1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a shredder and, in particular, to a shredder whose paper stripes can be recycled.
2. Related Art
If waste paper in daily life is not properly processed, it will bring troubles to our tasks or even result in serious outcomes to the management. A traditional way is to burn the paper. This does not require a place for the furnace, but also cause serious air pollution. To avoid this, various kinds of shredders have been invented.
The shredder usually consists of a paper stripe bin and a shredding head. The shredder has a high-speed motor connected with a rigid gearbox, thereby transmitting the torque to two blade sets. The cutting blades on the blade set thus shred paper into chips. The cutting blades of the blade sets are disposed along two shafts. Once paper is cut by the cutting blades, the chips fall down through the exit of the shredder. That is, the paper stripes fall directly between the two shafts.
Although shredders bring us a lot of convenience, it is a waste to throw away the paper stripes they produce. It is therefore the objective of the invention to make further use of the paper stripes.
An objective of the invention is to provide a shredder that can recycle the shredded paper stripes thereof.
To achieve the above-mentioned objective, a first embodiment is the following. The shredder has a shaft set driven by a motor. The shaft set includes at least two shafts rotating in opposite directions. The shafts are mounted with blade sets. Paper enters via the entry of the paper passage formed between the shafts, and gets cut into chips by the blade sets. A movable or fixed stopper is provided at the exit of the paper passage. The paper stripes are pushed down by the rotating blade sets toward the exit. The stopper forms crinkles on the paper stripes by blocking them. The stopper is triggered to open under a certain force from the accumulated paper stripes, letting the crinkled paper stripes fall down. When the shredder is in the reverse mode, the clearing mechanism can be triggered by the sliding switch hat or the reversing power of the shredder. The stopper opens the paper exit under the action of the spring or the reversing mechanism of the shredder. In this case, paper is smoothly backed out without the pressure of the stopper. After the reversal is over, the sliding switch hat is put at any position other than reverse. The stopper is driven by a restoring mechanism to automatically restore its position via a mechanical restoring button or the forwarding power of the shredder.
In the first embodiment, the blade set includes: blades mounted on the corresponding shaft and spacers between each two adjacent blades. The paper passage is a passage formed by two opposite side surfaces of left and right guiding boards.
There are two types of spacers on the shafts: one having the same width as the width of paper stripes, and the other having a smaller width than the width of paper striped. These two types of spacers and the cutting blades are mounted alternately. The circumference of the cutting blade is formed with local bumps to increase the friction between the blades and the paper. The paper thus falls smoothly during the cutting process. Moreover, the cutting blades can be made smaller to reduce the production cost.
In the first embodiment, the left and right guiding boards are between the two shafts and each of them is integrally formed. There are grooves on the two opposite side surfaces for cutting blades to extend out. The guiding boards corresponding to the thin spacers can prevent paper jams in the cutting blades. The side surfaces at the paper exit of the left and right guiding boards can be made to have planar, wavy, or horn shape. Alternatively, each of the left and right guiding boards consists of several guiding units. The guiding units are mounted on the spacers of the shafts.
There are three schemes for the clearing mechanism. The first scheme is manual. The components include a sliding switch hat, a pulling bar, a transmission shaft, a lock, a stopper, a restoring switch, a pulling spring, and a torsional spring. The motion of the clearing mechanism can be rotational or translational. The power of the clearing mechanism can be a spring with an elastic potential. The restoring switch is a knob or button. The second scheme is semi-automatic. The components include a sliding switch hat, a pulling bar, a transmission shaft, a lock, a connecting bar, a cam, a pulling spring, and a restoring spring. The stopper is manually opened. Otherwise, the shafts drive the cam and the pulling bar to automatically close the stopper. The third scheme is fully automatic. The reversal of the shafts opens the stopper, and the forward rotation thereof closes the stopper. In one embodiment, the components include a pulling claw, a pulling bar, a spiral guiding groove, and a guiding chip. In a second embodiment, the components include a pulling claw, a pulling bar, and a one-way bearing. In a third embodiment, the components includes a forward claw, a reverse claw, a pawl, a pulling bar, and a restoring spring.
In the first embodiment, the clearing mechanism includes a sliding switch hat, a pulling bar, a transmission shaft, a lock, a stopper, a restoring switch, a pulling spring, and a torsional spring. The clearing mechanism performs a rotational or translational motion. The clearing mechanism is powered by a spring with an elastic potential or a power source through a gearbox. The restoring switch is a knob or button.
