Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1 HrGH SPEED STAY AND PAÇKAGING APPARATUS
BACKGROUND OF~THE INVENTION
The present invention xelates to product
handling, and, in particularr to high speed product
stacking and loading.
In the past, package and bag handing haze been
subject to many constraints preventing high speed packinq,
especially when the product is easily broken or damaged.
For example, in the case of filled flexible bags, the
flexible nature of the bag makes it susceptible to
puncture and prevents handling by apparatus designed to
pack rigid articles. excessive droppage and/or severe
bending or folding contributes to product destruction.
Consequently, a high degree of control must be maintained
over a flexible bag as it is conveyed to the casing
station and as it is packed in the appropriate carton or
case. See U.S. Patent No. 3,641,735 to Dailey et al.
which shows an apparatus for packing flexible bags into
cases by delivering them~to a hopper having an accumulator
chamber into which the bags are dropped one layer at a
time; and by transferring the bags into a case when a case
load is accumulated. The Dailey et al. apparatus would
not be useful if the bags contained product which is
easily broken when dropped.
Similarly, with respect to semi-rigid and rigid
packages contained brittle or breakable product, caution
must be taken to preclude breakage and waste.
Specifically, high speed automated packing of bulk cartons
is severely hampered because of the requirement for
3 careful stacking and loading. The problems associated with
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l packing semi-rigid packaqes are amplified when the product
is food since time between packaging the product and
delivering it to the marketplace is critical and breakage
more seriously detracts from the quality of the product.
It is, therefore, an object of the present
invention to overcome problems indicated above, as well as
other problems associated with high speed packing of
packaged goods, especially breakable goods.
SUMMARY PF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a product stacking
apparatus which includes, in combination, an infeed
conveyor means, a vertically movable product elevator
positioned adjacent the infeed conveyor means, and a
product stackinq means foe periodically transferring
product units from the infeed conveyor means to t-he
elevator. The elevator, which can be composed of spaced
vertical product supporting members extending upwardly
. from a transverse member, is-connected for actuation to an
elevator moving means which moves the elevator downwardly
between transfer operations of the product stacking means
so that the product units are stacked in a predetermined
number of layers on the elevator.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the
infeed conveyor means includes a belt conveyor, a
receiving plate at the end of the belt conveyor, and a
product stop element positioned on the receiving plate to
allow a predetermined number of product units to be fed on
the receiving plate. The product stacking means pushes
the predetermined number of product units from the
receiving plate onto the top of the elevator.
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1 A second conveyor is situated adjacent to the
elevator at a height at which the top of the second
conveyor is substantially coplanar with the top of the
spaced vertical product supporting members when the
elevator is in its lowest position. The combination
apparatus of the invention also includes a pusher means
for sliding the stacked layers of product units from the
elevator onto the second conveyor along with a pusher
actuating means for extending the pusher means when the
elevator is fully loaded and in its lowest position so
that the stacked load of product units is transferred onto
the second conveyor. The pusher means includes vertically
oriented product engaging members spaced from one another
so that they are interspersed between the spaced vertical
product supporting members of the elevator. When the
pusher means is extended, the top of the spaced product
engaging members provides a temporary product support for
product units being transferred from the infeed conveyor
means while the elevator is--substantially below the
surface of the infeed conveyor means.
Operation of the elevator moving means and the
pusher actuating means is timed so that the elevator is
moved upwardly after transference of the stacked load
therefrom while the pusher means is being retracted, the
spaced vertical product supporting members of the elevator
means intercalated with the spaced product engaging
members to receive the transferred product units from the
top of the product engaging members during upward movement
of the product supporting members. As a result of this
3o cooperative operation, the product units are maintained
essentially at a constant level so that the product
experiences little or no dropping whatsoever.
1 The spaced vertical product supporting members
of the elevator means and the spaced product engaging
members of the pusher means are preferably wall elements
which extend perpendicularly between the infeed conveyor
means and the second conveyor. The vertical product
supporting members, as well as the product engaging
members, are spaced so that each of the product units in
the first layer of product transferred from the receiving
plate spans a plurality of such elements.
