EP0233668B1

EP0233668B1 - Device for applying a frame on a pallet

Info

Publication number: EP0233668B1
Application number: EP87200164A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Uitert Johannes Hendrikus Van
Original assignee: Speciaal-Machinefabriek Jh Van Uitert Bv
Current assignee: Speciaal-Machinefabriek Jh Van Uitert Bv
Priority date: 1986-02-11
Filing date: 1987-02-03
Publication date: 1990-08-08
Anticipated expiration: 2007-02-03
Also published as: DE3764109D1; EP0233668A1; ES2016613B3; NL8600332A; ATE55340T1

Abstract

A device for applying a rectangular frame (5) consisting of angled profiles (6) around the upper rim of a pallet (26), comprising a number of upper and lower centring members (1,2) spaced apart around the four sides of a pallet (26) and of a frame (5), the upper centring member (1) comprising a leg (7) extending downwards from a pivot shaft (4) and being provided with a guiding cam (8) for the frame (5) being brought into the device, said lower centring member (2) consisting of an upwardly extending pivotable arm (10,14) comprising a support surface (25) for the frame (5) and carrying a leaf spring (18) extending obliquely upward from said arm (14), means being provided to move the pallet (26) upwards into said frame (5) in such a way that the leaf springs are received into the space (28) between said frame (5) and said pallet (26).

Description

The invention relates to a device for applying a rectangular frame consisting of angled profiles around the upper rim of a pallet.
When a pallet is used for the transport of cans, these cans are positioned in a number of layers, whereafter a rectangular frame consisting of angled profiles is positioned around and onto the upper layer of cans. This frame is connected to the pallet in one way or another in order to prevent that cans may drop from the pallet during transport.
When afterwards the cans have to be removed from the pallet first the frame is lifted, whereafter the cans can be taken away. Thereafter the frame is placed on the pallet and preferably in such a way that the frame extends around and onto the upper rim of the pallet. This assembly can be passed to a storage yard till it is used again.
In practice it appears to occur rather often that the frame is not accurately applied on the upper rim of the pallet. This causes disadvantages for the storage of a number of pallets, which have to be stacked one on top of the other.
Now the object of the invention is to remove these disadvantages and to that end provides a device which is characterized in that the device comprises a mainly rectangular horizontally positioned frame work, within which said frame and said pallet can be positioned the one above the other, and at least four centring means spaced apart around the four sides of said frame work, each of said centring means consisting of an upper and a lower centring member, said upper and lower centring members being pivotally mounted to shafts connected to said frame work and running parallel to each other and in horizontally planes one above the other, each of said upper centring members comprising a leg extending downwards from its pivot shaft and the lower portion of said leg extending mainly inwardly into said frame work for obtaining a guiding cam for the frame to be handled, which leg can be, by mechanical means pivoted between a position in which the distance between the guiding cams of two opposite upper centring members is smaller than the width of the frame to be handled and a position in which this distance is such that the frame may pass said upper centring members, each of said lower centring members consisting of an arm exteding upwards from said pivot shaft, said arm comprising a support surface for the frame to be handled positioned such that in the most inwardly pivoted position of said lower centring members the distance between two opposite support surfaces is such that opposite angled profiles of a frame to be handled will be supported by said surfaces just after said frame has passed the guiding cams of said upper centring members, said arm further carrying a leaf spring extending obliquely upward from said arm and inwardly into said frame work such that it is lying inwardly in respect of said support surface, said arm being biased inwardly into said frame work in such a way that in the most inwardly position of said arm the distance between two opposite leaf springs will be smaller than the dimensions of a pallet to be handled in said direction, the dimension of the leaf springs in mainly horizontal direction normal to the vertical plane running through the pivot shaft of the lower centring member being such that the leaf spring can be received between the inner surface of a vertical leg of a angled profile of said frame work and the vertical wall of a pallet to be handled.
When using a device according to the present invention a frame will be brought downwardly onto the guiding cams of the upper centring means when the legs of these are extending substantially vertically downwards from the pivot shafts. By said guiding cams the frame will be centred and will move along the guiding cams downwardly onto the support surfaces of the lower centring members. The leaf springs of these lower centring means will be positioned within the angled profiles of said frame and will be at some distance from the related profile. Now a pallet is moved upwardly to the frame and during this it is guided by the leaf springs which are gradually biased towards the inner side walls of the frame. In this way a proper guidance of the pallet is obtained so that the frame will fit over it in the right way.
Obviously at least four sets of centring members will be needed to with one at each side of said frame work to obtain a proper guidance of a frame and a pallet. It might by recommendable in certain circumstances to use two sets of centring members near at least one side of the frame work.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention it can be provided that the lower surface of the cam of the leg of the upper centring member has the shape of a circle segment, such that this circular portion, in the most inwardly pivoted position of said upper centring member, will be present above the support surface of the lower centring member when this member is pivoted to its most outwardly position in respect of the frame work.
By moving the legs of the upper centring members after a frame is passed and has arrived on the support surfaces of the lower centring members, the circular portions of the upper centring members can be brought above the frame. In this way it is avoided that the frame is lifted by the pallet before the pallet is completely moved into the frame.
Pivoting of the leg might be used as well to check whether the frame has come to rest on the support surfaces of the lower centring members. If the framework should still be present, either completely or partly, on the legs of the upper centring members, no inward pivoting of all the legs would be possible and the device might be stopped.
According to a further elaboration of the invention the lower centring member comprises two side plates with a support block between them, said block carrying the leaf spring and being pivotable in respect of the side plates and being biased by means of a spring to a pivoted position inwardly of the frame, the rotation of said block being limited by abutments, said side plates being positioned on either side of the leg of an upper centring member.
In this way a simple and strong device is obtained in which specific parts of the upper and of the lower centring members are cooperating with each other.
In particular the side plates of the lower centring member will be outwardly pivotable in order to bring the leaf spring outside the formed assembly of pallet and frame so that this assembly can be removed out of the device downwards.
For operating the centring means in particular use will be made of pressurized medium cylinders which are controlled by a relay- or PLC-control.
It can be remarked that by DE-A 3 143 093 a device is known for bringing a rectangular lid onto a box positioned on a fixed support. To that end the upper edge of the side walls of the box are pressed inwardly by means of rotatable supported cams. Said cams are biased towards the position in which they are pressing the upper edge of the side walls of the box inwardly and are moved downward by the lid which is applied on the box from above. So this device is only suitable for bringing a lid onto a box made from a flexible material such as cardboard or such like. So the known device is not suitable for bringing a rectangular frame onto a stiff pallet as is the aim of the present invention.
The invention will now be further elucidated by means of an embodiment represented in the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 schematically shows a side view of the centring means according to the invention together with a cross-section of a portion of a pallet and of a frame when these are brought into the device;
Fig. 2 shows a side view according to Fig. 1 but during moving the pallet into the frame;
Fig. 3 shows a side view according to Fig. 1 and 2 but with the parts in the position during removing the assembly of frame and pallet out of the device;
Fig. 4 schematically shows a top view of a device according to the invention with a frame in it;
Fig. 5 shows a view along the line V-V of Fig. 1.

