GB2219268A - Indicators associated with specific articles on a conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus is provided for assigning one of a plurality of grades to each of succession of articles, for example poultry carcasses, moving along a conveyor having a series of article positions. The grading apparatus comprises an indicator 28 capable of selection to give an indication of grade and associated with one of the series of article positions. The indicator 28 is arranged to travel along a path to permit its selection to be made over the period taken for the indicator to traverse the path. In practice, a plurality of indicators 28 may be provided, for example in the form of levers, moving around their own conveyor path in synchronism with article carriers 16. The invention facilitates the allocation of grades to articles, by providing more time for inspectors to select and allocate grades, even when articles are moving very swiftly. <IMAGE>

Description

Grading Apparatus This invention relates to apparatus for assigning one of a plurality of grades to each of a succession of articles moving along a conveyor, in such a way that the grades of the articles can be stored and retrieved later for use in a subsequent process, for example in a weighing and sorting system. Although the invention is not restricted to the grading of any particular article, it has been developed in connection with the grading of poultry carcasses in an automatic poultry processing plant, and is particularly useful in connection with the grading of poultry carcasses.

Some of the quality grading systems now in use in automatic poultry processing plant require the carcasses to be visually graded and suspended from a conveyor in an identifiable area or on colour coded special hooks or shackles. Alternatively, the carcasses are randomly hung on the shackles, and then graded while they are moving along the conveyor.

Recent advances in the automation of poultry plants have brought about the automatic transferring of carcasses on to the grading conveyor, so that visual quality grading can only be carried out by the second of these methods, that is by assessing the carcasses as they are moving along the conveyor.

In the apparatus which is currently in use, this type of grading relies on inspectors pushing buttons, as the birds pass through a defined section of the conveyor.

Problems arise as the speed of the conveyor increases, and sometimes conveyors now operate at speeds of up to 8,000 birds per hour. Consequently, the time available to the inspector to complete a grading operation on any particular bird can reduce to less than one second.

During this period, the inspector has to identify which bird is to be inspected, decide on its quality, locate the correct push button and press that button. If the button is not pressed within the correct time period, the grade information is recorded against the wrong bird or carcass.

It is the object of the invention to provide grading apparatus, which is easier to use than known apparatus, and in particular, which allows the operator or inspector more time in which to carry out the grading operation.

It is to be understood that the term "grading" is to be widely interpreted. Obviously, it includes the well known quality grading technique, but it could include grading according to for example type (i.e. where different kinds of birds are being processed on the same conveyor), different weight assessments, or indeed any other characteristic of the articles passing on the conveyor. Generally speaking, however, the grading will imply visual identification of some quality of the article, though visual inspection is not essential.

According to this invention, apparatus for assigning one of a plurality of grades (as herein defined) to each of a succession of articles moving along a conveyor having a series of article positions, comprises an indicator capable of selection to give an indication of grade and associated with one of the series of article positions, in which the indicator is adapted to travel along a path to permit its selection to be made over the period taken for the indicator to traverse the path.

Preferably the indicator is associated with the article position by means of the locus of the path and its speed of travel. It is further preferred that the path of the indicator is parallel with the conveyor and that the speed of travel of the indicator along the path is substantially equal to the speed of travel of the article position with which it is associated. Given these preferred features, the association of the indicator with the article position is a visual one, because it is immediately apparent that the indicator is travelling in synchronism with its associated article position.

The advantage of moving the indicator along a path is that the operative is not compelled to carry out the grading by making a selection of the indicator at a very limited location, but can carry out the grading at any location along the path of the indicator. This will generally give the operative more time to carry out the grading operation than is the case with known automatic grading conveyors.

According to a preferred feature of the invention there is a series of indicators one for each article position on the conveyor. It is further preferred that the indicators are divided into two or more denominations by a coding system. In its simplest form, this may be a colour coding system. Coding of the indicators allows the grading to be carried out with respect to the one conveyor by two or more operatives, each selecting only the indicators of a particular code. This reduces the speed at which the operatives have to carry out the grading operation for a given conveyor speed.