In one embodiment of the invention, the
apparatus includes a frame means which supports a vertical
rod at each end of the transverse member on which the
elevator is slidably mounted. The elevator moving means
includes a cam operated lever means for moving the
elevator along the rods, so that it descends the required
distance for adding another row of packaged product after
receiving the previous row, and so that the elevator is
driven up the rods at the appropriate time to receive the
row of packaged ~roduct-from the top of the pusher means
as it is retracted from the-extended pushing position.
Similarly, with respect to the pusher means,
transverse means are provided for unifying the product
engaging members, and the apparatus includes a horizontal
rod mounted to the frame means at each end of the pusher
means, and means for slidably mounting the pusher on the
horizontal rods is also provided. The pusher actuating
means also includes a cam operated lever means for moving
the pusher along the horizontal rods.
In the preferred embodiment, both cam operated
3o actuating means are driven by a common drive means which
is actuated in response to the arrival of packages of
product at the infeed conveyor means.
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1 As a result of the present invention, a
mechanical high speed stacking and packing apparatus is
provided by which an essentially uninterrupted flow of
fragile packaged goods can be stacked to any desired
carton capacity and packed without fear of loss due to
breakage.
For a better understanding of the present
invention, together with other and further objects,
reference is made to the following description r taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and its scope
will be pointed out in the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of
the present invention during operation;
Fig. 2 is a rear elevation view of the-apparatus
of the present invention in operation with packages
arriving from the opposite side of the approach shown in
Fig. l; ,
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus of
the present invention taken along lines 3-3 in Fig. 2; and
Fig. 4 is a side elevation which depicts the
apparatus as it packs a carton while allowing for a
continued stacking operation.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to the drawings, there is seen in
Fig. 1 a belt conveyor 2 delivering in the direction of
arrow "a" product packages 4, which appear in the drawing
3o as three rows of crackers and/or cookies per package. A
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l receiYing plate 6 is provided with a package stop element
8 at a distance sufficient to allow the desired number of
product units to be fed onto the plate 6 at one time. In
Fig . l, the preferred number of packages is three.
A product stacking means is located in
conjunction with the receiving plate 6, such as the
sprocketed chain pushing combinaticn lO shown in Fig. l.
This product stacking means is depicted herein as a chain
drive 16 which drives the chains 14 mounted thereon in the
direction of circular arrow 'ib. n Sprocketed tension
wheels 12 are positioned opposite drive sprocket wheels 16
to provide the appropriate tension on chains 14. In order
to transfer the predetermined number of product units from
the receiving surface 6, pushing elements 18 are fixed to
chain 14 by mounting brackets 17 at appropriate distances
from each other so that a full complement of product
units, shown herein as three packages, will be positioned
on receiving plate 6 before they are pushed therefrom by
pushing elements 18. The timing required to effect
transfer of the desired number of units from the receiving
plate 6 to the elevating means, or the top of product
engaging members 32, can be provided with an indexing
units or devices which are commercially available. In one
embodiment of the invention, it has been found that a
convenient cycle includes l/3 movement time and 2/3
resting time per cycle.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention
also includes a product detection switch fixed on stop
element 8 which, when engaged by a package units, is
3o retracted to facilitate easy transfer of the product units
from the receiving plate 6.
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1 Immediately adjacent the receiving plate 6 is
located a vertically movable product elevator 20 composed
of spaced vertical product supporting members 22 which, in
the preferred embodiment, are wall members extending
upwardly from a transverse member 24. In its highest
position, the top of the spaced vertical product
supporting members 24 are essentially coplanar with the
surface o the receiving plate 5 or are just immediately
therebelow so that the product units 4 will slide easily
from the receiving plate to the top of the elevator
without dropping a distance which would cause the contents
to break. Moreover, the vertical product supporting
members are spaced so that each product unit in the first
layer of product units on the elevator spans a plurality
of such members, which, in one embodiment includes three
supporting members.
