Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G17/00—Conveyors having an endless traction element, e.g. a chain, transmitting movement to a continuous or substantially-continuous load-carrying surface or to a series of individual load-carriers; Endless-chain conveyors in which the chains form the load-carrying surface
  • B65G17/24—Conveyors having an endless traction element, e.g. a chain, transmitting movement to a continuous or substantially-continuous load-carrying surface or to a series of individual load-carriers; Endless-chain conveyors in which the chains form the load-carrying surface comprising a series of rollers which are moved, e.g. over a supporting surface, by the traction element to effect conveyance of loads or load-carriers
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G47/00—Article or material-handling devices associated with conveyors; Methods employing such devices
  • B65G47/22—Devices influencing the relative position or the attitude of articles during transit by conveyors
  • B65G47/24—Devices influencing the relative position or the attitude of articles during transit by conveyors orientating the articles

Definitions

• the invention relates generally to power-driven conveyors and, more particularly, to a case turner using a conveyor belt with rollers rotating about axes oblique to the direction of belt travel to convey cases to a retarding surface engaging portions of the bottoms of the cases to cause them to rotate.
• a frictional ramp with a stop bump is positioned at the inside of the entrance of a turn in a flat-belt conveyor system.
• Cartons on a frusto- conical conveyor belt in the turn ride partly on the belt and partly on the ramp, which causes the cartons to rotate from the easy way to the hard way, or vice versa, as they also make the 90° turn.
• a conveyor in one aspect, includes a conveyor belt advancing along a conveying path in a direction of belt travel.
• the belt has an article-conveying surface that extends in width from a first side to a second side.
• the conveyor belt includes a plurality of article- supporting rollers that rotate in a direction to push a supported article toward the first side of the conveyor belt as the conveyor belt advances in the direction of belt travel.
• a retarding surface disposed at the first side of the conveyor belt receives and engages a first portion of the bottom of the article while a second portion of the bottom of the article is supported by some of the article-supporting rollers. The retarding surface slows the advance in the direction of belt travel of the first portion relative to second portion to cause the article to pivot as it is conveyed in the direction of belt travel.
• a conveyor in another aspect of the invention, includes a conveyor carryway including a bearing surface and a conveyor belt supported on the carryway.
• the belt advances in a direction of belt travel and includes an article-conveying surface extending in width from a first side to a second side.
• the conveyor belt also includes a plurality of article-supporting rollers in rolling contact with the bearing surface. The rollers extend above the article- conveying surface and rotate about axes oblique to the direction of belt travel as the belt advances to push supported articles toward the first side of the conveyor belt.
• a side rail spaced apart from the first side of the conveyor belt across a gap receives articles pushed across the belt.
• a retarding surface disposed at a position along the conveyor in the gap at the first side of the conveyor belt, forms a high-friction contact area supporting first portions of the bottoms of the articles while second portions of the bottoms of the articles are supported by some of the article-supporting rollers.
• the retarding surface slows the advance in the direction of belt travel of the first portions relative to the second portions to cause the articles to pivot as they are conveyed in the direction of belt travel.
• Another aspect of the invention is a method for turning a case.
• a case is conveyed on a conveyor belt advancing in a direction of belt travel.
• a first portion of the bottom of the case is supported on rollers in the conveyor belt that are rotating in a direction to push the supported case toward a first side of the conveyor belt.
• a second portion of the bottom of the case is frictionally engaged to retard the advance of the second portion in the direction of belt travel relative to the advance of the first portion.
• FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a conveyor embodying features of the invention, including a frictional pivot;
• FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the conveyor of FIG. 1;
• FIG. 3 is a top schematic representation of the operation of the conveyor of FIG. 1.
• the conveyor 10 includes a conveyor belt 12, in this case, an oblique-roller belt, such as the Series 400 Angled Roller belt manufactured and sold by Intralox, L.L.C., of Harahan, Louisiana, U.S.A. Such a belt is also described in U.S. Patent No. 6,494,312, which is incorporated by reference.
• the belt is a modular plastic belt consisting of a series of rows 14 of belt modules 16 having leading and trailing hinge eyes interleaved with the trailing and leading hinge eyes of adjacent rows and interconnected by hinge pins 18 installed in lateral passageways formed by the aligned interleaved hinge eyes between adjacent rows.
• Each row is formed of one or more modules. If more than one module forms each row, the modules are preferably arranged in a bricklay pattern for strength. Consecutive rows pivot about the hinge joints between rows as the belt articulates about sprockets 20, which are mounted on a drive shaft 22 and an idler shaft 23.
