Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – One of a plurality of main line conveyors selectively moves...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-01
2004-03-23
Crawford, Gene O. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
One of a plurality of main line conveyors selectively moves...
C198S813000, C198S861300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708813
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product sorter that may be used as, for example, a selection apparatus for sorting or diverting rejected products out of the normal course of transport of acceptable products. When the products are judged unacceptable at the preceding inspection station where a weighing machine or an inspection machine such as, for example, a metal detector or an X-ray inspecting machine is installed, on the account that they have failed to satisfy the required weight or are found to be either out of allowable weight range or including metal foreign matters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The product sorter of this kind is known which includes a support frame and a transport conveyor supported by the support frame and including a transport belt trained around and between a drive roller (a drive rotatory body) and a driven roller (a driven rotatory body). The transport conveyor is pivotable together with the support frame about a pivot axis coaxial with the drive roller to divert the rejected products out of the normal course of transportation where the acceptable products are transported. In this type of the product sorter, since the transport conveyor, particularly the transport belt thereof is susceptible to contamination brought about by the products being transported, the transport belt is routinely removed out of the apparatus for detergent or cleansing. To facilitate removal of the transport conveyor belt, the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-159336, for example, discloses the transport conveyor so designed and so configured as to be bendable or foldable. However, it has been found that when the transport conveyor is folded, screws and stoppers have to be removed, resulting in complicated folding work.
Also, for the diverting operation, left and right side plates of the support bracket are designed to extend downwardly and a pivot shaft is journalled between the respective extensions of the framework side plates in a relation parallel to the pivot axis while an actuator in the form of a pneumatically operated cylinder for activating a diverting operation is coupled with an axially intermediate portion of the pivot shaft. As such, the framework side plate extensions and the pivot shaft having a substantial length are required, resulting in increase in size of the sorter as a whole. Moreover, since the actuator is positioned immediately beneath the transport conveyor, foreign matter such as dirt and/or spills from the products being transported may adhere to the actuator and the actuator may eventually fail to operate properly and/or may be contaminated undesirably.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, the present invention is intended to provide an improved product sorter of a type wherein the transport belt can easily be removed from the transport conveyor of the product sorter for detergent or cleansing.
In order to accomplish the foregoing object of the present invention, the product sorter according to the present invention is designed to divert the products being then forwardly transported to a plurality of positions by performing an up and down pivotal movement about a pivot axis. For this purpose, the product sorter according to the present invention includes a transport conveyor including a conveyor frame, a rotatory drive body mounted on one of opposite ends of the conveyor frame, a rotatory driven body mounted on the other of the opposite ends of the conveyor frame, and an endless transport belt trained around and between the rotatory drive and driven bodies, while the transport conveyor is capable of being bent when mounted on or removed form a support framework; a drive source for driving the rotatory drive body to drive the transport belt; an actuator for pivoting the support framework up and down; and a stopper member for inhibiting the conveyor frame from being bent upwardly. In this product sorter, an axis of pivot of the conveyor frame is positioned at a location displaced downwardly from an imaginary straight line connecting between respective axes of rotation of the rotatory drive and driven bodies, respectively, when the conveyor frame is not bent and the conveyor frame is capable of being bent downwardly.
According to the present invention, since by bending the transport conveyor the distance between the rotatory drive and driven bodies can be shortened, the transport belt can easily be removed from the rotatory drive and driven bodies. It is to be noted that the axis of pivot of the conveyor frame is positioned at a location displaced downwardly from an imaginary straight line connecting between respective axes of rotation of the rotatory drive and driven bodies, respectively, when the conveyor frame is not bent and the conveyor frame is capable of being bent downwardly. In addition, the stopper member for preventing the conveyor frame from being bent upwardly is employed. Accordingly, when the conveyor frame is not bent, that is, held in a straightened position, the conveyor frame tends to bend upwardly about the axis of pivot by the effect of a resilient restoring force of the transport belt. Since this tendency of the conveyor frame to bend upwardly can be inhibited by the stopper member, the conveyor frame can advantageously supported in the straightened position stably with the products assuredly transported thereby. When, starting from this condition the transport conveyor is to be bent, a manual lift of a portion of the transport conveyor adjacent the axis of pivot thereof results in the transport conveyor being pivoted about the axis of pivot and, thus, neither screws nor pins need be turned, thereby facilitating a bending work extremely easy.
The bendable conveyor frame may include, for example, a frame body supporting the rotatory drive body and forming a major portion of the conveyor frame, and a frame segment forming a part of the conveyor frame and supporting the rotatory driven body and supported by the frame body for pivotal movement up and down about a pivot axis
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extending leftwards and rightwards. This structural feature is effective to provide the bendable conveyor frame of the structure in which the frame body and the frame segment are merely connected together by means of the axis of pivot. Also, since the rotatory drive body, which has hitherto been more complicated in shape than the rotatory driven body because of the use of a mechanism for coupling it with the drive source can be supported by the relatively large frame body, it is possible to design this support means without being constricted by the limited space.
As a method of providing the stopper member, for example, an upper region of the conveyor frame may include ceiling members facing an inside surface of an upper run of the transport belt, so that when the frame segment is bent upwardly, the frame segment can be brought into abutment with a forward end of the ceiling member of the frame body to thereby inhibit the frame segment from being bent upwardly.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the support framework may include a first support unit for supporting one end of the rotatory drive body, a second support unit for supporting the other end of the rotatory drive body and a pair of third support units for supporting opposite ends of the rotatory driven body. The first support unit is provided in correspondence with one end of the rotatory drive body for transmitting a drive force from the drive source when the transport conveyor is mounted on the support framework and also for supporting one end of the rotatory drive body while inhibiting motion of such one end of the rotatory drive body in a direction forwardly and rearwardly and also in a direction upwardly and downwardly. The second support unit is provided in correspondence with the other end of the rotatory drive body and opening upwardly for supporting such other end of the rotatory drive body while inhibiting motion of such other end of the rotatory drive body in a direction forwardly an
Crawford Gene O.
Ishida Co. Ltd.
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