Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Field of the Invention ::.
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This invention concerns article counting apparatus ...
particularly but not exclusively designed for counting
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citrus fruits into groups containing a selected number of
fruits.
The invention is of particular application in the food
packaging industry where it is often desired to count
fruit or vegetables into groups having equal numbers of
: the fruit or vegetables in each group ready for packaging
either in plastic bags or in the case of citrus fruits, in
netting.
Backgrou_d of the Invention
Equipment is available for packaging collated articles
provided the required number of articles are presented to
the equipment for each packaging operation. It i5 thus
necessary to collate or count articles into groups for
, presentation to such equipment~ ..
Summary of Invention
According to one.aspect of the invention there is
20 provided apparatus for counting articles supplied thereto . -
and releasing said articles in groups having the same
number of articles in each group, comprising in com-
bination: means for supplying the said article to a
grouping station; a plurality of guides at the grouping
station separating the articles into a correspondin.
plurality of lines; endless belt conveyor means, having
-, mounted thereon upstanding fingers in lines abreast across
the belt, the lines being spaced apart along the length of
the belt, for removing from a first position in each of
said lines of said articles the foremost article in each
line and conveying the articles so removed to a collating
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device, said collating device being for dispening the
grouped articles in sequence instead of line abreast; each
; of said upstanding fingers being hingeably mounted to said
endless belt conveyor means to occupy and to be held in
one of two selected positions, a first upright position in
which an article at the first position of a line of .
articles in said grouping station will be removed by a ~:
finger as it passes the station and a second non-operative :
position in which a finger is in a lowered position
relative to the surface of the said endless belt so that
it will not pick up an article as the grouping station is
passed such that the width of the endless belt conveyor
.~ means bearing the upstanding fingers in line across can be
' reduced for any of a number of articles to be counted; and
means for driving said endless belt conveyor means.
; It is an advantage of the present invention, at least
in preferred forms, that it can provide a counting and
~ collating system for feeding citrus fruits to a fruit
,i~ netting machine of the type manufactured by Spang Brands
of Overusel, West Germany.
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It is to he understood howevex that this application i9 only ~ ;
cited by way of example and the equipment to ~e descri~ed in
this specification is of general application in the counting
and collating of articles oE similar general shape and sub-
stantially similar size.
The means for supplying the articles to the grouping
station may simply comprise a hopper with or without an escape-
ment mechanism for maintaining filled the lines of articles
formed by the grouping station or a conveyor belt forming the
end of a processing line of for example a fruit grading facility
in which fruit are sorted either automatically or by hand and
- according to size deposited on two or more different conveyor
belts which then for example supply separate grouping stations
; of separate article counting apparatus according to the invention.
The gro~lpLng station may comprise a moving belt which
cooperates with guides to assemble the articles in lines between
the guides ready for the articles in the leading positions to be
removed by the article engaging fingers on the conveyor means.
' ~lternatively and preferably the grouping station may
comprise an inclined tray having guides which overlie or are
integrally formed with the tray and the articles are deposited
onto the upper end of the tray so as to roll down the paths
defined by the guides so as to form the said lines of articles.
Each article path through the grouping station may
include as a part thereof a stretched endless belt which is
driven so as to move in the direction in which the articles are
to move through the grouping station, In this way the passage
of articles is assisted.
Tufts of bristles may be located at intervals along
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endless belts and each belt is preferably located so that the bristles
make a gentle rubbing contact with the underside of the ~rticles in the
grouping station to gently agitate the articles therethrough. ,
According to a further preferred feature the grouping station may
comprise a tray formed from a plurality of pairs of parallel rails along
which the articles can roll and between each pair of which is located the
said endless belt bearing the tufts of bristles. By rigidly joining the
', pairs of rails together, the integral unit can be raised or lowered
relative the endless belts to increase or decrease the contact with the
articles by the belts and/or bristles.
; Preferably the conveyor means cornprises a conveyor belt having
mounted thereon upstanding fingers in line abreast across the conveyor
belt spaced along the length thereof. Typically the lateral spacing
between the fingers is less than the normally expected diameter or lateral
dimension of any oE the articles the apparakus is likely to be expected
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to handle.
The conveyor means may be horizontal or vertical or may be inclined
; thereto.
