Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-26
2001-03-27
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items
C414S719000, C053S532000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06206173
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to an automatic device for compactly accumulating, in a given area, identical cylindrically shaped objects, which are transported, one after another, to that accumulation area. These objects may, for example, be bottles or cans, transported by a conveyor after being filled, and which are meant to be loaded compactly, batchwise, in cases or on trays, without human attendance.
Such a loading device can, for example, considerably improve efficiency in the loading of bottles containing a substance to be freeze dried in freeze drying vessels, by comparison with conventional, manual loading, methods. Application of the art to this particular field is, as a matter of fact, described in European patent 0 429 348 B1, which discloses an automatic loading device to which the present invention effects substantial improvements.
It should be remembered, in this connection, that freeze drying vessels are designed to process products often contained in bottles having a small circular crosssection. It is sought to gather these bottles together as compactly as possible in order to place them batchwise on shelves in the freeze drying vessel. Among the basic requirements attached to this technical field should firstly be noted the very strict conditions of hygiene, the fulfilment of which preferably requires a system operating without human attendance. Furthermore, it is of importance to load (or unload) the largest number of bottles possible in the shortest possible time, not only for reasons of simple profitability connected with continuous product flow, but also because, during those loading and unloading processes, the vessel is open to the outside atmosphere. This communication between the two is clearly an annoying obligation, since the freeze drying process involves producing a very low pressure and a very small degree of humidity in the vessels.
Actually, one knows automatic devices for compactly grouping together bottles coming from a conveyor line, in which the bottles are first arranged transversely until they cover the distance between two longitudinal guide bars, after which they are pushed forward by a transversely disposed bar, or “hoe”, so that, with these operations being repeated row after row, the bottles advance, grouped together, between said guide bars. Such devices have two major drawbacks. In the first place, the bottles are assembled in random fashion, so that considerable room is wasted between the bottles, as well as on the lateral sides and particularly on the front side, of the mass of bottles. A second drawback of this known system is that, when the transverse hoe pushes a row of bottles, some of these bottles at one end or the other of the row may become jammed between the guide bars, on one hand, and the bottles located inwards of said end bottles, on the other hand; as a result of the “pinching” thus created, some of these end bottles may then break or be ejected from the loading table. To reduce such risks, an anti-adhesive coating (made of silicone, for example) can be deposited on the bottles, but this obviously renders the method inconvenient and more costly.
The automatic devices just described are far from ensuring perfect compact grouping of the bottles. “Perfect compact grouping” is to be taken here as meaning a grouping together of the bottles such that they are pressed against one another so that their centres form the nodes of a perfect triangular network. In addition, if the system can be arranged so that the space between the edges of the mass of bottles and the guide bars is always very small, it becomes possible to predict accurately the number of bottles gathered on a given area, which is, of course, very useful as far as bottle flow management is concerned, and which is even vital in case the bottles are to be automatically packed at the output of the process. One can then speak in terms of “maximum coverage” of said area.
The present invention provides a device ensuring “maximum coverage” of an area in which identical cylindrical objects such as bottles or cans transported by a conveyor line accumulate, said device including, on one hand, a vibrating table over which the bottles advance in short skips after being deposited thereon by the conveyor and, on the other hand, an “oscillating hoe” formed by two integral longitudinal, lateral bars, the friction between the bottles and the surface of said vibrating table being fairly small, and said oscillating hoe performing a transverse alternate motion along the table, during which each lateral bar alternately pushes the mass of bottles, causing them to slide over the table.
Advantageously, the distance between the lateral bars forming said oscillating hoe can be adjusted according to the diameter of the bottles to be compactly grouped and according to the number of bottles meant to be placed transversely side by side.
As an additional characteristic of the invention, the device includes two transverse mobile blades, one being located on each side of the vibrating table, the inner ends of which can move from the edge of the table towards its middle, where said ends meet, so as to cut off the flow of bottles, to be able to form groups of bottles with a predetermined number of them in the longitudinal direction.
As another additional characteristic of the invention, when said set of transverse blades is opened to allow through the bottles, it is opened slowly so that the mass of bottles initially has a leading edge having its nose in its central section, the latter coming into abutment before the lateral sections against a transverse bar, behind which the compactly grouped bottles accumulate.
Further advantages, objectives and characteristics of the invention will emerge from the following description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, said description making reference to the six annexed figures, which show, in perspective top view, bottles to be grouped compactly advancing over a vibrating table, during successive stages of accumulation according to the device of the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2380910 (1945-07-01), Newton
patent: 3494097 (1970-02-01), Bott et al.
patent: 3990566 (1976-11-01), Nordqvist
patent: 4162722 (1979-07-01), Early
patent: 5129162 (1992-07-01), Hemmersbach et al.
patent: 5261774 (1993-11-01), Le Floc'h et al.
patent: 0 299 139 (1989-01-01), None
patent: 0 429 348 (1991-05-01), None
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Deuble Mark A.
Ellis Christopher P.
Societe d'Utilisation Scientifique et Industrielle du Froid
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