step (step S5), most of moisture in the fibrous material C is removed, but a certain amount of moisture is contained in the fibrous material C.
In the bleaching step (step S7), bleach (such as sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide) is added to the fibrous material C generated in the dehydrating step (step S5) to be fed into the bleaching machine 5 to be bleached. According to the bleach, the fibrous material C is decolorized to be substantially white as a whole.
In the classifying step (step S8), the fibrous material C bleached in the bleaching step (step S7) is classified into the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper and defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper by the classifying machine 6 (step S9).
Upon this, in the classifying step, a filter with a slit having a width (size) of 0.15 mm, for example is used to classify the fibrous material C into the non-defective fibrous material D with a fiber diameter greater than 0.15 mm, which remains on the filter and the defective fibrous material E with a fiber diameter smaller than 0.15 mm, which passes through the filter.
This numeral value tends to be adopted relatively frequently.
Accordingly, the numeral value of the fiber diameter in the present embodiment is merely an example and does not limit a scope of the numeral values.
The defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper classified by the classifying machine 6 is colored paler than the white non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper and smells greater and includes an amount considerably less than a large amount of the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper.
In a mixing step (step S10), the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper and the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper classified by the classifying machine 6 are fed into the mixing machine 7 at a certain ratio and mixed.
In this case, the certain ratio may be 1-99 weight percent of the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with respect to the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper. Preferably, the ratio may be 10-50 percent of the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with respect to the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper. By setting the certain ratio as mentioned above, internal porosity can be increased to reduce the weight of the body waste treating material, and the water absorptive property, resolvability, and economic efficiency, for example can be improved to form an optimum body waste treating material F.
Further, as for the certain ratio, it may be 20-40 (in particular, 30 percent is the most optimum value) percent of the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with respect to the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper. By setting the certain ratio as mentioned above, internal porosity can be further increased to reduce the weight of the body waste treating material, and the water absorptive property, resolvability, and economic efficiency, for example can be improved to form an optimum body waste treating material F.
Moreover, when an amount of the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper is set greater than that of the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper, an amount of use of the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper can be reduced and raw materials may be efficiently used to reduce a cost. In addition, since fibers of the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper are thin and short, they may be further disintegrated into water to improve resolvability. To obtain the body waste treating material F with certain required quality, a weight percent of the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper and the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper to be mixed may be changed in consideration of the quality of the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper and the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper.
As described above, a fibrous material M is obtained (step S11) by mixing the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper and the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper at a certain ratio.
In the molding step (step S12), the fibrous material M mixed in the mixing step (step S10) is molded by the molding machine 8 to form a dry body waste treating material F with a certain shape (step S13).
In this molding step (step S12), the fibrous material M is, for example, extruded by the mold to form the body waste treating material F with a certain shape, or the fibrous material M is processed by being extruded through a mold cavity by an extruding mechanism to form the body waste treating material F with a certain shape.
According to the present embodiment, this body waste treating material F is formed to have a diameter of about 5 mm and a length of about 5-10 mm. The size of the body waste treating material F is, however, not limited to the above size.
By forming this molded body waste treating material F to have a diameter of about 5 mm and a length of about 5-10 mm, for example, and by mixing the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper at a certain required ratio (weight percent), and by forming the molded body waste treating material F to have a diameter of about 5 mm and a length of about 5-10 mm, for example, the body waste treating material F may have a high internal porosity, a high water absorptive property, and a high resolvability upon absorbing water from a body waste. Thus, the body waste treating material F is easily dissolved by the body waste so as to be easily aggregated by being adhered to each other.
In this case, when the defective fibrous material E with an amount greater than that of the non-defective fibrous material D is mixed with the non-defective fibrous material D, since the fibers of the defective fibrous material E are thin and short, they can be easily disintegrated into water, and thus resolvability can be improved.
Further, since this body waste treating material includes a high internal porosity, weight per unit is small, namely it includes a light property. Accordingly, it can be easily conveyed.
Moreover, this body waste treating material F is used by being put into a container configuring a toilet for a pet or a simple toilet upon disasters, for example. In this case, since the body waste treating material F is of light weight, it is easy to convey the toilet.
Also, in the body waste treating material F used and aggregated by absorbing water, since the fibers are easily disintegrated with a high resolvability, the body waste treating material F does not clog piping and flows smoothly. Accordingly, the body waste treating material can be flown into drainage to be discarded without an incinerating process or a dissolving process, for example. Therefore, loads on an environment can be reduced, and thus the body waste treating material is environment-friendly.
