Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-28
2001-04-24
Valenza, Joseph E. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06220422
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to improvements in material handling apparatus and, more particularly, to a mechanism for pushing and diverting objects from conveyors.
It is well known in the prior art of material handling to employ conveyors with moving belts or the like for transporting objects of various sizes and shapes along a path. It is also common practice to utilize diverters along the path for transferring, sorting or distributing the objects at certain points to other locations such as auxiliary conveyors, spurs or outflow chutes. Such arrangements have particular utility in warehouses, factories, truck terminals, shipping rooms, mail bag and courier distribution and airline baggage systems. In these applications, the diverters may individually, or in combination, push an object at some angle across a conveyor belt, block an object at some angle to the belt so that the belt motion causes the object to slide across the belt, or arrest the motion of and snatch the object from the belt. Additionally, the diverters may employ linear, translatory, or rotary movement of one or more object engaging devices which move through forward and return cycles to unload or remove objects form the belt.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,308 to Driesch et all discloses a linear pusher having a paddle fixed at the end of a reciprocating piston rod and parallel to the conveyor belt. Driesch et all also disclose a snatcher having a paddle pivotally attached at one end of a framework and at its end portion to the end of a reciprocating piston rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,988 to Fisk and U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,559 to Neal et al are illustrative of air-actuated translatory linkages used to move together with an article along the conveyor while simultaneously shifting the article transversely of the conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,808 to Graybeal and U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,604 to Schlig et al disclose rotary pushers wherein dual paddles are revolved in a rotary motion to engage objects such that the face of each paddle will always remain parallel to the direction of belt travel.
Various attempts have been made by each of these patents to upgrade sorting or orienting capability of objects at high speeds by provision of different paddle linkages and their associated drives along with the ensuing geometric motion produced thereby. However, there remains a need in this well-developed art for a diverting pusher which is capable of accomplishing transfer of objects at high rates by controlling the motion and speed of the paddle on a push phase of a cycle for gentle object handling, and then performing the remainder of the cycle rapidly to maximize cycle rate and reduce the spacing between conveyed objects.
For instance, when utilizing some prior art devices, some paddles may dwell too long at the end of their forward stroke or operate with time delays which can create jams and missorts. In other cases, the moving mass of the paddle may be at maximum velocity at time of impact with the object with resultant damage or destruction to the objects. These are particularly sensitive drawbacks when diverters or pushers are used in the handling of airline baggage which may vary tremendously in size, shape and fragility.
As will be seen hereinafter, it is a principal object of the invention to provide an improved pushing and diverting mechanism for unloading a wide variety of objects from a conveyor at a high rate of speed with accuracy and control.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The design goals for my novel rotary articulated pusher utilized in conjunction with a luggage-transporting conveyor belt are as follows:
1. To provide a rotatably mounted pusher arm upon which a unique article engaging device or deflecting paddle is mounted, with the article engaging device being designed to contact and move luggage at a moderate and controlled rate of speed;
2. To accelerate the luggage or bag to a higher lateral rate of speed near the end of the push phase;
3. To return the rotatably mounted pusher arm and article engaging device to its “at rest” position (completion of 360 degree rotation) at a higher average of speed than the push phase; and
4. To provide a rotating power applying member for bringing about selective movement to the rotatably mounted pusher arm, with such rotating power applying member bringing about smooth motion of the pusher arm and article engaging device during the removal of an article from the conveyor belt as well as during the return of the pusher arm and article engaging device to an “at rest” position, thus entirely avoiding the utilization of reciprocatory movement in the powering of the rotatably mounted pusher arm.
It will hereinafter be seen in considerable detail that in accordance with this invention I have provided my highly advantageous pusher device or transfer mechanism for use with an elongate conveyor belt operably arranged on a generally horizontally disposed support surface. The conveyor belt is designed to move in a substantially conventional manner along the support surface and to transport articles from one location to another. Mounting means provided in accordance with the instant invention are operably located on the support surface relatively close to one long side edge of the conveyor belt, upon which mounting means the novel pusher device or transfer mechanism is operably mounted.
The elongate, rotatably mounted pusher arm has first and second ends, with the first end being pivotally affixed to the mounting means relatively close to the long side edge of the belt. The rotatably mounted pusher arm is arranged to rotate about the mounting means for less than 90°, with the pusher arm normally residing in an inactive position in general alignment with the long side edge of the belt.
The second end of the pusher arm is arranged to extend, on occasion, from the inactive position, across at least a portion of the conveyor belt when a selected article carried by the belt is to be deflected off the belt into a specified chute or the like. The article-engaging paddle is mounted on this second end of the rotatably mounted pusher arm, and actuating means are provided for causing, on occasion, selected rotation of the rotatably mounted arm in an arcuate manner about the mounting means. The actuating means utilizes a rotating power applying member, and upon the actuating means being activated to cause the rotatably mounted pusher arm to undertake rotation about the mounting means, the article-engaging paddle will briefly contact the selected article, and cause such article to be deflected off the belt into the designated location. The actuating means thereafter causes the rotatably mounted pusher arm to smoothly return to its inactive position.
Because of the relatively long article-engaging paddle utilized in accordance with this invention, and the highly advantageous motion undertaken by the paddle, any tendency of the contacted article to rotate out of the paddle's influence as a result of early or late contact by the pusher paddle is minimized, thus making it unlikely that the designated chute will be missed.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of my invention to provide an improved pushing and diverting mechanism for selectively unloading a wide variety of designated objects from a conveyor belt, with such diversion being rapidly accomplished with both accuracy and careful control.
It is another object of my invention to furnish a rotary type sorting device of relatively inexpensive construction, which combines linear and articulated movements such that objects will be deflected from a conveyor belt in a highly desirable manner, with the necessary elements for achieving rotary articulated motion being minimized such that cycle rate is maximized, that is, the number of articles removed from a belt per minute is substantially increased over conventionally used devices.
It is yet another object of my invention to provide a pusher mechanism or article deflection device that will successfully divert luggage varying considerably in size, across the relatively wide conv
G & T Conveyor Company, Inc.
Renfro, Esq. Julian C.
Sharma Rashmi
Valenza Joseph E.
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