EP2176128A2

EP2176128A2 - Device and method for filling trays

Info

Publication number: EP2176128A2
Application number: EP08835493A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Michel Lopuszanski
Original assignee: Normandie Appats SAS
Current assignee: Normandie Appats SAS
Priority date: 2007-07-18
Filing date: 2008-07-18
Publication date: 2010-04-21
Also published as: WO2009043989A3; FR2918958B1; FR2918958A1; US20100193068A1; WO2009043989A2

Abstract

The invention relates to a device (1) and a method for semi-automatic filling of trays (5) with sand (2) and water (3), for keeping sea worms. The device comprises a removable drawer (6) holding at least one row (4) of said trays (5) arranged side by side, a storage tank (7) for dry sand, reservoirs (15, 16) for holding given amounts of sand, means (11, 12) for moving said reservoirs between a position for reservoir gravity-filling from the storage tank and an emptying position for emptying an a mount of sand by gravity directly into the corresponding tray, a water storage tank (18) and means (25) for water supply arranged to provide each tray with a given amount of water.

Description

FILLING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR TRAY

The present invention relates to a device for semi-automatic filling of sand and water of packaging trays for sea worms.

It also relates to a method of filling such trays;

The invention finds a particularly important, although not exclusive, application in the field of American worm packaging.

(called "blood worms" in Anglo-Saxon) from the North American continent, for example for their importation into Europe by plane. Such worms are used as live bait for recreational fishing at sea.

Live seaweed packaging systems are already known for their air transport. Such systems consist of large cardboard boxes containing a bottom of newspaper covered with a litter of fresh and moist algae, allowing transport of the order of one hundred to one hundred and thirty live worms. per box. In general, a refrigerant is introduced into the carton during filling to preserve a certain freshness during transport that lasts about sixty hours before reaching the point of sale in a fishing store.

Such a system has drawbacks. The goods can not, indeed, be resold as such to fishermen because a box of a hundred worms is too important a unit for retail. It is therefore necessary to introduce into the process a sorting operation, with counting, of the worms before repackaging them in smaller quantities. In particular, the retailer will have to split the contents by extracting the worms from the seaweed boxes, one by one, before introducing them into small containers previously provided with an added support. This support is, in general, formed by a small amount of washed algae from the initial box. A layer of damp sand is sometimes used, but poses a problem of dosage, the number of worms per box then being variable from five to ten, according to the needs. Such systems are expensive in time spent. But retailers have little time to spend on sorting being primarily absorbed by their counter sales activity. This work is more tedious, and requires dexterity. It is messy, which requires frequent washing of the hands of sellers who must be clean and dry to properly use the keyboard of the cash register or computer and / or to handle the currency.

Remember that the retailer has little opportunity to do such work before or after the opening of his store, opening early and closing late, for the needs of his business with recreational fishermen.

Such sorting requires surfaces or work plans often non-existent in a fishing store. This time lost in packaging generates a wait for customers in case of affluence and presents a cost in material since in addition to the boxes of conditioning initials planned for the transport, it is necessary to envisage a second set of boxes, smaller for the sale, cost which is chargeable to the retailer.

Moreover, the latter does not control the cost of the worms themselves. It is indeed he who assumes most of the risk of unpleasant surprises when sorting worms in small quantities because of the presence of dead worms, unfit for sale because too small or even fewer than expected (bad counting initially, voluntary or involuntary).

Such a markdown is currently of the order of 10 to 15%. It follows conflicts with the wholesaler because of this bulk sale and / or additional costs on the box if the wholesaler is responsible for this repackaging currently practically only carried out at the retailer.

The present invention aims to overcome these disadvantages. For this it starts from an entirely new idea within the framework of the packaging of live sea worms of this type for air transport, namely to envisage a conditioning itemized by small boxes or trays at the source, that is to say Nearly at pick-up with average cost per worm lower than or equal to current cost, while guaranteeing higher quality worms.

These are indeed better preserved because they will arrive cooler, less handled and better sorted, packaged in a substrate from their natural environment (sand) with a reliable number of worms per box, which limit or avoid losses for retailers. They are moreover freed from the painful and stressful work of sorting on the spot to the detriment of their customers.

Such packaging at the source had, however, always been avoided until today because having a significant price surplus for the wholesaler, and later the retailer because of preconditioning upstream, the collector.

