CA1061371A - Article counting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A counting and grouping apparatus for receiving articles such as fruit, marchalling the articles so as to fill up a number of parallel supply lines for presenting a number of the articles in line abreast in the leading positions in the supply lines, the number in the line abreast being equal to (or a fraction or multiple of) the number of articles to be counted into a group and a moving belt conveyor bearing at intervals along its length lines of fingers in line abreast across the belt, which fingers align with the leading position of the supply lines and shift the line of articles in said leading positions on to the conveyor belt as the fingers pass the exit ends of the supply lines.
Gates are described for blocking one or more of the supply lines to control the number.
The fingers have an upright operating position for picking off the articles and a non-operating position folded down on to the belt. The number in the final group can thus be varied by adjusting the number of fingers in each line which are in an operating position.
Each group is collated from line abreast into a serial sequence for presentation to subsequent handling equipment.

Description

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Field of the Invention ::.
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This invention concerns article counting apparatus ...
particularly but not exclusively designed for counting ~ . .
citrus fruits into groups containing a selected number of fruits.
The invention is of particular application in the food packaging industry where it is often desired to count fruit or vegetables into groups having equal numbers of : the fruit or vegetables in each group ready for packaging either in plastic bags or in the case of citrus fruits, in netting.
Backgrou_d of the Invention Equipment is available for packaging collated articles provided the required number of articles are presented to the equipment for each packaging operation. It i5 thus necessary to collate or count articles into groups for , presentation to such equipment~ ..
Summary of Invention According to one.aspect of the invention there is 20 provided apparatus for counting articles supplied thereto . -and releasing said articles in groups having the same number of articles in each group, comprising in com-bination: means for supplying the said article to a grouping station; a plurality of guides at the grouping station separating the articles into a correspondin.
plurality of lines; endless belt conveyor means, having -, mounted thereon upstanding fingers in lines abreast across the belt, the lines being spaced apart along the length of the belt, for removing from a first position in each of said lines of said articles the foremost article in each line and conveying the articles so removed to a collating .
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device, said collating device being for dispening the grouped articles in sequence instead of line abreast; each ; of said upstanding fingers being hingeably mounted to said endless belt conveyor means to occupy and to be held in one of two selected positions, a first upright position in which an article at the first position of a line of .
articles in said grouping station will be removed by a ~:
finger as it passes the station and a second non-operative :
position in which a finger is in a lowered position relative to the surface of the said endless belt so that it will not pick up an article as the grouping station is passed such that the width of the endless belt conveyor .~ means bearing the upstanding fingers in line across can be ' reduced for any of a number of articles to be counted; and means for driving said endless belt conveyor means.
; It is an advantage of the present invention, at least in preferred forms, that it can provide a counting and ~ collating system for feeding citrus fruits to a fruit ,i~ netting machine of the type manufactured by Spang Brands of Overusel, West Germany.
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It is to he understood howevex that this application i9 only ~ ;
cited by way of example and the equipment to ~e descri~ed in this specification is of general application in the counting and collating of articles oE similar general shape and sub-stantially similar size.
The means for supplying the articles to the grouping station may simply comprise a hopper with or without an escape-ment mechanism for maintaining filled the lines of articles formed by the grouping station or a conveyor belt forming the end of a processing line of for example a fruit grading facility in which fruit are sorted either automatically or by hand and - according to size deposited on two or more different conveyor belts which then for example supply separate grouping stations ; of separate article counting apparatus according to the invention.
The gro~lpLng station may comprise a moving belt which cooperates with guides to assemble the articles in lines between the guides ready for the articles in the leading positions to be removed by the article engaging fingers on the conveyor means.
' ~lternatively and preferably the grouping station may comprise an inclined tray having guides which overlie or are integrally formed with the tray and the articles are deposited onto the upper end of the tray so as to roll down the paths defined by the guides so as to form the said lines of articles.
Each article path through the grouping station may include as a part thereof a stretched endless belt which is driven so as to move in the direction in which the articles are to move through the grouping station, In this way the passage of articles is assisted.
Tufts of bristles may be located at intervals along .. .. .
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endless belts and each belt is preferably located so that the bristles make a gentle rubbing contact with the underside of the ~rticles in the grouping station to gently agitate the articles therethrough. , According to a further preferred feature the grouping station may comprise a tray formed from a plurality of pairs of parallel rails along which the articles can roll and between each pair of which is located the said endless belt bearing the tufts of bristles. By rigidly joining the ', pairs of rails together, the integral unit can be raised or lowered relative the endless belts to increase or decrease the contact with the articles by the belts and/or bristles.
; Preferably the conveyor means cornprises a conveyor belt having mounted thereon upstanding fingers in line abreast across the conveyor belt spaced along the length thereof. Typically the lateral spacing between the fingers is less than the normally expected diameter or lateral dimension of any oE the articles the apparakus is likely to be expected , ' to handle.
The conveyor means may be horizontal or vertical or may be inclined ; thereto.
According to another preferred featura of the present invention the width of the conveyor means bearing the article engaging fingers in line there-across can be reduced for any given number of articles to be counted, by arranging the lines of article engaging fin~er~ in groups of n (where n is two or more) and arranging that the collating means is responsive to articles from n successive lines acro6s ~aid conveyor means to form the collated group. Thus if the apparatus is to be capable of counting ten articles this can be achieved either by using a con~eyor of sufficient width to all~w ten artic]e engaging fingers to be arranged in a single .