According to another preferred featura of the present invention the
width of the conveyor means bearing the article engaging fingers in line there-
across can be reduced for any given number of articles to be counted, by
arranging the lines of article engaging fin~er~ in groups of n (where n
is two or more) and arranging that the collating means is responsive to
articles from n successive lines acro6s ~aid conveyor means to form the
collated group. Thus if the apparatus is to be capable of counting ten
articles this can be achieved either by using a con~eyor of sufficient
width to all~w ten artic]e engaging fingers to be arranged in a single
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line thereacros6 or a conveyor of half that width may be used with the
; ten fingers arranged in two rows of five. Each two rows of five fingers
may be spaced along the length of the conveyor belt by a relatively short
distance compared to the spacing along the length of the conveyor belt
between one pair of rows and the next.
According to another preferred feature of the present invention the
~umber of articles in a group may be ~aried by providing that each article
, engaging finger can occupy a first upright position for removing articles
-i from the grouping station or can be lowered to a second non-operative
position in which no articles will be removed by that finger from the
grouping station. By using this facility one or more of the article
engaginB fingers in A line acros9 the conveyor can be rendered inoperative
so as to reduce the number of articles which that line will pick up 60
that just the required number of articles will be formed in each group.
According to a further preferred feature of the present invention
tunnel guards are provided over at least some of the length of each path
throueh the apparatus to raduce the risk of accident and lo~s of articles
as by falling off. Conveniently a separate guard is provided for each
line of articles across the width of the conveyor and preferably the
plurality of guard6 so required are linked together 80 as to form an
integral unit which can be mount~d on and demounted from the apparatus.
Preferably the mounting allows for adjustment of the helght o~ the guard
relat$ve to the particular part of the article conveying path over which
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the guard lies.
According to another preferred feature of the invention, weight sensi-
tive switch means is provided in each path between the guides and an elec- -
trical mechanical interlock is provided to either inhibit the release of
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articles to the conveyor means or to stop the conveyor means and/or
generate an alarm signal.
Mean6 may be provided for adjusting the lateral 6pacing between the
guides in the grouping means to alter the width of the paths along which
the articles are constrained to travel. l'his adjustment may be by way
of removing alternate ones of said guides or by replacing an integrally
formed array of guides with another integrally formed array.
Preferably means is provided for rendering non-operational selected
ones of the paths formed by the guides. This may be achieved by prevent- -
ing the establish~ent of selected one6 of the lines of articles or gate
means may be provided at the exit end of each said path to optionally
allow articles from that path to pass to the conveyor mean~ or to be
inhibited froM so pa~sing.
Whcre the conveyor means supplie6 articles to a followin~ machine
for automatically packaging the articles, sen~ing means is preferably
; provided adjacent the said second conveyor means to determine when
articles are carried thereon to generate an electrical or other suitable
signal for indicating to the following machine that a group of articles
will 6hortly be pre6ented there~o for packaging. In this way the follow-
ing machine can be rendered quie~cent except when called into operation
by a signal from the sensing means.
; Brief description of the drawings
The invention will now be de6cribed by way of example with reference
to the accompanying arawings in which:-
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of the invention asapplied to apparatus for grouping fruit into groups of know~ size,
Fig. 2 i~ a plan view of the apparatus of Fig. 1 with variou6 covers
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etc. removed.
Fig. 3 is a perspective vlew illustratlng one form
of multiple cover guards whlch may be fixed to the Fig. 1
embodiment, ,
Fig. 4 is a cross-section to an enlarged scale through ~' -
an endless belt in the article grouping station of the embodiment
of Fig. 1, ,,' -
Fig. 5a is a side elevation of part of the apparatus ,'
of Fig. 1, and
,~ 10 Fig~ 5b is a circuit diagram lndicating an electrical
interlock arrangement for preventing operation of the apparatus
until a full group of articles is available to be conveyed from
the grouping station.
It is to be understood that the embodiment lllustrated
in the drawings is one example only of a realisation of the
invention and lt is not limited to this particular form of
construction.
Description of'the preferre'd embodiment ,'
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- Referring to the drawings and in particular Figs. 1 and
2, there is shown a feed conveyor lO on which fruit 12 are deposited ',
,' 'following initial sortlng by hand. The conveyor 10 presents the ; '
~ fruit to the upper end of a tray 14. The feed conveyor 10 does ' ~
,' not'necessarily form part of the invention and can be replaced by ' ''
, a hopper (not shown) for supplying fruit to the upper end of the '`
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,, tray 14.