In addition, such packaging by a small box excluded a support of the wet sand type, (yet

^' preferable for the worm), given the extra weight (doubled weight) penalizing in case of air transport.

The present invention aims to provide a device and a semi-automatic packaging process better than those previously known to the requirements of practice, particularly in that it allows the maintenance of labor costs at the source at a level equal to or less than the labor cost required for prior art packaging, to equal number of prepared worms, while improving the quality.

Such a result is obtained through a device that will allow the counting and canning worms at the level of the collectors and not to that of the fishmongers.

The invention authorizes in particular a gain in time and significant weight through a mechanization of the sand introduction operation and water serving as a support, which therefore allows an excellent dosage in terms of amounts of sand and water. water introduced. Indeed, remember that the rarateurs already count the worms once, as part of the old method, by one hundred and twenty five verses that they then have in a set. To give them the means, thanks to the invention, to count them by five or ten verses and to put them in empty trays open for this purpose and arranged for example in a loadable and unloadable tray in a block, thus does not induce additional labor cost.

Such trays are then easily stackable for easy movement, stacking and storage.

With the device and the method according to the invention, such an operation becomes possible.

Similarly, the use of the device according to the invention, which allows the dosing of sand and sea water semi-automatically and perfectly calibrated, allows to optimize, in a surprising way, the quantities used.

Thus, and contrary to the preconceived idea, a low dosage of sand in the trays was found to be sufficient, as was a low dosage of seawater. This was possible and detectable only when a device like that of the invention allowed a fast filling in large series.

For this purpose, the present invention essentially proposes a semi-automatic filling device for sand and water of seaweed packaging containers, characterized in that it comprises a removable retention drawer of at least one row of said containers. trays arranged side by side, a dry sand storage tank, fixed density retention tanks of sand, means for moving the tanks between a tank filling position by gravity from the storage tank and a storage position. draining the tank for evacuation of a dose of sand by gravity directly into a corresponding tray, a water retention tank, and water supply means arranged to feed each tray with a predetermined amount of water.

In advantageous embodiments, one and / or the other of the following provisions is also used: the removable drawer comprises at least two rows of parallel trays of at least four trays each;

- the sand storage container is located above the holding tanks and includes gravity flow orifices arranged at the ^vertical filling position in tanks;

- Retention tanks are formed by recesses made in at least two parallel horizontal bars, for example plastic, integral displacement means;

- The holding tanks are arranged in pairs on the same bar and are arranged so that one of the tanks of each pair fills with sand gravitarily while the other tank is emptied-gravitarily simultaneously;

- the means of water supply comprise a constant level ^• tank and metering container identical quantities of water to clean filling from the constant level tank in a first position and emptying into the trays of the removable drawer in a second position; each metering container is formed by an open tube at its ends, one end of which is curved upwards and arranged to dive below the level of the constant level reservoir in the first position so that said tube fills with the amount of water determined in its part immersed by the principle of communicating vessels, and the other end, located above the level in the first position, is substantially straight and arranged to allow gravity flow of said quantity of water determined in the boxes in said second position;

the device comprises means for manually actuating the metering containers by simple translational movement between first and second positions; - The manual actuating means are integral with a rod actuable by the introduction of the removable drawer under the dry sand storage bin;

the device comprises intermediate flow means between the metering containers and the trays located in the removable retention drawer; the device comprises automatic spring ejection means of the removable drawer; the trays being intended to receive on the order of five worms, the sand-holding tanks have a capacity of between 25 g and 40 g of sand and advantageously 30 to 32 g; In another mode the quantities of sand can be double, for example 50 to 80g, for example 64g;

the means for supplying the trays with water for specific quantities comprise dosing containers with a filling volume of between 5 and 15 ml. water, and preferably 7 to 10 ml; in another mode the quantities of water can be from 16 to 20g of water.

In fact and advantageously, it is curiously observed a good behavior of worms for proportions between sand and water of 25 to 30%, that is to say 25 to 30 parts by weight of water per 100 parts by weight of sand, that allows the device according to the embodiment of the invention more particularly described.

The invention also provides a semi-automatic filling process sand and water trays using the device described above. The invention also proposes a method for semi-automatically filling sand and water with seaweed packaging containers, characterized in that a removable retention drawer is filled with at least one row of said containers arranged side by side. said drawer is placed underneath retention tanks of determined doses of sand fed from a dry sand storage tank, each tray is supplied with water by a determined quantity of water and said tanks are moved between a position of filling reservoirs gravitarily with a dose of sand from said storage tank and gravity draining position directly into a corresponding container.