In a second embodiment of the invention, the shredder has a shaft set driven by a motor. The shaft set has at least two shafts rotating in opposite directions and with cutting blade sets mounted thereon. Paper enters the entry of a paper passage and is cut by the cutting blades into paper stripes. Paper feeding devices are provided under the exit of the paper passage. The paper feeding devices include two rollers operating in opposite directions and an elastic stopper at the exit of the two rollers. The paper stripes enter the entry of the two rollers of the paper feeding device and move toward the exit under the push of the rollers. The paper stripes are crinkled by the elastic stopper. The accumulated paper stripes push the elastic stopper open.
In the second embodiment, two paper feeding devices are disposed under the exit of the paper passage in a symmetrical way. The paper stripes out of the exit of the paper passage are guided by the guiding surfaces of left and right guiding boards into the two paper feeding devices.
In a third embodiment of the invention, the shredder has a shaft set driven by a motor. The shaft set has at least two shafts rotating in opposite directions and with cutting blade sets mounted thereon. Paper enters the entry of the paper passage between the shafts, and is cut by the cutting blades into paper stripes. The paper passage is formed by two opposite side surfaces of left and right guiding boards mounted on the shafts. A stopper is formed on each of the left and right guiding boards to block the exit of the paper passage. The paper stripes are pushed down by the rotating blades toward the exit. The stoppers form crinkles on the paper stripes. The stoppers open under the accumulated weight of the paper stripes or the trigger of a driving mechanism.
In the third embodiment, the blade set includes: blades mounted on the corresponding shaft and spacers between each two adjacent blades. The left and right guiding boards are mounted on the spacers.
In the third embodiment, the left and right guiding boards are formed with protrusions to urge against the elastic element. The paper stripes are pushed down by the blade sets toward the exit and crinkled by the two stoppers. The accumulated weight thereof overcomes the stopping force of the elastic element on the protrusions, thereby pushing the stoppers open.
In the third embodiment, the left and right guiding boards are formed with bumps connected with a driving mechanism. The driving mechanism drives the left and right guiding boards to swing through the connections with the bumps, thereby opening or closing the stoppers.
In addition, the invention proposes rolling paper designed for the above-mentioned shredder. The rolling paper is formed with alternating cuts. The rolling paper can be continuous listing paper.
According to the invention, the motor drives a long shaft and a short shaft through decelerating gears. Cutting blades on the shafts cut paper into chips. The paper stripes move downward through the paper passage between the shafts. An elastic chip or stopper is disposed at the paper exit. The paper stripes are crinkled by the blocking of the elastic chip or stopper. They can also be crinkled between the guiding boards and blades. Such crinkled paper stripes become resilient. The invention can be made small for mass production. Moreover, the crinkled paper stripes thus obtained are resilient and suitable for packaging and transportation. Therefore, the invention recycles waste paper and thus protects our environment.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the following description and accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the invention, and wherein:
a to 4d are schematic views of the first embodiment with different kinds of cutting blades;
The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.
Please refer to
The shaft set 3 in this embodiment includes one long shaft 31, and one short shaft 32. The shafts 31, 32 rotate synchronously via gears. The motor 1 drives the long shaft 31 through the gear decelerating mechanism 10. Thus, the two shafts rotate concurrently in opposite directions.
The shafts 31, 32 are mounted with blade sets. Each of the blade sets includes: cutting blades 21 mounted on the shaft 31 or 32 and spacers 22a,22b between each two adjacent cutting blades 21. The width of the spacer 22a is the same as that of the paper striped. The width of the spacer 22b is smaller than that of the paper stripes. The cutting blades 21 on the two shafts are arranged to provide a cutting effect, cutting paper 9 between the two shafts 31, 32 into paper stripes 91. The cutting blade 21 can be designed to have different shapes, as shown in
A paper passage 4 is formed between the two shafts 31, 32. In this embodiment, the paper passage 4 is a passage formed by two opposite side surfaces of left and right guiding boards 61, 62. The paper 9 enters via the entry above the paper passage 4. The paper stripes 91 come out of the exit 42 at the lower end of the paper passage 4. An openable stopper 5 is disposed at the exit 42 to block the exit 42.
