Patent Application
20210046511
The mechanical separation of waste materials is becoming increasingly important for both the environment and the economy. In many instances, such as when recycling trash, it is desirable to be able to sort out certain items. For example, it may be desirable to sort plastic materials (e.g., plastic bottles and plastic bags) out of other trash. The difficulty and cost of manually sorting or extracting certain items such as plastic bottles and plastic bags from other items such as textile and paper products may be very significant.
Many of the sorting problems associated with non-ferromagnetic materials may be resolved in keeping with Applicant's invention.
Applicant's invention, is directed to attaching ferromagnetic items (e.g., tags, bands, labels containing iron/steel powder) to selected non-ferromagnetic apparatus (e.g., plastic bottles, plastic bags) so that a magnetic device can be used to sort out the non-ferromagnetic apparatus to which the ferromagnetic item is attached.
In the discussion to follow and in the claims appended hereto, materials that can be attracted to, or by, a magnet, are called ferromagnetic (or ferrimagnetic). These materials include the elements iron, nickel and cobalt and their alloys, some alloys of rare-earth metals, and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone.
In the accompanying drawings like reference characters denote like components and
In the description to follow, the invention is illustrated using bands, tags and labels which include, or are made of, iron (steel) or iron particles. However, it should be understood that this is for purpose of description and that any material that can be attracted to, or by, a magnet is suitable for use. That is, any material that has the property of being attracted to a magnet is defined as being in a class called “ferromagnetic” and can be used to practice the invention. The suitable elements include iron, any alloy of iron (e.g., steel), nickel and cobalt and their alloys, some alloys of rare-earth metals, and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone. With respect to iron, ferrous metal is defined as any metal that contains iron. Ferrous metals are very common due to the heavy use of iron in most metal alloys. Ferrous metals contain a large enough iron content to create enough domains for a magnetic field to act on and attract. Ferrous materials are the only objects that are physically attracted to magnetic fields.
Referring to
Referring to
The bands 12 and the tags 22 may be very thin adding little weight to the apparatus to which they are attached. The size of the bands and tags need to be just large enough to enable a magnetic device to sort or extract the non-ferromagnetic apparatus (e.g., 10, 20) to which they are attached. The magnetic device (not shown) may be any suitable magnet or electromagnetic device.
By way of example, consider non-ferromagnetic apparatus (e.g., 10, 20) modified as per the invention and other waste products flowing down a conveyor belt (not shown). The non-ferromagnetic apparatus, as modified per the invention, now may be pulled towards one side of the conveyor belt by a magnetic device located along the one side of the conveyor belt. Another example, may be a magnetic device (not shown) which can hover over a pile of non-ferromagnetic apparatus (e.g., 10, 20) modified as per the invention, where the magnetic device can be used to sort or extract the non-ferromagnetic apparatus (e.g., 10, 20) modified as per the invention.
Referring to
The invention has been illustrated using plastic apparatus to which the ferromagnetic item is attached. However it should be understood that the ferromagnetic item may be attached to any non-ferromagnetic apparatus (e.g., textile, paper) to practice the invention.
This invention claims priority based on provisional application Ser. No. 62/766,920 filed Nov. 13, 2018 titled ADDING STEEL BANDS TO PLASTIC BOTTLE AND STEEL TAGS TO PLASTIC BAGS.