The figures 1-3 show the centring means of a device according to the invention comprising an upper centring member 1 and a lower centring member 2. The upper centring member 1 is pivotable around a shaft 4 over an angle p shown in Fg. 2, for example by means of a pneumatic cylinder 3. The angle p will be 45° at the most.
As in particular appears from Fig. 4 two sets of upper and lower centring members are present near each side 6 of a frame 5, only the shafts 4 of the upper centring members 1 being indicated.
The upper centring member 1 substantially comprises the leg 7 with a cam portion 8, the upper surface 9 of which is forming a guide for the angled profiles 6 of the frame 5.
The lower centring member 2 comprises the side plates 10, as in particular appears from Fig. 5, a protruding portion 11 of said plates being pivotable supported by means of the shaft 12, while pivoting can take place by means of the pneumatic cylinder 13.
Between the side plates 10 a support block 14 is provided which is pivotable around the shaft 15 in respect of the side plates 10. The support block 14 is composed of the parts 16 and 17 between which the leaf spring 18 is clamped by means of the screws 19, which are screwed into the part 16.
The support block 14 is biased to the position shown in Fig. 1 by means of a spring 20, the other end of which is connected to the protruding portion 11. In said position a protruding portion 21 of the support block 14 engages an abutment 22 of a side plate 10.
The side plates 10 each are provided with an oblique surface 24 near its upper end, said surfaces serving to guide a frame 5 and joining a support surface 25 on which the lower rim of the frame can come to rest.
As appears in particular from Fig. 1 the support block 14 may be pivoted in the direction of arrow P over an angle 8 of about 25_° while the related side plates 10 can be pivoted around the shaft 12 over an angle y, as is in particular shown in Fig. 3. The angle y will be 45° at the most.
It will be clear that the shafts 4 and 12 and the outer ends of the pneumatic cylinders 3 and 13 are supported by portions which can form part of a frame, said frame not being shown in the drawing.
When using the device the procedure is as follows: The upper and lower centring members 1 and 2 respectively are in the position as represented in Fig. 1. A frame 5 now is introduced into the device from above so that it may pass over the slanting edges 9 of the legs 7 to the position 5' as represented with dashed lines in Fig. 1, the lower rim of the frame then resting on the support surfaces 25 of the side plates 10. So during this the frame 5 substantially will move in the direction of arrow A.
After doing this a pallet 26 is moved from below into the device in the direction of the arrow B by means not shown in detail. When doing this the side surfaces 27 of the pallet 26 initially engage the support block 14 and thereafter the leaf springs 18 extending from this block, so that the block 14 will be pivoted in the direction of the arrow P against the force of the spring 20. By this the leaf springs 18 will be received in the space 28 which is present between the vertical inner surface of the angled profile 6 of the frame 5 and the side wall 27 of the pallet 26.
In the meantime the leg 7 of the upper centring member 1 is pivoted counter clockwise from the position shown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2 by means of the pneumatic cylinder 3. When doing so the curved lower surface 29 of the cam 8 of the leg 7 will be positioned above the frame 5 so that when moving the pallet 26 into the frame 5 the latter can not be moved upwards or over a small distance only.
When the pallet 26 is completely moved into the frame 5, as shown in Fig. 2, the leg 7 of the upper centring member 1 is pivoted away by means of the cylinder 3 so that the assembly of frame 5 and pallet 26 can be moved further upwards to remove the springs 18 out of the spaces 28.
Once this has been done the lower centring member 2 is pivoted to the position shown in Fig. 3 by means of the pneumatic cylinder 3 so that the assembly of pallet 26 and frame 5 can move downward to be removed from the device. After this the centring members will reassume the position shown in Fig. 1.
It can be remarked, that the means for bringing the frame 5 and pallet 26 below and above the device respectively and for moving the frame and pallet either separate or together are not shown in the drawing, because for these objects known devices can be used.

