Refuse Disposal Transfer Station

Abstract

A transfer station for the unloading of refuse from collection vehicles and the loading of the refuse into transfer vehicles for transportation to a final disposal location. The station has an unloading area at an upper level and a transfer vehicle loading area at a lower level, and the unloading area has open troughs positioned to receive refuse discharged from collection vehicles on the unloading area and means for moving the refuse in either direction along the troughs to hoppers into which the refuse may be moved and which are positioned to discharge the refuse downwardly into ram mechanism positioned to load the refuse into transfer vehicles located in the loading area.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the collection and disposal of refuse, such as the garbage and trash of municipalities, it is necessary to collect and transport large quantities of such materials. For this purpose it is customary to make use of collection vehicles of large capacity, often provided with compaction equipment whereby the refuse may be strongly compressed in the vehicle to reduce its volume as much as possible and secure the most efficient loading of the vehicle.

Such collection vehicles are moved about the streets of cities and loaded manually, the vehicles being then driven long distances to final disposal locations and returned for further loading. Moreover, due to the difficulty of maneuvering large vehicles about the streets, collection vehicles for this purpose must be limited as to size, and because of the increasingly greater distances to which the refuse from large cities must be transported for final disposal, a large part of the operating time of such vehicles is consumed in driving the vehicles to and from the final disposal location, making it necessary to greatly increase the number of vehicles employed.

To avoid these difficulties it has become customary to make use of transfer stations at various convenient locations throughout or nearby the area from which refuse is being collected and to which the refuse is brought by the smaller collection vehicles to be transferred to larger transfer vehicles for transportation to the final disposal location. Such transfer stations commonly include large receiving floors or platform areas upon which the refuse is deposited from the collection vehicles and then loaded by some convenient form of handling equipment into the transfer vehicles.

The handling of refuse at such transfer stations often presents serious problems of congestion in that numerous collection vehicles must be quickly accommodated for unloading while the discharged refuse must be rapidly transferred to the transfer vehicles to prevent large accumulations of refuse in the station.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The refuse disposal transfer station of the invention comprises a building structure, preferably of rigid concrete construction, having an unloading area at an upper level which is provided with open troughs into which collection vehicles on the loading area may be discharged, and a loading area at a lower level onto which transfer vehicles may be moved to be loaded with refuse from the troughs.

The transfer equipment includes hoppers located to receive refuse from the troughs and to discharge the same downwardly into loading mechanism located to compact the refuse into the transfer vehicles disposed on the loading area, such mechanism including ram chambers located to receive the refuse from the hoppers, and having open ends positioned to discharge the refuse into the transfer vehicles. Ram means is provided in the ram chambers for movement therein to move the refuse from the hoppers into the transfer vehicles through the open ends of the chambers.

Each of the refuse troughs has a refuse moving panel movably mounted therein for longitudinal movement along the trough to push the refuse in the trough into the hoppers associated therewith and means is provided for moving the panel in either direction in the trough.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the transfer station of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the invention, as illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view, taken along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view, on a somewhat enlarged scale, taken along the line 4--4 of FIG. 3, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PARTICULAR EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, the transfer station comprises a building structure, which may be of open or closed design having an upper floor or platform at an upper level generally designated 10, providing an unloading area to which ramps 12 lead from the ground level through suitable entranceways 14 and up which refuse collection vehicles may be driven onto the unloading area.

Below the unloading area 10 the station has lower level loading areas, such as those shown at 16, onto which transfer vehicles may be driven through suitable entranceways, such as those shown at 18 passing beneath the ramps 12 along opposite sides of the building. Centrally located lower loading areas 20 may also be provided beneath the unloading area 10 onto which transfer vehicles may be driven through opposite entranceways, such as that shown at 22 in FIG. 1.

Under some conditions, depending upon whether the terrain at the location of the disposal station is level or sloping, some of the ramps 12 may not be necessary, or the entranceways for the transfer vehicles may slope downwardly from the ground level to the lower level of the loading areas.

The station is preferably of heavy concrete construction to adequately support the refuse vehicles which will be driven over the loading and unloading areas and is formed with one or more upwardly opening, open-ended troughs, generally designated 24, extending entirely across the loading area. The troughs 24 may be of any convenient shape in cross section, such as with downwardly and inwardly sloping sidewalls, designed to readily shed material coming in contact therewith and to be easily cleared when desired.

Each of said troughs has at each end a hopper 26, which may be formed as an extension of the trough or otherwise and which is in communication with the interior of the trough to allow material in the trough to be moved into the hopper. Each of the troughs may also have a similar hopper 28 located mediate its ends.

Beneath each of the hoppers 26 and 28 a ram chamber 30 is located into which the contents of the hopper may be discharged downwardly, and a ram or compaction head 32 is movably positioned in each chamber to pass beneath the discharge opening 34 of the hopper to move the material in the chamber out of the open end 36 thereof. The compaction heads 32 are actuated by pressure cylinder mechanism generally designated 38, located between each pair of the hoppers 26 and 28 as best seen in FIG. 4.

