Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed... – By conveying randomly faced items and turning items to...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-04
2001-03-27
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed...
By conveying randomly faced items and turning items to...
C198S443000, C193S046000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06206171
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to collating apparatus for collating loose articles and more particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for arranging and/or collating articles into a neat orderly array and a method of employing the apparatus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many different forms of collating arrangements are known in the art and one of the chief drawbacks of those existing arrangements is realized with the degree of labour intensity. Generally speaking, several personnel are involved in handling the articles to eventually be packaged and this often leads to difficulties in terms of damaged goods as well as complications with respect to health standards. Further limitations revolve around the fact that the additional personnel add labour costs to the overall process.
One of the references which is representative of the arrangements in this art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,398, issued Apr. 13, 1993 to Clugston for an apparatus designed for unscrambling sealed containers. In the apparatus, the Clugston device incorporates a water tank filled with water and containers to be unscrambled are passed in a scrambled manner into the water container and eventually lowered into the intake of the vessel. It is indicated in the specification that the containers are passed from the conveyor and distribution and movement of the containers occurs on an unscrambler bed. Distribution and movement is facilitated by pressurized fluid supplied by nozzles
44
. The pressurized gas or fluid urges the containers onto slide plates
14
, which are downwardly inclined relative to the discharge point of the unscrambler bed. The articles are then slidably transported to a further stage referred to as a lane transition section. The Clugston reference, although teaching a useful apparatus, incorporates fairly involved procedure for transporting the articles. It is submitted that this arrangement is useful only in situations where the articles are hermetically sealed. This would have little use, if any, to collate foodstuffs which are assembled into an array and packaged at a downstream operation.
A further example of generally related art in this field is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,271, issued Sep. 28, 1971, to Pilat. The arrangement taught in this patent is directed to a coin wrapping machine, which incorporates a ramp for transportation of the coins. The Pilat reference, although having the ramp transportation system, would not be an effective arrangement to transport foodstuffs in view of the fact that it has been specifically designed for transportation of small articles, in this case, coins.
Other references of general relevance to the subject matter set forth herein, include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,186,652, 2,250,427, 4,105,108, and 5,123,516.
It would be desirable if there were a method for collating loose articles into an orderly array which is significantly less labour intensive and which reduces the contact between the product and the personnel packaging the product.
The present invention is directed to solving the difficulties as set forth herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for collating loose articles into an orderly array.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of collating loose articles from a relatively disordered state, comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of channels having a width dimension, the channels for slidably transporting the articles, the channels having a receiving end for receiving the articles and a discharge end for discharging the articles, each channel having a width dimension, diagonal wall, opposed wall and top edge, each channel having a generally sawtooth configuration adjacent the receiving end with the width dimension progressively decreasing from the receiving end to the discharge end, the receiving end being elevated relative to the discharge end;
introducing the articles at the receiving end at any orientation relative to the channels;
sliding the articles down a respective channel to progressively orient the articles; and
discharging the articles in an ordered array.
Any number of channels may be employed in the arrangement and this will depend upon the volume of article to be packaged among other factors. The channel may be formed of any suitable material having a low coefficient of friction in order to ensure quick transportation of the product from the receiving end of the apparatus to a discharge end. To this end, the receiving end will be elevated relative to the discharge end in order to provide a “ramp effect” and thus facilitate sliding of the article down the channel. Suitable materials for construction of the channels include aluminum, Teflon TM suitable plastics or other suitable metals acceptable to the food industry and also providing the necessary degree of friction. As a further feature, the temperature of the channels may be controlled (heated, cooled) depending upon the type of product to be collated.
The channels may include pegs, cams or some additional element on the top edges in order to reposition, for example, a potato patty from a generally horizontal position relative to the channel to a position where the patty is vertically oriented within the channel. This may also be achieved by providing a texture on the top edge of the channels or simply having different material on adjacent top edges to provide a different coefficient of friction. This will ensure that any randomness in the orientation of the product is eliminated by the edging to reposition the article. In this manner, the channels provide a self-aligning feature for the articles contacting them.
A further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a method of collating loose unpackaged food articles from a relatively disordered state, comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of channels having a width dimension, the channels for slidably transporting the articles, the channels having a receiving end for receiving the articles and a discharge end for discharging the articles, each channel having a width dimension, diagonal wall, opposed wall and top edge, each channel having a generally sawtooth configuration adjacent the receiving end with the width dimension progressively decreasing from the receiving end to the discharge end, the receiving end being elevated relative to the discharge end;
introducing the articles at the receiving end at any orientation relative to the channels;
sliding the articles by gravity along edges of the channels while simultaneously repositioning the articles into the channels;
orienting the articles within a respective channel during the sliding from a non-vertical altitude to a substantially vertical altitude; and
discharging the articles in an ordered array for packaging.
Having thus described the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings illustrating preferred embodiments.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2186652 (1940-01-01), Orth et al.
patent: 2250427 (1941-07-01), Vannucci
patent: 3608271 (1971-09-01), Pilat
patent: 4105108 (1978-08-01), Lauer
patent: 5123516 (1992-06-01), Moore
patent: 5201398 (1993-04-01), Clugston
patent: 5871080 (1999-02-01), Manzi et al.
(Marks & Clerk)
Crawford Paul
Deuble Mark A.
Ellis Christopher P.
Sharpe Paul S.
LandOfFree
Foodstuff collating system and method does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Foodstuff collating system and method, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Foodstuff collating system and method will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2496341