GB2230245A - Article orientators - Google Patents

Abstract

An article orientator (11) is disposed in the path of a conveyor (12) and comprises a holder (21) defining a passageway (27) through which an article can pass if its orientation is not to be changed. The holder (21) can be spun about a vertical axis (22) through 180 DEG to cause an article contained within it to change its orientation by 180 DEG . Advantageously, the infeed of the articles to the orientator is controlled by a rotating star wheel (20) engaging between adjacent articles to space the articles and which can be controlled to pause momentarily after an article whose orientation is to be changed has passed the star wheel (20) to provide a larger than normal spacing between the article and the next article. <IMAGE>

Description

Article Orientators This invention relates to article orientators of the kind in which selected ones of a series of articles being transported by a conveyor are turned so that they have a predetermined orientation with respect to the other articles of the series.

The invention has particular, but not exclusive, application in the glassware industry where, for example, bottles of generally rectangular cross-section and having two major faces one of which is differently shaped from the other, e.g. one is convex and the other concave or planar, are fed upright from a manufacturing machine on to a conveyor but in random orientation. The bottles are fed through the orientator which turns selected ones of the bottles so that for example all the bottles leaving the conveyor have the same orientation.

In U.S. Patent No. 4653628 is disclosed an orientator comprising a pair of endless belts which are arranged to be brought into frictional engagement with the circular neck of a selected bottle to be turned at diametrically opposite positions, the belts being arranged to run in opposite directions so that they apply a turning couple to the neck, to turn it for example, through 1800.

Such an orientator has certain disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the necks of the bottles must be circular and consequently not all types of bottles can be handled. Another disadvantage is that the turning couple imparted by the belts is somewhat imprecise. If the diameter of the bottle necks vary, the turning of some of the bottles can be greater or less than the desired amount.

In our published U.K. Patent Application GB 2201933A an article orientator is disclosed which is disposed in the path of a conveyor for transporting articles such as bottles, the orientator comprising a plurality of article holders which are bodily movable to divert an article located in the holder out of the conveyor path and then back in to it again with a changed orientation, the article holders being movable independently of each other. A disadvantage of the orientators disclosed in the aforesaid U.K. Application is that the article in having its orientation changed is moved out of the path of the conveyor and then back into again and this takes time and therefore limits the potential throughput of the machine in which the orientator is used.

The object of the present invention is to provide an orientator which overcomes the aforesaid disadvantages.

According to the invention an article orientator is disposed in the path of a conveyor and comprises a holder defining a passageway through which an article can pass if its orientation is not to be changed and which can be spun about a vertical axis through 1800 to cause a bottle contained within it to spin to change its orientation by 1800.

Thus the article does not leave the conveyor path when changing its orientation and also does not rely upon engagement of its neck by moving belts to change its orientation.

Advantageously the holder may comprise spaced members which normally align with side rails of the conveyor. When the holder is spun through 1800 the spaced members move to the opposite sides of the conveyor to realign with the side rails.

The rate of infeed of the articles to the orientator may be controlled by a rotating star wheel engaging between adjacent articles to space the articles. Advantageously the star wheel can be controlled to pause momentarily after an article whose orientation is to be changed has passed the star wheel. This provides a larger than normal spacing between the article and allows time for the orientator to operate before the next bottle arrives at the orientator.

One construction of orientator in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a schematic plan view of the orientator, Figure 2 shows a plurality of sequence diagrams for illustrating the operation of the orientator, and Figure 3 shows a perspective view of the article holder.

Referring more particularly to Figure 1, the orientator 11 is shown incorporated into a bottle conveyor 12. In this example the bottles 13 are shown as having opposing major faces, one face 14 of which is convex and the other face 15 substantially planar.

The bottles are transported by the conveyor sideways on, .e. with one minor face 16 leading. The purpose of the orientator 11 is to turn selected bottles through 1800. For example, if the bottles are fed on to the conveyor with a random orientation it may be required to have all the bottles similarly oriented so that their convex major faces 14 all point in one direction. In this case the orientator 11 will turn those bottles 13 which are detected as facing in the wrong direction. Alternatively it may be required to have the bottles 13 being transported by the conveyor sorted into successive batches with the bottles of one batch facing oppositely to the bottles of the next batch.This can be particularly advantageous when the bottles are fed from the conveyor on to palletiser, each batch of bottles providing one row on the pallet and the bottles in one row being staggered with respect to those in an adjacent row; with bottles shaped as in this example this will provide a compact and stable packing of the bottles on a pallet.

The conveyor 12 has a movable conveyor belt 17 for transporting the bottles 13 in the direction of arrow 18.

The orientator 11 is so disposed in the path of the conveyor belt 17 that bottles 13 can either pass straight through it without being turned or be turned through 1800. The conveyor 12 also has side guides 19 for the bottles in the form of stationary side walls. At a predetermined position in the conveyor run upstream of the orientator 11 is located a-star wheel 20 for spacing the bottles 13 prior to entering the orientator 11. The star wheel 20 is driven by a variable speed motor (not shown).

The orientator 11 comprises a bottle holder 21 which is arranged to spin on vertical axis 22 in the direction of arrows 23. The holder 21 is as will be described suspended above the conveyor belt 17 and has frame members providing two facing surfaces 25 and 26 which define between them a passageway 27 for the bottles 13. The facing surfaces 25 and 26 in the stationary position of the orientator 11 align with the side guides 19. Thus if the orientation of a bottle 13 is not to be changed then it can pass right through the passageway 27.In order to change the orientation of a selected bottle 13 as it is being transported on the belt 17 it is arranged that when the bottle 13 reaches a predetermined location between the surfaces 25 and 26 the holder 21 is spun through 1800 about axis 22 to spin the bottle 13 by the same amount still on the conveyor belt 17 to reverse the orientation of the bottle 13. At the completion of this movement the surfaces have moved to the opposite sides of the conveyor and have realigned with the side guides 19 and the bottle continues its travel on the conveyor.

