GB2290513A - Packaging conveyor - Google Patents

Description

2290513 The present invention relates to a system for receiving articles

or groups of articles in a receiver station and transferring them along a stretch next to and parallel with a moved row of packing members, to which the articles are transferred during the common movement along the stretch. Normally, such systems are called fcartonizers', and mostly they are based on the use of an article belt provided with carrier trays for the articles, these trays being interspaced fully corresponding to the mutual spacing, with which the packing members are moved along the said transfer stretch. After this stretch the article belt moves back to the receiver station, while the packing member conveyor returns to a station for receiving and erecting packing member blanks. The carrier trays can receive the articles in passing the receiver station, whereafter the articles are packed in the following course.

WO 92122486 discloses an improved system of this type, in which the trays on the article belt are advanced with reduced speed and spacing during their passage of the receiver station, whereby the manual filling of the trays becomes much easier. This is achieved in arranging for the trays, at their arrival to the receiver station, to be moved into engagement with a conveyor worm which takes over the conveying by screwing the trays forwardly with a small distance between the trays and with the belt or chain portions between the trays bent out into inoperative loops. At the exit from the conveyor worm these loops are successively straightened out, and then the trays are conveyed further ahead with their larger spacing and higher speed.

In connection with the present invention it is desired to go still further, namely to a full, temporary stoppage of the trays in the receiver station, not in order to make the manual filling still more easy, which would hardly be obtained, but rather for facilitating an 2 automatic feeding of articles to the trays.

It is well known to work with conveyor systems, in which conveyed articles, including carriers for other articles, are brought to a full stop relative to the moving conveyor, e.g. the so-called accumulation conveyors, but in a cartonizer system according to the invention this will have to be combined with these articles, i.e. the carrier trays, being restarted and conveyed further with a very specific phase speed and mutual distance in order to be correctly positionable vis-a-vis the comoved packing members. It is a primary aspect of the invention that means for effecting such an operation be provided, at a principal level.

According to the invention it is a preferred possibility that the carrier trays, generally, are advanced on or by belt means, with which they are in slidable friction engagement, such that they can simply be retained at a stop in the receiver station, while the belt may be moved continually. When the stop is released, the tray thereby released will move further along with the belt, and in principle such successive releases could be controlled with such an accuracy that the released trays would thereby assume such positions on the belt, with which they would be correctly situated next to the packing members as advanced in parallel with the trays.

In practice, however, it would be difficult to effect such a control with the required accuracy, and according to a preferred embodiment of the invention further advantage is taken of the displaceability of the trays along the belt, viz. in using a separate movement control chain having tray engaging members for compulsory entrainment of the trays along the cartonizing stretch. Such a chain may be driven in exact synchronism with the advancing of the packing members and with a highly constant spacing, as required, between the tray engaging members. When the system is controlled such 3 that the trays are released from the receiver station briefly prior to the arrival of a tray engaging member, and when the tray belt is moved a little slowlier than the control chain, then the tray engaging member will catch up with the released tray and thereafter push it further forwardly on the co-moved tray belt. The control chain will have to extend only along the cartonizing stretch itself.

The invention also provides for the advantage that the trays can be advanced with the required accuracy to and along the cartonizing stretch widely independent of the timing of the arrival of the articles to be transferred, because the trays are inherently suited for building up a buffer stretch, from which they can be released with the required accurate timing, while within certain limits - the time of arrival of the trays to this buffer stretch will be insignificant for the accurate exit timing.

In the following the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which:- Fig. 1 is a schematic lateral view of a system according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a top view thereof, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a conveyor belt used in the system.

The system illustrated comprises a feeder belt 2, on which there is provided a number of carrier units or trays 4, which, when successively receiving articles or groups of articles, will convey these further along a cartonizing machine 6, in which there is currently effected an erection of packing blanks from a magazine 8 and an advancing of the erected packing members along a stretch 10 at one side of the belt 2. Along the same stretch and in connection with the belt 2 there is provided guiding means for laterally displacing the trays 4 towards the unit 6 and nonillustrated means for pushing 4 the articles resting on the trays laterally into the packing members, which are thereafter closed in a closing station 12 and brought to delivery e.g. by a conveyor belt 14. The trays 4 return to the receiving area in front of the unit 6.

So far described the system is fully known.

According to the invention the trays 4 are arranged in such a manner, known per se, that they are held to the belt 2 by a frictional engagement enabling a relative displacement between the belt and the trays. Hereby it is possible to retain the trays temporarily in a stop position shown at 16, at which it will thus be possible to effect an automatic loading of these trays with one or more articles, e.g. by transferring articles 18 from a feeder belt 20 by means of a pushing cylinder 22. once this transfer has taken place the retained tray 4 may be released for further advancing with the belt 2 by actuation of a releaser mechanism 24.

