IL29096A - Apparatus and method for filling boxes with a predetermined quantity of articles - Google Patents

Description

PATENTS FORM No.

PATENTS AND DESIGNS ORDINANCE SPECIFIC ATION APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FILLING BOXES WITH A PREDETERMINED QUANTITY OF ARTICLES ©s a nyaf aw o»ssn mass nia'n 'i aV no*sn jpnn We, BROGDEX COMPANY, a company organized under the laws of the State of California, United States of America, of 1441 West Second Street, Pomona, California, United States of America, DO HEREBY DECLARE the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly ascertained in and by the following statement: - The present invention contemplates an apparatus and method for filling boxes or receptacles wit discrete articles, such as fruit, in accordance with, in one example, numerical count of the fruit, or, in another example, weight of the fruit. The invention contemplates a novel method and apparatus for moving the box and fruit whereby a box may be rapidly filled under conditions which minimize the possibility of damage to the article as it is deposited in the box.

Prior proposed methods for illing a box of selected volume and size with fruit, which may have been already sized in accordance with well-known sizing apparatus, have included hand packing the fruit in the box by arranging the fruit in layer patterns which were predetermined according to the size, and number of fruit required to fill such a box. Such hand-packed boxes require skilled packers to rapidly arrange the fruit in the predetermined layer patterns and to maintain over many packing hours a suitable packing rate. Obviously such a method of hand-packing boxes requires many packers, is time consuming, and is generally an economically inefficient method of packing boxes.

Prior mechanical packing apparatuses have allowed the articles or fruit to fall a substantialXdistance into the box thereby subjecting it to damage. Devices which have attempted to cope with this problem have had limited success due to damage caused by contact of conveyors with the articles already placed in the box and the expense and complexity of construction.

The principal object of the present invention is to disclose and provide a means and method for rapidly, precisely, accurately filling a box with discrete articles xvithout any undue damage to said articles caused by dropping or careless ha An important feature is provided by this apparatus wherein one article is released at a time with a miniimum fall to the bottom of the box being filled or to a previously deposited layer of articles in the box.

The invention provides an apparatus for filling boxes with a predetermined, precise, quantitative measure of articles, comprising , a carriage for supporting a bo¾ an article feed conveyor means having an article release end spaced above said carriage, means providing relative movement between said box carriage and said feed conveyor for raising said bo into article receiving position with respect to said feed conveyor, means for sensing each aaiticleTreleased from said feed conveyor means for quantitatively measuring articles in accordance with the deposit of each article in said box, and means for successively moving apart said box carriage and said article release end by lowering said box carriage in response to preselected successive subtotals of articles received and then ;upon total quantitative measurement of said articles received in said box.

The. invention further provides a method for filling boxes with a predetermined, precise, quantitative measure of articles, including the steps of: arranging articles in discrete separated relationship; moving said discrete articles to a release position within and adjacent to the bottom of a box; counting each article at said release position; releasing each of said articles; moving said box away from said release position at preselected subcount of said articles and for a preselected subcount of said articles-, and for a pre selected distance; and stopping said movement of said discrete articles to said release position at a selected total count and moving said box away from said release position.

Other features and advantages of this invention will be readily apparent from the following description of the drawings in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a front elevational view partly in section of an apparatus embodying this invention Figure 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the box transfer portion of the box conveyor means, the view being taken in the plane indicated by the line II-II of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a side elevational view of Figure 1, partly in section, the section being taken in the planes indicated by line III-III of Figure 1.

Figure is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken in the plane indicated by line IV-IV of Figure 1, but with the box carriage and box in raised filling position.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view taken in the same plane as Figure and showing the photosens-ing unit in detail.

Figure 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view showing the box carriage in an intermediate position and the drive for the vertical feed conveyor and holding belt means.

Figure 7 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken in the plane indicated by line VII-VII of Figure , •Figure 8 is a schematic control circuit diagram for the apparatus shown in Figure 1.

Figure 9 is a view of the control panel shown in Figure 2 schematically indicating selection of intermediate fruit ■ count and aggregate fruit count.

Figure 10 is a modification of the box carriage means whereby the apparatus shown in Figure 1 may be adapted to filling boxes by weight.

An article loading or packaging apparatus embodying the present invention is generally indicated at 10, Figure 1.

