DE20300142U1 - Bottle transporting container allows the cleaning of bottles, and has discs for moving the bottles via an upper shifting plate - Google Patents

Abstract

The bottle transporting container allows the cleaning of bottles (3) and has discs (8) for moving the bottles via an upper shifting plate (7) that moves empty bottles. The discs have a hanging strut (10) with their own motor (9,11). The bottles have synchronous gears and plates with additional recesses. The plates can interchange with the discs.

Description

Device for transporting vessels

The invention relates to a device for transporting containers in cleaning machines with synchronous drives for cleaning bottles in the beverage industry.

The use of reusable bottles in the beverage industry requires that these bottles are cleaned, filled and resealed upon their return by the consumer.

For this purpose, the bottles are fed to several treatment stations or machines. Special conveyors are known for this purpose, which move the bottles from a base or a conveyor to a higher position, for example into the receiving cells of a cleaning machine or vice versa.

This not only bridges a height difference predetermined by the machine design, but also causes the bottles to be redirected depending on the position of the axis of a receiving cell. A corresponding redirection must also be carried out when bottles are removed from bottle baskets. For this purpose, loading and unloading devices are known which move the bottles along a fixed or movable support surface from a conveyor into the bottle baskets or back.

Such transfer devices consist of several discs arranged next to one another, which are equipped with drivers which, for example, grasp the bottles from below during loading of a cleaning machine and move them along the curved path of the support surface to the bottle baskets.

When a cleaning machine is being emptied, the carriers catch the bottles that fall out of the bottle cells due to gravity, move them along the curved path and finally place them on a transfer plate. In the next work cycle of the cleaning machine's discharge, the bottles standing on the transfer plate are pushed by the next row of bottles from the transfer plate onto a discharge conveyor in front of it, which then transports the bottles away.

While the carriers for this process previously performed an exclusively circular movement, so that additional devices had to be provided in the final stage of the insertion in order to push the bottles deep into the further cells, it is now state of the art to design the rotation axis of the carriers to be movable back and forth along an essentially straight path of movement in the feed direction of the transfer device.

This measure results in the insertion arm or carrier, which is in the working position at any one time, being able to move from its starting or receiving position to the corresponding delivery or ejection position during this movement section.

There are essentially two solutions known for moving the drivers and the rocker that holds the driver axle. Both solutions are described in the utility model 201 13 995.2. The first variant requires a motion gear that must be precisely coordinated with one another with regard to the different motion sequences of the individual gear elements.

The second solution provides that the swing arm is arranged on a motor-driven gearbox, which is mounted in a torsion-proof manner on a fixed bearing point and, together with the gearbox output, sets the swing arm in a back-and-forth movement, which means that a motion gearbox that would otherwise be required to coordinate the movement sequences can be dispensed with.

The key feature of both of the above solutions is the use of synchronous drives, which provides fundamental extensions for controlling the movement sequences of loading and unloading of cleaning machines. These advantages are adequately described in the above-mentioned document.

In the context of the present application, the term synchronous drive is not to be understood as just a pure synchronous motor - as is generally common in technology - but rather as a unit comprising an electric motor, a device for influencing the electric field and/or current and a device for detecting and reporting the movements actually carried out by the electric motor and the rotational speeds achieved. The electric motor can be a three-phase synchronous or asynchronous machine or a direct current motor. The device for influencing the electric field and/or current can be understood as a frequency converter, for example. The device for detecting and reporting the movements actually carried out by the electric motor

The movements actually carried out can be, for example, a rotary encoder or an angle encoder.

In addition, the term synchronous drive also refers to the use of at least one computer in which the target specifications for the movement sequences of all connected electric motors/synchronous drives are initially stored. The main task of this computer, however, is to constantly compare the actual values of their movement sequences provided by the electric motors with the target values and to compensate for any deviations by taking suitable countermeasures. With suitable programming, the movements of several electric motors can be precisely coordinated with one another.

When using the currently known discharge systems of cleaning machines, the problem arises that when the cleaning machine is running empty, which can be the case, for example, when the bottle type is changed or at the end of work, the last row of bottles cleaned remains on the transfer plate, since when the last row of bottles is discharged there is no subsequent row of bottles which could push the row of bottles standing on the transfer plate onto the discharge conveyor.

This means that the last row of bottles has to be transferred manually from the transfer plate to the conveyor. In practice, this process is undesirable for two main reasons. Firstly, the high time required, particularly with particularly wide cleaning machines, speaks against this procedure. In addition, there is a considerable risk that the bottles that have just been cleaned with great effort will become contaminated again by germs and/or dirt particles on the hands of the operating personnel. Contamination of the bottles in this way must be prevented at all costs, especially with cold aseptic sterile filling, which is gaining ground worldwide.

The object and aim of the present invention is to provide a remedy and improvement so that the disadvantages described above are avoided. To this end, the present invention proposes an embodiment according to the claims.
In this case, a special ejection movement cycle is expediently stored in the computer control program of the cleaning machine or in particular in the sub-program which serves to empty the cleaning machine, which is automatically carried out by the operator upon request from the delivery of the cleaning machine. The invention corresponds to the claims.

chen and subclaims, the content of which is also made part of the content of the following description.

