Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for establishing and moving a group of items – By shifting group of items simultaneously from stream...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-12
2001-08-07
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for establishing and moving a group of items
By shifting group of items simultaneously from stream...
C198S740000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269932
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to an automatic device allowing for a high output in the discharging, from a vibrating table and to an on-line conveyor, of continuously arriving flat-bottomed objects. Such objects can, for example, be flasks or cans that have just been filled or have just undergone an industrial treatment, and which are going to be supplied to an automatic crimper.
Such a device is suited, among other things, to the discharge of flasks, or bottles, from lyophilization, or freeze drying, vessels. It will be noted, in this connection, that freeze drying vessels are designed to process certain substances, in particular biological materials, most often contained in bottles the base of which is a circle having a small cross-section. Among the essential constraints associated with this field of the art should be noted, in the first place, the very strict hygiene requirements (aseptic packaging and contamination prevention measures) the observance of which preferably entails the use of a system free from human intervention. That is why automatic routing devices are preferable to manual devices.
In addition, it is important to be able to load the vessels with, and unload therefrom, the greatest possible number of bottles in the shortest possible time, not only for the usual reasons of profitability associated with continuous product flow, but also because, during such loading and unloading operations, the vessels are open to the outside atmosphere (this communication is an unfortunate constraint since, in addition to the aforementioned hygiene requirements, the freeze drying process demands a very low level of humidity in the vessels).
The successive steps of routing the bottles entering the freeze drying vessels and exiting therefrom after treatment, up to the time of depositing said bottles on a vibrating table, have, moreover, been the subject of two patent applications in the name of the present Applicant. The present invention thus relates to the following, and final, stage of this route, at the beginning of which the bottles arrive at the end of their progression over said vibrating table, which serves as a buffer prior to discharge to an on-line conveyor.
As will emerge from a study of the following description, the invention applies to any kind of flat-bottomed object, which may be cylindrical, conical or of other shapes but which, for the sake of convenience, will be designated hereinafter by the general term of “bottles”.
In the state of the art, there are already known automatic devices permitting the discharge of such bottles from a vibrating table to an on-line conveyor, the conveyor belt of which commences at a forward corner of said table. In some of these devices, said conveyor belt extends in a direction that is longitudinal in relation to the vibrating table, and there is placed, in the angle formed by the front of the vibrating table and the conveyor belt, a uniformly rotating gear wheel whereof the spaces between the teeth have a shape mating with that of said bottles; said gear wheel thus seizes said bottles in said spaces so as to deposit them a moment latter on the conveyor. In other conventional devices, the conveyor belt extends transversely in relation to the vibrating table, and the bottles are driven by a straight serrated edge performing an alternating motion along the forward edge of said table.
These known devices have to allow the bottles the time to be sufficiently inserted into said tooth spaces to be able to ensure their transport without the bottles prematurely leaving the spaces. As a result, the known devices permit only a low output, which is quite inadequate in relation to the rate of several hundreds per minute at least that is desirable here for the reasons given above.
To allow for a reliable discharge even at high output, the present invention provides an automatic device for discharging, from a vibrating table to an on-line conveyor, continuously arriving flat-bottomed objects, which device operates in cycles and each of the cycles of which includes the following stages:
said objects are accommodated in a ditch contiguous with the forward edge of said vibrating table so as to form a row;
said row of objects is pushed by a pusher, the initial speed of which is zero, towards a smooth surface extending in a transverse direction in relation to the vibrating table in the continuation of said ditch;
said objects arrive on a conveyor belt located in the continuation of said smooth surface; and
while the pusher discharges said row and then returns to its initial position, a fresh row of objects gradually forms in the ditch.
According to one additional feature of the invention, a cut-out portion is formed on the forward edge of a guard rail which runs along the lateral edge of said vibrating table and is located on the same side of the vibrating table as said smooth surface, in order to cause any object which, after dropping into said ditch, has overturned in such a way that one part of said object rests on the vibrating table, to fall when it reaches said edge of the vibrating table.
According to another additional feature of the invention, said pusher is fixed to an endless belt that winds under tension around two drive wheels.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5044488 (1991-09-01), Bolin
patent: 5092449 (1992-03-01), Bolin et al.
patent: 554 793 (1974-10-01), None
patent: 0 429 348 (1991-05-01), None
patent: 1 390 162 (1965-06-01), None
patent: 2 528 958 (1983-12-01), None
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Noland Kenneth W.
Societe d'Utilisation Scientiftique et Industrielle du Froi
LandOfFree
Automatic device allowing for a high output in the... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Automatic device allowing for a high output in the..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automatic device allowing for a high output in the... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2507959