Abstract: A device for supplying a mixture of pieces of material or fragments of different materials and sizes to one or more receiving units wherein the mixture is supplied to the device within a relatively limited area from where it is distributed to the receiving units so that each of them receives a substantially uniform layer of the mixture at the same time as it is spread out over a wide area. The device comprises one or more vibrating troughs each with a supporting surface at the receiving end and a protuberance centrally mounted in the trough from which the material is spread over the supporting surface (15) during the formation of a uniformly thick layer of material which is carried along the supporting surface to the discharge end of each vibrating trough where it is discharged.

Abstract: A method of dividing a mixture of pieces or fragments of different materials and different sizes, e.g. fragments of domestic wastes, into two or more fractions, enriched with respect to one or more materials, in which method the mixture is charged to the lower part of an inclined shaking table arranged for rotary movement about two shafts at an amplitude and a speed of rotation so adjusted that large pieces or fragments of material of high elasticity and/or rigidity are caused to bounce on the shaking table and, as a result of the inclination of said table, bounce down to the lower end thereof and away from said lower end to form a first fraction, while pieces or fragments of material which lack, or have only slight rigidity and/or elasticity are moved as a result of the rotary movement of the shaking table, and are discharged from the upper end of said table to form a second fraction.