Claims

1. Device for applying a rectangular frame (5), consisting of angled profiles (6), around the upper rim of a pallet (26), characterized in that the device comprises a mainly rectangular horizontally positioned frame work, within which said frame (5) and said pallet (26) can be positioned the one (5) above the other (26), and at least four centring means (1, 2) spaced apart around the four sides of said frame work, each of said centring means consisting of an upper and a lower centring member (1, 2), said upper and lower centring members being pivotally mounted to shafts (4, 12 respectively) connected to said frame work and running parallel to each other and in horizontal planes one (4) above the other (12), each of said upper centring members (1) comprising a leg (7) extending downwards from its pivot shaft (4) and the lower portion of said leg (7) extending mainly inwardly into said frame work for obtaining a guiding cam (8) for the frame (5) to be handled, which leg (7) can be, by mechanical means (3), pivoted between a position in which the distance between the guiding cams (8) of two opposite upper centring members (1) is smaller than the width of the frame (5) to be handled and a position in which this distance is such that the frame (5) may pass said upper centring members (1), each of said lower centring members (2) consisting of an arm (10, 14) extending upwards from said pivot shaft (12), said arm (10, 14) comprising a support surface (25) for the frame (5) to be handled positioned such that in the most inwardly pivoted position of said lower centring members (2) the distance between two opposite support surfaces (25) is such that opposite angled profiles (6) of a frame (5) to be handled will be supported by said surfaces (25) just after said frame (5) has passed the guiding cams (8) of said upper centring members (1), said arm further carrying a leaf spring (18) extending obliquely upward from said arm (10, 14) and inwardly into said frame work such that it is lying inwardly in respect of said support surface (25), said arm (10, 14) being biased inwardly into said frame work in such a way that the most inwardly position of said arm (10, 14) the distance between two opposite leaf springs (18) will be smaller than the dimensions of a pallet (26) to be handled in said direction, the dimension of the leaf spring (18) in mainly horizontal direction normal to the vertical plane running through the pivot shaft (12) of the lower centring member (2) being such that the leaf spring (18) can be received between the inner surface of a vertical leg of an angled profile (6) of said frame (5) and the vertical wall (27) of a pallet (26) to be handled.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the lower surface of the cam (8) of the leg (7) of the upper centring member (1) has the shape of a circle segment, such that this circular portion, in the most inwardly pivoted position of said upper centring member (1), will be present above the support surface (25) of the lower centring member (2) when this member is pivoted to its most outwardly position in respect of the frame work.

3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the lower centring member (2) comprises two side plates (10) with an intermediate block (14) between them, said block carrying the leaf spring (18) and being pivotable in respect to the side plates (10) and being biased by means of a spring (20) to a pivoted position inwardly of the frame, the rotation being limited by abutments (21, 22), the side plates (10) being positioned on either side of the leg (7) of the upper centring member.

4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the side plates (10) of the lower centring member (2) can be pivoted outwardly in respect of said frame so that the distance between two opposite leaf spring (18) forming part of said members (2) is greater than the dimension of a frame (5) in said direction.

5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that for operating the centring means (1, 2) use is made of pressurized medium cylinders (3, 13) being controlled by a relay or PLC control.