For the purpose of moving the material deposited in the troughs 24 into the hoppers 26 and 28, pusher or packer panels 40 are movably disposed in each of the troughs for longitudinal movement therealong between the hoppers 26 and 28 of each trough. The panels 40 may be of solid upwardly tapering construction, shaped to fit the contour of the troughs or of other design, such as in the shape of rakes, not shown, having tines extending vertically in the trough for engagement with the material therein to move the material longitudinally along the trough. For the purpose of facilitating the movement of the panels along the troughs, the panels may be mounted on rollers or wheels, not shown, which may roll along the surface of the bottom of the trough or along its sidewalls or on suitable trackways provided therefor.

The panels 40 may be propelled along the troughs by suitable means such as endless chains or cables, indicated at 42 which pass over sprockets or pulleys 44 suitable located adjacent the hoppers 26 and 28 and which are driven by any convenient means such as electric motors, under the control of suitable control mechanism of a well-known type located in a central control house 46, whereby preferably the panels may be moved in either direction along the troughs to discharge material therein either into the hoppers 26 or the hopper 28.

In the operation of the transfer station, the collection vehicles, such as those shown at C in which refuse has been collected, are driven onto the unloading area 10 and unloaded into the troughs 24, as shown in FIG. 4. The refuse thus discharged into the troughs is then moved into the hoppers 26 and 28 by operation of the panels 40 moving in either direction along the troughs.

It will be apparent that it is immaterial where the panels are located in the troughs during the unloading of the collection vehicles, since the refuse may fall on either side of the panels without in any way interferring with the operation of the equipment allowing the refuse to be unloaded into any available part of any trough or even heaped up in the same to permit the rapid unloading of the vehicles.

As the refuse is moved into the hoppers 26 and 28, transfer vehicles, such as those shown at T, which may be of large capacity, are backed up on the lower level loading areas 16 to the open ends of the ram chambers 30 beneath the hoppers and the compaction heads 32 operated to compact refuse from the hoppers into the transfer vehicles.

By properly regulating the positioning of the transfer vehicles for loading from the various hoppers, it will be apparent that a substantially continuous process of transferring refuse from the collection vehicles to the transfer vehicles may be carried out, whereby a maximum of refuse may be disposed of during the period of operation.

It will thus be seen that the refuse transfer station of the invention provides equipment by which the unloading of the collection vehicles as well as the loading of the transfer vehicles may be carried out most effectively without interference with efficiency of either the refuse collection program or the transportation of the refuse to its final disposal location.

Claims

Having thus clearly shown and described the invention what is claimed as new and desired to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a transfer station for the unloading of refuse from refuse collection vehicles and subsequent of such refuse into refuse transfer vehicles, an apparatus which comprises:

a building structure having an unloading area at an upper level and a loading area at a lower level;

trough means extending adjacent to a portion of said unloading area and having an upwardly open portion for receiving refuse therethrough from such vehicles on said unloading area;

hopper means located at least at two spaced locations along said trough means and in communication therewith, and said hopper means being located at least in part below said trough means for receiving refuse therefrom through an opening;

a generally upstanding means positioned in said trough means and extending across a substantial portion thereof, said means having faces on opposite sides thereof for contacting and pushing refuse in said trough means on movement therealong;

motive means connected to said upstanding means for reciprocally moving said means along said trough means between said first hopper means and said second hopper means, said upstanding means being adapted to push refuse along said trough means into said first and second hopper means; and

loading means cooperatively mounted with respect to said hopper means for loading refuse in said hopper means into such a transfer vehicle on said lower level.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said motive means incorporates a flexible member extended over a pair of spaced roller means which position and guide said flexible member on movement between said roller means, and means connecting said upstanding means to said flexible member.

3. The invention of claim 2 including a motor for rotating said roller means.

4. The invention of claim 2 including a guide way supporting said flexible member between said roller means.

5. The invention of claim 2 including wells and trackways in said trough means for guiding and holding upright said upstanding means.

6. The invention of claim 5 wherein said upstanding means includes a pair of generally planar faces on opposite sides.

7. The invention of claim 1 wherein said loading means includes means forming a ram chamber into which refuse from said hopper means is discharged and having an end outlet through which refuse is discharged into a transfer vehicle located on said lower area; and

ram means movable disposed in said chamber for movement to one position therein to allow the discharge of refuse from said hopper means into said chamber and to another position to move refuse from said chamber into such a transfer vehicle.

8. The invention of claim 6 wherein said loading means includes means forming a ram chamber into which refuse from said hopper means is discharged and having an end outlet through which refuse is discharged into a transfer vehicle located on said lower area; and

ram means movably disposed in said chamber for movement to one position therein to allow the discharge of refuse from said hopper means into said chamber and to another position to move refuse from said chamber into such a transfer vehicle.