A control system is provided for determining the orientation of the bottles 13 and changing that of selected bottles. The control system has orientation sensors 32 which are positioned just downstream of the star wheel 20 and check for the shape of the bottles or markings on the bottles 13 and so determine the orientation of each bottle.

A sensor 35 is also provided and constitutes an entry sensor which detects when a bottle has fully entered the orientator 11 and triggers the operation of the orientator if the bottle is one whose orientation is to be changed.

The operation of the orientator is advantageously controlled using logic circuitry such as a microprocessor.

If the sensors 32 checking orientation, detect a wrong" bottle, i.e. one that is required to be turned by the orientator 11, then the microprocessor has to be programmed to ensure that as soon as the sensor 35 detects that the "wrong" bottle 13 has correctly entered the orientator 11, the latter is operated to spin the holder 21 through 1800.

The operation of the orientator will now be described in more detail with respect to the sequence diagram of Figure 2. For convenience of distinguishing between the bottles in the line approaching the orientator 11 they have been given the suffix letters A,B,C, and D, bottles 13E, 13F and 13I being "wrong" bottles and the others "right" bottles.

In the situation shown in Figure 2a "right" bottles 13A and 13B have passed straight through the orientator 11 and bottle 13C is passing straight through.

As long as "right" bottles are being sensed by the sensors 32 this situation continues and so "right" bottle 13D will also pass straight through the orientator 11. As soon as a "wrong bottle, i.e. bottle 13E, is sensed the star wheel 20 is controlled to pause momentarily. In Figure 2a a "wrongs bottle is seen just being sensed by the sensor 32. This causes the star wheel to pause momentarily to hold back the oncoming bottles. The bottles 13A-13D continue to move with the conveyor belt 17 to create the space X.

Eventually "wrong" bottle 13E enters the orientator 11 as shown in Figure 2b. By this time the star wheel has started to rotate again ald the next bottle, which is another "wrong" bottle 13F is being sensed by the sensors 32. As soon as the sensor 35 senses that the "wrong" bottle 13E is in the orientator 11 the holder 21 is spun through 1800 to spin the bottle 13E and change its orientation.

During this time the next bottle is approaching the orientator. By the time the bottle 13E is leaving the holder 21 the next bottle 13F is entering the orientator 11 and the space 'X' has been reduced to space 'Y' as shown in Figure 2c. Since bottle 13F is also a "wrong" bottle the space 'X' has again been created between bottle 13F and the next bottle 13G by momentarily stopping the star wheel 20.

Referring now to Figure 3, this shows the mechanical detail of the holder 21. The holder 21 comprises two parallel side frames 41 and 42 which are secured at their upper ends to a disc 43. The disc is supported from a vertical drive shaft 44 through which the holder 21 is rotated by drivingly connecting the shaft 44 to an electric motor, solenoid or other suitable drive. The side frames 41 and 42 are secured to the disc 43 through mounting brackets 45 which are bolted to the disc 43 through elongated slots 46. Hence the spacing between the side frames 41 and 42 is adjustable to suit different size bottles. The side frames 41 and 42 have lower cross-pads 47 and intermediate cross pads 48 for engaging the body of a bottle when the holder 21 is spun about axis 22. The vertical positioning of the pads 47 and 48 can be adjusted along the vertical rods 49 of the side frames 41 and 42 to suit different size bottles.

Claims (11)

1. An article orientator which is adapted to be disposed in the path of a conveyor for transporting articles, said orientator comprising a holder defining a passageway through which an article can pass if its orientation is not to be changed, said holder being arranged to spin about a vertical axis through 1800 to cause an article contained within it to change its orientation by 1800.

2. An article orientator according to claim 1, wherein the holder comprises spaced members which define said passageway, the members being relatively adjustable to vary the spacing between them and hence the width of the passageway.

3. An article orientator according to claim 2, wherein said members are secured to a rotatable disc through brackets which are adjustable on the disc to vary the spacing between said members and wherein the disc is drivingly connected to an electric motor for rotating said disc and thereby spinning said holder about the rotational axis of the disc.

4. An article orientator according to any. of claims 1 to 3, wherein said members each include pads for engaging the article when the holder is spun about the rotational axis of the disc.

5. An article orientator according to any preceding claim, wherein said holder is arranged to be suspended above the conveyor.

6. An article orientator system comprising an article orientator according to claim 1 and a conveyor having side rails for guiding articles moving on the conveyor, wherein said holder comprises spaced members which define said passageway between them and which align with the opposing side rails of the conveyor respectively and which when the holder is spun through 1800 move to opposite sides of the conveyor to realign with the side rails there.

7. An article orientator system comprising an article orientator according to any one of claims 1 to 5 or an article orientator system according to claim 6, wherein a device is provided at a position along the article carrying conveyor ahead of the orientator for regulating the spacing between the articles as they are fed to the orientator, and wherein said device is controllable so that the spacing between an article whose orientation is to be changed and the next article can be increased as compared with the spacing between an article whose orientation is not to be changed and the next article.

8. An article orientator system according to claim 7, wherein said device comprises a rotating star wheel for engaging between adjacent articles.

9. An article orientator system according to claim 8, wherein said star wheel can be controlled to pause momentarily after an article whose orientation is to be changed has passed the star wheel.

10. An article orientator substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

11. An article orientator system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.