GB1600415A - Conveying apparatus - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVMENTS IN OR RELATING TO CONVEYING APPARATUS (71) We, REED INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, a British Company, of Reed House, 82 Piccadilly, London W.1. do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention concerns improvements in or relating to conveying apparatus, and is par ticularly directed to apparatus of the kind comprising an endless belt, chain or the like having one or more upstanding article-engaging members disposed therealong. The belt, chain or like is usually suspended between two pulleys, sprockets or the like, the or each upstanding member being arranged to urge articles along a linear path along either the lower or more usually the upper run of the belt.

Such apparatus finds use in the conveying, feeding or aligning of articles which are of sufficiently low mass to prevent the use of a conventional conveyor where the frictional reaction force between the article and conveyor is insufficient to drive the article at the required acceleration or speed without slip. A particular example is that of feeding paper tubes to a stitching head for transverse stitching to form paper sacks. Here, the or each engaging member takes the form of a lug mounted on the endless chain which engages against the edge of a flattened tube and urges it to the stitching head. As fairly substantial speeds are involved, e.g. 1000 inches per minute, the acceleration of the tubes and hence the driving forces on them will be correspondingly high.

In such sack stitching machines, it is generally desired to be able to stitch sacks of various widths, which is to say lengths as seen in the direction of movement of the tubes to the stitching head. Where two or more lugs are provided on the endless chain, the adaptation of the apparatus to operate with tubes of a different size involves the effective repositioning of the lugs on the chain. This means either removing the chain and replacing it with another having the desired lug spacing or removing and repositioning the lugs which might also involve removing the chain first.Either way, a not inconsiderable amount of work and lost production time is involved which it is the object of this invention to mimrmse According to the invention there is provided conveying apparatus comprising an endless belt, chain or the like having pivotably mounted thereon one or more artideengaging lugs, the or each lug having a guide portion mounted or formed thereon, the apparatus further including a guide surface coextensive with the operative run of the belt, chain or like and which is in operation engaged by the or each lug guide portion whereby the lug is retained in operative upstanding position to engage an article, the length of the guide surface in the longitudinal direction being variable, the arrangement being such that in operation once the or each lug has passed the downstream end of the guide surface it pivots out of its operative position to release its urging engagement with a said article.

Thus by making for the lug(s) to be pivotably rather than fixedly mounted on the belt, chain or the like, and by providing guide means whose length is adjustable and which serves to retain the lug(s) in the operative position, it is possible to modify the apparatus to correctly convey articles of various sizes by simply adjusting the length of the guide, and avoiding the hitherto required partial dismantling of the apparatus.

For most purposes a chain will be used as the endless conveyor and thus the pivotal mounting of the lug(s) can be by way of a special link inserted in the chain. A sprocket will generally be provided at each end of the run and a jockey sprocket to tension the non-operative run. Preferably a flat support surface for the operative run will be provided over its length, in which case the lug guide surface can be disposed paralIel and adjacent to the support surface. For this arrangement the or each lug may be provided with a lateral protuberance, for example and preferably a roller, forming said guide portion.

In a preferred embodiment, the or each roller consists of two individual roller portions, one portion adapted to engage a first part of the guide surface the other adapted to engage a second part of the guide surface.

In this case, the two said parts may be mounted together side by side, one part being fixed and the other being longitudinally movable relative thereto to enable the effective length of the guide surface to be increased or decreased as desired. For this purpose releasable locking means may be provided between the two parts, and a rack may be provided on the movable part for engagement by a pinion which will be connected to manually operable means. In some arrangements the locking means may not be needed if the rack and pinion possesses sufficient friction and gearing to prevent said relative m emend once the position of the two parts is set.

It will be understood that the lug(s) may be spring biassed out of the article engaging position or may be arranged to pivot thereoutof under their own weight.

In order that the invention may be readily understood an embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a side view of conveying apparatus according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus with the top guide removed, and Fig. 3 is a plan view with the top guide replaced.

Referring to the drawings there is shown apparatus for feeding cut lengths of paper tubing to a stitching head whereby to form sacks. The stitching head is not shown but is located to the right of the apparatus as seen in the figures.

The apparatus comprises an endless chain 1 which passes around a drive sprocket 2, a jockey sprocket 3 to tension the chain and an idler sprocket 4. Pivotably mounted at spaced intervals along the chain are four tube-engaging lugs 5. The lugs are mounted on a pivot pin 6 which is itself mounted on a special link 7 incorporated in the chain.

Being substantially L-shaped the lugs 5 have an upstanding limb 8 which engages the tubes and a lower limb 9 which carries a guide portion 10 which will be described further.

hereinafter.

The next link 11 downstream of each link 7 carries an abutment member 12 against which lugs 5 abut and which serves to prevent clockwise pivoting of the lugs beyond a point corresponding generally to the operative position of the lugs as shown in Fig. 1 on the upper run of the chain 1.

The guide portions 10 consist of a pair of rollers 13, 14 mounted on a pivot pin 15 extending laterally from the lower limbs 9 of the lugs. In operation, with the endless chain moving generally clockwise the guide rollers 13, 14 engage against a lug guide 16 and ride along its curved surface to arrive in the upstanding position as shown at the left of Fig. 1, this position being maintained on further movement by the joint action of the top guide 17 and the guide surface 18 which extends horizontally along the upper run of the chain.

The guide surface 18 is defined by a two part longitudinal member adjacent and parallel to a longitudinal suport member 19 which serves to support the upper run of the chain.

