Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – By passive material-diverting means placed across the flow path
Patent
1988-12-07
1991-01-22
Valenza, Joseph E.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
By passive material-diverting means placed across the flow path
198438, B65G 4700
Patent
active
049864076
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the path of transportation of articles of all sorts. The articles are delivered on a first conveyor belt and are deflected by deflecting means to the second, or one of several second, conveyor belts arranged in parallel side-by-side relationship. The deflecting means are controlled by a control means. The apparatus can be used, for example, to continue transportation of the articles having a certain feature, or a certain combination of features, on a specific one of the second conveyor belts. The control of the deflecting means can also be such that the articles are distributed substantially uniformly on the or over the second conveyor belt or belts.
Such an apparatus is known from EP-A-3 111, FIG. 13. There the articles are conveyed by means of a spiral conveyor along a wall built up by the deflecting means and an oblique path across the second conveyor belts. By diverting or retracting individual ones of the deflecting means the articles are released for further transportation on a selected one of the second conveyor belts. The use of a spiral conveyor requires that the articles succeed one another at a distance corresponding to the pitch of the screw. The change of the path of motion of the articles upon transition from the conveyor screw to the second conveyor belts is abrupt, which limits the speed of the second conveyor belts. Difficulties in respect of construction are encountered in that the deflecting means are arranged in the direction of travel of the second conveyor belts opposite the spiral conveyor so that they must be pulled away in upward direction for release of the articles. Especially in case of bottles for beverages there is the risk that the neck portion may be caught by the only partially retracted deflecting means and so the bottle will topple over.
DE-A-1 548 285 describes an apparatus for sorting articles where the articles are removed from a first conveyor belt by a star wheel with suction nozzles and are set down again on a selected one of several second conveyor belts. The operating speed in this system is limited by the star wheel and the abrupt change of the direction of travel as the articles are put down on one of the second conveyor belts.
From DE-A-2 358 185 an apparatus is known where the articles are transversely off-set on the first conveyor belt by means of pushers which move along with the first conveyor belt and are extended in transverse direction by link motion. The articles are then passed on to various second conveyor belts by guide railings extending different lengths beyond the first conveyor belt. In view of the accompanying pushers and the slotted link motion the operating speed is limited. Moreover, much space is needed in the direction of conveyance of the first conveyor belt. For separate sorting out of articles it is also necessary that they are spaced a considerable minimum distance apart.
It is the object of the invention to provide an apparatus for controlling the path of conveyance of articles which requires little space in the direction of conveyance of the second conveyor belt or belts and which permits very high conveying speeds.
This object is realized in that the first conveyor belt extends obliquely across and rests on the second conveyor belt or belts and is sufficiently thin so that the articles can slide from the first conveyor belt to the second conveyor belt or belts without the risk of toppling over, and that the deflecting means arranged on the side of the first conveyor belt facing away from the direction of conveyance of the second conveyor belt or belts, in retracted condition, allow the articles to move forward on the first conveyor belt, and are extensible in the direction of conveyance of the second conveyor belt or belts.
The belt forming the first conveyor belt may be made of steel or plastic. Preferably it is a steel belt having a thickness between 0.1 and 0.5 mm. Bottles holding beverages, for example, can be readily shifted by the deflecting means from such a steel belt onto
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Bidwell James R.
Valenza Joseph E.
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