In this example fruit, such as oranges, are shown; other discrete articles such as lemons, grapefruit, plums or non-produce type articles may be packaged or boxed by this apparatus. Apparatus 10 comprises a box-conveyor means 11 provided with a box-transfer station 12 at which a vertically movable box carriage lb may receive a box 15 for raising to a top-feed position, Figure 3. 3 · ' · ' , Box-elevator means 1?, Figure ^ includes fluid-operable means ! V') ■ ' - 18 for moving box carriage 14 from its lower-box receiving pb-. sition to its. upper-box feeding position, Figure 3· In upper-feed position, box 15 receives therewithin the lower end of a ·. verfeicle: article feed-tconveyor means 20 which ma be fed by a . bulk or random article feed^conveyor means 21. Heans 22, Figure , responsive to the quantit of fruit being placed in box 15i in this embodiment of the invention counts the fruit just prior to release of each fruit from the vertical feed-conveyor means 20· Control means are provided to control the vertical and bulk feed conveyors 20 and 21 in accordance with the incremental amount of fruit placed in the box and includes means for incrementally stepping the box carriage 14 downwardly until the total or aggregate amount of fruit is In the box and the box carriage 1 is then returned to its lowermost position where the continuously moving box conveyor moves the filled box from the box-transfer station. In one embodiment of the invention, each fruit is counted, the number of fruit to be placed in the box being determined by the size of the fruit. In another embodiment of the invention, fruit being placed in the box is continuously weighed and at certain weight intervals the box is lowered until a selected weight of fruit is accumulated in the box whereupon the bo Is lowered onto the box conveyor for removal.

I detail, apparatus 10 may comprise a base frame means 2 including suitable base frame members 25» in th|s example, supported upon casters 26 , it being understood that the frame means 24 may be fixed or secured to a supporting surface if desired. Extending along .the front and on top of the base frame means 2 may be a pair of spaced channel members 27 which may form a frame for the box-conveyor means 11. - r moving endless belt 28 supported at its ends by rollers 29 mounted on shaf s 30 supported in journal bearings Jl carried b channel members 27. One of the shafts 30 may be driven by a suitable motor means 32 carried by the base frame means.

Bottom lay 33 of the belt means 28 extends continuously between the end rollers 2% The top lay 3 is provided with a box-transfer portion 35 located immediately below the vertical feed-conveyor, means 20.. Transfer portion 35 is defined by a pair of longitudinally spaced belt loops, 36» each loop 36 being formed by longitudinally spaced rolls 37 and a lower roll 38 mounted between and below ,the spaced rolls 37 so as to provide a vertical downwardly disposed transverse opening 39, in the plane of the top lay 3 box-conveyor belt 28. The box-transfer portion 35 may be of less length than the length of a box to be positioned thereon so that bottom end margins 40 of a box supported by portion 35 may overlie the transverse spaces 39. , Thus a bo 15 moved by the box conveyor onto belt portion 35 is positioned so that its horizontal path of travel may be stopped and changed, into a vertical path of travel above portion 35. ; .- Box carriage 14 may comprise spaced U-shaped end members 1 connected by side walls Ala which flare outwardly at their upper. portions 4lb, such upper portions having a top edge return to hold side flaps of an open box in open position. End flaps of such a bo will normally; remain open or in non-interfering position. The lower transverse portions of U-shaped end members 1 are received in openings 39 below the plane of the top lay 3^ to permit passage of a box thereover.

Means 17 for raising and lowering box carriage 1 and a box 15 thereon may comprise an upstanding planar frame 42 in-eluding suitable upright and horizontal frame members. At its bottom end, frame: 42 may be pivotally connected at -3 to a forwardly extending plate 44 'secured as by welding to a' base , frame member 25 and to a vertical frame member 45. At its top end, frame 42 is connected by a pivotally mounted link 46 to vibrating motor means 47 as hereafter described.