One part 20 of the two-part member is fixed and is formed with a longitudinal slot 21 through which extend slide bolts 22, 23. The other part 24 is longitudinally relatively movable with respect to part 20 between a position in which it is fully retracted and the left hand bolt 22 abuts the left hand end of slot 21 and a position in which it is fully extended wherein the right hand bolt 23 abuts the right hand end of slot 21. As shown, the movable part 24 is mid-way between these extreme positions. A rack 25 fixed to the underside of part 24 and pinion 26 enable the necessary adjustment of the part 24.

Once the lugs 5 have travelled beyond the right hand end of the guide surface 18, roller 13 having travelled along the fixed member 20 and roller 14 along the movable member 24, the combined weight of the rollers causes the lug to pivot anticlockwise and the upstanding limb 5, hitherto engaging and moving a tube along the upper surface 17 to present it to the stitching head, drops from this position to one in which it no longer protrudes through the top guide 17 and therefore ceases its driving engagement with the tube. The ensuing lug 5 by this time has reached the desired position where it receives the next tube to be fed.

By adjusting the length of the guide surface 18 tubes of various widths can be accommodated and presented to the stitch-.

ing head in the right position and travelling at the right speed. There is no longer any need to dismantle the chain and reposition the lugs on it to suit other tubes, as the effective distance between lugs, i.e. that dis tance wherein they are operative and up stand- ing is determined by the position of movable member 24. In the embodiment shown tubes of width varying from 12 to 22 inches can be accommodated, running at a linear speed of up to 1000 inches per minute.

The rotational speed of the drive sprocket 2 can be varied as desired to suit the speed of operation of the stitching head and may be coupled to the head so that the speeds of head and feed apparatus are directly dependent on each other.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. Conveying apparatus comprising an endless belt, chain or the like having pivotably mounted thereon one or more article-engaging lugs, the or each lug having a guide portion mounted or formed thereon, the apparatus further including a guide surface coextensive with the operative run of the belt, chain or like and which is in operation engaged by the or each lug guide portion whereby the lug is retained in operative upstanding position to engage an article, the length of the guide surface in the longitudinal direction being variable, the arrangement being such that in operation once the or each lug has passed the downstream end of the guide surface it pivots out of its operative position to release its urging engagement with a said article.

2. Conveying apparatus according to claim 1 comprising an endless chain in which the or each lug is pivotably mounted on a respective link of the chain.

3. Conveying apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 including a flat support surface over the length of the operative run of the endless belt, chain or the like.

4. Conveying apparatus according to claim 3 in which the lug guide surface is disposed parallel and adjacent to the support surface.

5. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims in which the or each guide portion comprises a lateral protuberance on the respective lug.

6. Conveying apparatus according to claim 5 in which the or each protuberance comprises a roller.

7. Conveying apparatus according to claim 6 in which the or each roller consists of two individual roller portions, one portion adapted to engage a first part of the guide surface the other adapted to engage a second part of the guide surface.

8. Conveying apparatus according to claim 7 in which the two said parts are mounted together side by side, one part being fixed and the other being longitudinally movable relative thereto to enable the effective length of the guide surface to be increased or decreased as desired.

9. Conveying apparatus according to claim 8 in which a rack is provided on the movable part for engagement by a pinion by rotation of which said movement may be effected.

10. Conveying apparatus according to claim 8 or 9 in which said two parts are provided with releasable locking means.

11. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims in which the or each lug is spring biassed out of the article engaging position.

12. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims further including a lug guide adapted to pivot said lug(s) into the upstanding operative position.

13. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims including a top guide spacedly overlying said guide surface, said guide portion(s) being receivable therebetween.

14. Conveying apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (14)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. coupled to the head so that the speeds of head and feed apparatus are directly dependent on each other. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. Conveying apparatus comprising an endless belt, chain or the like having pivotably mounted thereon one or more article-engaging lugs, the or each lug having a guide portion mounted or formed thereon, the apparatus further including a guide surface coextensive with the operative run of the belt, chain or like and which is in operation engaged by the or each lug guide portion whereby the lug is retained in operative upstanding position to engage an article, the length of the guide surface in the longitudinal direction being variable, the arrangement being such that in operation once the or each lug has passed the downstream end of the guide surface it pivots out of its operative position to release its urging engagement with a said article.

2. Conveying apparatus according to claim 1 comprising an endless chain in which the or each lug is pivotably mounted on a respective link of the chain.

3. Conveying apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 including a flat support surface over the length of the operative run of the endless belt, chain or the like.

4. Conveying apparatus according to claim 3 in which the lug guide surface is disposed parallel and adjacent to the support surface.

5. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims in which the or each guide portion comprises a lateral protuberance on the respective lug.

6. Conveying apparatus according to claim 5 in which the or each protuberance comprises a roller.

7. Conveying apparatus according to claim 6 in which the or each roller consists of two individual roller portions, one portion adapted to engage a first part of the guide surface the other adapted to engage a second part of the guide surface.

8. Conveying apparatus according to claim 7 in which the two said parts are mounted together side by side, one part being fixed and the other being longitudinally movable relative thereto to enable the effective length of the guide surface to be increased or decreased as desired.

9. Conveying apparatus according to claim 8 in which a rack is provided on the movable part for engagement by a pinion by rotation of which said movement may be effected.

10. Conveying apparatus according to claim 8 or 9 in which said two parts are provided with releasable locking means.

11. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims in which the or each lug is spring biassed out of the article engaging position.

12. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims further including a lug guide adapted to pivot said lug(s) into the upstanding operative position.

13. Conveying apparatus according to any of the preceding claims including a top guide spacedly overlying said guide surface, said guide portion(s) being receivable therebetween.

14. Conveying apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings