Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for establishing and moving a group of items – Subdivides continuous item stream into longitudinally spaced...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-26
2001-03-13
Valenza, Joseph E. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for establishing and moving a group of items
Subdivides continuous item stream into longitudinally spaced...
C198S419300, C198S468300, C053S446000, C053S542000, C053S544000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06199680
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus adapted to bunch together a predetermined number of inverted and uninverted PTPs (“press-through packs”, as for tablets or the like) being conveyed on a conveying means into a bundle, and to transfer the PTP-bundle to a bucket conveyor which moves intermittently in parallel with a conveying passage, in order to facilitate the binding operation of the bundled-PTPs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a generally known PTP
1
has a plastic sheet
2
provided with a plurality of blisters
2
a
in one surface thereof (hereinafter, referred to as “blistered surface”), tablets
3
or such are put in the blisters
2
a,
and the blisters
2
a
containing the tablets
3
are sealed hermetically by a sheet
4
, such as an aluminum foil.
A plurality of such PTPs are usually superposed into stacks and bundled with a band or packed into a box or other containers. In order to reduce the thickness of the stacks, one out of two PTPs being conveyed is inverted so that the blistered surface
2
of one PTP faces the blistered surface of the other. Then, the PTPs are slightly shifted so as to prevent abutment of the blisters
2
a,
as shown in FIG.
2
.
The present applicant has previously proposed a method and apparatus for conveying PTPs in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/237,144, in order to form the aforesaid PTP stacks automatically. In this application, firstly, a plurality of PTPs aligned parallel with each other are conveyed along a conveying passage with their blistered surfaces facing the same direction. Then, a selected portion of the PTPs being conveyed on the conveying passage are pinched and separated from the remaining PTPS, and the separated PTPs are inverted so that their blistered surfaces oppose the blistered surfaces of the remaining PTPs. Finally, the thus-inverted PTPs are returned onto the same conveying passage and are conveyed together with the uninverted PTPs.
A predetermined number of the inverted and uninverted PTPs have to be subsequently bundled and bound together with a band or other appropriate binding means. However, the aforesaid conveying passage is driven continuously and the PTPs are relatively spaced away from each other, so it is difficult to bundle and take out a predetermined number of PTPs under continuous conveyance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-mentioned problem, and it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus adapted to bundle a predetermined number of inverted and uninverted PTPs, and to transfer the bundled PTPs to a bucket conveyor, which moves intermittently and in parallel with the aforesaid conveying passage, in order to facilitate the subsequent binding operation.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned and other objects, according to one aspect of the present invention, a method of bunching and transferring press-through packs (PTPs) comprises the steps of conveying a multitude of PTPs, a portion of which are inverted and the rest of which are not inverted, along a first conveying passage while maintaining blistered surfaces of the inverted and uninverted PTPs in parallel with each other, pinching a selected portion of PTPs being conveyed in the first conveying passage and separating them from the passage, bunching the separated PTPs together while narrowing the spacing between the separated PTPs in the conveying direction, transferring the bunched PTPs onto a second conveying passage across the first conveying passage, and loading the bunched PTPs into a bucket provided on a bucket conveyor which travels along the second conveying passage.
Since the PTPs separated from the first conveying passage are first bunched together in the conveying direction before being transferred to the second conveying passage, it is possible to shorten the overall length of the apparatus. Further, since a predetermined number of bunched PTPs are transferred onto the bucket conveyor, the bunched PTPs can be taken out easily from the bucket conveyor as a bundle, and can be easily subjected to the subsequent binding operation, such as binding with a tape.
Preferably, a conveying means associated with the first conveying passage is driven continuously, while the bucket conveyor associated with the second conveying passage is driven intermittently.
Thereby, the buckets of the bucket conveyor are allowed to wait at a predetermined position by its intermittent movement while the predetermined number of PTPs are being continuously pinched, separated from the first conveying passage, and bunched together. Therefore, the bunching and transferring operations can be done efficiently without waste of time. Further, by the intermittent movement of the bucket conveyor, PTPs can be taken out as a bundle which facilitates the subsequent binding operation.
Preferably, the inverted and uninverted PTPs of the multitude of PTPs are arranged in an alternate manner, and plural pairs of PTPs are pinched and separated from the first conveying passage, each pair of PTPs consisting of an inverted PTP and an uninverted PTP.
According to the above construction, each pair of PTPs can be firmly pinched and separated without being mutually displaced, so that the bunching and transferring operations can be done easily and positively.
Preferably, the separated PTPs are bunched into a plurality of groups in their conveying direction and the thus-bunched PTP groups are respectively loaded into separate buckets. In this case, a large number of PTPs can be efficiently bunched and transferred.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for bunching and transferring PTPs comprises a first conveying means for conveying a multitude of PTPs, a portion of which are inverted and the rest of which are not inverted, along a first conveying passage while maintaining the blistered surfaces of the inverted and uninverted PTPs in parallel with each other, a pinching means having a multitude of pinching units, a first drive means for reciprocating the pinching means in the longitudinal direction of the first conveying passage, a second drive means for reciprocating the pinching means in the vertical direction of the first conveying passage, a third drive means for reciprocating the pinching means in a direction transverse to the first conveying passage, an opening/closing means for opening and closing pinching fingers of the pinching units at predetermined timings, an expanding/contracting means which expands and contracts the spacings between the pinching units of the pinching means in the longitudinal direction, and a second conveying means constituted by a bucket conveyor adapted to travel along a second conveying passage which is parallel to the first conveying passage. The first, second and third drive means, the opening/closing means and the expanding/contracting means are controlled so as to carry out the method according to the preceding aspect of the present invention, as described above.
Such an apparatus according to the invention permits the foregoing method to be carried out with extreme ease and sureness.
Preferably, in the above apparatus, the multitude of pinching units may be attached to an expanding/contracting arm capable of expanding and contracting in a pantograph form. When the expanding/contracting arm is in an expanded state, the pinching units are in a position above the first conveying passage so that each the pinching unit can pinch a pair of PTPs adjacent to each other longitudinally in the first conveying passage. When the expanding/contracting arm is contracted, the spacing between the pinching units is narrowed to at least one half the length of the spacing in the expanded state.
Thus, the spacing between the pinched-PTPs can be narrowed to a great extent, and hence, it is possible to shorten the overall length of the apparatus. Further, the subsequent loading of bunched-PTPs into the buckets of the bucket conveyor can be done steadily.
Prefe
Omori Toshio
Sakai Shinsuke
Dougherty & Clements LLP
Omori Machinery Co., Ltd.
Valenza Joseph E.
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