' The tray 14 is better seen in the plan view of Fig. 2 ,'
; from which it will be seen that the tray is divided into ten
parallel paths 18 by a series of parallel guides 20 which extend
over the length of the tray. The spaclng between the guides 20
is chosen to correspond ~ith the maximum diameter of the fruit
which is l~kely to be presented to the tray. If desired, the
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guides 20 may be removable from the tray 14 so that the widths
of the path`s lô may be altered. The number of paths for the
fruit through the tray 14 is made equal to the number of fruit
required in the final group to be obtained fro~ the
machine (or to a sub-multiple thereof). Where a fixed tray is
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provided, the variation in the number of paths is most simply obtained
by blocking off one or more of the paths. Alternatively although not
shown, means may be provided for preventing the exit of fruit from the
lower end of the tray 14 from certain ones of the paths 18.
Along the lower edge of the tray and at the lower end of each of the
paths 18 are located fingers of wire 22 which extend in the direction of
the paths and act a~ a catchment for the fruit which roll down the paths
18. As be6t seen in ~ig. 1 each of the fingsrs 22 18 bent to define a
shallow V shape 80 that the lowermost fruit in each path rests in the
trough formed by the fingers 22.
~ urning now again to Fig. 1 in particular, the fruit is picked up
from a catchment formed by the fin~ers 22 by means of lines of fingers
24 carried on and upstanding from bars 26 which extend across and form
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part of a conveyor belt of an elevating conveyor general]y de6ignated
28. The fingers 24 can be folded down individually to alter the number
of fruit picked up by a line thereof. ~he transversely extending lines : -
of fingers 24 are spaced apart along the length of the conveyor belt of
an elevating conveyor 28 so that the groups of fruit picked up thereon
arrive at the upper end of the elevating conveyor at the appropriate
frequency to enable the following equipment (not shown in detail) to
j accommodate them. The ~peed of the elevating conveyor is thu6 made
adJu6table by means of a gear box (not shown) or a variable speed electric
motor such as 3D. A positive drive is provided between the motor (and/or
gear box) by mean6 of a chain drive 32 which extends around a sprocket
wheel 34 on the upper shaft of the elevating conveyor.
A chute generally design~ted 36 is arranged just below the upper --
end of the elevating conveyor 28 to receive the fruit a6 it i8 tipped ~
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from the belt as the latter turns around at the u~per end of the
elevator. Preferably the chute 35 is in the form of a funnel so that
the group of fruit which is presented to it in line abreast i8 then
caused to converge and form A single line of fruit for presentation in
sequence one fruit at a time to the following equipment (not shown). In
this connection the embodiment described in the drawings is of particular
application for feeding citrus fruit to a netting machine as produced by
Spang Brands of Oberusel, West Germany.
A plurality of cover guards 50 are arranged in a parallel array (see
Fig. ~) and suspended above the tray 14 forming the grouping station.
One guard 50 is provided for each path across the tray 14 and the guard6
50 are ~uspended from a pair of transverse strut6 52 and 54 by means of
rigid links 56. ~he array of guards 50 can thus be handled as a sLngle
unit and is adapted to be mounted above the tray 14 by locating the ends
of the struts 52 and 54 in open-ended slots 58 formed in the upwardly
facing edges of guard 6upports 60 located at intervals along the length
of the tray 14. It will be seen that the unit can be removed from the
apparatus simply by lifting in an upward direction so that the e~ds of
the struts 52 and 54 clear the slots 5~.
The guards 50 not only ~erve the purpose of restricting the layer~
i of fruit to sin~le layers but Rlso reduce the risk of injury to machine
operators and reduce the risk of fru:Lt loss due to accidental falling off.
It will be seen that the height of the guards 50 above the tray 14 -`
can be adju~ted by selecting an appropriate one of the slots 58 in the
supports in which to Lnsert the ends of the struts 52 and 54.
Si~ilar cover guards generally designated 50' and 50" are arranged
` over the elevating conveyor designated 28.