Frame 42 carries intermediate its length upper and lower pairs of parallelogram arms 49 and 0 respectively pivotally mounted to frame 42 and pivoted at $1 and 5 respectively to members 41 of the box carriage 14* Carried by an upper transverse frame member on the upright frame 42 may be a forwardly extending bracket 53 to which is pivotally mounted at 54 a double-actin fluid cylinder means 55 which has a piston rod 56 pivoted at 57 to an arm 58 fixed to pivot shaft 59 which connects one end of the pair of arms 4 to frame 42. Double-acting cylinder means 55 ma be connected by fluid conduits 60 to a fluid-pump means 61 driven by a motor means 62. Thus upon selective actuation of the fluid cylinder means 55» as later described, the box carriage 14 will be lifted vertically by the parallelogram arms 49 and 50 until the open box receives therein the lower end of the vertical feed conveyor 20, It should be noted that the top of frame 42 is connected by pivoted arm 46 to an eccentric 64 carried by a shaft 65 mounted in suitable bearings 66 on vertical frame members 45, said shaft carrying a pulley wheel 67 connected by a belt 68 to a motor pulley 69 driven by vibrating-motor means 70. Eccentric arm 46 will be reciprocated generally in a horizontal direction to cause rapid forward and backward movement of frame 42 about its bottom pivotal mounting at 43 for imparting a shaking or vibratory force to carriage 14 and to fruit placed in box 15 to settle, compact, and arrange fruit in layers. The carriage 14 is vibrated at selected intervals r oa - scribed hereafter. In this example, the respective locations of the pivot ½3, arms ^9 and °» and arm k6 imparts horizontal and vertical vibratory force components to the articles.

, Means for feeding f uit to the box 15 generally comprises the vertical feed conveyor 20 and the horizontal feed conveyor 21-which supplies fruit to the vertical conveyor. Peed conveyor 21 Figure 2, may be supported in elevated horizontal position above base frame means 2k by vertical frame members ½ » upwardly rearwardly inclined frame members 80, top horizontal frame members 81 and a suitable arrangement of vertical and horizontal frame elements 82 and 83 located between the tops of members ^5 and the horizontal frame members 81. The feed con- 1 as shown in Fig.4 veypr tt may comprise a endless belt 8$ having a top lay moving across a supporting plate 86. The forward or delivery end of top lay.85 may be supported by a roller 87 of relatively small diamete so that the delivery end can be closely positioned to the path of travel of the .vertical feed conveyor 20. The bottom lay 88 of the endless belt may be supported by a: rolle 89 mounted on horizontal frame members 81, and may then pass downwardly and partially, around a drive roll 90, and then vertically upward. A roller 91 then supports the bottom lay from the frame member 81 and tensions the belt against the drive roll. The bottom lay may pass around an end roller 92 of relatively large diameter. Fruit may be fed to the back end of the feed belt 85 by any suitable means. The fruit may be fed at random and are contained on the top lay of, the belt between the side walls 93 of the frame members ,81. The fruit fed at random is advanced toward the delivery end of the feed conveyor 21 and at the, delivery end such random massed fruit is separated into rows or lines of fruit by guide rails 9^ which form part of the vertical feed conveyor 20.

Vertical feed-conveyor means 20 niay comprise an endless conveyor belt % of the same width as belt 85 and is provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced cleats or fruit support elements 97 projecting at right angles from the outer face of the bel 96. The cleats 97 in adjacent row are longitudinally offset to form an echelon arrangement as best shown in Figure 5· : Such offsetting of cleats in adjacent rows permits the delivery ,at the bottom end of conveyor means 20 of only one fruit at a time since the cleat of the adjacent row will be still supporting a fruit at the, ime of release of the first mentioned fruit from. its supporting. cleat as the belt 96 turns about the bottom of the conveyor 20.

Belt 9,6 is supported about a top relatively large diameter roll 98 carried by -a shaft 98a supported at its ends by a tubular U-shaped frame 99 which extends beneath roll 98. At its opposite end the belt 9 is supported b a relatively small diameter roll 100 so as to provide a relatively small or narrow feed-conveyor nose capable of entering the open top of a box and extending into the box into selected distance from the bottom of the box. Thus, a cleat 97 turns around the bottom roller 100, a fruit carried by such a cleat will roll off the cleat and fall only a short distance to the bottom of. he box or to a layer of fruit in the box.