Thereafter the filled tray 4 is moved into an accumulation stretch 26, at the right hand front end of which there is provided a control member 28, which is operable, based on control signals from a control unit, to release the foremost tray 4 and hold back the remaining, successively arriving trays 4. These further trays may be totally held back, even though the belt 2 is driven continuously, by a non-illustrated driving station.

The filled trays 4, immediately after their release from the stop and release member 28, will be further conveyed along the cartonizer apparatus 6, but at the inlet to this particular stretch there is arranged an infeed of a driving chain 30 having entrainment members 32 which, by an increased advancing speed, will engage the trays 4 on the belt 2 and then cause these to be advanced for one thing exactly in phase with the advancing of the packing belt in the station 6 and for another thing with a mutual spacing corresponding to just the pitch required for a correct positioning relative to the packing members advanced in the unit 6.

it will be appreciated that in connection with the invention it is possible to build up an accumulation stretch both before the infeed location 16 and before the releaser unit 28. The feed-in at the location 16 need not take place by any particular timing. an a tray arriving at that position nay just wait there until a correct article delivery has been accomplished. It should be endeavoured, of course. that there will always be one or more filled trays located just up to the releaser unit 28, such that the unit 6 may operate continuously. on the other hand it will be a possibility that this unit 6 may be stopped or be driven inoperatively through a certain lapse of time. without the Infeed at 16 having to be stopped, inasfar as the entire stretch 26 can be used as a storage buffer.

It has been mentioned that the entrainment members 32 catch up with and push the trays 4 forwardly on the belt 2. Inasfar as the release of the trays at 28 takes place immediately before the arrival of each new entrainment member it will also be possible and even preferable that the entrainment members as brought into their operative position in being moved upwardly, may be made of projecting pins, which are immediately brought into a real holding engagement with the trays or the carrier portions thereofi such that a firm engagement is secured from the very beginning. As illustrated in Fig. 1 the chain 30 is returned through an inclined path, whereby the entrainment members are gently lifted out of their driving engagement with the trays. which are thereafter brought along passively in the lower return run of the belt 2.

Fig. 3 shows a cross section of a ObeltO 2, made as a double chain with chain pins 31 guided in lateral 6 tracks 33 In a fixed guiding rail structure 34. The pins 31 have outwardly projecting portions 36 with annular grooves 38 which are slidingly engaged by respective upper and lower engagement portions 40 and 42 on a carrier block 44 forming a mounting base-for each of the trays 4. The block 44 is indicated by its contour shown in dotted lined. In the axial direction of the chain 2 it spans over two or more chain pins 31, and in a manner not shown the lower engagement portions 42 are spring loaded such that the portions 40 and 42 clamp against the pins 31 so as to provide for a desired sliding friction.

The control chain 30 is shown schematically. guided In rails 46 such that the protruding entrainment members 32 may engage with the rear side of the carrier blocks 44.

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Claims (9)

Claims:

1. A system for receiving articles or groups of articles on carrier trays in a receiver station and moving the trays along a packaging stretch next to and generally parallel with a moved row of packaging members, to which the articles are transferred during the common movement along the stretch, wherein the carrier trays are mounted in slidable frictional engagement with a driving belt or chain extending through the receiver station, and means are provided for controlled, successive delivery of the carrier trays to conveying means for advancing the trays along said packaging stretch.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the driving belt or chain extends from an accumulation station upstream of the receiver station at least to a subsequent accumulation station at which said controlled delivery means are provided.

3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, in which the conveying means are constituted by the said driving belt or chain itself, this element being extended to run also along the packaging stretch.

4. A system according to claim 1 or 2, in which the driving belt or chain is extended to run also along the packaging stretch, and in which there is provided, along this stretch, an entrainment belt or chain operating in synchronism with the means for moving the said moved row of packing members and having entrainment members for engaging the carrier trays in order to cause these to move correspondingly synchronously.

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5. A system according to claim 4, in which the driving belt or chain is advanced with a velocity lower than that of the entrainment belt of chain.

6. A system according to claim 4 or 5, in which the driving belt or chain and the entrainment belt or chain are advanced in parallel through the entire packaging stretch, after which the entrainment belt or chain returns to the beginning of this stretch while the driving belt or chain returns to the receiver station.

7. A system according to claim 4,5 or 6, in which the downstream end of the accumulation station in front of the packaging stretch is provided with means for controlled, successive release of the carrier trays, which are thereafter, on the driving belt or chain, caught up by the respective entrainment members of the entrainment belt or chain and thereby pushed further forwardly.

8. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, in which the receiver station, in which the carrier trays are temporarily stopped, is provided with means for automatically loading articles onto the carrier trays.

9. A conveying system substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.