Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed... – By conveying randomly faced items and turning items to...
Patent
1998-07-13
2000-08-08
Ellis, Christopher P.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed...
By conveying randomly faced items and turning items to...
198396, B65G 4724
Patent
active
060987812
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to a machine for directing plastic bottles and similar containers taken from a disordered pile and feeding them in an orderly row are known in the prior art.
Feeding machines comprising a hopper in which the bottles to be fed are accumulated in a disorderly manner. Upon rotation of the peripheral wall of the hopper the bottles are pushed to rise on inclined guides until they fall back over the upper edge of the wall to be received in horizontal position by guides which are circumferential to the hopper.
Purpose-made blades push the bottles along the circumferential guides up to openings through which the bottles fall-into underlying carrying cradles which comprise means for straightening the bottles during a subsequent fall through conveyors which direct the bottles which are now arranged vertically towards means of evacuation in an aligned row.
An example of such machines is described in European patent EP 0 374 107.
With the increase in bottling line speed high-speed feeding machines are in growing demand. For various reasons it is however not possible to increase indiscriminately the hopper rotation speed. The structure of present machines therefore involves operational limits which make it unsatisfactory in high-speed lines.
To increase the bottle feed rate machines have been produced in which the ring on which the straightened bottles fall is rotated faster than the hopper. A machine of this type is described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,995. To secure the above mentioned different rotation speeds the machine described in the prior art calls for a rather complicated mechanism with transmission chains and belts leading to a secondary shaft arranged outside the rotating peripheral ring. It is obvious that a machine configured in this manner displays huge overall dimensions and could be subject to rapid wear of the transmission component parts.
The general purpose of the present invention is to obviate the above mentioned shortcomings by making available a feeding machine which would permit delivering bottles in orderly rows with safety and high operation speed and rotating part drive mechanisms characterized by construction simplicity and limited space occupied.
In view of this purpose it was sought to provide in accordance with the present invention a bottle straightening and aligning machine comprising a bulk bottle-loading hopper whose internal side walls bear pushing blades for the bottles on a helical guide extending along the internal wall from the end of which the bottles are unloaded into an annular compartment arranged peripherally around the upper edge of the hopper where the bottles are taken to run on a support in cradles peripheral to the hopper and rotating therewith with the support being broken to allow the bottles to fall into straightening conveyors rotating integrally with the cradles and from which the bottles are unloaded into peripheral compartments of a ring rotating coaxially to the hopper at a speed greater than that of the hopper and characterized in that the hopper and the ring are supported in rotation by respective coaxial carrousels with the hopper carrousel being driven by a powered shaft and the ring carrousel being driven by a shaft driven in rotation by the powered shaft through gearing with the two shafts being arranged inside the machine beneath the hopper.
To clarify the explanation of the innovative principles of the present invention and its advantages compared with the prior art there is described below with the aid of the annexed drawings a possible exemplifying embodiment applying said principles. In the drawings:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a partial cross section view of a feeding machine provided in accordance with the present invention,
FIG. 2 shows a diagrammatic view along plane of cut II--II of FIG. 1, and
FIGS. 3-5 show exemplifying views of the operational cycle of a machine in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
With reference to the figur
REFERENCES:
patent: 3650368 (1972-03-01), Nalbach
patent: 3662872 (1972-05-01), Nalbach
patent: 3743076 (1973-07-01), Hooks
patent: 4825995 (1989-05-01), Nalbach
patent: 4979607 (1990-12-01), Fogg
Automazioni Industriali Lanfranchi di Lanfranchi Lino & C. s.n.a
Ellis Christopher P.
Sharma Rashmi
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