After a row of product units are transferred
from the receiving plate 6 to the top of vertical support
members 20, the elevator is moved downwardly, either by a
timing mechanism which actuates an elevator moving means
or by the weight of the product, to a position in which
the last row of transferred product unit forms the
receiving surface for the next row of product units such
as packages 4. In a preferred embodiment, the timing
required to lower the elevator means after deposition of a
row of packages can be achieved by an irregularly-shaped
cam means 40, driven by common drive shaft 60, which
operates cooperatively with cam follower 44 and linking
arms 41, 42 and 43. When the elevator has descended to
3o its lowermost position, the preselected amount of rows of
unit product for packing a carton or crate has been
1 stacked thereon. The direction of the reciprocating
- elevator movement is indicated by arrow a in Fig. 1.
In order to effect packing of the stacked units
of product into the shipping carton S0, the present
invention includes a pusher means 30 in combination with a
pusher actuating means having spaced product engaging
members 32 which move between the spaced vertical product
supporting members 22 when the actuating means is extended
to push the stacked packages from elevator 20 into the
carton 50 shown here on belt conveyor 100. When the
pusher means is fully extended, the top of product
engaging members 32 is located substantially coplanar with
the surface of receiving plate 5 or just below such
surface so that the process of article transfer from
receiving plate 6 can continue without interruption. See
Fig. 4.
Just as with the vertical product supporting
members of the elevator, the product engaging members are
spaced from one another so what each product unit in the
first layer of product units transferred from the
receiving plate 6 spans a plurality of the engaging
members. When the full complement of stacked packages
have been pushed from the elevator 20 into cartons 50, the
elevator is moved upwardly by the elevator moving means,
the vertical product supporting members spaced so that
they are interspersed between product engaging members 32,
simultaneously with the retraction of the pusher means 30,
whereby the row of transferred product units are gently
received on the product supporting members 22 without
3o severely changing the horizontal plane of support of the
product units during the combination elevator-ascending
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and pusher-means-retracting movement. A minor drop of
no more than about 1/2" can be tolerated without undo
breakage.
meanwhile, conveyor 100 moves in a direction of
arrow "e" shown in Fig. 1 to advance the packed carton
on towards sealing and loading and introduces a new
empty carton for packingr The direction of movement of
the pushing means 30 is shown by arrow "d" in Fig. 1.
Referring to jigs, 2 and 3, there is depicted a
rear elevational view and a side elevational section
view taken along line 3-3 in Fig. 2, respectively.
Relative to the elevator, there is shown transverse
member 24 from which vertical produce supporting members
22 extend upwardly. The apparatus is shown as further
including frame means 28 at either end of the elevator
to which a vertical rod 27 is attached by means of
brackets 25 to provide a supported vertical track on
which the elevator is slideably mounted via slidable
mounting means 23.
The elevator is controlled by an elevator moving
means which includes a cam-operated lever means deEined
generally by interconnected linking arms 41, 42, and 43,
and cam Eollower 44. The lever means is operated by
rotation of cam 40, which is driven by common drive
means 60, against cam follower 44 attached to the far
end of lever element 42.
Turning now to the pusher means 30, there are shown
transverse unifying means 35 which stabilize the product
engaging members 32 relative to each other, and a
horizontal rod 31 extending essentially from front to
rear of the apparatus and mounted on frame member 28 via
mounting brackets 33. Slidable mounting member 37
_g _
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1 connects pusher means 30 for movement back and forth on
rod 31. A second cam operated lever means includes
linking rod members 45, 46, 4~, and 48 which connect
mounting member 37 to the cammed operation provided by cam
groove 61, which is cut in the surface of wheel 62, in
combination with cam follower 49. In the embodiment shown
in Fig. 3, the cam groove 61 is shown as having a
generally circular path. However, in order to provide the
appropriate timing for application to specific cases, it
is contemplated that the cam path can have any
configuration suitable for the task. Further, as in the
case of the cam 40, the wheel 62 can be driven by drive
shaft 60.
While these embodiments show one confiquration
f mechanical means for operating thy apparatus of the
present invention, other configurations of mechanical
parts and operation can be used, and it is not intended to
limit the apparatus and operation of the present invention
to those embodiments shown and described herein.
Thus, while there~have been described what are
presently believed to be the preferred embodiments of the
invention, those skilled in the art will realize that
changes and modifications may be made thereto without
departing from the spirit of the invention, and it i5
intended to claim all such changes and modifications as
fall within the true scope of the invention.
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