According to another preferred feature of the invention the indicator comprises a movable element having a plurality of positions corresponding to different selectable grades. In a simple form of the invention, the indicator comprises a lever movable between a series of positions. There may be resiliently loaded locking means for holding the lever in each selectable position.

Preferably the apparatus also incorporates sensing means for sensing the selected condition of each indicator after it has travelled through its path and for issuing a signal in response to the detected condition to control apparatus. In the case where the indicator comprises a lever, the sensing means may comprise a series of stationary sensors one for each of the selectable positions, each being adapted to be actuated by the passage of a lever set in the position associated with that sensor. It is further preferred that a stationary article position sensor is -provided which is adapted to sense the passage of each article position and to give a signal to the control apparatus.Preferably the control apparatus is adapted on receiving a signal from the article position sensor, to open a gate for a signal from the sensing means, the arrangement being such that the sensing means signal derived from a particular indicator is associated by the control apparatus with the signal received from the article position sensor which is derived from that article position with which that indicator is associated.

According to another preferred feature of the invention, the indicator is itself mounted on an endless conveyor parallel with the article conveyor.

The invention may be applied to apparatus adapted for the grading of poultry carcasses in a poultry processing plant. In that case, the article positions on the conveyor are provided by hooks or shackles from which the carcasses can be suspended.

One construction and arrangement of a poultry grading system in accordance with the invention, will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an elevation of part of the grading system, Figure 2 is an end view of the section of the machine shown in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a schemmatic view of a grading area.

The poultry grading machine has an overhead conveyor 10 which essentially comprises a stationary track 12 on which run a series of trolleys 14 each of which has a shackle 16 from which a carcass 18 can be suspended. An endless driving chain 20 extends around driving sprocket wheels (not shown) and each of the trolleys 14 is connected to the chain 20. A series of carcass positions is thus provided on the conveyor 10, by means of the trolleys 14 and their respective shackles 16, and in this particular arrangement, the trolleys 14 are equally spaced from each other on the conveyor.

Overhead conveyors of this kind for the transporting of the carcasses of birds in a poultry handling plant are well known in themselves, and no further description is necessary. It will be mentioned however, that at one position, the front run of the conveyor 10 forms part of a grading line indicated generally at 22 in Figure 3, at which grading of the birds is carried by one or more inspector.

The present invention is concerned with the arrangement provided whereby the inspector(s) can carry out the grading operation. An endless chain or belt 24 is provided underneath the overhead conveyor 10, and is arranged so that it travels in synchronism with the trolleys 14 on the conveyor. A series of indicator plates 26 is provided on the chain 24 and these plates 26 are located at the same pitch on the chain as the shackles 1 6 on the overhead conveyor. Moreover, the driving arrangement to the chain 24 is such, that each plate 26 locates itself directly under one of the shackles 16.

Furthermore, the drive to the chain 24 is arranged so that the plates 26 travel at precisely the same linear speed as the shackles 16. Therefore, the location and rate of travel of the plates 26 is such that there is an immediate visual association between each plate and one of the shackles of the conveyor.

A grading lever 28 is provided on each of the plates 26, and each of these levers is pivoted so that it can be selectively placed in any one of a series of different locations. There may also be spring loaded mechanism, for holding the lever in each of the selected positions, until it is positively displaced from that position.

On the return run of the chain 24, there is a resetting mechanism (not shown) which automatically resets each of the grading levers 28 in to its lowest position - indicated in full lines in Figure 2.

An inspector standing in front of the grading mechanism is able to examine each bird carried by the overhead conveyor for quality, and assign a quality grade to it by adjusting the position of the grading lever 23 immediately underneath that bird. In other words, each of the selectable positions of the lever 28 corresponds to a selectable grade for the birds. The arrangement is such that the most common quality of bird is indicated by the lever in its lowest position, thereby eliminating the need for adjustment of the lever on the greatest possible number of birds, to minimise the physical work to be done by the inspectors in carrying out the grading operation.

