Vertical waste compacting apparatus

Claim 1

A compacting apparatus for receiving and compacting waste, which comprises: a compactor housing having an upper portion, a middle portion and a lower portion; vertically reciprocating ram means for compacting waste, mounted in the upper portion of said housing, said ram means being of rectangular cross section and being extendable downwardly into the lower portion of said housing: ram driving means for driving said vertically reciprocating ram means; waste inlet means in the front middle portion of said compactor housing for receiving waste to be compacted; removable waste receptacle means for containing waste, said receptacle means being horizontally slidable between a first position in the lower portion of said compactor housing in vertical alignment with said ram means and a second position without the lower portion of said compactor housing, said ram means extending downwardly within the receptacle means while said receptacle means is in the first position to effect waste compaction; vertically reciprocating sleeve means of rectangular cross-section slidably mounted within said housing surrounding said ram means and having an upper portion and a lower portion, said sleeve means having a rectangular waste inlet aperture in its front upper portion and said sleeve means being extendable downwardly from an upper position, in which access from said compactor housing waste inlet means to said waste receptacle means is blocked by said sleeve, to a lower position in which said sleeve waste inlet aperture is aligned with said compactor housing waste inlet means and the lower portion of said sleeve means extends within said removable waste receptacle means to prevent said ram means from damaging said receptacle means as said ram means is extended downwardly within said receptacle means; sleeve driving means for driving said vertically reciprocating sleeve means; control means for controlling the operation of said ram driving means and said sleeve driving means; and a first shearing knife horizontally mounted on the inner front surface of said sleeve means adjacent to the lower edge of said rectangular waste inlet aperture, and a second shearing knife horizontally mounted on the front edge of said ram means adjacent and parallel to the apertured surface of said sleeve means, said second shearing knife slidably contacting said first shearing knife as said ram means is extended downwardly past said inlet aperture into the lower portion of said housing.