Im looking for a way to compact my scrap eps blocks and chipping from my cnc so as to make storing transporting them a lot easier.
The comecial units are thousands of $$$$ so out of my price range so looking for other options maybe on a diy level.
im not to sure how much presure is needed to compress eps and get it to stay compacted any ideas?
one idea was to get a 7 ton hydralic log spliter and use the ram and motor to make something up but not sure if that would be enough to do the job and get it to stay compacted even if it was a relativly small piston area.
does any one have any experiace with this?
(ps i have just been haveing a play with litraly just a g clap and squashing foam and to my suprice the grindings from the cnc actualy compress and hold together very well compared to just a scrap pice of eps that does compackt but tends to spring back out more) Any ideas how i could calculate how much presure i am applying with a clamp?
does any one have any knlidge of hydraulicpumps ect?
It’s important to know the density of the foam you’re trying to compact. 15kg/m3 can be compacted fairly easy, but 30kg/m3 requires a lot more pressure.
Also consider that the force to compact by a certain amount increases linear with the surface area of the block (surface area of the sides you press on). It’s actually the pressure that you should figure out.
thanks for the reply its 1.5lbs/ft so i think thats about 24kg/m3 if im right.
yes i was thinking i would need to keep the piston area fairly small to increase presure im just a little worried about basicaly stalling the piston every time it would compact it.
Forget the log splitter. There is a resisting force in the closed cells of CO2 in eps that will result in needing an oversize press. And you will need some kind of a mold to produce the compacted slugs. Look at wood chippers instead for the big chunks. Blow the chips into vented trash bags using clothes dryer duct. For the grindings, contain them and use a steam cleaner to melt. Eps is less than 5% plastic per unit volume, the rest is CO2 and air. Get rid of the gases and you have compacted the volume by 95%.
the enery required to melt the grindings on a small scale is not worth the receycleing of the product from companeys that i have spoken to and is probably going to take a large machine, the liquid stuf sounds good but i emadgine it will end up costing a lot (i cant find any prices) and i dont think the receclers are set up for it. If i can compact the waste i can get it collected and get money back in return. The comersial compacters grind it first before compacting, i think some use a screw to compact and others maybe a ram. I have in the past been using a small garden shedder to brake down the big bits which does work and the plan is to build something larger if i can get a compacter to work.
like i say i have tried clamping the chippings with a simple G clamp and it compacts very well and allso binds together but i just need to replicate it on a larger scale without having to spend $10,000 on a machine if possable.
I have allso looked at a garage style press which goes to 10ton but most of those are manualy opperated.
im emadgining something like this with maybe a two stage pump to up the presure and maybe a smaller chamber area to get max force on a small area.
A little off topic…my local supplier to the building industry takes back clean offcuts, sends it back to the factory, where it is re-used in lower grade product. Very handy.
im trying to rig something up to test the car jack to see what, that was when i started thinking of something that could be a bit more automated though. I get aprox 250letters of chippings if i cut a 12 or 14’ board so it needs to be fairly efficent. I can get it all recyled no problem but its a hour or twos round trip and i could get 50x more in per load if i could compact it down saving a lot of fuel,time and storage costs
Just did the test unfortunately my hydraulic jack only works vertically and couldn’t think of a way to get that to work so I used a very small scissor jack and between to walls I wound it up as hard as I could. I used a 2 3/4" metal tube and a wooden ram I fild the 12" tube 4 times and managed to compact it down to 3/4" and it is a fairly solid block now however there is a little give in it still but it is not crumbling apart at all , I’m going to gestimate maybe it was 1 posably 2 tones max.
Hi Charlie, do you take your chips to a recycler, another business, or back to the foam manufacturer?
It seems like the chips would be ideal for remolding or adding to concrete or potting soil.
I like the idea of making chips into blocks but it seems like too much work versus fresh foam.
Have you tried filling large plastic bags and them drawing them down with a shop vac to reduce volume?
They sell systems like that for storing ‘puffy’ items -pillows, blankets, sweaters- on the tele here. One puts them into a bag and uses a vacuum cleaner with a hose to remove the air. Then the bags are sealed and stacked.
At the moment I have been taking them back to a supplier who compacts it and then sends it back to the manufacture to recycle back into eps. I have tried vacuuming bags down but they do not go that small even using a proper pump at 24" Hg and soon as you take the pump off they slowly expands. I have in the past used it to fill bean bags but They end up taking lots of room and hard to sell in the wintter. I belive if compacted the recyclers will pay up to nearly $800 per ton and I think it’s important to recycle rather than just down cycle
Wrote a long reply about vaccing it down, then read the post above. Whoops!
Wow 24" Hg vac not enough! That’s close to a ton lbs! Do you think it’s the bag stretching, preventing adequate compression? Would a thicker bag material change the outcome?
Back to crushing cans ideas.
A principle that may work is a driven off centre cam that squeezes the hopper fed eps against a wall, but that presents a host of engineering problems, not least of which is ensuring the eps feeds into the narrowed pathway.
When I’ve used jacks to move stuff or compress things there’s always the problem of repositioning the jack when they reach max extension, and then rewinding and restarting the jacking process from the new position. A drill as a driver on a well greased scissor jack may take some of the pain out of the process, but another solution is to use a 4WD high lift jack that has a bit more throw. High lifts will work in any postion, but it may be tricky to anchor it and link it to the ram. The nice thing is that they have a quick release, so avoiding tedious winding back to start again.
that has a bit more throw. High lifts will work in any postion, but it may be tricky to anchor it and link it to the ram. The nice thing is that they have a quick release, so avoiding tedious winding back to start again.