GB1600495A - Apparatus for use in filling material into a container - Google Patents

Description

(54) APPARATUS FOR USE IN FILLING MATERIAL INTO A CONTAINER (71) I, DONALD RODGER BROWN, of Coldhams House, Glemsford, Sudbury, in the County of Suffolk, a British Subject, do hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to apparatus for use in filling material into a container. The invention can be advantageously applied to the damage free loading of bulk materials in general and particularly the lowering of fruit and vegetable produce into storage boxes.

Storage boxes with pallet bottoms enabling them to be handled by fork trucks are used extensively for potatoes and other root crops and fruit, and are commonly made to hold at least 500 kilos and may hold as much as 1500 kilos. Dimensions and capacities are not standardised, but increased availability of larger lifting equipment encourages the use of larger boxes, dimensions of 1220mmx 1220mmx l220mm being common for potato boxes of 1 tonne capacity.

The advantages derived from economical handling and improved storage and quality of the produce can easily be reduced or lost by damage to the product, as it is placed in the box, this damage impairing the quality and reducing and storage life. This is particularly the case where larger storage capacity has been achieved at the expense of greater height, and thus a greater drop when boxes are filled from elevators and conveyors. Drops of at least one metre are common.

Methods of reducing damage at this stage include the simple but inconvenient one of placing a straw filled sack in the bottom of a box onto which the first potatoes fall and withdrawing it when a heap has started to form, some form of the cascade principle in which the produce falls over a series of inclined baffles, and complicated elevators embodying a steeply inclined lowering section which carries the produce down into the box on a cleated belt, before allowing it to fall.

The advantages of the simple principle of the cascade may be largely offset by the need for providing means of withdrawing the baffles as the level of the produce rises inside the box and raising them completely clear when a full box has to be removed.

Elevators usually embody electric drive, which imposes limitations on the sites on which they can be used, hydraulic raising and lowering of somewhat heavy equipment and means of sensing the height of the produce so that the elevator can be raised to maintain its discharge point just above the heap as it grows.

The object of the present invention is to enable produce to be placed conveniently into boxes from elevators, conveyors or simply chutes, without damage and without the complexity, and expense of special purpose lowering devices as at present known to the art.

Further objects are to provide apparatus needing no independent source of energy, and thus able to be used where a supply of electricity cannot conveniently be provided, apparatus occupying the minimum of floor space and apparatus capable of use even when the space between the discharge end of the supply means and the top of the storage box is limited, and an extra elevator would otherwise be required, as for example when it is desired to place produce directly into boxes after a grading or sorting process. While it is convenient for purposes of explanation to refer to potatoes and boxes of half tonne to one and a half tonne capacity, the invention can be applied to the filling of containers of any capacity with produce liable to suffer damage from falling.

The invention provides apparatus for use in filling material into a container, comprising a member arranged to take at least part of the weight of the container, a chute for the material to pass down into the container, the chute being movable in such a manner that the distance of the bottom end of the chute above the bottom of the container is variable, it being possible to position the chute with its bottom end at or near the bottom of the container at commencement of filling, and means connecting the chute and said member such that, as the weight of the container on said member progressively increases, so the chute is moved to raise its bottom end progressively further above the bottom of the container, the effective weight of the chute balancing the effective weight of the container, the chute serving to check the descent of the material into the container.

Preferably, the chute has steps or baffles be delivered by any convenient means, such as an elevator or conveyor, to the chute, which arrests the fall and diverts the vertical descent into a nearly horizontal discharge, in the first place at the bottom of a box, and thereafter onto a heap down which the produce can roll without damage.

preferably, the chute has steps or baffles or other devices adapted to check the descent of the produce. Further details of the invention will appear from the description which now follows, and the accompanying drawings, of an apparatus for loading potatoes from a conveyor into a bulk storage box, this description being by way of example only and in no way limiting applications of the invention to the loading of other materials into containers ot different types which will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 shows a three quarter front perspective elevation of a box loading apparatus, at the beginning of a filling operation, when the concave chute is in its lowest position towards the bottom of a box.

Figure 2 shows a rear perspective elevation of the apparatus.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 show, diagrammatically, in side elevation, the position of the chute and its balancing component at successive stages in the filling of a box, the main frame being omitted for clarity.

Referring to Figure 1, twin U-shaped frames, I and 2, are bolted to crank plates 3, which are pivotally mounted on axis A-A.

These U-shaped frames support the upper and lower ends of a concave chute, 4, which is conveniently, but not necessarily, made of canvas.

Potatoes delivered on a conveyor, 5, fall just inside the U-shaped frame, 1 (see Figure 2). Their fall is arrested by the concave chute 4, which discharges them nearly horizontally against the rear wall of the rectangular pallet box, 6. As the box starts to fill, the chute is caused to rotate anticlockwise about axis A-A on pins, 7, so that the U-shaped frame, 2, is maintained just clear of the potatoes accumulating in the box. See Figures 3, 4 and 5.

Axis A-A passes through pins, 7, integral with lugs, 8, which are welded to the upper ends of masts, 9. The lower end of these masts are welded to a cross member, 10, to which are welded at each end angle members, 1I, these forming a rigid base which can be bolted to the floor at holes 12.

