EP0127459A2

EP0127459A2 - Packaging machine

Info

Publication number: EP0127459A2
Application number: EP84303546A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Richard Payne
Original assignee: Thurne Engineering Co Ltd
Current assignee: Thurne Engineering Co Ltd
Priority date: 1983-05-27
Filing date: 1984-05-25
Publication date: 1984-12-05
Also published as: GB8314763D0; EP0127459A3; JPS602417A

Abstract

A packaging line, particularly one for packaging sliced meats in vacuum packs includes a first conveyor (17) for carrying at equally spaced pitches a series of locations to be filled, a second conveyor (15) for carrying spaced products (a, b, c, d, e) to be packaged and a transfer conveyor (16) to transfer products (a, b, c, d, e) from the second conveyor (15) to the first conveyor (17). The line includes means (20) to match the movement of the transfer conveyor (16) with that of eitherthe first (17) orthe second conveyor (15), a first detector (D1) adjacent the downstream end of the second conveyor (15) for detecting the presence of a product (a) adjacent the downstream end of the second conveyor (15), a second detector (D2) for detecting the presence of a product (a) on the transfer conveyor (16), and control means to control the means (20) to match the movement of the transfer conveyor (16) with that of either the first (17) orthe second (15) conveyor so that the second (15) and transfer (16) conveyors move together to move a first product from adjacent the first detector (D1) onto the transfer conveyor (16). The control means also stop the transfer conveyor (16) when the first product (a) reaches the second detector (D2) and stop the first conveyor (17) when a second product (b) reaches the first detector (D1). The control means subsequently moves the transfer conveyor (16) and the first conveyor (17) together to feed the first product (a) into a location on the first conveyor (17).

Description

This invention relates to packaging machines and in particular relates to packaging machines for packaging sliced meats in vacuum packs. Groups of slices of meat have to be placed accurately in pockets of a pocketed web or in particular locations on a plain web of plastics material upstream from a vacuum packaging machine so that as the web and groups pass through the vacuum packaging machine they are formed into evacuated sealed plastics packs. At present, the groups of slices of meat are usually placed in the pockets or placed in a precise location on the plastics web manually. Groups of slices are brought, after being sliced, grouped and weighed, to a belt .conveyor which terminates immediately above the web of material leading to the packaging machine with the conveyor being arranged to feed the groups of slices until they reach its downstream end and then hold the groups in this position until they are transferred manually. It is also known to feed groups of slices onto the plastics web leading to the vacuum packaging machine directly from an upstream conveyor coupled to the vacuum packaging machine to move in synchronism with the web leading to the vacuum packaging machine. In this case, the groups of slices are placed manually into precise locations on this upstream conveyor but having been placed on the upstream conveyor they are then deposited in the required position on the web leading to the vacuum packaging machine automatically. Thus, at present, in all existing systems, the groups of slices have to be transferred manually at some point or other into a precisely controlled location to ensure that they are subsequently placed in the correct position to enable conveyor has been stopped when the first product reaches the second detector and the first conveyor has been stopped after the second product reaches the first detector, the second and transfer conveyors again move together to move the second product from adjacent the first detector onto the transfer conveyor and to stop the transfer conveyor when the first product reaches the third detector, the first conveyor being stopped when a third product reaches the first detector. In this case, only after this situation is reached does the transfer conveyor move together with the first conveyor to feed both the first and second products into locations on the first conveyor. Naturally, if the packaging machine packages more than two products simultaneously the transfer conveyor and the second conveyor move together to transfer more than two products to the transfer conveyor before discharging the contents of the transfer conveyor onto their corresponding locations on the first conveyor.
Naturally, which of the transfer conveyor and the second conveyor stops first after a product has been transferred from the second conveyor to the transfer conveyor depends upon the relative pitch of the products on the second conveyor as compared with the relative pitch of the locations on the first conveyor. In general, the pitches of the products on the first and second conveyors is completely immaterial provided that, where the transfer conveyor has to convey more than one product,, at a time, it has sufficient length to accommodate the appropriate number of products to be packaged at the spacing corresponding to that of the locations on the first conveyor.
The transfer conveyor may have its own separate and indpendent drive and be coupled to the first and second conveyors by conventional electronic, pneumatic or hydraulic methods to ensure that the transfer conveyor runs at precisely the same speed as either the first or second conveyor. Alternatively, the transfer conveyor may be a free running conveyor and the means to match the movement of the transfer conveyor with that of either the first or the second conveyor may include a pair of clutches coupling the transfer conveyor to the drive of the first or second conveyors so that the transfer conveyor is directly mechanically coupled through the clutches to either the first or the second conveyor.
A particular example of a packaging line in accordance with this invention for packaging sliced meats will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a complete meat packaging line;
Figure 2 is a diagrammatic plan of the first, second and transfer conveyors together with their drive mechanism;
Figures 3 to 10 are schematic diagrams showing the sequence of operation of a first example of transfer conveyor, transferring only a single product at a time; and,
Figures 11 to 22 are a sequence of diagrams showing the operation of the transfer conveyor when transferring two products at the same time.

