GB2424407A

GB2424407A - Container filling device

Info

Publication number: GB2424407A
Application number: GB0505573A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Ian Haith
Original assignee: Tickhill Engineering Co Ltd
Current assignee: Tickhill Engineering Co Ltd
Priority date: 2005-03-18
Filing date: 2005-03-18
Publication date: 2006-09-27
Anticipated expiration: 2025-03-18
Also published as: GB2424407B; GB0505573D0

Abstract

A container filling device comprising, a support structure 12, article conveying means 16 connected to support structure and a filling member 20 connected to the support structure and positioned to receive articles from the article conveying means and to lower the articles into the container 50, wherein the filling member is connected to the support structure for pivotal and generally linear movement relative thereto. Member 20 is pivotally mounted adjacent to the end of conveyor belt 22 of the means 16, and slidable so that it can be extended into the container 50. Articles such as root vegetables from the belt 22 can thus be deposited in the container without damage. Means at the lower end of the member 20 may sense proximity to the base of the container or articles therein. A second filling member 21 may be used to lower articles from the belt 22 into another container.

Description

Title: Container Filling Device

Description of Invention

This invention relates to a container filling device.

The invention has been devised in relation to the loading of articles, such as, for example, root vegetables into containers such as, for examples, boxes or bags, but it is to be appreciated that the invention will be applicable in relation to the loading of other articles, where similar or analogous requirements to those pointed out hereafter arise. *

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It is important when handling root vegetables (and other articles being loaded * . S..

into a container) that they should not be dropped through more than a minimal distance. If a container of the order of, for example, a metre deep is filled with S...

root vegetables by dropping the vegetables into the container from a position...

above the top of the container, the distance through which the vegetables fall to *S..

the bottom of the container when the container is empty, or even partially full, is sufficient to cause damage. Accordingly container filling devices have been developed in which the vegetables are lowered to the bottom of the container in a controlled manner. Such devices reduce or prevent damage to the vegetables but are slow in operation and not versatile in terms of being able to deal with containers of different sizes.

According to the present invention there is provided a container filling device comprising:- a support structure; article conveying means connected to the support structure; and a filling member connected to the support structure and positioned to receive articles from the article conveying means and to lower the articles into the container; wherein the filling member is connected to the support structure for pivotal and generally linear movement relative thereto.

The pivotal movement of the filling member relative to the support structure may be effected by a first control means including a first driving means, for example a first motor and appropriate gearing.

The first control means may include a cam operable by the driving means to effect pivotal movement of the filling member.

The cam may be operable by the first driving means to oscillate the pivotal movement of the filling member towards and away from the support structure. ....

Thus distributing articles evenly throughout an interior of the container. * The generally linear movement of the filling member relative to the support S...

structure may be effected by a second control means including a second *.

driving means, e.g. a second motor and appropriate gearing. S...

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The second driving means may be supported on the support structure, or the filling member, and may have a pinion gear which engages with a rack gear provided on the filling member, or the support structure, to move the filling member generally linearly relative to the support structure.

A lower end of the filling member may be provided with sensing means to sense a proximity of a lower end of the filling member to a base of the container or to articles therein.

The first driving means may be operable to pivotally move the filing member in response to a signal generated by the sensing means. For example, if articles pile up in a region of the container, the first driving means, in response to a signal generated by the sensing means, would pivotally move the filling member either towards or away from the support structure so as to distribute the articles evenly throughout the container.

The second driving means may be operable to generally linearly move the filing member in response to a signal generated by the sensing means. For example, as the container fills, the second driving means, in response to a signal generated by the sensing means, would move the filling member generally vertically so that the remaining volume of the container could be filled with articles.

The pivotal movement and generally linear (or generally vertical) movement of the filling member relative to the support structure may coincide or the pivotal i...:.

movement and linear (or generally vertical) movement may be separate, depending, of course, on the signal generated by the sensing means.

The conveying means include a elongate flexible element entrained around a pair of spaced rotary elements and a respective driving means to cause the *.

elongate flexible element to advance along an endless path around the rotary.:.

elements. The elongate flexible element may be a continuous belt or band.

The filling member may include a respective elongate flexible element entrained around a pair of spaced rotary elements, one of which is one positioned at a lower end of the filling member and the other of which is positioned at an upper end of the filling member, and there being a respective driving means to cause the elongate flexible element to advance along an endless path around the rotary elements.

The elongate flexible element of the filling member may include a plurality of projecting formations spaced from each other along an outwardly facing surface of the elongate flexible element, with each projection extending transversely away from the outwardly facing surface of the elongate flexible element. The purpose of the projections is to support articles while they being moved from the conveying means of the device, via the filling member, into the container, so that the articles do not simply slide down/along the filling member and into the container, which could damage the articles.