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail using an embodiment. The drawing shows in detail

in a simplified side view the delivery of a cleaning machine in cross section

The transfer device shown in the drawing is used to remove bottles 3, which slide out of the receiving cells 1 after the cleaning process by the effect of gravity. The receiving cells 1 can move intermittently or continuously and transport the bottles 3 picked up at the task (not shown) through various treatment baths and stations until they are discharged from the cleaning machine.

The bottles 3 are released by a transfer flap 4. The bottles 3 are then taken over by so-called carriers 5 and moved by them along a guide and support surface 6. This movement ends with the bottles 3 being placed on the transfer plate 7.

The drivers 5 are part of a disk 8 that is constantly rotating during continuous operation. One of these disks 8 is arranged on a shaft for each row of bottles in the cleaning machine. This shaft is set in rotation by a first synchronous drive 9. The shaft and the synchronous drive 9 are attached to a rocker 10, which in turn is set in a back and forth movement by a second synchronous drive 11.

By sensibly superimposing both movements, an optimal movement sequence for the transport of bottles 3 can be realized.

During continuous operation of the cleaning machine, the bottles 3 standing on the transfer plate 7 are pushed onto a conveyor 12 by the respective subsequent row of bottles. This conveyor 12 feeds the bottles 3 to the next treatment machine.

For emptying the cleaning machine, where previously the last row of bottles had to be manually removed from the transfer plate 7, a special movement sequence is provided, which is described below.

If the cleaning machine is to be run empty, the operating personnel conveniently starts a sub-program contained in the computer control of the cleaning machine at the desired time.

This subroutine initially stops the further supply of bottles to the cleaning machine. At the same time, the computer can start counting the rows of bottles still in the cleaning machine, with the number being reduced by one with each dispensing cycle. When the computer has reached the number zero, i.e. all rows of bottles have been dispensed, the ejection movement cycle starts.

However, it is also conceivable to initiate this when the last row of bottles is detected by the operating personnel or by light barriers or the like.

The ejection movement cycle begins with the swing arm 10 pivoting into a first position which is as far away from the transfer plate 7 as possible. Once this first position is reached, the synchronous drive 9 rotates the shaft with the disks 8 such that the point of the disk 8 which is radially furthest from the shaft is approximately horizontal. The swing arm 10 then pivots into a second position which is as close as possible to the transfer plate 7. During this movement of the swing arm 10, the row of bottles standing on the transfer plate 7 is pushed by the front edge of the disks 8 onto the conveyor 12, from which the bottles 3 are then transported to the next processing machine. For the movement of the swing arm 10 in the direction of the transfer plate, a simultaneous rotational movement of the shaft with the disks 8 can be provided in order to further optimize the movement sequence.

In further embodiments of the present invention, a movement sequence deviating from the above representation can also be provided without departing from the path of the technical teaching shown by the present application.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the movements are carried out at a reduced speed, whereby the risk of the bottles 3 falling over can be significantly reduced.

It is particularly advantageous if the disks 8 are provided with additional recesses 13, which enable the rocker 10 to move further in the direction of the transfer plate 7, whereby the bottles 3 can be pushed further onto the conveyor 12. In Figure 1, these recesses 13 are shown as an example with a dash-dotted line.

Further advantages arise if the discs 8 remain at the apex of the ejection movement until all bottles 3 have been transported away by the conveyor 12, since the bottles 3 cannot then be pushed back onto the transfer plate by the dynamic pressure building up between them.

By suitable programming of the machine control, the ejection function described above can also be implemented in cleaning machine discharges which operate with synchronous drives and a motion gear in accordance with the principle shown in the utility model 201 13 995.2, so that the implementation of the described processes in such machines does not go beyond the scope of the present invention.

Claims (4)

1. Device for transporting containers in cleaning machines with synchronous drives for cleaning bottles ( 3 ) in the beverage industry with a discharge, characterized in that the device has a movement sequence of discs ( 8 ) which deviates from the normal discharge cycle for pushing the last row of bottles off the transfer plate ( 7 ), with which the last row of bottles can be pushed beyond the base when the cleaning machine is emptied. 2. Device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the drive shaft of the discs ( 8 ) and the rocker ( 10 ) are provided with their own drive motors ( 9 , 11 ). 3. Device for dispensing bottles ( 3 ) from cleaning machines with synchronous drives for cleaning bottles ( 3 ) according to the preamble of claim 1 with an ejection movement sequence, characterized in that the discs ( 8 ) have additional recesses. 4. Device for dispensing bottles ( 3 ) from cleaning machines with synchronous drives for cleaning bottles ( 3 ) according to the preamble of claim 1 with an ejection movement sequence, characterized in that the transfer plate ( 7 ) has recesses into which the disks ( 8 ) are immersed.