Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for establishing and moving a group of items – Subdivides continuous item stream into longitudinally spaced...
Patent
1994-07-27
1996-08-20
Terrell, William E.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for establishing and moving a group of items
Subdivides continuous item stream into longitudinally spaced...
1984602, B65G 4726
Patent
active
055470041
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method for arranging a series of products which are moving in succession in a downstream direction along a conveyor at an essentially constant firs speed, said products passing a controlled activation element, which element is movable parallel to the products, and by means of which said series of products can be arranged, which element is controlled depending on a predetermined product upstream of the element passing a certain position, and in which said products, on passing said element, move along at an essentially constant second speed, and are arranged depending on a product processing unit situated downstream and operating in phase with the second speed. The invention also relates to a device for carrying out said method.
The present invention aims to cover a wide field of application, but the emphasis here is placed on the field of individual or combined packaging of products. This field covers many types of product, including sticky products which cannot tolerate being pushed together, such as pieces of cheese or thin bars of chocolate, or products of differing sizes.
One of the envisaged fields of application is the packaging of products in so-called multipacks. Such packs each contain a group of individually packaged articles. This group of individually packaged articles is packaged into multipacks in a multipack machine. For this, a continuous stream of individually packaged articles if fed to the multipack machine, in the course of which said individually packaged articles must be combined to form groups. For example, a production machine or a single-pack machine which is set up, for example, relatively close to the multipack machine. However, the articles can also be supplied from an intermediate stock, so that, for example, different production or single-pack machines can supply products to one multipack machine. The groups of products to be supplied to the multipack machine must have a constant product pitch. However, the stream of packaged articles with spacing between them, produced by, for example, a single-pack machine is not always constant. This is because, for example, packs which have been rejected are taken out of the stream, and because the production speed of a single-pack machine depends on the supply of articles to be supplied to it for individual packaging. Although most products consequently move up to the multipack machine with essentially little deviation relative to an average product pitch, great deviations from said average product pitch will regularly occur. An intelligent system is therefore required for grouping individually packaged products, since the products to be combined into a group do not need to lie a fixed distance apart for purposes of combination.
A device which operates according to the method described in the preamble is known from published unexamined Dutch Application 8902341. In this case the top part of an endless conveyor belt and the top part of an endless chain work in parallel at a distance from each other. The endless chain is driven at a slower speed than the conveyor belt. Products are supplied from a single-pack machine set up nearby, and a multipack machine is provided at the end of the conveyor belt. The speeds of the single-pack machine and the endless conveyor belt are synchronised, as are those of the endless chain and the multipack machine. This means that the product pitch is essentially constant, but the time interval at which products pass a certain point changes with the speed of the single-pack machine. Carriers with constant pitch are provided on the endless chain. A carrier is taken into the working position, or the position inserted between the products, by a pawl along which the carrier moves. The pawl in this case is designed so that it is movable parallel to the product stream, so that the place where the carrier is put into the working position can be adapted to the situation of the moving product stream. A detector (photoelectric cell) is situated, displaced slightly upstream, above the pawl and the
REFERENCES:
patent: 2884115 (1959-04-01), Farrer
patent: 5070993 (1991-10-01), Fransen
patent: 5070995 (1991-10-01), Schaffer
Kelly Tamara
Klockner Hansel Tevopharm B.V.
Terrell William E.
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