FR2562508A1 - Handling method and case for implementing said method - Google Patents

Abstract

Handling method and case and truck for implementing the method According to the invention, the case is equipped with a built-in anchoring 13 which may be hooked by hooks 51 which are integral with a lifting truck 5 carrying a support apron 52. Applications : handling of a bottle assembly for the automated champagne method.

Description

PAGCED DE B2.NUTENTION AND CAISSE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SAME
PROCESS
The subject of the present invention is a handling process and a case or rack, intended in particular, but not exclusively, for handling a set of bottles, in particular with a view to automatic riddling in the process known as the Champagne method .

We know that the automatic riddling of wine according to the Champagne method implies the simultaneous handling of a large number of bottles. It is therefore necessary to provide boxes, racks or containers for gathering a set of bottles, this set having to be treated at some point in an apparatus and, in particular during riddling.

Such a box is described in patent FR-A-2041582 (CAZALS AND DUCOIN). This metallic box is arranged so as to be able to receive at least one seat of bottles arranged side by side parallel to each other and comprises two series of feet making it possible to place the box in two positions perpendicular to one another, the one in which the bottles are layered or "on slats" and the other in which said bottles are vertical or "on spikes" their neck being turned downwards. This box is in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped open on one of its faces and the bottom of which includes support elements for the necks of the bottles. Such a box makes it possible to introduce a set of bottles into a device. automatic riddling, the bottles being "on slats", then taking them out of the device using the same lifting machine while the bottles are "on points".

A box or locker of this type is also described in French patent NO 79 12443 of May 16, 1979 in the names of CAZALS
AND DUCOIN. In this patent, the boxes of the same type as that described in the previous patent are characterized in that the side walls of the rack, perpendicular to the bottom, are provided, towards the inside of the rack, rails arranged perpendicular to the bottom of the rack. so as to guide the bottles introduced in the lying position by the open face of the rack and to ensure the setting of the bottles placed against said side walls after filling the box. The guide rails of the side walls are for example constituted by rods or rigid wires. As before, the handling of these boxes or racks is carried out using forklift-type machines whose forks pass between the feet provided on one of the side walls during the introduction of the bottles into the device and through the feet provided on the bottom when the bottles are on points.

The presence of these two series of feet, if it is useful for handling, leads to a limitation of the total volume ratio of the rack / capacity in bottles. Indeed, the overall size is significantly greater than the sum of the volumes of the bottles contained in the box, this space coming from the need to provide access for the passage of the forks of forklifts and, in the particular case, access to two perpendicular sides of the body. There is thus a loss of space and capacity of the body.

A first object of the present invention is the reduction of the space lost for the passage of the fork carts.

Furthermore, the forks of conventional forklifts require a large operating surface. However, in the cellars, the space is most often very limited and it is desirable that the area necessary for the maneuvers of the machine is limited to the maximum.

A second object of the present invention is to allow the reduction of the area necessary for the maneuvers of forklifts.

According to the present invention, the method of handling a crate or rack comprising an opening opening face, opposite a bottom, is characterized in that it consists in providing in at least one of the corners of the crate, on the side opposite the bottom, at least one anchoring integrated inside the body and to provide the lifting machine with hooks which can cooperate with the anchoring and with a support apron.

Thus, it is no longer necessary to provide forks on the lifting machine but simply two hooks which hook the anchor, a side wall of the body bearing against the deck during transport. The anchor can be constituted by a transverse bar or simply by two small bars, each of which is integral with one side of the body. The two series of feet which were previously necessary are eliminated which makes it possible to increase the capacity of the body for an equal overall size, the elimination of the forks leading, moreover, to a reduction of the space necessary for the maneuvering of the carriage .

The invention also relates to a handling box in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped open on a face opposite to a bottom, the side walls of the box perpendicular to said bottom being provided towards the inside of the box with guide rails arranged perpendicular to the bottom of the rack for guiding the introduction of the bottles in the supine position, this box being characterized in zen that in the vicinity of its open face and parallel to it extends perpendicularly to two parallel lateral faces at least one anchoring piece integrated into the box.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the above anchoring is connected to the bottom of the box by a tie rod or sling extending diagonally on two parallel lateral faces. In case of heavy loads, the body is thus stiffened and its sides can store thinner.

