Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed... – By conveying randomly faced items and turning items to...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-30
2003-01-07
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3653)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed...
By conveying randomly faced items and turning items to...
C198S411000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06502688
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus of high speed sorting and orienting of plastic containers to base leading position, so that the containers can be further processed and placed in an upright position. The method and apparatus are used in the processing plants where it is necessary to have containers moving at a high rate of speed to assure prompt placement and packaging of the containers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are several methods and apparatuses that are conventionally well known. The present technology presently known is described below. In the present technology the containers are filled, capped, labeled, boxed, etc. on a “filling line”, a series of machines that sequentially perform various required operations. The containers begin their travel down the “filling line” conveyor in three ways:
(i) by means of hand placement from bulk to standing position on the filling line conveyor;
(ii) by means of an unscrambler—a machine that takes the containers from a jumble to a standing position on the filling line conveyor; or
(iii) by means of a depalletizer—a machine that takes the containers from a standing position on cardboard sheets that are stacked one on the other to form a pallet load to a standing position on the filling line conveyor.
There are several problems that are associated with the above-described technologies. With respect to the hand placement technology, the main drawbacks are the cost of the operation and a very low speed limit. The speed of placement of the containers is about 50 to 60 containers per minute, which is insufficient for the fast moving conveyors and packaging processes. With respect to the unscrambler technology, it is relatively inexpensive, however, present trends provide certain deficiencies, discussed below, and limit the speed to just under 500 containers per minute. Finally, the depalletizer technology is an expensive way to accommodate the needs that the present invention addresses. Furthermore, the depalletizer technology, while providing high-speed container sorting and orienting of up to 300 to 1200 containers per minute, is extremely large, thus, providing an inconvenience of use and operation.
The present unscrambler technology that is available provides the following sequence of operation. The containers are fed manually or semi-automatically into the supply hopper. Then, containers are automatically released to the rotary disc under control of a photo eye that monitors the disc. In the rotary disc, the containers move by a centrifugal force to an outer track in a neck leading or base leading position and exit to the stand-up section. In the stand-up section, a hook is located in the path of the containers. The neck-leading containers are engaged by the hook. The leading end of the containers is lifted out of the belt line while their trailing end remains in the belt line. The trailing end passes under what had been the leading end. The entire container is pulled back into the belt line. It is now in a base leading position. With respect to the base leading containers, they reach the hook and are pushed past the hook and thus remain in the base leading position. There are two essential features of the present orienting technology. First, the hook pivots on the shaft of a rotary device and is returned to its original position in the path of the containers after each container passes. Second, the force that moves the hook and pivots each container is transmitted from the belts through the container to the hook.
The containers, traveling in a base leading position, are further processed to place the containers in the upright position. The present technology operates as follows. The containers are traveling in a base leading position are carried between two belts. They come against a stop, located in the path of the lower edge of the base of the container. The force of the belts on the sides of the container pulling the container forward and the force of the stop on the lower edge of the base, combine to exert a twisting force on the container that moves it approximately 90 degrees of arc from a base leading position to a standing position.
There are several problems that are associated with the present technology that the invention addresses. The main problem is low speed at which the unscrambler has to operate. The speed is limited because it takes a finite time for the hook to return to its original position in the path of the containers. Furthermore, the containers slip while they are moved by the belt, due to the inertia force that is associated with the lifting of the containers. Therefore, the speed must be lowered to accommodate for such problem. Finally, the containers also get damaged because of the force and the nature of the plastic that the containers are manufactured from. Current technologies allow speeds of up to 500 containers per minute, which is insufficient to fulfill the needs of the container processing and packaging industry. Furthermore, there are similar problems that are associated with the lifting up containers to a standing position. Such problems include container damage and low speed limit when processing the containers.
There are several U.S. patents that are available in the field of high-speed container sorting and unscrambling, however, none of them address the long felt need that the present invention does.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,049 to Vamvakas discloses an apparatus for unscrambling a mass of uniform size containers and loading them in large groups onto a continuously moving conveyor. The unscrambler in this patent has a feeding table, a container receiving and transporting mechanism at one side of the feeding table. The apparatus includes a rotary transporting device having a plurality of rigidly connected transporting wheel structures equal in number to the number of container receptacles in a row, each of these wheel structures having one set of two container carrier recesses opening radially outwardly and specifically spaced circumferentially so that the rotation of the wheel structure timed to the drive of the transporting mechanism will bring a first container carrier recesses opposite a first row receptacle on the transporting mechanism, and will bring the second of the container carrier recesses opposite a second row receptacle on the transporting mechanism. The applicant's invention defines a patentable subject matter by having a photo eye sequentially connected to the servomotor that is in turn connected to the three-arm hook. The three-arm hook is capable of rotation according to the signals being supplied by the photo eye. The photo eye detects whether the container is coming in base leading or neck-leading.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,516 to Ionescu discloses a container orienting device at high speed a train of successively advancing, randomly oriented containers having an open and a closed end into a train of container having a uniform orientation. The apparatus comprises of an endless belt and a roller mechanism and a plurality of pulleys. The present invention defines a patentable subject matter over Ionescu patent. The present invention contains a three-arm hook that is capable of rotation based on signals sent from the photo eye when a container passes through it. The photo eye determines whether the container is passing through neck leading or base leading. Furthermore, the speed that is allowable by the Ionescu patent is far less than the one allowable by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,474 to Gau et al. teaches an apparatus for the alignment of containers. The apparatus comprises a rotating radial unit that has a container receiving recesses on its periphery for accepting containers from a linear conveyor. Furthermore, the apparatus comprises a pair of elements mounted on the unit adjacent each receiver for moving towards and away from the receiver. A belt runs around rolls that are on both elements so portion of the belt grip a container on each side when the elements are moved toward each other automatically. The appara
Krooss Robert J.
Regula Kenneth
Feldman Stephen E.
Noland Kenneth W.
Pace Packaging Corp.
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