Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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The present invention relates to a cooling or freezing plant com-
prising a housing wherein conveyor means are arranged having supports for
moving horizontally arranged carriers for the material to be cooled or fro~en
in the vertical direction one above the other from an inlet opening ~o an
exit opening and wherein mcans for circul~ting cold air through the housing
are provided.
An apparatus of this kind is previously known from United States
patent specification No. 2,527,542. According to this United S~ates specifi
cation the conveyor means in the housing constitute an elevator for upward
movement of the carriers. The carriers are inserted manually into the housing
at the bottom end thereof and the carriers are removed from the housing at
the top end thereof. In order to achieve a high output it is necessary to
construct the housing very high and according to the prior art mentioned above
the housing extends through two floors, accordingly, the apparatus must be ed
at the lower floor and the material treated in the apparatus must be removed
at the next floor.
According to the present invention there is provided a cooling or
freezing plant comprising: a) a housing having an inlet opening and an out-
let opening, said openings being at substantially the same level; b) means
for circulating cold air through the housing; c) a plurality of rectangular
carriers for carrying material to be cooled or frozen, each said carrier being ?
flexible in a longitudinal direction; d) two tran.sport devices in said
housing, each including supports ~or supporting a plural:ity o sa:id carriers
horizontally and one above the other, one of the transport devices being
arranged to move the carriers upwards and the other of the transport devices
being arranged to move the carriers downwards; e) a transfer device in said
housing for transferring carriers from one of the transport devices to the
other; f) conveyor means comprising: i) two reversing roller means, one
spaced from and behind the outlet opening, outside of said housing, and the
other spaced from and in front of the inlet opening, outside of said housing,
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and ii) conveying mealls for conveying said carriers longitudinally thereof
along a carrier path rom one of the transport devices out o~ the outlet
opening, around said one reversing roller means, along a return path to and
around said other reversing roller, into the inlet opening and to the other
of the transport devices, with the leading end of each carrier following im-
mediately behind the trailing end of the preceding carrier so as to form a
substantially unbroken carrier surface, the reversing rollers and the convey-
ing means being arranged relative to the transport devices and the housing so
as to provide substantially horizontal portions of said carrier path in front
of the inlet opening and behind the outlet opening; g) means for depositing
material to be cooled or frozen upon said carriers as they are conveyed through
the horizo~tal part of the carrier path in front of the inlet opening; and h)
means for removing cooled or frozen material from the carriers as they are
conveyed through the horizontal part of the carrier path behind the outlet
opening.
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By means of such construction it is achieved that the height of
the housing is reduced and due to the specific arrangement o~
the carriers they will be moved from the exit opening o~ the
housing to the inlet opening thereof as an almost unbroken
conveyor band which makes the depositing of the material to ~;
be treated and the removal o~ the material after treatment very
easy. Such easy way of operation is further supported by the
arrangement of the two stations, vi~. the loading station and
the removal station at the same level.
Further advantageous features of the present invention ~ ~
will become more apparent from the following description of ~ -
a preferred embodiment of the cooling or freezing plant according
to the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompany-
ing drawing on which
Figure 1 shows a vertical section of an embodiment of the
cooling or freezing plant according to the invention in side view,
and
Figure 2 shows a vertical cross section of the plant
illustrated in Figure 1 taken along the section line II-II in
Figure 1.
On the drawing, 1 is an insulated housing which is pro-
vided with means la for circulating cooled air through the
housing. ~n the housing two transport devices 2 and 3 are
arranged, viz. one 2 for upward movement as indicated by means
of an arrow ~ and another 3 for downward movement as indicated
by means of an arrow 50 The two transport devices 2 and 3 are
almost indentical and, accordingly, only one of them, viz. the
transport device 2, will be further explained. The transport
device 2 comprises two end frames 7 and 8. Each of the end
frames supports four sprockets, c~. Figure 2, wherein one. of the
frames 7 of the transport device 2 i5 shown and from which it will
be seen that the ~rame 7 supports the four sproc]cets :L0, 11, 12
and 13 arranged in pairs one above the other. An endless chain
15 and 16, respectively, runs about each pair of sprockets
10,11 and 12,13, respectively. At the opposite end of the
conveyor device 2 four corresponding sprockets and two chains
are mounted in the frame 8. The two chains arranged at each side
o~ the transport device are mutually connected by means of
supports in the form of angle irons of which only two, 17, are
shown in Figure 2. ~owever, such supports 17 are secured evenly
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distributed along the full length of the chains. The mutual.
distance between two adjacent supports is selected according .
to the height of t.he material to be treated in the plant. From
the above explanation it will be understood that the supports .