The device may include two filling members, first and second, one positioned at each side of the device, with the conveying means being operable to convey articles to either of the filling members. This is beneficial in increasing efficiency, because when one container has been filled by the first filling member, the conveying means can then be made to convey articles to the second filling member, whilst the filled container is removed from beneath the first filling member an replaced with an empty container. The filling cycle will thus oscillate between filling containers via the first and second filling members.

The invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:- .. * .

Figure 1 is a side view of a device in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 is a detailed side view of part of the device of Figure 1; Figures 3 to 10 are side views of the device of figure 1 of progressive stages of filing a box with articles; and Figures 11 to 16 are side views of the device of figure 1 of progressive stages of filing a bag with articles.

Referring to the figures, these show a device in accordance with the present invention, indicated generally at 10. From figure 1, the device 10 includes a support structure in the form of a frame, indicated generally at 12 supported on a ground surface. The frame 12 includes three spaced upright members 13 connected together near their lower ends by a frame 14 and at their upper ends by a frame 15.

The upper frame 15 supports an article conveying means, indicated generally at 16 (discussed in more detail later). The device 10 also includes two filling members 20, 21, one positioned at each side of the device 10. In the view shown in Figure 1 the filling member 20 is completely lowered into a container or box 50 to be filled and the filling member 21 is partially raised. The construction and operation of the filling member 20 is identical to that of the filling member 21 and thus the construction and operation of the filling member 20 only will be discussed hereinafter.

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The article conveying means 16 includes an conveyor belt 22 entrained around a pair of spaced rollers 23, 24, which are supported on the frame 15, between the filling members 20, 21, for rotation about respective axes which are substantially parallel to each other. The roller 23 is positioned adjacent *.

the filling member 21 and the roller 24 is positioned adjacent the filling.

member 20. The roller 24 is drivingly connected to a motor 25, by appropriate gearing, and when operated advances the belt 22 either clockwise or counter- clockwise (as viewed in the figures) around the rollers 23, 24.

The purpose of the article conveying means 16 is to receive articles, which in this example are root vegetables, from a supply and to convey the root vegetables to either of the filling members 20, 21, depending on which filling member 20, 21 is to be used.

The filling member 20 is generally elongate and includes a frame 30 which is slidably connected to the frame 15 by a guide sleeve 39. The filling member 20 includes a pair of space rollers 31, 32, which are supported by the frame at opposite ends thereof for rotation about axes which are substantially parallel to each other and which are substantially parallel to the axes of rotation of the rollers 23, 24. The roller 31 is positioned at an upper end of the filling member 20 and the roller 32 is positioned at a lower end of the filling member 20.

Entrained around the rollers 31, 32 is conveyor belt 33, which includes a plurality of projecting formations 34 spaced from each other along an outwardly facing surface of the belt 33. The projections 34 extend transversely across the belt 33, substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel of the belt 33 and are angled slightly from a perpendicular to a plane of the belt 33, such that those projections 34 which face the support structure 12 are angled upwardly and those projections 34 which face away from the I..., support structure 12 are angled downwardly. The purpose of the projections i.' 34 is to support root vegetables received from the conveyor belt 22 while they are being moved downwardly into the container 50.

The filling member 20 also includes a motor 36 drivingly connected to the *.I.

roller 31, via appropriate gearing, which is operable to advance the belt 33 * counter-clockwise as viewed in Figure 1. Conversely, the corresponding motor on the filling member 21 is operable to advance its respective belt clockwise, as viewed in Figure 1, around its respective rollers.

Referring more particularly to figure 2, the filling member 20 is slidably connected to the frame 15 by a guide sleeve 39, which is pivotally connected, at 38, to the frame 15 adjacent the roller 24. Vertical movement of the filling member 20 is provided by a rack and pinion gear arrangement of known kind.

A motor 40, which is supported on the frame 15 adjacent the roller 24 has a pinion gear 41 which engages a rack gear 42 on part of the frame 30 of the filling member 20. The motor 40 is operable rotate the pinion gear 41 so that the filling member 20, via the rack gear 42, is raised or lowered, as desired, relative to the support structure 12, with the filling member 20 sliding through the guide sleeve 39.