In the present embodiment, in the process of manufacturing the body waste treating material F, the steps of defiberizing, deinking, dehydrating, bleaching, mixing, and molding are performed in this order, but these steps can be interchanged to be reordered.
Further, in the process of manufacturing the body waste treating material F, it is possible to perform the step of agitating the fibers or pulverizing the fibers.
As shown in
As shown in
Since the shape of the body waste treating material F1 with this short bar columnar shape is simple, manufacture thereof is easy and it can be manufactured easily at a low cost.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
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As shown in
As shown in
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As shown in
As shown in
As for this body waste treating material F11, in the molding step, for example, the fibrous material M is preformed by a mold (step S21), and this preformed fibrous material M is expanded (decompression controlled) in a decompression container (step S22).
This decompression control includes a vacuum state and is performed between the vacuum state and an atmospheric pressure. Further, the decompression control may be performed rapidly or moderately.
In the decompression control of the fibrous material M, a pressure in the decompression container is controlled so that the fibrous material M (as shown in
As the preformed fibrous material M is expanded to be the body waste treating material F11 (as shown in
In this case, it is possible to heat the fibrous material M by heating means or humidify the fibrous material M by humidifying means to complement water according to the needs so that the fibrous material M (as shown in
Then, the non-defective fibrous material D is taken out of the decompression container to form the body waste treating material F11 dried without moisture, which is of light weight, and has a high water absorptive property (step S23).
As shown in
As for this body waste treating material F12, in the molding step, the fibrous material M is preformed by a mold (step S31), an adhesive is applied to a surface of this preformed fibrous material M (step S32), and then, a surface fiber k is attached to the surface of the fibrous material M to form a flexible layer N (step S33).
The surface fiber k forming the flexible layer N is the non-defective fibrous material D and/or defective fibrous material E, for example as fibers in a detangled state.
Regarding an operation for attaching the surface fiber k onto the fibrous material M, for example, detangled surface fiber k is laid on a plate, and the preformed fibrous material M is rolled over the plate to attach the detangled surface fiber k onto the surface thereof.
Thereby, on the surface of the fibrous material M, the flexible layer N with a high water absorptive property is formed so that the body waste treating material F12 with a flexible outer surface and a high water absorptive property can be formed (step S34).
Further, the number of times of attaching the surface fibrous material k onto this fibrous material M may not be limited to once but several to form a multilayered structure so that a thickness of the flexible layer N of the fibrous material M can be enlarged.
Further, the attachment of the surface fiber k may be applied to the above described respective body waste treating materials F-F11.
As shown in
As a result, the body waste treating material F according to the present embodiment is manufactured by mixing non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper and the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper that are a fibrous material obtained by defiberizing, dehydrating, and bleaching used paper A as a pulpable raw material to be formed as a certain shape.
Since the body waste treating material F according to the present embodiment is manufactured by mixing the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper at a certain ratio, it can be manufactured easily at a low cost without separate materials for complementing a water absorptive property and a water retention property and a wasting step for mincing corrugated material paper as a raw material as in a conventional step. Further, since the body waste treating material F is manufactured by using the defective fibrous material E generated upon treating the used paper A with an amount greater than that of the non-defective fibrous material D, resources can be efficiently used.
Moreover, in the body waste treating material F, the porosity in an inside of each of the fibers can be improved and the body waste treating material F has a high resolvability so that it can be flown into drainage to be easily discarded. Accordingly, the body waste treating material F is environment-friendly. Furthermore, it includes a high water absorbing property and can be of light weight.
Also, this body waste treating material may be manufactured by a manufacturing apparatus 1 with a simple structure.
Furthermore, when the defective fibrous material E with an amount greater than that of the non-defective fibrous material D is mixed with the non-defective fibrous material D, since the fibers of the defective fibrous material E are thin and short, they may be further dissolved into water easily so as to improve resolvability.
The present invention is not limited to the above described embodiment but can be modified for a variety of applications.
For example, in the above described embodiment, the used paper A is illustrated as a pulpable raw material, but materials such as wood as virgin pulp (e.g., a needle-leaved tree and a broad-leaved tree) or non-wood pulp (such as linter and kenaf), and synthetic fiber (e.g., chemosynthetic fiber) may be used solely, or a plurality of the materials may be combined to be used. These materials may be pulped by a mechanical system using a mechanical device, or a chemical system using agents.
