A compactor is a
machine or mechanism used to reduce the size of material such as
waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
material or bio mass through
compaction. A trash compactor is often used by a home or business to reduce the volume of trash it produces. A baler-wrapper compactor is often used for making compact and wrapped bales in order to improve logistics.
Normally powered by
hydraulics
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...
, compactors take many shapes and sizes. In
landfill sites for example, a large
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...
(typically a converted
front end loader
Front End Loader are an Australian rock band which formed in December 1991 with founding mainstays, Bowden Campbell on guitar and vocals; Davis Claymore on lead vocals and guitar; Richard Corey on bass guitar; and Peter Kostic on drums. Front ...
with some variant of a
bulldozer blade attached) with spiked steel wheels called a
landfill compactor
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
is used to drive over waste deposited by
waste collection vehicle
A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish truck ...
s (WCVs).
WCVs themselves incorporate a compacting mechanism which is used to increase the
payload of the vehicle and reduce the number of times it has to empty. This usually takes the form of hydraulically powered sliding plates which sweep out the collection
hopper
Hopper or hoppers may refer to:
Places
*Hopper, Illinois
* Hopper, West Virginia
* Hopper, a mountain and valley in the Hunza–Nagar District of Pakistan
* Hopper (crater), a crater on Mercury
People with the name
* Hopper (surname)
* Grace H ...
and compress the material into what has already been loaded.
Different compactors are used in
scrap metal
Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...
processing, the most familiar being the
car crusher
A car crusher is an industrial device used to reduce the dimensions of derelict (depreciated) cars prior to transport for recycling.
Car crushers are compactors and can be of several types: one is a "pancake", where a scrap automobile is flatt ...
. Such devices can be of either the "pancake" type, where a scrap
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarde ...
is flattened by a huge descending hydraulically powered plate, or the
baling
The Baling District is an administrative district in southeastern Kedah, Malaysia. Located about 110 km from Alor Setar, it borders Perak and Betong, the southernmost town of Thailand.
Name
The name Baling can be traced to a series of ...
press, where the automobile is compressed from several directions until it resembles a large cube.
Commercial use
Many retail and service businesses, such as fast food, restaurants, and hotels, use compactors to reduce the volume of non-recyclable waste as well as curb nuisance such as rodents and smell. In the hospitality industry tolerance for such nuisances is particularly low. These compactors typically come in electric and hydraulic operation, with quite a few loading configurations. Most popular loading configurations fall under the following:
* Ground-access;
* Walk-on;
* Secured indoor chute.
These compactors are almost exclusively of welded steel construction for two reasons: durability under pressure and exposure to the elements, as compactors are installed either completely outdoors or sometimes under a covered loading dock.
Agricultural use
![Orkel Dens-X Compactor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Orkel_Dens-X_Compactor.jpg)
As a means to preserve and store forage, baler-wrapper compactors are used to exclude oxygen from the forage and wrap it in air tight film. Without access to air the forage is preserved fresh for longer periods of time.
Residential use
![2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/2.28.12SolarCompactorByLuigiNovi1.jpg)
In the United States, there are also trash compactors, hydraulic or manual, designed for residential use. Likewise, they reduce the volume of
garbage. For example, some compactors reduce the volume of
polystyrene to 1/30.
Municipal use
In the United States, in addition to the waste vehicle and landfill use, there are
solar-powered trash compactor
A solar-powered waste compactor is a smart device that reads a waste bin's fill-level in real-time and triggers an automatic compaction of the waste, effectively increasing the bin's capacity by up to 5-8 times. The compaction mechanism runs on a ...
s that can hold the equivalent of 200 gallons of trash before they need to be emptied.
The large compactors in
garbage trucks
A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish truck ...
can be dangerous for workers, and played a role in the
US Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...
. The 1968
Memphis sanitation strike
The Memphis sanitation strike began on February 12, 1968, in response to the deaths of sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker.Estes, S. (2000). `I AM A MAN A MAN?’: Race, Masculinity, and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike. ''Labor ...
took place when two
sanitation worker
A sanitation worker (or sanitary worker) is a person responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying the equipment or technology at any step of the sanitation chain.World Bank, ILO, WaterAid, and WHO (2019)Health, Safety and Dignity ...
s were crushed to death in garbage compactors, after which 700 of their 1300 black coworkers decided to strike.