The mechanism may be as long as required to accomodate a number of inspectors that may be necessary to carry out adequate inspection of the birds. Where more than one inspector is employed, the plates 26 are colour coded in a sequence. The length of the sequence corresponds to the number of inspectors, and therefore each inspector will only be required to carry out grading of those birds in shackles associated with the plates of the particular colour which he must grade. This ensures an equal distribution of work amongst the inspectors, and it will be appreciated that it also provides that each inspector is only required to grade a proportion of the total number of birds passing on the overhead conveyor.

Therefore, the inspectors are not required to work at an excessive rate in carrying out the grading operation.

Another advantage of the system is that the lever 28 can be adjusted by an inspector at any position along the front run of the chain 24, and therefore the inspectors have no very constricted fixed area within which they must carry out the grading operation. Also, in case a wrong grade is assigned to a bird by operation of the corresponding lever 28, the grade can be corrected by simply readjusting the position of the lever during its passage along the front run of the chain 24. Thus, as each of the plates 26 passes the sensing system, a signal will be emitted by that sensor which is in line with the selected position of the grading lever.

The signals from the sensors can be fed to a computer.

An article position sensor (not shown) is positioned in a stationary location on the overhead conveyor, and is adapted to detect the passage of each conveyor trolley, and to send a signal to the computer, which is programmed so that each trolley of the overhead conveyor can be individually recognised. The article position sensor is positioned so that each trolley will be detected just before the plate 26 carrying the grade lever that was under that trolley when the grading selection was made, passes through the lever position detecting system. Consequently, the signal from the article position sensor opens a gate to receive the signal from whichever of the grade sensors is actuated, so that the computer assigns a grade to the particular trolley in accordance with the selection which has been made by the inspector.

By co-relating the signals from the sensors within the computer, the quality of the bird on each individual shackle 16 can be recorded, for retrieval when the bird is subsequently weighed, to give combined weight and grade data in order that the bird may be sorted and sent to the required destination. It will be appreciated, that the grading signals can also be used for other purposes in the processing of the carcasses.

Another advantage of the arrangement, is that quality control can be carried out by monitoring the birds at the end of the grading line, and comparing the position of the levers below them with the bird quality.

If grading has been correctly done, then the position of each lever should correctly indicate the grade of the bird with which it is associated.

Claims (1)

1. Apparatus for assigning one of a plurality of grades to each of a succession of articles moving along a conveyor having a series of article positions, comprising an indicator capable of selection to give an indication of grade and associated with one of the series of article positions, in which the indicator is adapted to travel along a path to permit its selection to be made over the period taken for the indicator to traverse the path.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, in which the indicator is associated with the article position by means of the locus of the path and its speed of travel.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, in which the path of the indicator conforms with the path of the conveyor and the speed of travel of the indicator along its path is substantially equal to the speed of travel of the article position with which it is associated.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, in which there is a series of indicators, one for each of a series of article positions on the conveyor.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the indicators are divided into two or more denominations by a coding system.

6. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 5, in which the coding system comprises a colour coding system.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, in which the indicator comprises a movable element having a plurality of positions corresponding to different selectable grades.

8. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 7, in which the indicator comprises a lever movable between a series of positions.

9. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 8, having resiliently loaded locking means for holding the lever in each selectable position.

10. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, incorporating sensing means for sensing the selected condition of each indicator after it has travelled through its path and for issuing a signal in response to the detected condition to control apparatus.

11. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 10, when dependent on Claim 8 or Claim 9, in which the sensing means comprises a series of stationary sensors one for each of the selectable positions, each being adapted to be actuated by. the passage of a lever set in the position associated with that sensor.

12. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 11, in which a stationary article position sensor is provided which is adapted to sense the passage of each article position and to give a signal to control apparatus.

13. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 12, in which the control apparatus is adapted on receiving a signal from the article position sensor, to open a gate for a signal from the sensing means, the arrangement being such that the sensing means signal derived from a particular indicator is associated by the control apparatus with the signal received from the article position sensor which is derived from that article position with which that indicator is associated.

15. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, in which the indicator is itself mounted on an endless conveyor parallel with the article conveyor.

16. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which the article positions on the conveyor are provided by hooks or shackles from which the carcasses can be suspended.

17. Grading apparatus constructed and arranged substantially as herein described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.