Package making – With contents treating
Patent
1993-07-26
1994-11-22
Coan, James F.
Package making
With contents treating
53142, 53246, 53251, 53534, 53544, B65B 2306
Patent
active
053657179
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to egg packing apparatus for orienting and packing eggs on a flat.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Egg packers have been used for many years to pack eggs in appropriate containers. The container may be what is generally known as a flat which receives a relatively large number of eggs, for example five rows each containing six eggs for a total of thirty eggs, or may be a carton which usually contains two rows each containing six eggs for a total of a dozen. A flat has upwardly open separated egg receiving compartments, and flats can be stacked vertically one upon another. Flats are used to transport eggs in large numbers from the producer to the wholesaler. Cartons also have upwardly open separated egg receiving compartments, but also have a lid to cover the eggs, and can also be stacked. Eggs are packed in cartons by a wholesaler for transportation to a retailer and eventual purchase by a consumer.
Eggs are fragile and care has to be taken to minimize breakage. Also, it is common practice to pack eggs with their pointed ends down, that is to say with their blunt ends uppermost. It is the blunt ends which contain the air sac. Two major requirements of an egg packer apparatus therefore are that it handles eggs carefully to minimize breakage and is also capable of orienting eggs from an horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation with pointed ends lowermost. Many different types of egg packer apparatus have been used over the years, but each have their inherent shortcomings.
The present invention utilizes the fact that, when an egg in a horizontal orientation is caused to roll along a surface, it tends to move laterally in the direction of its pointed end. This phenomena can be applied in an egg packer or egg conveying apparatus for simply moving eggs from one place to another.
This phenomena is used, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,327 (Koch et al) issued Jul. 13, 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,233 (Thomas) issued Jun. 22, 1976, U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,898 (Moulds et al) issued Feb. 26, 1980. However, the apparatus described therein still require an additional egg conveying apparatus to utilize this principle. This increases the likelihood of egg breakage.
The present application discloses an egg packer apparatus having a basket means mounted on a transporting means movable in a continuous path with a series of egg receiving compartments one behind the other, each compartment is substantially tubular having a front edge, a rear edge, and a pair of laterally-spaced side walls; each compartment to receive one egg, said transporting means operating to move each compartment from the loading station to an unloading station where each egg falls by gravity from its compartment; during a portion of the path between the loading and unloading stations when said basket means is inverted to thereby cause the egg in the compartment to be engaged by the rear edge of the compartment and thereby caused to roll over the said bottom surface to provide lateral movement of the egg in the direction of its pointed end until the pointed end engages or nearly engages an adjacent side wall of the compartment, and with the pointed end of the egg is engaging one side wall of the compartment or the laterally opposite side wall of the compartment.
There is further disclosed an apparatus having an egg receiving means at the unloading station comprising a chute located so as to be positioned substantially between the side walls of a compartment as the compartment reaches the unloading station, said chute having side walls which are spaced apart by distance to receive only the blunt end half of the egg as it drops from the compartment to cause the egg to drop into the chute blunt end downwardly whether the pointed end of the egg is engaging one side wall of the compartment or the laterally opposite said wall of the compartment. The chute has a free front end from which the egg drops to a further egg receiving means, and the length of the chute is sufficient to enable the egg, after having been
REFERENCES:
patent: 2855740 (1958-10-01), Noland, Jr. et al.
patent: 3311216 (1967-03-01), Jones
patent: 3316688 (1967-05-01), Niederer et al.
patent: 3722173 (1973-03-01), Noguchi
patent: 3820301 (1974-06-01), Willsey
patent: 4189898 (1980-02-01), Moulds et al.
patent: 4575993 (1986-03-01), Meyn
patent: 4730440 (1988-03-01), Jelle van der Schoot et al.
patent: 4733518 (1988-03-01), Griesdorn
Notification of Transmittal of Inter'l Preliminary Exam Report for PCT/CA91/00419.
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