Advantageously, the retention tanks being arranged in pairs on the same bar is filled one of the tanks of each pair of sand gravitarily while emptying the other tank of said pair simultaneously simultaneously.

In an advantageous embodiment, the water supply being made from dosing containers of identical amounts of water, each container is filled simultaneously from a constant-level reservoir in a first position and simultaneously emptied into the trays of the removable drawer in a second position.

Also advantageously, the trays of the removable drawer are filled with water at once simultaneously with the introduction of the removable drawer in the device. The invention will be better understood on reading the following description of an embodiment given hereinafter by way of non-limiting example. She is

1 refers to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the device according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view from above of the dry sand storage tank of the device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view from above of the bars of sand tanks and of their means of displacement.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are respectively lateral and top views of a bar of FIG. Figures 5A and 5B show in perspective over the operation of filling and emptying a tank with a bar of Figures 4A and 4B. FIGS. 6 and 7 show, in the filling position and in the emptying position, the dosing containers of the device of FIG. 1.

Figures 8 and 9 respectively show a perspective view in front and back perspective of the device of Figure 1.

Figure 1 shows in section a device 1 for filling dry sand 2 and water 3 of rows 4 of open containers, identical, substantially parallelepipedic. It comprises a removable drawer 6 of retention of four rows of five trays arranged side by side, with a slight clearance between them, for example 1 to 2 mm, to allow both a locking position in the drawer according to substantially determined ribs. and flexibility of trapping trays to remove them from the drawer by releasing them easily.

The drawer 6 is for example a plastic tray of fixed size, interchangeable, which can then be stored for storage and transport.

The device 1 comprises a parallelepiped bin 7, for example 40 kg of dry sand by volume, removable to allow cleaning. It is provided (see FIG. 2) with gravity flow orifices 8 (arrow 9) of the sand.

It also comprises (see FIG. 3) a set of five parallel bars 10 movable between two positions, secured to each other by means of a perpendicular rod 11. The trays are manually actuated simultaneously in the horizontal plane by means of a handle 12 for actuation, preferably attached to the bar

^• central.

In the embodiment more particularly described here, each bar comprises two sets 13 and 14 of two tanks 15 and 16, identical of temporary retention and dosage of dry sand.

^• each reservoir is formed by an orifice, parallelepiped crossing from one side webs and arranged in a corresponding part 17. The handle 12 forms with the rod 11 the tank displacement means which will be further detailed with reference to Figures 5A and 5B, between the tank filling position by gravity from the tank 2 and the emptying position of the tank for evacuation a sand dose of determined volume, by gravity, in a tray 5 located below.

The device 1 also comprises a tank 18 for retaining seawater 3 provided with a draining circuit 19 and a recovery pump 20 known per se, arranged to supply water to a constant level tank 21 parallelepipedic, thanks to an overflow 22, formed by a cylindrical plastic tube, adjustable height (arrow 23), for example by means of a set screw 24. The device 1 comprises means 25 for supplying water arranged to supply each tray with a specific quantity of water, which comprises in particular said tank 21- at a constant level and metering containers 26 adapted to fill from the tank ^• constant level 21 in a first position 27 and to empty into a second position 28 in an intermediate circuit 29 gravity flow.

The circuit 29 is detachable from the constant level tank, and comprises as many flow pipes as trays to feed. It is fixed to the frame 31, to support the sandbox 7 and to receive the removable drawer 6.

In the embodiment more particularly described here, the device 1 comprises means 32 for manually actuating the dosing containers 26 by translational movement due to the introduction of the removable drawer 6 under the sandbox, in the locked position 33.

To do this, the means 32 comprise a rod or rod 34 horizontal provided with an end 35 of abutment on the slide 6, arranged to be pushed towards the bottom of the receptacle 36 of said drawer.

The rod 34 is articulated at its other end 40 to a rod 41 for rotating the dosers 26, which ^' will be described more specifically with reference to Figures 6 and 7. A return spring R allows all means In the following description, the same reference numbers will be used to designate the same elements.