In the above described embodiment, the fibrous material C is classified into the non-defective fibrous material D and the defective fibrous material E by a filter of the classifying machine 6, but the defective fibrous material E can be classified according to a pressurized flotation method using pressurized air, a precipitation method using aggregating agent, and a ore floatation method using air bubbles, for example. In the present embodiment, a filter with a slit having a width (size) of 0.15 mm, for example is used to classify the fibrous material C into the non-defective fibrous material D with a fiber diameter greater than 0.15 mm, which remains on the filter and the defective fibrous material E with a fiber diameter smaller than 0.15 mm, which passes through the filter.
This numeral value tends to be adopted relatively frequently.
Accordingly, the numeral value of the fiber diameter in the present embodiment is merely an example and does not limit a scope of the numeral values.
In the above described embodiment, the body waste treating material F is manufactured by the defective fibrous material E generated by processing the used paper A, but the body waste treating material F may be manufactured by using a fibrous material (sludge) obtained by aggregating and settling paper industry drainage water with agent (aggregating agent) from which heavy metals are removed.
Also, for the fibrous material M obtained by mixing the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper, pulp of wood system (e.g., a needle-leaved tree and a broad-leaved tree) or pulp of non-wood system (such as linter and kenaf), and pulp of synthetic fiber system (e.g., chemosynthetic fiber) as descried above maybe used by mixing one, two, or more types of them.
Moreover, to control emission of smell after use, an air refresher maybe added to the fibrous material M obtained by mixing the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper and to notify a user of absorbing water, dye may be added as well.
Also, in manufacturing the body waste treating material F, as shown by a dashed line in
By complementarily mixing the defective fibrous material E with the non-defective fibrous material D, an amount of use of the non-defective fibrous material D may be reduced so as to reduce a cost as well.
Further, in a case where a greater amount of the defective fibrous material E is mixed with the non-defective fibrous material D, since the fibers of the defective fibrous material E are thin and short, they may be further disintegrated into water to improve resolvability.
Moreover, as a raw material to be complementarily mixed with the non-defective fibrous material D, wood (e.g., a needle-leaved tree and a broad-leaved tree) or non-wood system (such as linter and kenaf), and synthetic fiber system (e.g., chemosynthetic fiber) as descried above may be pulped and one, two, or more types of them may be mixed to be used.
Furthermore, to control emission of smell after use, an air refresher may be added to the non-defective fibrous material D, and to allow the non-defective fibrous material D to be easily hardened upon absorbing water, an adhesive may be added thereto. To notify a user of absorbing water, dye may be added as well.
Also, in manufacturing the body waste treating material F, as shown by a dashed line in
Accordingly, as shown in
In the body waste treating material Fc with a coated surface as described above, the defective fibrous material E is not exposed to the surface, and the surface can be whitened to improve an appearance and leakage of smell of the defective fibrous material E can be controlled.
Also, to the non-defective fibrous material D including the agents such as the adhesive used in this coating step, the air refresher may be added to control the emission of the smell after use, or the dye may be added to notify the user of absorbing water.
Alternatively, upon manufacturing the body waste treating material F, in the coating step (step S14), a coated body waste treating material Fc can be obtained (step S15) by coating a surface of the body waste treating material F with the non-defective fibrous material D including agents such as the adhesive.
Accordingly, in the body waste treating material Fc with a coated surface, the water absorptive property may be further improved by the adhesive.
Further, when mixing the non-defective fibrous material D suitable for forming paper with the defective fibrous material E unsuitable for forming paper, inferior one of the non-defective fibrous materials D suitable for forming paper and superior one of the defective fibrous materials E unsuitable for forming paper may be selected according to the need to be mixed at a certain ratio. Thereby, the body waste treating materials F with different quality can be manufactured.
Further, in the method for manufacturing the body waste treating material F, to increase a degree of whiteness, calcium carbonate may be mixed with the fibrous material.
Moreover, a micro bubble generator for generating micro bubbles (fine air bubbles) may be added to the manufacturing apparatus 1 and a step of allowing the fibrous material C to contain the micro bubbles generated by the micro bubble generator may be added to the manufacturing method so as to increase internal porosity of the body waste treating material F.
Accordingly, the manufactured body waste treating material F may be of light weight and easily conveyed with an improved water absorptive property to be easily coagulated to be a mass and have a high resolvability to be flown into drainage to be easily discarded and be environment-friendly. Further, a greater amount of the defective fibrous material E may be used to manufacture the body waste treating material F at a low cost.
The body waste treating material manufactured according to the present invention may not be limited to a use of a toilet for a pet but used for a portable toilet or simple toilet used by a person.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2012/073327 | 9/12/2012 | WO | 00 | 2/21/2014 |