The packaging line comprises a slicer 10 which includes a jump conveyor to form shingled groups of slices. From the jump conveyor the groups of slices are fed to a check weigher 11 which is connected in a feedback loop with the slicer 10 to ensure that groups of the correct weight are cut by the slicer 10. The groups of slices are then fed to a channeliser 12 which directs the groups of slices into one of three separate lanes formed on a row synchroniser 13. When each of the lanes in the row synchroniser 13 are loaded with a product the synchroniser 13 moves forward to transfer the three lanes of product on to a two tier storage conveyor 14. The three lanes of product are fed from the two tier storage conveyor to the infeed conveyor 15 and then via a transfer conveyor 16 to a plastics web 17 leading into a vacuum packaging machine 18. The vacuum packaging machine 18 handles products in each of the three lanes simultaneously and may be arranged to handle two successive groups of three products simultaneously.
Transfer conveyor 16 is a slave conveyor and has its drive roller 19 connected to a double clutch unit 20. The double clutch unit 20 may be that sold by Simplatroll Ltd., of Bedford, England under their stock no. 17195. It consists of a central shaft 21 which is connected to the drive roller 19 and which can be driven from the pulley 22 or the pulley 23 depending upon the state of electromagnetically actuated clutches connected between them. The infeed conveyor 15 is driven by a drive belt 24 from a motor 25. The movement of the web 17 through the vacuum packaging machine 18 is driven by a motor 26. The driven shaft of the motor 25 is coupled to the pulley 22 of the double clutch unit 20 by a drive belt 27, and the driven shaft of the motor 26 is coupled to the pulley 23 of the double clutch unit 20 by a drive belt 28.
Thus when the clutch between the pulley 22 and the shaft 21 is engaged the motor 25 drives the infeed conveyor 15 and the transfer conveyor 16 at the same speed. Qqually when the clutch between the pulley 23 and the shaft 21 is engaged the motor 26 drives the vacuum packaging machine 18 and the web 17 and also drives the transfer conveyor 16 with the transfer conveyor 16 moving at the same speed as the web 17.
The operation of the transfer conveyor, the infeed conveyor 15 and the web 17 of the packaging machine 18 will now be described in more detail with reference to the remaining Figures of the drawings. In the remaining Figures of the drawings, the locations in which the products are to be placed on the web 17 are marked and indicated by the reference numeral 2. In the first example illustrated in Figures 3 to 10 two detectors are provided, detector D1 at the downstream end of the conveyor 15 and detector D2 at the downstream end of the transfer conveyor 16. In the first operation illustrated in Figure 3 the conveyor 15 is operated to move products a, b, towards the downstream end of the conveyor 15. This is continued until the first product a reaches the detector Dl but at this point the conveyor 15 is stopped. This is shown in Figure 4. The transfer conveyor 16 and the conveyor 15 are now coupled together and both driven to transfer the first product a from conveyor 15 to the transfer conveyor 16. This is illustrated in Figure 5. Both conveyors 15 and 16 continue to move until the next product b reaches detector D1 or the product a reaches detector D2, whichever occurs first. In this first example, product b reaches detector Dl first as shown in Figure 6 and transfer conveyor 16 continues to operate until product a reaches detector D2. Naturally to enable the transfer conveyor 16 to do this it would have to be capable of being driven independently from the conveyor 15. However this depends upon the length of conveyor 16, the separation of detectors D1 and D2 and the separation of the products a, b and c on conveyor 15. In practice in this example the product a reaches D2 before product b reaches DI. When the product a reaches detector D2 the conveyor 16 is stopped and this is the position shown in Figure 7.
The next operation that takes place is the movement of the web 17 into the vacuum packaging machine. this point the transfer conveyor 16 is coupled to the web 17 to move together with the web 17 to transfer the product a from the conveyor 16 onto the web 17 as shown in Figure 8. At the completion of the stepwise movement of the web 17 the transfer conveyor 16 is once again decoupled from the web 17 and coupled to conveyor 15 so that it moves with conveyor 15 to transfer the next product b, from conveyor 15 to conveyor 16 as shown in Figure 9. Both conveyors 15 and 16 continue to move until the next product, c, reaches detector D1 as shown in Figure 10 which is analogous to the situation shown in Figure 6 and the process described with reference to Figures 6 to 9 is then repeated for each product.
When the packaging machine 18 handles two successive groups of products in each lane simultaneously; two separate products must be marshalled onto the transfer conveyor 16 to enable these two sets to be transferred simultaneously into the packaging machine 18. The operation of the transfer conveyor in this case will now be described with reference to Figures 11 to 22.
In this example, the second detector D2 is located part of the way along the transfer conveyor 16 and an additional detector, D3 is located at the downstream end of the transfer conveyor 16. Groups of products a, b, and c are fed along the conveyor 15 as shown in Figure 11 until the leading product a, reaches the detector Dl. At this point conveyor 15 is stopped as shown in Figure 12. Conveyors 15 and 16 are then coupled together and moved together to transfer the first product a from the conveyor 15 to the conveyor 16 as shown in Figure 13. As soon as the product a reaches detector D2 the transfer conveyor 16 is stopped but the conveyor 15 continues to operate until the second product b reaches detector Dl as shown in Figure 14. As soon as the second product b reaches detector Dl the conveyor 15 is stopped as shown in Figure 15. The conveyors 15 and 16 are then coupled together again and moved together to transfer the second product b onto the transfer conveyor 16. Transfer conveyor 16 continues to move with the conveyor 15 until the first product a reaches the third detector D3. As soon as this happens the transfer conveyor 16 is stopped but the conveyor 15 continues to operate as shown in Figure 17 until the third product c reaches the detector D1 as shown in Figure 18.
The transfer conveyor 16 is then coupled to the web 17 to transfer both the product a and the product b from the transfer conveyor 16 onto the locations 2 on web 17 as shown in Figures 19 and 20. As soon as the movement of the web 17 has been completed the transfer conveyor 16 is again coupled to the conveyor 15 and both are operated together to transfer the product c from the conveyor 15 onto the conveyor 16 as shown in Figure 21. Once the product c reaches detector D2 the transfer conveyor 16 is stopped as shown in Figure 22 which corresponds to Figure 13. The cycle of steps as described with reference to Figures 13 to 20 is then repeated to transfer products c and d onto the web 17.