According to another characteristic of the present invention, the box is characterized in that one of its side walls comprises a device for adjusting ss at a distance from the opposite side wall. AIne - i1 it is possible to wedge, by a movement of this movable wall, the bottles against each other This characteristic makes it possible to easily compensate for the manufacturing tolaerances existing on the bottles and to obtain good contact between them , whatever the manufacture
According to yet another characteristic of the invention, arn at least one of the side walls comprises a set of pneumatic pressers, each presser can be -comma'é independently and corresponding to a bed of bottles it is thus possible-to block and successively unlock the bunk beds of bottles for loading or unloading.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear during the description which follows of particular embodiments, given only by way of nonlimiting examples, with reference to the drawings which represent - Fig.l, a view of side of a box according to the invention,
the bottles being overstepped - Fig.2, a top view of the same box; - Fig.3, a front view of the same box in the same
position - Fig.4, a side view of the same box but in
lying bottles position.

- Figs 5 and 6, schematic perspective views
of a box according to the invention, corresponding
respectively in Figs 4 and 1.

In the Figures, it can be seen that the body is contained by a rectangular parallelepiped of which one of the faces is open. Opposite the open face is a bottom 3. This bottom 3 is surrounded by four perpendicular walls quig on the
Fig.l are the side walls, respectively 1.102 and 4.

The side 20, opposite the bottom is normally open. It can, in certain cases be closable by gates. The side walls 1, 2 and 10 are constituted by rectangular frames, for example in profiled metal tube, welded to the bottom 3 and whose vertical sides (on the
Fig.l and 3) are joined by stiffening spacers 16 on which are welded the guide rails 17 formed by sets of two rigid metal wires extending over the entire height of each of the side panels. The sides 1 and 10 are surmounted by stacking angles 12. The spacers 16 are also joined to a stacking angle 11 extending parallel to the wall 4.

According to a characteristic of the invention, there are provided in the upper left corner of the faces 1 and 10 small gripping bars or anchoring or hooking pieces 13 mounted between the sides 12 and 148 Each of these bars 13 is mechanically linked to the angle which is diagonally opposite to it 18 by a pulling sling or spider 15. The slings 15 allow a good distribution of the load resistance and avoid the deformation of the boxes after their loading by the bottles.

In Fig.l, there is shown on the left of the figure the start of an elevating machine of which only the front part appears in the figure, generally designated by the reference 5.

As indicated above, the forks of the forklift have been removed and the latter has at the front only a set of two hooks 51 intended to cooperate with the anchor (s) 13 and an apron 52 intended to serve as a support surface for the side wall 4 or more exactly the angles 11 when the body is mounted on the forklift.

We find in Fig.4 the same elements, the body having turned by an angle of 900 which brought the bottles from the position on spikes, or vertical axes, to the position on slats, or horizontal axes. (Note that in the Champagne method the bottles are first on slats and after on tips). As before, the hook 51 comes to bear on the attachment points 13, the body resting against the deck of the forklift 52, which is now placed opposite the open face, the body resting against the deck thanks to the angles of stacking 12. In this position of the body, (Fig.4) the side wall 4 constitutes the upper surface of the body, the face 2 constituting the bearing face as it appears better on the
Fig. 5.

The box which has just been described is normally open, that is to say that the face 20 opposite the bottom 3 does not include any wall. However, it is possible as needed to provide a door allowing to close this face and to hold the bottles when it is envisaged to rotate them around a horizontal axis while they are still on slats.

Fig.4 shows the loading position of the bottles before riddling. In the conventional loading method, a first row of bottles is arranged by sliding against the guides of the side 2 which happens to be horizontal, (Fig. 5) so that the necks of the first row come to take position at the inside of omega 31 profiles. Then, the second row of bottles is brought inside the box and slid onto the side 2 thereof
the necks of the bottles of the second row penetrating into the sting of the bottles of the first row so that they automatically wedge in the axial direction. During their introduction into the box, the bottles are guided by the guide wires 17 which, after filling the box, stops preventing any relative displacement of said first bottles. The series of rows of bottles distributed on the same level constitutes a bed, the crate being filled with a superposition of beds. Machines are also known for filling a box bed by bed.