17 extend in the lonyitudinal direction of the housing 1 at
each side of the housing. During operation of the plant the
supports on the runs of the chains which face each other serve
to support carriers 18 during the passage of the carriers 18
through the transport device.
Each carrier 18 consists, in a way known per se, of
transversely extending lamellae which are mutually hinged in
such a way that the carrier is flexible about axes extending
perpendicular to the longitudinal direction o~ the carrier and,
accordingly, it will be understood that, when a carrier is
positioned in one of the transport devices, e.g. the transport
device 2, the lamellae of the carrier extend from one of the
supports 17 secured to the chain 15 and to the opposite
support 17 on the other chain 16.
The carriers 18 are moved through the cooling or freezing
plant shown by means of a system of chain conveyors. In Figure 1,
20 is a first one of these chain conveyors. It consists of
two endless chains, viz. one at each side of the plant. The
chain conveyor 20 runs around two reversing rollers 21 and 22
arranged outside the end of the housing 1 and opposite the lower
part of the housing 1. At the lower right hand end of the conveyor
device 2 the chain conveyor 20 runs about two rollers 23 and
24 in such a way that the chain conveyor adjacent these two
rollers will be moved along a generally Z-shaped path. Pushing
dogs 25 are secured to the chain conveyor for engagement with
corresponding holes provided at the front end o:E each of the
carriers 18. The mutual distance between the pushing dogs
25, as seen in the longitudinal direction of the chain conveyor
20, corresponds to the length of the carriers 18.Between the
reversing rollers 21 and 22 the lower run of the chain conveyor
20 is guided in guiding rails having U-shaped cross section
positioned at each side of the chain conveyor with their grooves
facing each other so as to accomodate the side edges of the
carriers and the chains of the chain conveyor 20. From the
reversing roller 21 the upper run of the chain conveyor 20 extends
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through and inle-t opening 26 into the housing l. The por-tion of ~
the upper run which extends outside the housing l serves as a l,`
depositing station for the material to be cooled or frozen in
the housing l. At the opposite end of the housing l the chain
conveyor 20 leaves the housing through an exit opening 27 and
the part o~ the upper run of the chain conveyor 20 extending
between the exit opening 27 and the reversing roller 22 serves
as a removal station for the material which has been passed
through the housing l.
Both at the inlet opening 26 and at the exit opening 27
two rotatable guiding devices are mounted. The guiding devices
at the inlet opening 36 are schematically illustrated in
Figure 2. In this figure the two guiding devices are designated
28 and 29, respectively. Each guiding device consists of rods
which extend as generatrices of a truncated cone and are
evenl~ distributed about the longitudinal axis of the cone.
Each guiding device is rotatable about the longitudinal axis
of the co~responding cone by means not shown on the drawing.
The directions of rotation of the two guiding devices are
indicated on Figure 2 by means o~ arrows 30 and 31.
A transfer device is arranged between the two transport
devices 2 and 3 and comprises a second chain conveyor 34 also
in the form of two chains arranged at the opposite sides of
the housing l and a bridge 35 pivotally arranged about a
horizontal shaft 36 arranged in the housing 1 and extending in
the transversal direction of the housing. The chain conveyor
34 runs, at one end thereof, around a reversing roller 37 which
as illustrated in Figure l is positioned at the top end of the
frame 8 of the transport device 2. The chain conveyor 34 runs
about another reversing roller 38 which as shown in Figure l
is positioned at the top end of the right Erame of -the transport
device 3. ~lso the chain conv~yor 34 is pro~ldecl with pushlng
doys 39 ~or engagement with the holes at the ~ront end of the
carriers 18.
40 designates a third endless chain conveyor which
runs around two reversing rollers 41 and 42, one of which is
positioned at the bottom of the right end frame of the transport
device 3, and the other of which is positioned adjacent the exit
opening 27. Also the third chain conveyor consists o~ two chains.
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setween the two reversing rollers 41 and 42 the chain conveyor
40 runs about three in-termediate rollers 4~, 45 and 46. Also
the third chain conveyor is provided with pushing dogs 43
for the carriers.