Pivotal movement of the filling member 20 relative to the support structure 12 is provided by a further motor 45, supported on the frame 15 beneath the conveyor belt 22, and a cam mechanism 46. The cam mechanism 46 includes an arm 47 which is pivotally connected at one end to the guide sleeve 39 below its pivotal connection at 38 to the frame 15. The other end of the arm 47 is pivotally connected to a rotatable element 48 at a positioned spaced from an axis of rotation of the rotary element 48. The axis of rotation of the rotary element 48 is substantially parallel to the axes of rotation of the rollers 23, 24, 31, 32. The rotary element 48 is drivingly connected to the motor 45 through appropriate gearing. *S..

When the rotary element 48 is rotated about its axis by the motor 45, the arm 47 is caused firstly to move away from the frame 15. As the arm 47 is connected to the guide sleeve 39, movement of the arm 47 by the rotary IS. .

element 48 causes the guide sleeve 39 to pivot about its pivotal connection 38 away from the frame 15, which in turn causes the filling member 20 also to pivot relative to the support structure 12, with the lower end thereof moving away from the support structure 12, as shown in Figure 3.

Further rotation of the rotary element 48 by the motor 45 causes the arm 47 to move further away from the frame 15 until no further pivoting of the guide sleeve 39 can be achieved. Yet further rotation of the rotary element 48 in the same direction by the motor 45 causes the arm 47 now to move towards the frame 15 as shown in Figure 4 pivoting the guide sleeve 39 and thus the lower end of the filling member 20 towards the support structure 12. Pivoting of the guide sleeve 39 continues until it is moved back to its original position (i.e. with the filling member 20 substantially vertical). With the motor 45 being driven in one direction, the cam mechanism 46 thus provides oscillatory pivoting of the filling member 20 relative to the support structure 12. The extent of the oscillation of the filling member 20 can thus be adjusted by selecting the size of the rotary element 48 and adjusting the arm 47, and so the device 10 can be adapted to different size boxes.

A lower end of each filling member 20, 21 is provided with a sensor to sense a proximity of a lower end of the filling member 20, 21 to a base of the container 50, or articles therein. The sensor may be ultrasonic or optical, or any other sensor as desired.

In order for the container 50 to be filled with root vegetables 70, the conveyor belt 22 must be driven by the motor 25 so that it advances clockwise around the rollers 23, 24, and the belt 33 of the filling member 20 must be driven by the motor 36 so that it advances counter- clockwise around the rollers 31, 32. **..

The root vegetables 70 are then supplied to the conveyor belt 22 and travel * *..

therealong towards the filling member 20. When the root vegetables 70 reach the end of the belt 22 they fall onto the projections 34 of the belt 33, and as... *S..

that part of the belt 33 is moving downwardly, the root vegetables 70 are lowered into the container 50. As the lower end of the filling member 50 is.

positioned close to the base of the container 50, the root vegetables 70 are *: not damaged when they drop from the projections 34 and into the container 50.

In order to distribute the root vegetables 70 evenly across the base of the container 50, the cam mechanism 46 is used to effect pivoting of the filling member 20 (see Figures 5 to 8). As the container 50 fills, the sensor at the lower end of the filling member 20 detects the rising level of root vegetables in the container 50 and sends a signal to the motor 36 to raise the filling member 20 vertically through the guide sleeve 39.

As the container 50 is filled, the sensor continually detects the rising level of root vegetables 70 therein and sends appropriate signals to the motor 36 to raise the filling member 20 the desired height. This is continued until the container 50 is filled to a desired level (see Figure 9), at which time the sensor sends signals to stop the motors 25, 36 and 45, or the motors 25, 36 and 45 are manually stopped.

The container 50 is then removed and, as can be seen at Figure 5, a new container 51 is positioned beneath the filling member 21, so that filling of the container 51 can begin as soon as filling of the container 50 has finished, although filling of the new container 51 could be commenced before or after filling of the container 50 is complete. Of course, when the new container 51 is to be filled, the motor 25 must advance the belt 22 counter-clockwise so that the root vegetables 70 are directed towards the filling member 21 and the motor of the filling member 21 must advance its belt clockwise to lower the root vegetables into the new container 51. IS..

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Although the filling member 21 is shown here in a raised position during the filling of the container 50, it will be apparently that the filling member 21 may be in any other position, such as in a lowered ready-tofill position with *: container 51 already in place, while container 50 is being filled.

Figures 11 to 16 show the device 10 being used to fill a bag 60. As the base of the bag 60 is not as wide as the base of the container 50, there is no need to effect pivoting of the filling member 20 relative to the support structure 12 by use of the cam mechanism. Instead, only raising of the filling member 20 is effected during the filling of the bag 60. Again, the sensor at the lower end of the filling member 20 detects the rising level of root vegetables 70 in the container 50 and sends a signal to the motor 36 to raise the filling member 20 vertically through the guide sleeve 39.