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line thereacros6 or a conveyor of half that width may be used with the ; ten fingers arranged in two rows of five. Each two rows of five fingers may be spaced along the length of the conveyor belt by a relatively short distance compared to the spacing along the length of the conveyor belt between one pair of rows and the next.
According to another preferred feature of the present invention the ~umber of articles in a group may be ~aried by providing that each article , engaging finger can occupy a first upright position for removing articles -i from the grouping station or can be lowered to a second non-operative position in which no articles will be removed by that finger from the grouping station. By using this facility one or more of the article engaginB fingers in A line acros9 the conveyor can be rendered inoperative so as to reduce the number of articles which that line will pick up 60 that just the required number of articles will be formed in each group.
According to a further preferred feature of the present invention tunnel guards are provided over at least some of the length of each path throueh the apparatus to raduce the risk of accident and lo~s of articles as by falling off. Conveniently a separate guard is provided for each line of articles across the width of the conveyor and preferably the plurality of guard6 so required are linked together 80 as to form an integral unit which can be mount~d on and demounted from the apparatus.
Preferably the mounting allows for adjustment of the helght o~ the guard relat$ve to the particular part of the article conveying path over which . ~, .
the guard lies.
According to another preferred feature of the invention, weight sensi-tive switch means is provided in each path between the guides and an elec- -trical mechanical interlock is provided to either inhibit the release of :.