Figure 3 is a perspective view from above of the bars 10 and 4A and 4B the side and top views of a bar. Each strip 10 is formed by three solid blocks of parallelepiped polyethylene, namely two end blocks 43, 44 and a central block 45, and two identical intermediate parts 48 defining through vertical intermediate walls 49 the two central tanks 15 , 16 of determined volume, for example corresponding to 32 g of dry sand, and two small outer chambers 50 for evacuation of too much sand on the sides.

The bars are made of polyethylene and slide transversely on three stainless steel beams with square section (not shown). The first and the last beam have for example on their top a guide pin materialized by a BTR screw head screwed on these beams on which slides the bar which has grooves underneath for this purpose.

A horizontal piece of polyethylene 51 having a support surface 52 perforated by two pairs 53 of rectangular holes 54, opening on two channels running symmetrically diagonally towards the trays below.

The holes 54 are separated by a stainless steel piece 55 of rectangular or square surface of predetermined length, the outer edges 56 parallel to the bars are tangent, edge to edge, with said bars.

Each bar is guided between two guide beams 57, a space e_ of the order of 1 mm being formed between bar and beam to avoid friction. A small scraper (not shown), removable in case of wear, is provided to evacuate the sand escaped in the slides in the overflow 50.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show an enlarged perspective view from above, showing the operation of the holding tanks of a dose of sand.

In FIG. 5A, the reservoir 15 is in the filling position from above, the reservoir 16 being emptied into the hole 54.

We see that if there was too much sand in the outer chamber 50, it empties into the hole 53.

In Figure 5B, the bar 10 is pulled to the left in a dry motion and the sand (not shown) passes from the tank 15 into the hole 53 to the tray below. The tank 16 is in turn placed in the filling position above the stainless steel part 55. Figures 6 and 7 show more precisely the means 25 for supplying water, in perspective from above. These means comprise the tray 21 constant level maintained through the overflow 22 and metering containers 26. These are formed by angled pipettes, constituted by tubes 60, for example 1 cm in diameter, open at their ends, that is, an upwardly curved end 61 arranged to dip below the constant level reservoir in the first position 27, so that said tube fills (see Figure 1) with the amount of water 62 determined in its immersed part, by the principle of communicating vessels, and the other end 63 located above the constant level, substantially straight.

^• The end 63 is arranged to allow the gravity flow of the quantity of water determined in the second position, in a corresponding orifice 64, connected gravitarily through the intermediate circuit 29 at the ends 65

(Figure 1) small flow pipes 30, feeding trays. The movement of the tubes 60 is a xotation movement about an axis 66 actuated by the rod 42 secured to the tube on one side and fixed on the other side to the rod 41 about an axis 67, for example in a recess 68 formed at the end 69 of the rod 41.

We will now describe the operation of the device according to the embodiment of the invention more particularly described here with reference to the figures, in particular to Figure 1.

Initially, the bars are pressed towards the water tank, recall springs 70 (see Figure 3), fixed on either side to the rod 11, bringing the bars in the storage position so that the holes 8 sandbox are located opposite the metering tanks 15, then located above the corresponding stainless steel parts 55, allowing the blocking of the sand in the tank by preventing it from falling downwards (see Figure 1). - The sandbox 7 is then filled with dry sand 2.

No drawer 6 being in the device, the return spring R pulls on the end 37 of the connecting rod 38, which moves its other end 40 towards the outside of the tray, by retreating the rod 41 attached to the link 42 brought back to tilt the metering containers 26 in the filling position 27 (see Figure 6). After filling the drawer with the number of corresponding trays, in this case and here for example twenty trays (4x5), the drawer 6 is introduced into its housing 71, which causes the push of the rod 34. This actuates the connecting rod 38 pushing the link 42.

The rod 42 tilts the dosing containers or pipettes 26 in the high position 28.

This causes the water to flow into the circuit 29 via the orifices 64, to flow into the corresponding trays.

A stop 72 for retaining the drawer 6 is provided at the entrance of its housing 71, the lifting of the drawer above this stop causing its automatic ejection, under the effect of the return spring R which pulls the rod 34.

Once the water has been poured into each tray, the bars are actuated manually by means of the handle 12. In the initial position (see FIG.

5A) the sand, blocked above the piece 55, can not flow.