As with the filling of the containers 50, 51 shown in Figures 3 to 10, the sensor detects when filling of the bag 60 is complete and then sends signals to stop the motors 25, 36 and 45, or the motors 25, 36 and 45 are manually stopped.

The filling member 21 is then used to fill a new bag 61 positioned thereunder.

Of course, in order to commence filling of the new bag 61, the motor 25 must advance the belt 22 counter-clockwise so that the root vegetables 70 are directed towards the filling member 21 and the motor of the filling member 21 must advance its belt clockwise to lower the root vegetables 70 into the new bag6l.

To provide for control of the pivoting movement and/or vertical movement of the filling members 20, 21, one or more encoders responsive to the position or movement of the filling members 20, 21 may be provided, and an electronic a...

controller may be operable to control the movement of the filling members 20, * a..

21 in accordance with signals received from the or each encoder. For example, the shaft of the motor 45 may be provided with an encoder which provides a signal indicating the angle of pivot of the filling member 20, 21. By supplying the size of the box to the electronic controller, or setting a maximum *..

angle to which the filling member 20, 21 may be permitted to move, the *.

electronic controller may be operable to control the motor until the arm reaches its maximum angle, where upon the direction of the motor can be reversed to move the filling member 20, 21 in the opposite direction until it reaches the other limit of its movement. In this way, the filling apparatus can be simply adapted to fill different sized boxes by setting a value in an electronic controller rather than changing the rotary element 48.

An encoder may also be fitted on the shaft of the motor which raises and lowers filling member 20, 21 so that the height of the filling member may be detected accordingly. Thus, an electronic controller may receive a position or movement signal from the encoder indicating that the filling member 20, 21 has reached a height which has been set to match the top of the container 50.

The electronic controller may then stop the filling process and lift the filling member 20, 21 to its raised position which again may be detected by means of an appropriate encoder. In this way, a simple method of adapting the filling device to different size boxes may be provided.

In general, the filling apparatus described provides a simple and effective way of even filling a box with produce whilst minimising the full height and handling of the produce to reduce damage or bruising.

When used in this specification and claims, the terms "comprises' and "comprising" and variations thereof mean that the specified features, steps or integers are included. The terms are not to be interpreted to exclude the presence of other features, steps or components. *..S i S *S.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the following claims, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate, may, separately, or in any *.

combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse *: forms thereof.

Claims

1. A container filling device comprising:- a support structure; article conveying means connected to support structure; and a filling member connected to the support structure and positioned to receive articles from the article conveying means and to lower the articles into the container; wherein the filling member is connected to the support structure for pivotal and generally linear movement relative thereto.

2. A container filling device according to claim I wherein the pivotal movement of the filling member relative to the support structure is effected by a first control means including a first driving means. * *

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3. A container filling device according to claim 2 wherein the first control means includes a cam operable by the driving means to effect pivotal **S* movement of the filling member. ***. * S *S..

4. A container filling device according to claim 3 wherein the cam is operable by the first driving means to oscillate the pivotal movement of the filling member towards and away from the support structure.

5. A container filling device according to any preceding claim wherein the generally linear movement of the filling member relative to the support structure is effected by a second control means including a second driving means.

6. A container filling device according to claim 5 wherein the second driving means is supported on the support structure, or the filling member, and has a pinion gear which engages with a rack gear provided on the filling member, or the support structure, to move the filling member generally linearly relative to the support structure.

7. A container filling device according to any preceding claim wherein a lower end of the filling member is provided with sensing means to sense a proximity of the a lower end of the filling member to a base of the container or to articles therein.

8. A container filling device according to claim 7 as appendant to any one of claims 2 to 6 wherein the first driving means is operable to pivotally move the filling member in response to a signal generated by the sensing means.

9. A container filling device according to claim 8 as appendant to any one of claims 4 to 6 wherein the second driving means is operable to generally **S.

linearly move the filling member in response to a signal generated by the sensing means. **..

10. A container filling device according to any preceding claim wherein the pivotal movement and generally linear movement of the filling member relative to the support structure coincide.

11. A container filling device according to any one of claims I to 9 wherein the pivotal movement and generally linear movement of the filling member relative to the support structure are separate.

12. A container filling device according to any preceding claim wherein the device includes two filling members, one positioned at each side of the device, with the conveying means being operable to convey articles to either of the filling members.

13. A container filling device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

14. Any novel feature or novel combination of features described herein and/or in the accompanying drawings. * * **.* *

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