Abstract: A cutter assembly in an industrial shredding machine is provided. The cutter assembly includes a wedge that tapers in an outward direction and has a first angled surface, the first angled surface extends from a base side that is configured to seat in a pocket in a rotational shaft. The cutter assembly further includes a holder with a tapered section that tapers in an inward direction toward a base side of the holder and one or more attachment device openings that are each configured to receive an attachment device.

Abstract: A locking system in an industrial machine is provided. The locking system includes a lock-ring positioned in a lock-ring recess in a rotational shaft, a spacing plate axially interfacing with the lock-ring, and a compression plate with a threaded opening. The locking system further includes a bolt threadingly engaged with the threaded opening in the compression plate and a spring axially interposed between the spacing plate and the compression plate.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for disassembling products. In one example, a system may comprise a cutting room having a positioning device configured to position products at a cutting system, where cut products may fall to a transport system to be conveyed to a storage system. In some examples, the cutting room is fully automated.

Abstract: A method for hardfacing cutting blades used in industrial machinery by creating a channel in the surfaces of an oversize cutting blade that may be filled with hardface weld and machining the outer edge of the main body and channel to create a desired finish profile with a hardfaced edge. Such a cutting blade may additionally have fixed points of reference on the cutting blade which may be used to automate some or all of the process of creating and/or hardfacing a cutting blade to the desired profile.

Abstract: A method, and method-implementing system structure, for metering the flow of material through the shredding zone in a rotary shear shredder, which zone is defined, at least in part, by confrontingly rotating knives that are carried on a pair of adjacent, power-driven, nominally matched-motion counter-rotating shafts. The method includes holding the speed and rotational direction of one of the shafts essentially constant while selectively varying, in a manner variably differentiating the relative rotational motions of the two shafts, the speed, and under certain circumstances also the direction, of rotation solely of the other shaft.

Abstract: A method, and method-implementing system structure, for metering the flow of material through the shredding zone in a rotary shear shredder, which zone is defined, at least in part, by confrontingly rotating knives that are carried on a pair of adjacent, power-driven, nominally matched-motion counter-rotating shafts. The method includes holding the speed and rotational direction of one of the shafts essentially constant while selectively varying, in a manner variably differentiating the relative rotational motions of the two shafts, the speed, and under certain circumstances also the direction, of rotation solely of the other shaft.

Abstract: A cutter assembly for a rotary, shear-type shredder including a cutting-tool carrier having a body possessing a rotational axis, a shear cutting tool, and a generally radial, sliding-friction-type, heat-cycle, binding interface removably anchoring the tool to the carrier body. This assembly is made by (a) forming a projection on one of the tool and the carrier, (b) forming a generally complementary, projection-receiving void space in the other of the tool and the carrier, whereby the projection and the void space nominally have an interference-fit relationship relative to one another, (c) creating a temperature differential between the tool and the carrier to an extent producing a clearance-fit relationship therebetween, (d) following that creating, fitting the projection snugly inside the void space, (e) reducing the created temperature differential toward zero, and (f) thereby establishing a robust, linear-sliding-friction anchoring interface between the tool and the carrier.

Abstract: A blade assembly for a waste reduction machine includes a hub which is mounted on a rotatable shaft. A plurality of attachment devices are located at spaced-apart intervals on the periphery of the hub. Each attachment device has a tooth releasably attached to it. The attachment device includes an elongate threaded element which is oriented generally perpendicular to a radial line on the hub which intersects the threaded element. The threaded element engages the tooth and pulls it onto or pushes it off of the attachment device. The attachment device includes an elongate locking element and the tooth includes a slot which slidingly interfits onto the locking element. The locking element and slot are configured so as to prevent the tooth from moving radially outwardly from the periphery of the hub.

Abstract: A preload-clamp nut device is provided which securely mounts to a shaft having a plurality of shaft-mounted tools and provides a preload against the tools. A preferred embodiment of the device comprises a sleeve with a threaded bore and a slitted, tapered surface and a flange having a plurality of threaded holes, a clamp ring having a tapered bore and a plurality of openings that can be aligned with the plurality of threaded holes in the flange, and a plurality of bolts each having a set nut and a lock nut. When the bolts are inserted through the openings in the clamp ring into the threaded holes in the flange the set nuts and bolts can be tightened to clamp onto the shaft and preload the shaft-mounted tools. An alternative embodiment of the present invention provides a flange having a two-portion bore with a tapered portion and a constant diameter portion and a plurality of threaded holes, and a multipiece lockring having beveled edges that fit into the flange's tapered bore portion.

Abstract: An apparatus shreds hazardous waste drums and their contents in an oxygen-limited environment, transports the shredded material to a dispenser that dispenses metered amounts of the material into fire pails. The apparatus has two vertically separated shredders that are located in an enclosed shell that has an inert gas fed into it in a controlled manner by a purge system. A lift in an enclosed shaft raises the drums, two at a time, and deposits them into an airlock from which they are released one at a time into the upper shredder. A control system automatically processes the material through the apparatus from when the containers are placed into the lift until the material reaches the dispenser and insures that no stage of the process will commence until the proceeding and following stages are completed. The control system also provides safety checks at each stage to prevent handling or processing accidents.

Abstract: A shredder having a hopper for funneling material to the cutting blades of the shredder is provided with a ram assist within the hopper to push material into the cutting blades. The ram is shielded from the material passing through the hopper by an intermediate partial wall extending from the infeed of the hopper to the mid portion of the hopper. In its retracted position the ram is positioned behind the partial wall out of the stream of material passing through the hopper. In its extended position the ram is proximate the outfeed of the hopper within the flow of material. A ram controller senses the load upon the cutting blades of the shredder and selectively activates and deactivates the ram.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for its use for protecting an electric motor and the mechanical drive line of a material comminuting machine of the type having intermeshing overlapping cutters on rotary shafts, against damage caused by overloading. A torque-limiting coupling located in the drive line between the motor and the cutter shafts is provided with rotation sensors on both the input and output sides of the torque-limiting coupling. A motor controller is responsive to significant differences in the amounts of rotation of the input and output sides of the torque-limiting coupling to stop the motor in case of excessive slippage, in order to protect the motor and the torque-limiting coupling. Where a current-sensing overload device is provided in the case of use of the device with an electric motor, the motor controller can be programmed to respond with sensitivity different from that of the electrical overload protection device.