GB1045950A - Can-handling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,045,950. Unstacking and carton filling apparatus; suction lifting loads. G. G. TURNER (Geo. J. Meyer Manufacturing Co.). June 14, 1965, No. 25142/65. Headings B8C and B8H. An apparatus for removing layers of cans &c. from a stack and depositing them in a carton or on a conveyer, comprises a gripping device mounted on a vertically reciprocable carriage, itself mounted on a column for swinging through a horizontal arc. The devices may be suction cups, or, when layers of paper &c. separate the stack layers, include a magnetic plate in combination with suction cups. The carriage 58 is raisable by hydraulic cylinder and cable means 72, 76 in guides 42 (44) secured to a post 26 rotatable by hydraulic cylinder means 150. The gripper head comprises plates 96, 98 bolted together with a peripheral gasket 100, Figs. 4-6 (not shown), between them to form a vacuum chamber common to rubber cups 114, each of which includes a ball valve to shut-off communication with the chamber if an article is not presented to the cup, Fig. 8 (not shown). If paper sheets separate the layers, a magnetic plate 156, Fig. 11 (not shown), is bolted underheath the plate 98 and has apertures through which the cups protrude. A non-magnetic sheet 164, also apertured to clear the cups, covers the lower face of the plate 98 and is movable away from it by a number of piston and cylinder assemblies 166, 168, 170, 172. When lifting a layer, the sheet 164 is in contact with the magnet and the magnet lifts the cans while the suction cups engage the overlying paper sheet. In the discharge position, the sheet 164 is lowered to move the cans away from the magnet and permit them to drop. The cups, however, retain the paper sheet, the later removal of which may be expedited by a blast of air.