The above explained plant operates i.n the ~ollowing way:
By means of the pushing dogs 25 the chain conveyor 20 moves
the carriers 1~ along a path of transportation from the exit
opening 27 in the direction indicated by an arrow, around the
reversing roller 22 an~ towards the reversing roller 21 positioned
in front of the front end of the housing. During the transfer
between the two rollers 22 and 21 the carriers are suppor~ed
as explained above by means of the U-shaped side gui~ing rails,
not shown. Due to the spacing of the pushing dogs 25 along the
conveyor 20 being selected corresponding to the length of the
carriers, the carriers will be moved in such a way that the `. :
front end of a carrier follows immediately after the trailing end
of the preceding carrier. Accordingly, along the path extending
from the exit opening 27 to the inlet openi.ng 26 the carr.iers
will be moved almost in the form of an unbroken or uninterrupted
conveyor band or carpet. ~long the horizontally extending run
between the reversing roller 21 and the inlet opening 26 material
to be treated is deposited upon the carriers. Immediately after
the front end of a carrier has been moved through the opening 26
the front end will be supported along its side edges by means
of a rod of each of the two rod guiding devices 28 and 29,
viz. at the narrow end of the truncated cones, wherein the
rods in question are arranged as generatrices. The movement of
the two guiding devices is synchronized in such a way
that the front end of the rods in question, when the front encd
of the carrier in question reaches the supports of the conveyor
device 2, are positionecl at the same l.evel as the supports and,
accordingl~, the rods in ~uestion form a supporting path for
the carrier in question. During the continued movement of the
chain conveyor 20 to the right in Figure 1, viz. towards
the reversing roller 23, the carrier in question will be drawn
on to two of the supports 17 of the conveyor device 2. During
the period of time used by the chain conveyor 20 in order
to move the front end of the carrier from one end of the
transport clevice 2 to the other end thereof, the two supports
17 which support the carrier in question will move a distance
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corresponding to the vertical distance between two adjacent sup-
ports 17. Moreover, the movement of the rod cones i9 synchronized
in such a way that the two rods which support the carrier beiny
inserte~ are moved upwardly a ~istance corresponding to the
dis-tance between the supports 17. ~ccordin~ly, also the trailing
end of the carrier being inserted will be supported. When the
front end o~ the carrier has reached the right hand end frame 8
of the transport device the pushing dogs 25 will be moved
downwardly, viz. around the roller 23. Accordingly, the chain
conveyor 20 will be disengaged from the carrier in question
which simultaneously is being moved upwards due to the upward
elevator movement of the transport device 2.
When a carrier 18 has a.rrived at the top position indicated
in Figure 1, a set of pushing dogs 39 on the chain conveyor 34
will engage the holes at the front end of the carrier from
above and the front end of the carrier in question will now
be transferred along the upper surface of the bridge 35 and on to
the set of supports of the conveyor device 3 which at that moment
will be positioned at the top end of the transport device 3.
The insertion of the carrier into the transpoxt device 3 is
carried out generally in the same way as the insertiOn i.nto the
transport device 2. However, by inserting a carrier into the
transport device 3 the carrier in question will be supported
by means of the bridge 35. When the fror~t end of the carrier
being transferred has reached the right hand end frame of the
transport device 3, disen~agement of the carrier ln question and
the chain conveyor 34 will be caused because the chain conveyor
will be moved upwardly around the reversing roller 38 and,
accordlngly, it will disengage the pushing dogs from the carrier
in question which, simuitaneously/ will move downwardly.
When a carrier has reached the lowermost position
i:Llustrated in FicJure 1 in the transport device 3, the front end
of the carrier in question will be caught by a set of pushing dogs
43 on the chain conveyor 40 which will now draw the carrier in
questi.on to the right towards the exit opening 27. The engagement
i9 carrled out generally in the same way as at the top end of
the transport device 3, however, at the exit opening the side
edges of the carrier being removed from the housing, will be
supported by means of the cone formed guiding rod devices
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positioned at the exit opening. I'hese two guiding devices are
rotated in directions opposite to the directions of the arrows
30 and 31 on Figure 2 in such a way that the rearward ends
of the two rods supporting the carrier in question move
downwardly corresponding to the downward movement of the transport
device 3. Sliding along the rods in question the carrier will
be guided to the first chain conveyor which at the e~it opening
27 will now be able to catch the front end of the carrier in
question by means of a set of pushing dogs 25.
As it appears from Figure 1 the two ends of the upper
run of the chain conveyor 20,which extend at the same level,
offer working stations at which material may easily be deposited
upon the carriers as they are moved through the opening 26
and material treated from the carriers moving out through the
opening 27 may be removed.
All parts of the plant shown, with the exception of the
pivot motion of the bridge 35, may be moved continuously which
makes it possible to vary the time during which the material is
maintained in the housing 1 solely by increasing or reducing
the velocity of the parts corr~spondinyly. However, the bridge
35 must be pivoted about the shaft 36 so that the front end of the
bridge may follow the set of supports 17 of the transport
device 2 which delivers a carrier and so that the rear end of
the bridye follows the set of supports 17 of the transport device
3 which receives a carrier. However, such pivot motion may also
easily be synchronized with the movements of the other parts of
the plant because an increasin~ velocity of these parts need
only be converted into a corresponding more rapid pivoting oE
the bridye 35.
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