With reference to
The left and right guiding boards 61, 62 are located between the two shafts 31, 32. Each of the left and right guiding boards 61, 62 is integrally formed. The two opposite side surfaces are formed with grooves for the cutting blades 21 to extend out, as shown in
The stopper 5 is an elastic object. Under its own elasticity, the stopper 5 blocks the exit 42 of the paper passage 4. It is pushed open under the gravity of the paper stripes 91 accumulated in the paper passage 4. The elasticity of the stopper 5 can be due it its material, as shown in
Besides, the stopper 5 can be installed with a moving device. The moving device enables the stopper 5 to rotate to translate, thereby completely opening the exit 42. In this case, the paper stripes 91 in the paper passage 4 experience no resistance, implementing the function of clearing paper. After paper stripes are cleared, the stopper 5 is restored by the moving device.
The stopper 5 can have various kinds of shapes. It is usually a flat board. Of course, it can also have a comb shape.
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A difference is that in the first embodiment, the crinkling process occurs in the paper passage 4. In this embodiment, the crinkling process is accomplished by paper feeding devices 7. The structure is described as follows.
Two paper feeding devices 7 are disposed under the exit 42 of the paper passage 4. The paper feeding devices 7 include a pair of opposite rollers 71 and an elastic stopper 51 at the exit of the two rollers 71. The paper stripes 91 enter the entry of the two rollers 71 of the two paper feeding devices 7. They are pushed by the rollers 71 toward the exit. Through the blocking of the elastic stopper 51, the paper stripes 91 are crinkled. An accumulated pushing force eventually pushes the elastic stopper 51 open.
The paper passage 4 is a passage formed by the two opposite side surfaces of the left and right guiding boards 611, 621 mounted on the shafts 31, 32. The side surface of the paper passage 4 formed by the left guiding board 611 has a guiding curved surface toward the left paper feeding device 7. The side surface of the paper passage 4 formed by the right guiding board 621 has a guiding curved surface toward the right paper feeding device 7. The reason for this structure, as shown in
According to the embodiment, the paper stripes 91 formed by the cutting blades 21 are divided into two parts via the left and right guiding boards 611, 612 to enter the corresponding underneath paper feeding devices 7. Since the paper feeding devices 7 have a pair of oppositely running rollers 71, the paper stripes 91 are driven by the rollers 71 downward. When the paper stripes 91 reach the elastic stopper 51, they are crinkled between the elastic stopper 51 and the rollers 71 due to resistance. The paper stripes become resilient crinkle paper 92. The accumulated resilient force eventually pushes the elastic stopper 51 open, and the resilient crinkle paper 92 drops out.
As in the first embodiment, the elastic stopper 51 in the second embodiment can open through a rotational or translation motion. The paper stripes 91 can directly escape without any resistance, thereby clearing the paper. After the paper is cleared, the elastic stopper 51 restores its position by rotation or translation. Besides, the material of the rollers 71 can be metal, plastic, or rubber. There can also be several sets of rollers 71.
Please refer to
The blade set in this embodiment includes cutting blades 21 mounted on the shafts 31, 32 and the spacers 22 between two adjacent cutting blades 21. The left and right guiding boards 612, 622 are mounted on the spacers 22 in a rotatable way. The left and right guiding boards 612, 622 are formed with protrusions 614, 624, respectively. The protrusions 614, 624 urge against the elastic element 52. The paper stripes 91 are pushed by the blade sets toward the exit 42. They form crinkles by the blocking of the two stoppers 613, 623. A force is accumulated to eventually overcome the blocking force of the elastic element 52 on the protrusions 614, 624 and push the stoppers 613, 623 open. The resilient crinkled paper 92 thus falls between the two stoppers 613, 623.
Please refer to
The upper part of the housing 8 of the invention has a flipping lid 81. Specific rolling paper 90 is disposed inside the flipping cover 81. A cutting knife 82 is installed on the flipping lid. By pulling a handle 83, the cutting knife 82 starts high-speed rotations to cut the rolling paper 90. To automatically produce resilient crinkle paper, one only needs to open the flipping lid 81 and insert the rolling paper 90. Then one puts the beginning of the rolling paper into the paper passage 4. By turning on the switch 84, the invention starts its function to continuously generate crinkle paper. The power source of the rolling paper 90 can be the paper itself or from some gears and belts.
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Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the invention.
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Entry |
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Non-Final Office Action dated Oct. 2, 2014 in U.S. Appl. No. 13/767,842. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20120267461 A1 | Oct 2012 | US |