Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed... – By actuating item-holder relative to holder-carrying conveyor
Patent
1993-02-24
1994-04-26
Dayoan, D. Glenn
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed...
By actuating item-holder relative to holder-carrying conveyor
198793, 19880316, B65G 4724
Patent
active
053058674
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for feeding articles, and has particular reference to apparatus for feeding individual particles in such a manner that the articles are accurately located in time and space.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is a common practise to sort individual articles sequentially, for example according to their individual weight, colour, clarity etc. This is done for example in the case of diamonds and other stones, sweets, peas, tablets and other medical preparations, and many other articles. When the relevant quality has been measured or detected by appropriate sensing means, the articles must be correspondingly sorted. The sorting may comprise only two categories namely "pass" and "fail", but in many cases it is desirable to sort into a plurality of categories, for example ranges of weight or colour. For accurate sorting, the sorting means must be synchronized with the sensing means, and the articles must be presented to the sorting means with accurate placing and timing to avoid incorrect sorting. The articles may well leave the sensing means with some irregularity in speed, direction, position or timing, and such irregularities need to be reduced or eliminated before the articles are presented to the sorting means.
Ensuring that a sequence of articles is presented with accurately defined timing and placing is also desirable in other contexts, for example in presenting the articles to a sensing means for determining the weight, colour or some other quality.
DISCUSSION OF THE PRIOR ART
Devices for reducing irregularities in the presentation of a sequence of articles have been proposed. GB-A-2201648 describes a feeding device comprising a belt which circulates at a controlled speed and carries a series of uniformly spaced buckets downwards. Articles are inserted one by one in the buckets at the top of the vertical descent and are released at the bottom, so that the buckets define the spacing and velocity of the articles when released.
GB-A-2167197 describes apparatus for weighing a number of objects in succession in which the objects, after being individually weighed, drop into individual rubber pockets of a rotating carousel. These pockets catch and decelerate the objects. The pockets have normally closed but openable bottoms. As the carousel rotates, after a certain degree of rotation the object will have settled in the bottom of its pocket, so that the successive objects are accurately located in time and position by the pockets. The pockets are then opened at predetermined positions corresponding to the previously determined weights of the individual objects so that each object is dispensed into a bin corresponding to the weight of the object. This device can eliminate irregularities in the direction and timing of the objects emerging from the weighing means, and the natural compliance of the rubber used for the pockets substantially eliminates any risk of damage to the objects. However, the speed of the device is inherently limited by the time required for objects to drop under gravity from the pockets into the bins. In practice this may require that the pocket be open for a minimum of about 50 ms, corresponding to a theoretical maximum speed of 20 objects per second. In practice the time required for a mechanism to open and close the pockets reduces the maximum available speed.
Measures can be taken to reduce the delay and increase the speed but such measures are expensive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide feeding apparatus capable of presenting articles in accurately defined sequence at a relatively high rate and with a simple and cheap construction.
According to the present invention, there is provided a feeding apparatus comprising an upper movable carrier comprising a plurality of guides which are transported at a predetermined speed and with a predetermined spacing along a predetermined path, said guides each having an open bottom and each being adapted to receive a respective article individually fed thereto;
REFERENCES:
patent: 2205178 (1940-06-01), Schreiber
patent: 3231061 (1966-06-01), Borkmann
patent: 4131192 (1978-12-01), Cipolla
Dayoan D. Glenn
Gersan Establishment
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