The present invention relates to compaction equipment for commercial and industrial trash compaction to facilitate refuse disposal and to waste paper baler equipment utilized in paper recycling, both of which are important and widely used tools in the field of waste management. It is very desirable that this equipment be both efficient and reliable. As with all powerful mechanical equipment, safety hazards should be eliminated to the maximum extent possible, recognizing that there is a tendency for some operators to be less careful than they should be. There is a need to prevent operation by unauthorized persons who may or may not be in the area by permission.
Although the invention with which this application is concerned is useful in both waste paper balers and in trash compactors, this background discussion will primarily concern itself with balers, since they are possibly the more frequently used by a variety of different operators. Balers comprise vertical presses for forming bales of compacted paper material for recycling purposes. They are often found where discard cardboard boxes are accumulated. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,599 issued Nov. 11, 1980 to Ulrich. The commercial or industrial trash compactor, which will be referred to herein simply as "trash compactor", is found in many situations where there are large volumes of waste to be disposed of in landfills or other waste disposal facilities. Thus, balers or trash compactors are found in shopping centers, industrial complexes, associated with large discount stores or department stores, and in some residential complexes.
Although operational control of compaction apparatus in years past was usually implemented by simple switches and relays, there has been a tendency in recent years to employ computer microprocessors and somewhat sophisticated computer programs and algorithms stored in computer memory in or associated with the microprocessor. The present invention is adaptable for use with either relay or microprocessor implemented controls.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,109 to Burgis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,197 to Neumann, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,013 to Blackstone, Jr. are examples of trash compaction systems utilizing microprocessors and computer programs to implement a desired control system. U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,335 to Longo and U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,087 to Fenner et al. discuss systems which do not employ computer microprocessors but execute simple logic with electrical relays.
In the preferred embodiment, a magnetic strip card reader is employed capable of reading cards in the possession of each employee or person who may be authorized to have access to the compaction equipment in question. In many cases, employees may already be using such cards for the purpose of clocking in or clocking out from work thereby generating input data for accounting and payroll purposes. Examples of such time entry and accounting systems employing card readers may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,867 to Winn et al, issued Feb. 10, 1998 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,056 to Young et al, issued Aug. 27, 1985. Other uses of card readers to identify employees and generate data for computer records or special purposes is known as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,435 to Numata et al, issued Feb. 16, 1999. The latter patent apparently identifies the user operating a centrifuge so that the operator can, at a later time, retrieve the resulting data of the centrifuge operation stored in a central computer memory. To the extent that techniques well known in the art for collecting data from cards read by card readers are shown in these prior patents, they are incorporated herein by reference as ordinary skill of the art helpful in carrying out the implementation of the inventions disclosed herein.
It should be noted that apparatus according to the present invention does not simply control an access door or otherwise limit access to an area or a machine. The baler or compaction apparatus with the authorized operator identification feature described herein is accessible to unauthorized operators, and it is only particular operations thereof such as compaction and bale forming which require that the operator be authorized. This is an important safety feature which comes under the purview of regulatory authorities as well as being a desirable provision of company safety policy.