In the case of the use of such a machine, the face 4 can be constituted by a gate allowing the passage of the machine, when it is open.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the manufacturing tolerances of the bottles can vary so that, despite the arrangements made, there is a certain relative play between the bottles after filling the box despite the automatic setting - which occurs in the axial direction of the bottles. According to a characteristic of the invention, one of the walls and, in the example shown the wall 4, is an adjustable wall. This means that by operating a mechanical (Fig. 1) or pneumatic device 6 (Fig. 4) it is possible to press the bottles laterally against each other so that there is no longer any Clearance between them. In Fig.1 is shown schematically a mechanical device 14 comprising for example a screw-nut assembly for moving the wall 4 towards the wall 2 to clamp the bottles against it. On the
Fig.4, there is shown another embodiment for clamping the bottles against each other. In this embodiment, the wall 4 remains fixed, but a set 6 of pneumatic cushions 61 is mounted thereon, constituted for example by rubber envelopes. After filling the box, as indicated above, the cushions 61 are inflated and the bottles are applied by their sides against each other, and against the opposite fixed side.

Preferably, each of the cushions 61 is inflatable and deflatable separately, each of the cushions corresponding to a bed of vertical bottles. There are indeed machines for loading and unloading bottles on points that can handle a bed of bottles in a vertical position. In this case, during loading, which takes place via the open face 20, a cushion 61 is inflated after the introduction of each bed so that the latter constitutes a rigid seat for the next bed. During unloading, the cushion which is at the level of the upper bed which is the first to be unloaded is deflated and after unloading this first bed, the second cushion is deflated, etc., until the body is completely unloaded.

The handling of the boxes can be carried out by a forklift whose forks are replaced by an attachment 5 comprising, for example, hooks 51 and a support apron 52. The gain in the maneuvering space is then equal to the length of carriage forks. Handling can also be carried out using a conventional trolley equipped with an apron with lateral movement receiving the attachment and suspension means. In this case it is possible to take over the box perpendicular to the axis of movement of the carriage, therefore to avoid the conventional maneuvering of the fork carriage and to limit the loading space to the width of the box plus the width of the device.

The body which has just been described is thus perfectly suited to automatic loading and unloading by existing or future machines. The structure of the box which has just been described makes it possible, for the same size, to obtain an additional capacity of 15% compared to conventional boxes.

Of course, the application of the present invention is not limited to the handling of a set of bottles and it can be implemented in a large number of other fields.

It goes without saying that many variants can be introduced in particular by substitution of technically equivalent means without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (8)

10 Method of handling a case or locker comprising  an introduction face, open, opposite the bottom,  characterized in that it consists in providing, in an au  minus one of the corners of the body, opposite the bottom (3) of  this one, and on both sides of the box, at least one  anchor (13), integrated inside the body and  provide a lifting machine (5) with hooks (51) which can  cooperate with the anchors (13) and a support apron  (52). 20 General rectangular box handling box  for implementing the method according to claim  1, comprising a bottom (3) provided with support elements (31)  for the necks of a first bed of bottles and  wall (1,10,2 and 4), characterized in that it has,  in the vicinity of its open face, in one of its angles  opposite the bottom (31 at least one piece (13) of anchoring. 30 handling case according to claim 2,  characterized in that the anchor (13) is  made up of two bars. each of them being connected by  a sling 15) extending diagonally on one face of  the body and in solidarity with the opposite corner (they). 40 Box according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized  in that one of the side walls (4) has a  adjuster tex14) of its distance from the  opposite side (2). 50 Box according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized  in that the mobile wall adjustment device (4)  consists of at least one pneumatic presser (61). 50 Box for handling a set of objects, consisting of  by assembling mechanically welded profile tubes, and  comprising an open face (20) for introducing the  objects, opposite a bottom (3) and four side walls  (1,2,4 and 10), characterized in that one of the walls  side (4) is provided with an adjustment device (14-, 6)  of its distance from the opposite face.  6 handling case according to claim 5,  characterized in that the adjusting device is a  pneumatic device (6). 70 Box according to claim 6, characterized in that the  pneumatic control device (6) consists of  a set of air bags (61) separately  inflatable and deflatable. 80 Handling cart for implementing the process  according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises  in its front part an attachment (5) comprising at  at least two hooks (51) and a support apron (52).