Claims

1. A packaging line including a first conveyor (17) for carrying at equally spaced pitches a series of locations (2) to be filled, and a second conveyor (15) for carrying spaced products (a, b, c, d, e) to be packaged, characterised by a transfer conveyor (16) to transfer products from the second conveyor (15) to the first conveyor (17), the transfer conveyor (16) including means (20) to match its movement with that of either the first (17) or the second conveyor (15), a first detector (Dl) adjacent the downstream end of the second conveyor (15) for detecting the presence of a product (a, b, c, d, e) adjacent the downstream end of the second conveyor (15), a second detector (D2) for detecting the presence of a product (a, b, c, d, e) on the transfer conveyor (16), and control means to control the means to match the movement of the transfer conveyor (16) with that of either the first (17) or the second (15) conveyor so that the second (15) and transfer (16) conveyors move together to move a first product (a) from adjacent the first detector (Dl) onto the transfer conveyor (16), the transfer conveyor (16) being stopped when the first product (a) reaches the second detector (D2) and the first conveyor (17) being stopped when a second product (b) reaches the first detector (Dl), the control means subsequently moving the transfer conveyor (16) together with the first conveyor (17) to feed the first product (a) into a location (2) on the first conveyor (17).

2. A packaging line according to claim 1, in which the transfer conveyor (16) accommodates two or more products (a, b, c, d, e) to be packaged and transfers these two or more products (a, b, c, d, e) during each transfer operation, and which includes a third detector (D3) located at the downstream end of the transfer conveyor (16) for detecting the presence of a product (a, c, e) ₃djacent the downstream end of the transfer conveyor (16), and in which the control means is arranged so that after the transfer conveyor (16) has been stopped when the first product (a) reaches the second detector (D2) and the first conveyor (17) has been stopped after the second product (b) reaches the first detector (Dl), the second (15) and transfer (16) conveyors again move together to move the second product (b) from adjacent the first detector (Dl) onto the transfer conveyor (16) and to stop the transfer conveyor (16) when the first product (a) reaches the third detector (D3), the second conveyor (17) then being stopped when a third product (c) reaches the first detector (Dl), the control means subsequently moving the transfer conveyor (16) together with the first conveyor (17) to feed the first (a) and second (b) product into locations (2) on the first conveyor (17).

3. A packaging line according to claim 1 or 2, in which the transfer conveyor (16) has its own separate and independent drive and is coupled to the first (17) and second (15) conveyors by electronic, pneumatic or hydraulic couplers to ensure that the transfer conveyor (16) runs at precisely the same speed as either the first (14) or second (15) conveyor.

4. A packaging line according to claim 1 or 2, in which the transfer conveyor (16) is a free running conveyor and the means to match the movement of the transfer conveyor (16) with that of either the first (17) or the second (15) conveyor includes a pair of clutches (20) coupling the transfer conveyor (16) to a drive (26, 25) of the first (17) and second (15) conveyors so that the transfer conveyor (16) is directly mechanically coupled through the clutches (20) to either the first (17) or the second (15) conveyor.

5. A packaging line according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the first conveyor (17) forms part of a vacuum packaging machine (18).

6. A packaging line according to any one of the preceding claims, which also includes a product accumulator (14) upstream of the second conveyor (15) to enable the feed of products along the second conveyor (15) to be substantially independent of the supply of products.

7. A packaging line for packaging sliced meats comprising a packaging line according to claim 6, in combination with a slicing machine (10) upstream of the product accumulator (14).