Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Endless conveyor
Patent
1999-07-12
2000-10-03
Ellis, Christopher P.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Endless conveyor
B65G 1706
Patent
active
061259969
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to improvements made to body transfer devices, this device comprising a multiplicity of plates supporting respective bodies which are coupled one after another in an endless curvilinear mobile chain with articulations suitable to allow the curvilinearity of said mobile chain and simultaneously the rotation of the plates around a horizontal axis so as to turn the bodies over or set them upright.
The improvements according to the invention relate preferably, although not exclusively, to devices for transferring hollow bodies made of thermoplastic material equipped with an opening forming a neck such as preforms, bottles, flasks or the like, this device comprising a multiplicity of plates supporting respective hollow bodies which are coupled one after another in an endless curvilinear mobile chain with articulations suitable to allow the curvilinearity of said mobile chain and simultaneously the rotation of the plates around a horizontal axis so as to turn the hollow bodies over (neck down) or set them upright (neck up).
A transfer chain constituted as mentioned above is found particularly in plants manufacturing containers made of thermoplastic material, such as bottles, flasks or the like, in particular to move the preforms from a loading point to and through a heating furnace (a tunnel kiln) in which the constituent material of the preforms is heated in order to be then molded, by a blowing or drawing-blowing process, into a large size container (intermediate container or final container). The transfer chain is generally arranged so that the linear movement of the preforms is accompanied, in addition to the above-mentioned actions of turning over/setting upright, by a rotation of the preforms on themselves so that the material is heated uniformly over the whole periphery of the preforms, the heating means being placed unilaterally in the furnace.
In known transfer devices, the successive plates are joined in an articulated way to each other by means of spherical couplings, as is described for example in the document FR 2 728 547 in the name of the Applicant company.
This type of spherical coupling connection offers the advantage of giving each plate all the required degrees of rotational freedom in relation to the surrounding plates, allowing the curvilinearity of the transfer chain, the setting upright and the turning over of the hollow bodies and the possibility for the chain to have some vertical deflection on account of its weight.
However, this known arrangement has the drawback of being expensive to manufacture (sphere or spherical cap; spherical trough).
Considering the large number of plates involved in the composition of such a transfer chain (up to several hundred), it has seemed desirable to design a transfer device able to offer the same operating characteristics, but which only involves straightforward, easy to manufacture and assemble, and therefore less expensive articulations.
To this end, a transfer device as mentioned in the preamble is characterized, being arranged in accordance with the invention, in that the plates supporting the bodies are coupled in the following way: are coupled by a horizontal shaft allowing the mutual rotation of the two plates around said shaft to turn the bodies over or set them upright and, immediately adjacent plate belonging to a neighboring pair in an articulated way around at least one vertical axis of rotation which is suitable to allow their mutual inclination around said vertical axis.
By means of this arrangement, each axis of rotation (vertical allowing curvilinearity of the chain; horizontal for turning over/setting upright the hollow bodies) is constituted in a distinct and therefore mechanically straightforward way and of inexpensive design.
In a preferred embodiment, the above-mentioned horizontal shaft coupling the two above-mentioned plates of each pair is configured so that there remains some clearance between said two plates of each pair and that these may tilt relative to each other vertically by mutual rotation a
REFERENCES:
patent: 2193291 (1940-03-01), Marchins
patent: 2455624 (1948-12-01), Tenety
patent: 4177635 (1979-12-01), Klimezky
patent: 4399909 (1983-08-01), Gorelic
patent: 5503264 (1996-04-01), Eberle
Cornet Maurice
Guiffant Alain
Bower Kenneth W
Ellis Christopher P.
Sidel
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