By abruptly pulling on the handle 12, the reservoir 15 (or retention chamber of the dry sand which has flowed therefrom gravity from the hole 8 located at the right), is placed opposite the opening

53 and the corresponding dose of sand falls into the tray. Simultaneously, the tank 16 is in turn placed under the hole 8 and fills with sand being then closed at the bottom by the stainless steel piece 55. When the traction on the handle 12 is released, the bars actuated simultaneously, return to initial position by the action of the lateral return springs 70. It is then the turn of the reservoir 16 to empty into the adjacent tray, while the reservoir 15 fills up again simultaneously and becomes ready for another operation.

In this way, by simple snapping of the plate 6 and then almost instantaneous return of the handle 12, water and sand dosed in a specific quantity are injected gravitationally into all trays.

As it goes without saying and as it results from. the foregoing, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment more particularly described. It encompasses all variants and especially those where water doses are injected differently, or those where each element is designed as separable from others, the device is easily removable for maintenance and repair.

Claims

1. Device (1) for semi-automatic filling sand (2) and water (3) trays (5) packaging for seaworms, characterized in that it comprises a removable drawer

(6) retaining at least one row (4) of said trays (5) arranged side by side, a tray (7) for storing dry sand, reservoirs (15, 16) for holding fixed doses of sand, means (11, 12) for moving the tanks between a gravity tank filling position from the storage tank and a tank emptying position for discharging a dose of sand by gravity directly into a corresponding container; water holding tank (18), and water supply means (25) arranged to feed each tray with a determined amount of water.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the removable drawer (6) comprises at least two rows (4) of trays (5) parallel to at least four trays each.

3. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tray (7) for storing sand is located above the reservoirs (15, 16) of retention and comprises orifices (8) of gravity flow arranged vertically tanks in filling position.

4. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reservoirs (15, 16) of retention are formed by recesses made in at least two parallel horizontal bars (10) of plastic secured to the displacement means.

5. Device according to claim 4 dependent on the 2, characterized in that. the retention tanks (15, 16) are arranged in pairs on one and the same bar and are arranged so that one of the tanks of each pair fills with sand by gravity while the other tank empties gravitarily simultaneously.

6. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means (25) for supplying water comprises a reservoir (21) constant level, and dosing containers (26) equal amounts of water clean filling up from the constant level reservoir in a first position and emptying into the trays (5) of the removable drawer in a second position.

7. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that each measuring container (26) is formed by a tube (60) open at its ends, one end (61) is curved upwards and arranged to dive below the level of the constant level reservoir in the first position so that said tube fills with the amount of water (62) determined in its immersed part by the principle of communicating vessels, and the other end (63), located above the level in the first position, is substantially straight and arranged to allow the gravity flow of said determined amount of water in the boxes in said second position.

8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises means for manually actuating the metering containers by simple translational movement between first and second positions.

9. Device according to claim 8, characterized in that the means (32) for manual actuation are integral with a link (34) actuated by the introduction of the drawer (6) removable under the dry sand storage tank .

10. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means (29) intermediate flow between the dosing containers and trays located in the removable retention drawer.

11. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means (70) for automatic ejection by spring of the removable drawer.

12. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the trays (5) being intended to receive on the order of five verses, the sand retention tanks have a capacity of between 25 g and 40 g of sand.

13. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means (25) for supplying water trays for specific quantities comprise metering containers of filling volume between 5 and 15 ml of water.

14. Semi-automatic filling process sand and water of trays (5) packaging for sea worms, characterized in that one fills a drawer (6) removable retention of at least one row (4) of said trays. (5) arranged side by side, said drawer is placed under reservoirs (15, 16) of fixed doses of sand fed from a tank (7) - storage of dry sand, is supplied with water each tray by a determined amount of water and said tanks are moved between a tank filling position gravitarily by - a dose of sand from said storage tank and a position of evacuation of sand by gravity directly into a corresponding tray.

15. The method of claim 14, characterized in that the retention tanks being arranged in pairs on the same bar is filled one of the tanks of each pair of sand gravitarily while emptying the other tank of said pair gravitarily simultaneously.

16. A method according to any one of claims 14 and 15, characterized in that the water supply is made from dosing containers (26) of equal amounts of water is filled simultaneously each container from a reservoir at a constant level in a first position and simultaneously empty in the trays of the removable drawer in a second position.

17. Method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that the trays (5) of the removable tray (6) are filled with water at once simultaneously with the introduction of the removable drawer.