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Mean6 may be provided for adjusting the lateral 6pacing between the guides in the grouping means to alter the width of the paths along which the articles are constrained to travel. l'his adjustment may be by way of removing alternate ones of said guides or by replacing an integrally formed array of guides with another integrally formed array.
Preferably means is provided for rendering non-operational selected ones of the paths formed by the guides. This may be achieved by prevent- -ing the establish~ent of selected one6 of the lines of articles or gate means may be provided at the exit end of each said path to optionally allow articles from that path to pass to the conveyor mean~ or to be inhibited froM so pa~sing.
Whcre the conveyor means supplie6 articles to a followin~ machine for automatically packaging the articles, sen~ing means is preferably ; provided adjacent the said second conveyor means to determine when articles are carried thereon to generate an electrical or other suitable signal for indicating to the following machine that a group of articles will 6hortly be pre6ented there~o for packaging. In this way the follow-ing machine can be rendered quie~cent except when called into operation by a signal from the sensing means.
; Brief description of the drawings The invention will now be de6cribed by way of example with reference to the accompanying arawings in which:-Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of the invention asapplied to apparatus for grouping fruit into groups of know~ size, Fig. 2 i~ a plan view of the apparatus of Fig. 1 with variou6 covers ` ' ' ~6~L371 etc. removed.
Fig. 3 is a perspective vlew illustratlng one form of multiple cover guards whlch may be fixed to the Fig. 1 embodiment, , Fig. 4 is a cross-section to an enlarged scale through ~' -an endless belt in the article grouping station of the embodiment of Fig. 1, ,,' -Fig. 5a is a side elevation of part of the apparatus ,' of Fig. 1, and ,~ 10 Fig~ 5b is a circuit diagram lndicating an electrical interlock arrangement for preventing operation of the apparatus until a full group of articles is available to be conveyed from the grouping station.
It is to be understood that the embodiment lllustrated in the drawings is one example only of a realisation of the invention and lt is not limited to this particular form of construction.
Description of'the preferre'd embodiment ,' .:, .
- Referring to the drawings and in particular Figs. 1 and

2, there is shown a feed conveyor lO on which fruit 12 are deposited ', ,' 'following initial sortlng by hand. The conveyor 10 presents the ; ' ~ fruit to the upper end of a tray 14. The feed conveyor 10 does ' ~

,' not'necessarily form part of the invention and can be replaced by ' '' , a hopper (not shown) for supplying fruit to the upper end of the '`
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' The tray 14 is better seen in the plan view of Fig. 2 ,' ; from which it will be seen that the tray is divided into ten parallel paths 18 by a series of parallel guides 20 which extend over the length of the tray. The spaclng between the guides 20 is chosen to correspond ~ith the maximum diameter of the fruit which is l~kely to be presented to the tray. If desired, the . .

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guides 20 may be removable from the tray 14 so that the widths of the path`s lô may be altered. The number of paths for the fruit through the tray 14 is made equal to the number of fruit required in the final group to be obtained fro~ the machine (or to a sub-multiple thereof). Where a fixed tray is - 7a -, .
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-L37~ -provided, the variation in the number of paths is most simply obtained by blocking off one or more of the paths. Alternatively although not shown, means may be provided for preventing the exit of fruit from the lower end of the tray 14 from certain ones of the paths 18.
Along the lower edge of the tray and at the lower end of each of the paths 18 are located fingers of wire 22 which extend in the direction of the paths and act a~ a catchment for the fruit which roll down the paths 18. As be6t seen in ~ig. 1 each of the fingsrs 22 18 bent to define a shallow V shape 80 that the lowermost fruit in each path rests in the trough formed by the fingers 22.
~ urning now again to Fig. 1 in particular, the fruit is picked up from a catchment formed by the fin~ers 22 by means of lines of fingers 24 carried on and upstanding from bars 26 which extend across and form . ..
part of a conveyor belt of an elevating conveyor general]y de6ignated 28. The fingers 24 can be folded down individually to alter the number of fruit picked up by a line thereof. ~he transversely extending lines : -of fingers 24 are spaced apart along the length of the conveyor belt of an elevating conveyor 28 so that the groups of fruit picked up thereon arrive at the upper end of the elevating conveyor at the appropriate frequency to enable the following equipment (not shown in detail) to j accommodate them. The ~peed of the elevating conveyor is thu6 made adJu6table by means of a gear box (not shown) or a variable speed electric motor such as 3D. A positive drive is provided between the motor (and/or gear box) by mean6 of a chain drive 32 which extends around a sprocket wheel 34 on the upper shaft of the elevating conveyor.
A chute generally design~ted 36 is arranged just below the upper --end of the elevating conveyor 28 to receive the fruit a6 it i8 tipped ~
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from the belt as the latter turns around at the u~per end of the elevator. Preferably the chute 35 is in the form of a funnel so that the group of fruit which is presented to it in line abreast i8 then caused to converge and form A single line of fruit for presentation in sequence one fruit at a time to the following equipment (not shown). In this connection the embodiment described in the drawings is of particular application for feeding citrus fruit to a netting machine as produced by Spang Brands of Oberusel, West Germany.
A plurality of cover guards 50 are arranged in a parallel array (see Fig. ~) and suspended above the tray 14 forming the grouping station.
One guard 50 is provided for each path across the tray 14 and the guard6 50 are ~uspended from a pair of transverse strut6 52 and 54 by means of rigid links 56. ~he array of guards 50 can thus be handled as a sLngle unit and is adapted to be mounted above the tray 14 by locating the ends of the struts 52 and 54 in open-ended slots 58 formed in the upwardly facing edges of guard 6upports 60 located at intervals along the length of the tray 14. It will be seen that the unit can be removed from the apparatus simply by lifting in an upward direction so that the e~ds of the struts 52 and 54 clear the slots 5~.
The guards 50 not only ~erve the purpose of restricting the layer~
i of fruit to sin~le layers but Rlso reduce the risk of injury to machine operators and reduce the risk of fru:Lt loss due to accidental falling off.
It will be seen that the height of the guards 50 above the tray 14 -`
can be adju~ted by selecting an appropriate one of the slots 58 in the supports in which to Lnsert the ends of the struts 52 and 54.
Si~ilar cover guards generally designated 50' and 50" are arranged ` over the elevating conveyor designated 28.

