Wire Removing Apparatus and Method

Abstract

An apparatus and method for insuring total removal of wire from a bale including a conveyor system for moving one or more bales, an automatic dewiring station, and a manual dewiring station. A bale is transported through an automatic dewiring station, and through a metal detector to ensure wire removal before the dewired bale is transported downstream.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for removing wires from baled material.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Raw material used in paper production (generally cellulose or recovered paper) is often transported in pressed bales held together by wires. These wire bindings are commonly made from metal although other strapping materials may be used. The wire binding the bales must be removed before the bale reaches the manufacturing setting; however, manual removal creates risk of injury because the wire is often under tension.

We have previously attempted to automate the dewiring process as evidenced by our U.S. Pat. No. 8,160,748. The U.S. Pat. No. 8,160,748 discloses a dewiring station including a robot with an end tool. The end tool on the robot moves to sense the location of the wires, cuts the wires, collects the wires and deposits the wires in a collection hopper. The end tool on the robot contains the apparatus for cutting the wire and a separate apparatus for collecting the wire. Other attempts to automate the dewiring process can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,152,634; 6,393,688; and 7,654,890.

Unfortunately, after the dewiring process is completed remnants occasionally remain in dewired bales. At the pulping stage any wire remaining can damage the equipment and delay the entire manufacturing process. Therefore it is imperative that all wire is removed during the dewiring process.

Therefore, the objective of the current invention is to ensure removal of all wire from a bale.

A further objective of the current invention is to develop a method to determine if all wire has been removed from the bale.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a method and apparatus for removing wires from a bale.

According to the invention the apparatus includes a conveyor system for transporting bales through an automatic dewiring station, a metal detector to determine if the bale is free from wire, and a manual dewiring station to remove any remaining wire. The automatic dewiring station includes at least one wire cutting head. The automatic dewiring station also includes a sensor system for locating the wires to be clipped and a wire removal device for removing the clipped wires from the bales.

A bale (generally cellulose or recovered paper) is delivered to the automatic dewiring station. The bale is brought to the automatic dewiring station on a conveyor system. At the automatic dewiring station, the wire is located and clipped with a sensor system and a wire cutting head. The wire is then removed with a wire removal system. The bale is then transported through the metal detector by the conveyor. The metal detector, using a controller, determines if the bale is free from metal. A metal free bale is transported downstream while a non-metal free bale is transported to a manual dewiring station. At the manual dewiring station a user inspects the bale and removes the remaining metal. The bale is transported back to the automatic station and the process repeats. The present invention improves over prior art in that complete removal of metal can be ensured.

The invention also includes a method for ensuring all wires are removed from the bale. The method includes bales passing through the automatic dewiring station where the wires are clipped and removed from the bale. The bale then passes through a metal detector to determine if the bale is free from metal. If the bale is determined to be free from metal it will pass to the downstream manufacturing process. If the bale is determined to not be free from metal, it will be transferred, by conveyor, to a manual dewiring station where an operator will inspect the bale and remove any remaining metal from the bale. The bale is then sent back through the metal detector and the operation of the method repeats itself until all metal is removed from the bale.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

IN THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top plan schematic view of the entire dewiring process showing the automatic dewiring station, the conveyor system, the metal detector and the manual dewiring station.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of the preferred embodiment of an automatic dewiring apparatus and method including an automatic dewiring station 4. A bale 2 is transported by a conveyor system 10 from the automatic dewiring station 4, where the wire is clipped and removed, to a metal detector 6. The metal detector 6 is activated to determine whether any metal remains present in the bale 2. The bale 2 is removed from the metal detector by conveyor system 10 and transported to a multi-directional conveyor 12. The metal detector 6 relays information to the controller (not shown) and the controller relays information to the multi-directional conveyor 12 which either; transports the bale 2 straight to the downstream manufacturing processes 20, or if metal is detected, transfers the bale 2 in a different direction towards a manual dewiring station 14. At the manual dewiring station 14, an operator will visually inspect the bale and remove any metal present. The bale 2 is transferred back to the automatic dewiring station 4 by multi-directional conveyor 15 and is processed through the automatic dewiring station 4 and the metal detector 6 again. The metal detection method is repeated until the bale is free from all metal.

The conveyor system may include an additional multi-directional conveyor 13. Multi-directional conveyor 13 can transfer the bale 2 to the a manual dewiring station 14, or to a second downstream manufacturing process 21. This allows for faster processing of dewired bales and allows for an alternative downstream processing station should a malfunction occur at the first downstream processing station.

The manual dewiring station 14 may include a lift mechanism (not shown) to allow the user to access the bottom of the bale 2 for wire removal. The manual dewiring station 14 is designed to permit manual loading of the bale 2 in the event of a malfunction of an automatic loader (not shown) or should the need arise.

The preferred embodiment of this invention involves an automatic dewiring station 4 and a manual dewiring station 14 however, the automatic dewiring station could be omitted. In this embodiment, the invention would only have a manual dewiring station 14, a metal detector 6, a conveyor system 10 to insure that the bale is free from wire.

Any suitable conveyor system may be used provided that it permits the bale to move unencumbered through the dewiring process. Further, any other automatic dewiring method may be used provided that it adequately removes the wire from the bale.

The above detailed description of the present invention is given for explanatory purposes. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the whole of the foregoing description is to be construed in an illustrative and not a limitative sense, the scope of the invention being defined solely by the appended claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus for removing wire from a bale comprising at least one dewiring station, a metal detector, and a conveyor system for moving the bale through the apparatus.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the at least one dewiring station is an automatic dewiring station.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the automatic dewiring station contains at least one automated robot with at least one wire clipping device.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the at least one dewiring station is a manual dewiring station.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4 further including an automatic dewiring station.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the automatic dewiring station contains at least one automated robot with at least one wire clipping device.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the dewiring station further includes a means for removing the wire from the bale.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the dewiring station receives bales with metal remaining from the metal detector.

9. A method for removal of a wire from a bale comprising:

transporting a bale along a conveyor system to a dewiring station;

locating the wire on the bale;

removing the clipped wire; and,

transporting the bale to a metal detector.

10. The method according to claim 9 further including the step of scanning the bale to determine if any metal remains.

11. The method according to claim 10 further including the step of transporting a bale found not to be free of metal to a manual dewiring station.

12. The method according to claim 11 further including the step of inspecting the bale and removing any remaining metal.

13. The method according to claim 12 further including the step of transporting the bale from the manual dewiring station back through the metal detector.

14. The method of claim 10 further including the step of transporting a bale free of metal to a processing station for further processing.