GB854054A - Improvements in egg handling plant - Google Patents

Abstract

854,054. Endless conveyers; shoots. NEWMAN, HENDER & CO. Ltd. June 10, 1958 [June 19, 1957], No. 19366/57. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XVII] In apparatus for delivering eggs into egg trays the eggs pass from a feed conveyer one by one on to the lower run of an endless conveyer consisting of an endless chain 9 carrying push plates or pairs of pusher fingers 15, and are moved step by step by this conveyer along a pair of rods 20, 21, of which the rod 21 is movable laterally, until a sufficient number has accumulated to fill a row of recesses in an egg tray B arranged below the rods 20, 21 whereupon a switch 32 closed by contact of a lug on the chain with switch-operating lever 32a energizes a solenoid 33 to cause rod 21 to be moved laterally towards and below rod 20, so that the accumulated eggs are deposited in the tray B. The rod 21 is guided on a rod 38 at each end and is moved by the solenoid 33 through links 37, rockers 35 and a cross-rod 34. An adjustable stop 39 on each rod 38 limits movement of the rod 21 away from rod 20. As the eggs fall into the tray one of the eggs actuates a switch 40 causing operation of a solenoid 47 which projects spring fingers 45 to temporarily arrest the eggs. A number of egg trays B are carried by a pair of continuously driven endless belts 7, the trays being intermittently advanced by a solenoid 43 which when energized rotates a drum 41 carrying arms 42 engaging in the space B<SP>1</SP> of an egg tray so as to move the egg tray one step. During rotation, of the drum 41 a pin wheel 49 is rotated and one of its pins closes a switch 48 to maintain both the solenoid 43 and the solenoid 47 energized until the movement of the egg tray is completed, upon which the solenoids are released so that the tray stops and the fingers 45 are withdrawn, whereupon the arrested eggs fall into the tray. The drive to chain 9 includes a slipping clutch having a pair of driven plates 17 provided with pins 25. One of the pins 25 normally engages a lug 24 carried by a lever 23 so that the chain 9 is stopped. When an egg passes from the feed conveyer 16 to the lower run of the pusher chain 9 it passes under a pair of fingers 29 which close a switch 26 to energize a solenoid 22 acting on lever 23. The lever 23 is then raised, freeing the pin 25 so that the plate 17 can rotate until the next pin 25 engages the lug 24, the chain 9 having been moved one step by this process. Specification 854,055 is referred to.