Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-19
2003-01-07
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3613)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06502687
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention refers to a separating conveyor for the transfer of unit loads, in particular of pieces of airplane luggage, as per the preamble of Claim 1. From the (printed) German Pat. specifications DE 42 25 491 C1, an installation/ device for emptying containers is known, which is arranged along the conveyor's path. The containers serve primarily to transport individual pieces of airplane luggage. The installation for emptying the containers consists essentially of several fixed, spaced out and consecutively mounted tilting arms, pivotably mounted in the transport direction; their centers rest on an axis extending in the transport direction and allowing the arms to be swiveled to both sides. Furthermore, the area of the installation for emptying the containers is provided with disc-shaped carrier rollers of the roller conveyor type, which—seen in the transport direction—are arranged consecutively and in single file. The design/ execution of the carrier rollers and the lower surface of the containers provided with a central, continuous slot in the transport direction are chosen in such a way that carrier-roller-supported containers can be tilted on the carrier rollers—to either side—to up to approx. 45°. The tilting movement that serves to let the transported container contents slide down to the branching (off) conveyor that runs adjacent to the emptying installation is carried out by the two-armed tilting arms. For this purpose, the tilting arms are provided, at their opposite ends, with guides in the form of guide rollers that are pivotable around horizontal axles, which engage- in correspondingly arranged guide bars-webs on the container in order to transfer the tilting arms' swivel movement to the containers. The distance between the tilting arms, successively arranged in the transport direction, is less than the length of the containers, so that the containers can be transferred during the tilting action to the following transport-direction-oriented tilting arm, which is in the same tilting position.
This emptying/unloading installation is suitable for a large number of applications, its outstanding characteristic being the fixed placement of the tilting arms. However, the transfer (flow) rate is limited by the fact that there has to be a sufficiently large gap between each of the containers to be emptied, so that the tilting arms have sufficient time to return from the swung-out position to the horizontal position for accepting the next container.
Furthermore, also already known from the German patent specifications DE 21 51 439 C2, is a tilting installation for unit loads that is arranged along the path of the conveyor, and consists, essentially, of dish-shaped carrier units, movable in the transport direction, which—in order to off-load the unit loads—are pivotable, either to the right or the left side, around an axis proceeding in the transport direction. As a result, the unit loads can be transferred, specifically, to an adjacent separation conveyor. Each of the dish-shaped carrier units is mounted, via a tilting arm, on individual traveling undercarriages, which are linked consecutively to each other in the transport direction. Thus, the traveling undercarriages form an endless revolving chain, that is guided around a reversing guiding wheel at the junction points with the adjacent conveyor belt. For the tilting action, the load units are transferred from the adjacent conveyor belt to the chain's upper stringer, and will either be tipped out in the direction of the branching off conveyor belt, or will be transferred, for further transport, to the conveyor belt that adjoins the tilting installation. The dish-shaped carrier unit's tilting movement is effected by a lever arm that engages the tilting arm. Essentially, this lever arm extends perpendicularly downwards, and at its end, facing away from the tilting arm, it is provided with a guide roller. The guide roller is carried in a track that runs alongside the stadium-shaped, circular-running traveling path of the carriers units. This locks the dish-shaped carrier unit into its horizontal position. For tilting purposes, switchable switches are provided along the guide, which permit rerouting—according to the desired tilting direction, either to the right or left of the guide roller—to a tilting rail that is arranged either above or below the guiding rail. By rerouting the guide roller, the lever arm is drawn, accordingly either downwards, or it is pushed upwards, whereby the dish-shaped carrier unit is swiveled to the right or left. The shifting of the switching elements is effected via a double-acting pneumatic cylinder, whose horizontally oriented movement is converted—via two interacting rollers, each provided with a guide bar bracket—into swiveling the switches in a vertical direction.
It is the task of the present invention to create a separation conveyor for unit loads, specifically for pieces of airplane luggage, that is provided with an optimized drive for moving the switch rails, in order to initiate the tilting movement of the tilting arms. This goal is achieved, as per the characteristics stated in Claim 1, with a tilting installation for unloading unit loads from containers. Advantageous further developments of the invention are indicated in the sub-claims 2 through 10.
In order to execute the containers' tilting movement, each tilting arm is provided with a lever arm that is pivotably joined outside its axis. Essentially, the lever arm is vertically aligned and is provided with a guide roller at its end facing away from the tilting arm. In order to hold the tilting arm in its horizontal transport position, the guide roller engages a guide rail that runs parallel to the stadium-shaped track. In order to be able to swing out the tilting arms, switchable rails have been provided along the guide rails, which are pivotable around a switching joint, whose axis is aligned horizontally and at right angles to the transport direction, and via which the guide rollers can be rerouted from the guiding rail to a tilting rail that is vertically off set in relation to the guiding rail. Due to the resulting traction or, respectively, the pressure force that is exerted on the lever arm in the vertical direction, the tilting arm and, consequently, the container attached to it, is swung out either to one or the other side of the tilting device. This development of the tilting mechanism has turned out to be very simple as to its structure/design, since, essentially, it is based on mechanical component parts. Furthermore, this type of mechanical solution is, relatively, much less trouble prone.
A switch rail—with its pivotably mounted switch element and arranged along the guide rail,—has been found to be advantageous. The length of this switch rail is approximately the same length as that of a container. This results in a relatively gentle tilting movement of the tilting arms and, thus, of the tilting container. The switch rail can be swung from its resting position to its operative position by means of a drive (actuator). In its operational position, the switch rail connects the guide rail with a tilting rail that is assigned to it.
As a drive for the swivel movement of the switch rail, the use of a flat cam gear with rectilinear and swivel joints of the Geneva-type stop has been found advantageous, since this guarantees that, both in the resting and the operational position of the tilting rail, the drive, which preferably consists of a series-connected electric motor, is not under torsional strain, and that the switch rail's supporting forces are fed directly into the gear's driving shaft, making the cam gear self-locking.
This cam gear is executed as a rotatable plate with a fixed stud, arranged on a driven shaft, that consists essentially of a stud—arranged off-set in relation to the driven shaft that engages the slot of a slotted disc that rotates coaxially to the rotatable stud plate. The slotted disc's end opposite the slot has a
Ayen Erwin
Droste Heinrich
Grein Wolfgang
Bower Kenneth W
Mannesman AG
Van Dyke Gardner, Linn & Burkhart, LLP
Walsh Donald P.
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