Patent Application
20240336015
The present invention refers to a system that allows the automated continuous manufacture and/or production of at least one film, cover, mat and/or mesh made of polyethylene, plastic material, among other materials, which comprises at least one integrated line for fluid distribution, so that the manufactured product allows both components to be deployed at the same time, without the need to be deployed separately on the ground. Preferably, the invention refers to a system that allows the integrated continuous formation of at least one film, mat, cover and/or mesh with at least one drip irrigation line, to be used in the mining industry, such as to cover leaching piles and/or in the agriculture industry to cover cultivated areas.
At present, in the technique, films or covers of the surface to be leached have been used, which are arranged on top of the mesh for irrigation, in order to cover the upper surface of the leaching pile with said cover and thus preventing evaporation of the leaching solution, as well as increasing the temperature of the leaching pile increasing the conditions for the proliferation of bacteria in bio-leaching procedures. Notwithstanding the foregoing, these solutions have conferred a great advantage when managing the evaporation parameters of the leaching solution decreasing the rate of water use and leaching agents, as well as increasing the temperature of the leaching pile, the operation of arranging said films on the upper surface of the leaching pile is very labor intensive, as well as the time required for their arrangement and fixation, so that said film or covers of the leaching pile surface are not affected or dragged by the wind action.
Another field in which land surface covers are used is in the agriculture area, where the relationship between plastics and agriculture is so close that it has given rise to praticulture or agro-plasticulture, which involves the use of polymers in the agricultural production, through padding of soils, irrigation system, meshes, tunnels, greenhouse and/or covers, which allow early harvests, growing fruits out of season, weeds and insects control, as well as improving efficiency in use of water, in the use of fertilizers and in the use of the soil itself. The use of paddings or mats to cover the soil surface in agricultural production is a procedure and production system that is increasing worldwide. Traditionally, these mats are formed by a film, where at every certain distance both between rows and on the rows, a hole is made to leave a free space on the covered surface on which said mat is arranged, in such a way that in said space a plant or a tree is cultivated, and where a series of irrigation pipes are also arranged on or under the mat, where the sprinklers or drippers match with the hole made in the mat wherein the plant is cultivated. An inert substrate is generally placed between rows, as a means of supporting the mat against the surface on which it is placed.
Another field in which land surface covers are used is in the area of household and/or industrial waste management, such as sanitary landfills, where nowadays the world trend is to manage sanitary landfills efficiently and ecologically avoiding the leaching flows produced by waste decomposition, to contaminate the underground layers, as well as the methane or gas produced by waste decomposition collected in piles can be used for the generation of energy. For the implementation of said sanitary landfills, it is necessary to provide a series of impermeable and/or permeable membranes for the handling of the different leached fluids, as well as to be able to also provide resistance to the piles, as well as being equipped with a series of piping in order to add and/or remove air or gas from the batteries, as well as to add and/or remove fluid from the batteries, such as water. Leachates, solutions, among others.
Surface covers as defined and used in the mining area, as well as in agriculture and/or in the management of sanitary and industrial landfills have the shortcoming that they require a large amount of time and labor to manage to arrange both the delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid system, such as the covers on the surface to be covered which implies an operation that, although it is true, provides a system that allows regulating the conditions of the cover surface, such as evaporation, temperature, humidity, weed control, gas control, air control, fluid removal, among others, however its implementation is expensive due to the labor required for its installation as well as the time involved in its implementation, which also adds the time and skilled labor that is required to implement a monitoring and control system of the surface covered by said mat or film.
The processes for melting plastics by temperature used in the art are well known and widely applied in the state of the art, where most of the known equipment fulfills function of joining plastic pieces that are conceptually welded when subjected to temperatures at which the plastic material is fused, that is, welding is a process of joining materials, in which the contact surfaces of two or more parts are melted by applying heat, notwithstanding the foregoing, in the art there is no system or production line that allows the integrated and automatic manufacture of at least one layer, cover, mat and/or film made of polyethylene and/or plastic material whose configuration includes or incorporates in an integrated manner and in a single piece, a fluid delivery, distribution and/or removal system, such as for example at least one irrigation line.
Patent publication ES 2503564 T3 teaches a process for the manufacture of drip irrigation tubes, in which a body is extruded, from which the tube is formed and in the extruded body dosing elements are placed which are attached to the body by means of ultrasonic welding and in these drip irrigation pipes, the water passes from its inner side to the dosing elements through inlet holes, circulates through these dosing elements and exits the irrigation pipes in a metered manner through outlet holes. It comprises that the body is formed as a flattened tubular body and the dosing elements are located in a central zone inside this flattened tubular body and because the flat tubular body is guided between a sonotrode, and an anvil of an ultrasonic welding device and the metering elements are welded to the wall of the tubular body.
Patent publication EP 1430770 A1 teaches a method for manufacturing a combination of mat and at least one irrigation hose, consisting of a flattened tubular tape, which adheres to the film that forms the mat on the side that adheres to the soil where it will be applied. It comprises the following steps, a) extruding a sheet that forms the film that makes up the mat; b) extruding a flattened tubular tape; c) perforating a wall of the tubular tape; d) driving the tubular tape and the film along converging paths in consistent directions and at the same speed until they reach a condition in which said tubular tape contacts the film and inserts, downstream of the first contact area, a member of heat protection inside the tubular tape, the protection member of which is a freely movable plate member having a width less than the tubular tape, so that at least one longitudinal side strip or optionally two opposite longitudinal side strips of said tubular tape remain free; e) maintaining the contact condition and the direction and speed of the harmonized drive of the tubular tape and the film; f) welding the tubular member to the film by heating one or all of the side strips of the tubular tape which are not occupied by the protective member, using heating welders to bring them into contact with said free side strips of the tubular tape.
Patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 9,883,640 describes a method and apparatus for transporting or supplying elastomeric emitters and inserting elastomeric emitters into a drip line to manufacture the same and form an irrigation assembly or system. In one form, the apparatus comprises a feeder, a conveyor, an emitter drive mechanism, and a guide bar for insertion into an extruder to attach the elastomeric emitter to an internal surface of the extruded tube. Friction reduction apparatus and methods are also further described.
Patent publication DE3506994 (A1) describes a process for producing flexible liquid permeable films with reflow barrier and films prepared according to the process. According to the publication, the films are formed in a partially protruded manner at closely adjacent points on their surface by plastic stretching and then the stretched film material is divided into at least two segments by cutting in the region of the deformations projecting onto the film plane in one direction. Preferably thermoplastic material is used as the material for the films.
While in the prior art it is possible to visualize systems and methods that, on the one hand, are directed to the manufacture of the mat with the pipes and, on the other hand, it is possible to visualize systems and methods for the manufacture of pipes with the incorporated drippers, it is not possible to deduce or derive from the state of the art a system that makes it possible to obtain, in a single integrated, automatic and continuous production line, a fluid delivery, distribution and/or removal system with at least one layer, cover, mat and/or film made of polyethylene and/or plastic, in a single piece.
The surfaces covered with said mats or films, as well as fluid conduction lines in the different fields of application analyzed above, are large, for which reason it would be desirable to have a system or production line that allows forming and manufacturing a layer, cover, mat and/or film in a continuous and automatic way, whose configuration includes integrated a fluid delivery, distribution and/or removal system integrated in a single piece into the cover, in such a way that when said cover, layer, mat and/or film is deployed and/or arranged, at the same time a fluid delivery, distribution and/or removal system (air, gas, water, solvents) is deployed, arranged and implemented.
The primary object of the invention is to provide a system or production line that allows the continuously and automatically form and manufacture a layer, cover, mat and/or film, whose configuration includes in a single piece and in an integrated, attached and/or fixed manner, a fluid delivery, distribution and/or removal system incorporated into the cover, so that when said cover, layer, mat and/or film is deployed and/or arranged, at the same time a fluid delivery, distribution and/or removal system is deployed, arranged and implemented.
The present invention provides an automatic, integrated and continuous system (1) for the production and manufacture in a single piece of at least one layer, cover, mat and/or film made of polyethylene and/or plastic material attached, fixed and/or integrated with at least one element for the delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid, comprising at least one device for continuous and automatic feeding of the film, layer, mat and/or cover made of polyethylene and/or plastic (2), at least one continuous and automatic feeding device of at least one element for delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid (3), such as preferably at least one irrigation line, at least one continuous and automatic feeding device of at least one sleeve (4), at least one thermofusion device (5), and at least one control system.
In order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred example of its practical implementation, a set of drawings is attached as an integral part of the description, wherein the invention has been represented with an illustrative and non-limiting nature.
An automatic, integrated and continuous system (1) for the production and manufacture in a single piece of at least one layer, cover, mat and/or film made of polyethylene and/or plastic material, attached, fixed and/or integrated with at least one element for the delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid, as generally observed in
The device for continuous and automatic feeding of the film, layer, mat and/or cover made of polyethylene and/or plastic (2) is illustrated in
In operation, once the rolls are assembled in the feeding device (2), the film, layer, mat and/or cover made of polyethylene and/or plastic is positioned in at least one structure (17) that opens it in a width depending on the predetermined union matrix of the at least one element for delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid. The film opening structure (17) is designed and manufactured so that when the film is pulled during its feeding into the system, it can be opened to the maximum extent, without major drawbacks (see
In a preferred form, the system (1) additionally comprises at least one sensor (18) for activating at least one warning siren for the end of the film, so that the union can be made with at least one other film that is arranged in the feeding device, for which the system (1) of the present invention also comprises a welder or fusion iron (19), which is illustrated in
As can be seen in
The at least one device for continuous and automatic feeding of at least one element for delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid (3), such as preferably at least one irrigation line, as illustrated in
The safety device (27) is located in the lower left end of the reel or structure of the irrigation line carrier (23) which is fixed by a spring (28), then the ends of the structure or reel (23) must be fastened and rotated on their axis.
An operating platform (29) as seen in
A general view of
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the at least one thermofusion device (5), as illustrated in
Once the plastic is fused it needs to be cooled, for this the system also includes a cooling device (43) comprising at least one blower motor connected to air nozzles that perform cooling, which is illustrated in
The system (1) also includes at least one quality control and cutting counter (44) which is illustrated in
The system comprises at least one rewinder unit (51) that allows the finished product to be rolled up in donut-type format for packaging. Once rolled up, it is strapped and removed from the equipment. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the rewinder equipment comprises at least one fixed rewinder (52) and another with lateral displacement (53) which is illustrated in
The system also comprises tackles (59) of the mobile beam type (60) associated with the film roll carrier and the final product rewinder, which is illustrated in
Although the form of an automatic, integrated and continuous system for the production and manufacture of at least one layer, cover, mat and/or film made of polyethylene and/or plastic material in a single piece that includes an integrated element for delivery, distribution and/or removal of fluid, described herein constitute a preferred inclusion of this invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this precise form of the system, and that changes, which are defined in the appended claims, may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1003-2021 | Apr 2021 | CL | national |
This application is a national stage entry application under 35 U.S.C. 371 of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/CL2022/050037, filed Apr. 21, 2022, which claims priority to Chilean Patent Application No. 1003-2021 filed Apr. 21, 2021, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CL2022/050037 | 4/21/2022 | WO |