Recycling and energy
Baler-wrapper compactors are used for efficient storage and transport of materials like RDF (
refuse-derived fuel
Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a fuel produced from various types of waste such as municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial waste or commercial waste.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development provides a definition:
''"Selected waste ...
) and bin waste, as well as compost and saw dust, enabling higher rates of recycling.
Construction industry
In
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...
, there are three main types of compactor: the plate, the rammer, and the
road roller
A road roller (sometimes called a roller-compactor, or just roller) is a compactor-type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Similar rollers are used also at la ...
. The roller type compactors are used for compacting
crushed
Crushed may refer to:
* "Crushed" (''Ms. Marvel''), a 2022 episode of the American television series ''Ms. Marvel''
* "Crushed" (Roland Lee Gift song) a 2009 single by Roland Lee Gift
* "Crushed" (''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' episode), an ...
rock as the base layer underneath concrete or stone foundations or slabs. The plate compactor, vibrating plate, or tamper, has a large
vibrating baseplate and is suited for creating a level grade, while the rammer compactor has a smaller foot. The rammer, or trench rammer, is mainly used to compact the backfill in narrow
trench
A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).
In geology, trenches result from ero ...
es for water or gas supply pipes etc. Road rollers may also have vibrating rollers.
In plates and rollers the vibration is provided by rapidly rotating eccentric masses. In smaller plates the vibration causes a tendency to move forwards, while some larger plates are provided with a directional control. In the rammer the foot is mounted on a sleeve that slides vertically in the leg. Inside the sleeve, a piston is driven up and down by the engine through a reduction gear, crank and connecting rod. Substantial coil springs above and below the piston connect it to the sliding sleeve. The connection between the sleeve and foot is at small angle so that the whole rammer leans away from the operator. The vibrating motion is therefore slightly off the vertical, and this gives the rammer a tendency to 'walk' forwards. The sliding joint in the leg is protected by a flexible bellows.
In England the name "wacker plate" or just "wacker" is commonly used to refer to plate compactors, derived from the name of
Wacker Neuson
Wacker Neuson SE (formerly: Wacker Construction Equipment AG) with headquarters in Munich is a manufacturer of construction equipment and compact machines for concrete and construction site technology listed on the stock market. The group inclu ...
, a well-known manufacturer of such devices. The name is pronounced in the English style as ''whacker'' as opposed to the correct German ''vacker''. A rammer is colloquially referred to as "
Paddy's Motorbike", due to the traditional resource of Irish construction labourers, and the way that the operator appears to "ride" the hammer holding the handles like a motorcycle.
File:Plate compactor.jpg, A small plate compactor
File:Zageszczarka plytowa 2.JPG, A rammer compactor
File:2008-08-28 Wacker RT trench roller.jpg, A trench roller operated by remote control for operator safety
File:Seabees compactor roller.jpg, Large roller "sheepsfoot" compactor for use on soil
Patents
* ' — Can crusher and baler — 1941
* ' — Compactor Service & Monitoring System — 2006
See also
*
Road roller
A road roller (sometimes called a roller-compactor, or just roller) is a compactor-type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Similar rollers are used also at la ...
*
Shredding (disambiguation)
*
Soil compaction
*
Tamp
A tamp is a device used to compact or flatten an aggregate or another powdered or granular material, typically to make it resistant to further compression or simply to increase its density.
Examples
* Small, handheld tampers are used to compres ...
*
Waste compaction
Waste compaction is the process of compacting waste, reducing it in size. Garbage compactors and waste collection vehicles compress waste so that more of it can be stored in the same space. Waste is compacted again, more thoroughly, at the landfi ...
References
External links
{{Wiktionary
Preventing Injuries When Working With Ride-On Roller/Compactors a publication from the U.S.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the C ...
Tools
Engineering vehicles
Waste collection