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:' The width of the conveyor belt of the elevating conveyor 28 can be sub6tantially reduced by arranging the ten fingers in two rows of five as shown in lines 24 and 25 of Fig. 1. In t~s event the article collating device in the form of the chute 36 and subsequent equipMent must be arranged to be responsive to the fruit fro~ two such rows 24 and 25 to form the collated group.
The fingers in each of the lines 24 and 25 can be folded down ; parallel to the conveyor belt as shown in dotted outline at 24' and 25' in Fig. 1 hereof so as not to pick up articles from the grouping station or can be left in their upright position so as to collect articles.
The tray 14 is formed from a plurality of parallel elongate memb~rs 19 which constitute rails on which the fruit can roll and in the space between each pair of rail6 i8 located an endless belt 61. The belts 61 are driven from the bottom roller of the main elevator 28 and are driven so that the upper section of each belt as viewed in Fig. 1 moves in a generally downward direction and thereby urges the fruit in a downward direction also.
To assist the agitation of the fruit the belt is formed with tufts of bristle~ at intervals along its length and one such tuft i8 shown in ~ 20 Fig. 4 of the drawings. The tuft of the bristles is inserted into the belt throu~h a hole for~ed at 62 and the tuft 64 i8 held therein by means of wire and adhesive on the under~ide at 66.
Ad~ustment is provided in the mo7mting6 687 70 for the tray 14 to allow the latter to be moved up or down relative to the plane of the , endless belt 61 so as to increase or decrease contact between the fruit ,, and the belt (and/or bristles).
~ Referring now to Fig. 5a there is shown a modification which may be ',', ': ' ~.