• a motor 24 coupled to the drive shaft rotates the shaft and the sprockets to drive the belt in a direction of travel 26.
• Bearing blocks 28 support the drive and idler shafts at opposite ends.
• the conveyor is conventionally supported in a frame, which is omitted from the drawings for clarity.
• the conveyor also includes a carryway 30, which may be realized as a pan or a set of parallel, longitudinal wearstrips underlying the belt along the conveying portion of the belt path.
• the belt makes its return trip along a lower returnway 32, which typically would include support rollers or shoes.
• the belt includes rollers 34 arranged to rotate about axes 36 oblique to the longitudinal direction of belt travel 26. Salient portions of the rollers extend above an outer, top article-conveying surface 38 and below an inner, bottom surface 39 of the belt along the carryway. As the belt advances along the carryway, the salient portions of the rollers extending below the bottom surface of the belt roll on the carryway, which forms a bearing surface for the rollers. For rollers whose axes are about 60° or more from the direction of belt travel, a flat bearing surface suffices. For angles of less than about 60°, a bearing surface formed by carryway rollers underlying the belt is preferred to prevent sliding contact between the belt rollers and the bearing surface.
• rollers perpendicular to their oblique axes of rotation as the belt is driven in the direction of belt travel directs articles supported on the rollers to a first side 40 of the belt.
• the rollers are realized as generally cylindrical rollers, each with a central bore that receives an axle defining the axis 36 about which the roller rotates as the belt is driven.
• the belt extends in width from the first side 40 to a second side 41.
• a side rail 42 spaced from the first side 40 of the belt across a gap 44 serves two functions: (a) as a registration surface against which articles conveyed on the belt are registered; and (b) as a pivot at which a conveyed article, such as a case 45, can pivot 90°.
• Rollers 46 in the side rail extend toward the belt to provide low- friction, scratch-resistant contact with the sides of cases, if needed to protect labeling.
• the width of the gap is preferably less than the minor axis of the smallest case to be rotated.
• a retarding surface 48 Positioned in the gap between the side rail and the first side of the belt at a fixed position along the carryway is a retarding surface 48, which may be realized as parallel strips 50 of rubber or elastomer mounted to a base 52, such as three rows of an Intralox ® Diamond Friction Top conveyor belt.
• the gap is shown as open, except for the retarding surface, it could be filled with, as one example, rollers, such as freely rotatable rollers in roller-top belts to provide low- friction support for cases advancing along the side rail in the direction of belt travel.
• the top surface of the rubber strips may be textured, in a raised diamond pattern, for example, to provide a high- friction contact area supporting a portion of the bottom of a case conveyed atop the strips.
• any surface material or surface characteristic that slows the advance of a case's side closer to the side rail relative to the side away from the side rail may be used to form the retarding surface.
• the base of the retarding surface may form a ramp 53, as shown intentionally exaggerated in phantom lines in FIG. 1.
• the level of the upwardly ramped retarding surface increases in the direction of belt travel from a level at or below the top surface of the belt to a level above the top surface of the belt at the downstream end of the ramp.
• a ramped retarding surface can be shorter in the direction of belt travel than a horizontal retarding surface, which effects a 90° case rotation in a shorter distance and in less time.
• a case 45 shown with a generally rectangular footprint has a long major axis 56 and a shorter minor axis 57.
• the case enters the upstream end 58 of the conveyor belt 12 the "hard way," i.e., with its minor axis parallel to the direction of belt travel 26.
• the case is then pushed, with little or no rotation, toward the side rail 42 by the rotation of the obliquely arranged belt rollers rolling on the bearing surface in the direction indicated by arrow 60 as the belt advances along the carryway in the direction of belt travel 26.
• the short side 62 of the case, conveyed along the first side of the conveyor belt is registered against the side rail.
• the case turner may be used to rotate cases 90° from the “easy way” to the "hard way.”
• the retarding surface may be selectively activated (raised and lowered, for instance) into and out of contact with the bottoms of cases to rotate only selected cases.
• the case turner would be equipped with a controller to control an actuator according to a predetermined sequence or according to case- orientation information gathered from one or more upstream sensors. So, as these few examples suggest, the scope of the claims is not meant to be limited to the version described in detail.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Attitude Control For Articles On Conveyors (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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Citations (4)

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• 2008
  • 2008-11-07 WO PCT/US2008/082721 patent/WO2009061981A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2008-11-07 EP EP08847328.5A patent/EP2205508A4/de not_active Withdrawn

Patent Citations (4)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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