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The width of the conveyor belt of the elevating conveyor 28 can be
sub6tantially reduced by arranging the ten fingers in two rows of five
as shown in lines 24 and 25 of Fig. 1. In t~s event the article
collating device in the form of the chute 36 and subsequent equipMent
must be arranged to be responsive to the fruit fro~ two such rows 24 and
25 to form the collated group.
The fingers in each of the lines 24 and 25 can be folded down
; parallel to the conveyor belt as shown in dotted outline at 24' and 25'
in Fig. 1 hereof so as not to pick up articles from the grouping station
or can be left in their upright position so as to collect articles.
The tray 14 is formed from a plurality of parallel elongate memb~rs
19 which constitute rails on which the fruit can roll and in the space
between each pair of rail6 i8 located an endless belt 61. The belts 61
are driven from the bottom roller of the main elevator 28 and are driven
so that the upper section of each belt as viewed in Fig. 1 moves in a
generally downward direction and thereby urges the fruit in a downward
direction also.
To assist the agitation of the fruit the belt is formed with tufts
of bristle~ at intervals along its length and one such tuft i8 shown in
~ 20 Fig. 4 of the drawings. The tuft of the bristles is inserted into the
belt throu~h a hole for~ed at 62 and the tuft 64 i8 held therein by means
of wire and adhesive on the under~ide at 66.
Ad~ustment is provided in the mo7mting6 687 70 for the tray 14 to
allow the latter to be moved up or down relative to the plane of the
, endless belt 61 so as to increase or decrease contact between the fruit
,, and the belt (and/or bristles).
~ Referring now to Fig. 5a there is shown a modification which may be
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made to the tray 14 of Figs. 1 and 2. The modification consists in
providing a weight sensitive hinged pressure plate so~e two-thirds up
each of the path~. Each plate 38 is urged slightly proud of the ~urface
of the tray by the action of a microswitch 40 located beneath each path.
However the force exerted in an upward direction on each plate 38 i9
arranged to be less than the weight component actin~ in the ~ame direc-
tio~ caused by an article such as a stationary fruit located at least
in part on the plate 38 and in that event the plate 38 will be depressed
and the microswitch 40 operated whenever a fruit rests thereon.
As seen from the circuit diagrarn of Fi~. 5b, the microswitches
across the width of the tray 14 are all connected in 6eries so that the
circuit containing them can only bs completed when all the microswitches
40 are operated. This oan only happen when a fruit is lying above the
pre6sure plate 38 on each of the paths bhrough the grouping station.
Unless an overslze fruit has become wedged above the plate 38, this
situation can only obtain if each path through the grouping 6tation is
completely full of fruit at lea6t up to the point in each path at which
the pre6sure plate 38 is situated. Thus the electrical circuit which
includes the microswitches 40 can only be completed when at l~ast that
portion of each of the paths across the tray is full of fruit and the
circuit ~erve~ to control the supply of electric current to a contactor
coil 42 the contacts of which oontrol the supply of operating current
to the electric ~otor 30 which operates the elevating conveyor 28.
An on/off witch 44 iB also provided in the oircuit. The alevating
conveyor can thus only be operated by its motor 30 when the tray 14 i8
suitably filled with fruit ready for despatch on the conveyor 28.
AB a corollary, if any of the paths on the tray 14 become less full
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than the point marked by the position of the weight sensing plate 38,
the conveyor 28 will stop.
A further refinement is provided by means of a separately operated
switch in parallel with each of the normally open microswitches 40.
These additional switches are denoted by reference numeral 46 in the
circuit diagram. The action of each additional switch 46 is, when closed,
to short out the microswitch across which it is connected ~o that if that
microswitch remains open circuit or becomes open circuit, the conveyor
motor 30 is not stopped. '~his is important since in the event that one
or other of the paths 18 is to be blanked off so that no fruit can lie
in it, the microswitch for that path will never become operative since
no fruit will ever lie above it.
A further refinement comprises the provision of an article sen6ing
meo~ni~m such as a light beam and photocell at a point along the path
of the elevating conveyor such that an electrical signal is generated
when a line of fruit passes the sen~ing location. '~his alectrical signal ~ -
can then be used to set into operation the following equipment Snot shown)
which can thus be retained in a quiescent state until fruit is about to
bo delivered from the oonveyor 2B ~d hopper ~6
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