As shown in Figure 2, the horizontal angle member, 13, on which one end of the storage box is supported, is welded to the lower extremities of angle members, 14, the upper ends of which are pivotally supported on pins, 15, integral with the crank plates, 3. A plate, 17, is attached to the centre of the upper edge of angle member 13. This plate supports a pair of guide rollers, 18, which engage the two vertical angle members, 19, which are integral with cross member, 10.

The assembly is free to slide up and down against the faces of masts, 9.

The gradual lifting of the chute, 4, to clear the potatoes as their level rises in the box arises entirely as a result of changing moments about the Axis A-A. Referring to Figures 3, 4 and 5, there is an anti-clockwise moment caused by force "P" down the angle members, 14, acting on the short radius, between pins, 15, and the axis A-A, that is to say, pins, 7. There is also a clockwise moment caused by the balance weights, 16, at the outer extremities of the U-shaped frame, 2, plus a small clockwise moment due to the weight of the chute and the frame itself, at a much large radius trom Axis A than that between Axis A-A and pins, 15.

As filling progresses, the potatoes add weight to the box and increase the force "P"acting on pins, 15, thus increasing the anti-clockwise moment about axis A This is balanced, as crank plates, 3, rotate, by the increasing clockwise moment as the weights, 16, swing upwards and forwards.

The arrangement is such that by the time the box is full it will have sunk from its starting angle of about 5 degrees, to a substantially horizontal position, and the crank plates, 3, will have been rotated through 90 degrees from their starting position, as shown in Figure 1, to their upper position, slightly beyond that shown in Figure 5.

Referring to Figure 2, a hydraulic cylinder 20, is supported by pm, 21, between upright angle members, 19: the piston 22, is attached by pin, 23, to plate, 17.

Pipe 24, connects the inlet port of cylinder, 20, to a combined check valve and needle valve, 25, (shown diagrammatically) which in turn is connected to an oil reservoir, 26, by pipe, 27.

As the box becomes heavier, the angle member, 13 and thus plate 17 which is integral with it, descends and in so doing withdraws the piston, 22, from the cylinder.

The needle valve being closed, the piston sucks oil from the reservoir, past the check valve. By the time the box is full, the chute, 4, is in the fully raised position enabling the box to be removed. The chute remains fully raised because the piston, 22, is held extended by the oil which cannot return past the check valve. When the full box has been replaced by an empty one, the needle valve is opened allowing oil to return from the cylinder to the reservoir. At this stage the clockwise moment about Axis A-A exceeds the anti-clockwise moment, so that chute 4 descends to its starting position as shown in Figure 1, and angle member 13 raises the end of the enpty box. The needle valve is then closed and filling can proceed.

Conveniently, the control valve is situated where it can be operated by the driver of the fork truck which places the empty box in position.

WHAT I CLAIM IS: 1. Apparatus for use in filling material into a container, comprising a member arranged to take at least part of the weight of the container, a chute for the material to pass down into the container, the chute being movable in such a manner that the distance of the bottom end of the chute above the bottom of the container is variable, it being possible to position the chute with its bottom end at or near the bottom of the container at commencement of filling, and means connecting the chute and said member such that, as the weight of the container on said member progressively increases, so the chute is moved to raise its bottom end progressively futher above the bottom of the container, the effective weight of the chute balancing the effective weight of the container, the chute serving to check the descent of the material into the container.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the chute is curved, the curve being concave on the side conveying the material.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, in which the chute is pivotally mounted on a horizontal axis.

4. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the lowering of said chute is checked by fluid means associated with a cylinder and piston.

5. Apparatus for use in filling material into a container substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (5)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. member, 13 and thus plate 17 which is integral with it, descends and in so doing withdraws the piston, 22, from the cylinder. The needle valve being closed, the piston sucks oil from the reservoir, past the check valve. By the time the box is full, the chute, 4, is in the fully raised position enabling the box to be removed. The chute remains fully raised because the piston, 22, is held extended by the oil which cannot return past the check valve. When the full box has been replaced by an empty one, the needle valve is opened allowing oil to return from the cylinder to the reservoir. At this stage the clockwise moment about Axis A-A exceeds the anti-clockwise moment, so that chute 4 descends to its starting position as shown in Figure 1, and angle member 13 raises the end of the enpty box. The needle valve is then closed and filling can proceed. Conveniently, the control valve is situated where it can be operated by the driver of the fork truck which places the empty box in position. WHAT I CLAIM IS:

1. Apparatus for use in filling material into a container, comprising a member arranged to take at least part of the weight of the container, a chute for the material to pass down into the container, the chute being movable in such a manner that the distance of the bottom end of the chute above the bottom of the container is variable, it being possible to position the chute with its bottom end at or near the bottom of the container at commencement of filling, and means connecting the chute and said member such that, as the weight of the container on said member progressively increases, so the chute is moved to raise its bottom end progressively futher above the bottom of the container, the effective weight of the chute balancing the effective weight of the container, the chute serving to check the descent of the material into the container.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the chute is curved, the curve being concave on the side conveying the material.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, in which the chute is pivotally mounted on a horizontal axis.

4. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the lowering of said chute is checked by fluid means associated with a cylinder and piston.

5. Apparatus for use in filling material into a container substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.