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made to the tray 14 of Figs. 1 and 2. The modification consists in providing a weight sensitive hinged pressure plate so~e two-thirds up each of the path~. Each plate 38 is urged slightly proud of the ~urface of the tray by the action of a microswitch 40 located beneath each path.
However the force exerted in an upward direction on each plate 38 i9 arranged to be less than the weight component actin~ in the ~ame direc-tio~ caused by an article such as a stationary fruit located at least in part on the plate 38 and in that event the plate 38 will be depressed and the microswitch 40 operated whenever a fruit rests thereon.
As seen from the circuit diagrarn of Fi~. 5b, the microswitches across the width of the tray 14 are all connected in 6eries so that the circuit containing them can only bs completed when all the microswitches 40 are operated. This oan only happen when a fruit is lying above the pre6sure plate 38 on each of the paths bhrough the grouping station.
Unless an overslze fruit has become wedged above the plate 38, this situation can only obtain if each path through the grouping 6tation is completely full of fruit at lea6t up to the point in each path at which the pre6sure plate 38 is situated. Thus the electrical circuit which includes the microswitches 40 can only be completed when at l~ast that portion of each of the paths across the tray is full of fruit and the circuit ~erve~ to control the supply of electric current to a contactor coil 42 the contacts of which oontrol the supply of operating current to the electric ~otor 30 which operates the elevating conveyor 28.
An on/off witch 44 iB also provided in the oircuit. The alevating conveyor can thus only be operated by its motor 30 when the tray 14 i8 suitably filled with fruit ready for despatch on the conveyor 28.
AB a corollary, if any of the paths on the tray 14 become less full .
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than the point marked by the position of the weight sensing plate 38, the conveyor 28 will stop.
A further refinement is provided by means of a separately operated switch in parallel with each of the normally open microswitches 40.
These additional switches are denoted by reference numeral 46 in the circuit diagram. The action of each additional switch 46 is, when closed, to short out the microswitch across which it is connected ~o that if that microswitch remains open circuit or becomes open circuit, the conveyor motor 30 is not stopped. '~his is important since in the event that one or other of the paths 18 is to be blanked off so that no fruit can lie in it, the microswitch for that path will never become operative since no fruit will ever lie above it.
A further refinement comprises the provision of an article sen6ing meo~ni~m such as a light beam and photocell at a point along the path of the elevating conveyor such that an electrical signal is generated when a line of fruit passes the sen~ing location. '~his alectrical signal ~ -can then be used to set into operation the following equipment Snot shown) which can thus be retained in a quiescent state until fruit is about to bo delivered from the oonveyor 2B ~d hopper ~6 ~, ~

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Claims (9)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Apparatus for counting articles supplied thereto and releasing said articles in groups having the same number of articles in each group, comprising in combination:
means for supplying the said article to a grouping station;
a plurality of guides at the grouping station separating the articles into a corresponding plurality of lines;
endless belt conveyor means, having mounted thereon upstanding fingers in lines abreast across the belt, the lines being spaced apart along the length of the belt, for removing from a first position in each of said lines of said articles the foremost article in each line and conveying the articles so removed to a collating device, said collating device being for dispening the grouped articles in sequence instead of line abreast;
each of said upstanding fingers being hingeably mounted to said endless belt conveyor means to occupy and to be held in one of two selected positions, a first upright position in which an article at the first position of a line of articles in said grouping station will be removed by a finger as it passes the station and a second non-operative position in which a finger is in a lowered position relative to the surface of the said endless belt so that it will not pick up an article as the grouping station is passed such that the width of the endless belt conveyor means bearing the upstanding fingers in line across can be reduced for any of a number of articles to be counted; and means for driving said endless belt conveyor means.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the grouping station comprises an inclined tray and the guides overlie the tray.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 comprising, in com-bination, one or more stretched endless belts and means for driving each belt so that it moves in the direction in which the articles are to move through the grouping station, each belt forming part of an article path through the grouping station.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 further comprising, in combination, tufts of bristles which are located at intervals along each of said endless belts, and means for positioning each belt so that the bristles make a gentle rubbing contact with the underside of articles in the grouping station to gently agitate the articles therethrough.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein the grouping station comprises a tray formed from a plurality of parallel rails along which the articles can roll and between each pair of which is located one of said endless belts bearing the tufts of bristles.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 further comprising, in combination, means for adjusting the tray relative to the endless belts to control the contact between the articles and the belts and bristles.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 further comprising, in combination, tunnel guards over at least some of the length of the article paths through the grouping station and over the endless belt conveyor means.

8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 further comprising, in combination, weight sensitive switch means in each article path through the grouping station, said weight sensitive switch means being adapted to generate a signal to stop the conveyor means and generate an alarm signal in the absence of articles on the grouping station.

9. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the guides are removable to alter the widths of the article paths through the grouping station.