Means for guiding fruit from the feed conveyor 21 onto the vertical conveyor 20 may comprise the guide rails 9 which may be supported at their upper ends by a horizontal rod 162 supported from the top of frame members 81 i Guide rails 9^ extend rearwardly over the deliver end of feed belt 8¾ and then sharply turn into parallel relationship with the belt 85 to extend over the top roll 98 of the vertical conveyor 20 and the narrow bottom roll 100 and then turn partially around roll 100 at the bottom of the feed conveyor. Thus guard rails 9½ together with close positioning of the top of the conveyor 20 with the delivery end of conveyor 21 permits fruit to be fed by fee belt 85 to the delivery end where each fruit will fall into line with the rows of cleats on feed conveyor 20. As fruit are discharged from.the. delivery end of the feed conveyor, each fruit will fall onto a cleat 97 and be carried by such cleat over the top of roll 98 and then fall upon the clea forwardly thereof. Thus fruit is held by cleats 97 between rails 9 at the top and vertical sections of conveyor 20.

Means for holding and preventing fruit from rolling forwardly off a cleat 97 may comprise an endless-holdin belt 10'+ supported at its top by a roller 105 carried on a shaft 106 mounted at opposite ends on the forward depending end portions 107 of arms 107. Shaft 106 supports side members 108 which carry at their bottom a pivotally mounted roll 109 for supporting the lower end of belt 104. The holding belt 10 is also adjustably supported ¾jith respect to the forward lay of the cleated belt 96 by a pair of springs 111 connected to side members 108 for biasing the holding belt toward the vertical lay of the cleated belt 96. Thus the inner lay 112 of belt 10 may be closely positioned into parallel relationship with the cleated belt 96 so that the inner surface of the inner lay 112 may contact and hold, if necessary, fruit carried by cleats 97. it i3 desirable that each fruit be not only prevented from falling forward and off cleat 97 as it travels downwardly on conveyor 20 but also that it be properly positioned with respect to an 142 opening hll in cleated belt 96 to assist in counting the fruit being dropped into the box as later described.

Each fruit supported by a cleat 97 as it travels down- wardly toward the box is held virtually stationary on the cleat by the inner lay 112 of the belt 104. Belt 104 is driven in correlatio with the driving of the vertical feed conveyor 20 so that the linear speed of the adjacent lays 112 of belt 104 and the vertical front lay of belt 96 will move at virtually the same linear speeds.

Means for adjusting the vertical relationship of the top of conveyor 20 with the delivery end of conveyor 21 may comprise a vertical post 116 slidable and fixed in a clamp means 117 secured to the !brward end of one of the frams members 81. The lo¾?er end of post 116 may be xielded to a sleeve 118, 98a Figure 1 , carrying shaft 97a/.

Means for drivin the feed conveyors 21 and 20, and its associated holding conveyor 10*1· may comprise a motor means 125 supported on top of top frame members 81. Motor means 125 drives through a' suitable gear means 126 a sprocket^ 127 which drives a chain 128 engaged at its [lower end by a sprocket 129 carried by a transverse shaft 130. Shaft I30 supports a sprocket 131 which is engaged by a drive chain 132 which engages at its other end a sprocket 133 carried by shaft 13 for driving the feed belt 85 of the feed coj eyor 21.

From shaft 130 may be supported a sprocket of approximately the same diameter as sprocket 129 which drives a forward-ly extending drive chai 136 which engages sprocket 137 carried on shaft $¾¾/of the top roll of the vertical feed conveyor 20. 98a Sprocket 137 drives ahaft ffll and an internal sprocket 138 which is engaged by chain 138a extends forwardly and upwardly to drive a email diamete sprocket 13 which meshes with a sprocket 140 carried at the top end of the holding-belt means 104. The selection of sprocket sizes correlates the lihea movement of the feed belts 85, vertical elevator belt 96 and holding belt 104 so that fruit advanced along the feed conveyor 21 will move a% a substantially uniform rate fr.om t,he belt 85 to the belt 96 and be held .without relative movement between the belts by the inner lay 112 of belt 104.

Means 22 for counting each fruit Just before it falls from the vertical feed conveyor .20 into the box may comprise windqws^ or openings 142 in belt 96 between adjacent cleats 97 and centrally between adjacent rails 94, each opening 142 being of generally vertically elongated rectangular shape to afford sufficient belt material between cleats 97 to prevent a fruit from falling rearwardly through the opening. Adjacent bottom roller 100 of the vertical feed conveyor 20 are transversely arranged a plurality of photo or light-responsive means 1· 3, each of said means being aligned with a vertical row of winiiows 142. Each photo-responsive means.143 may comprise a light source 144 directing a light beam through window 142 toward the surface of a fruit carried by a cleat 97. Each light-responsive unit also includes a beam receptor 14 aligned with, .the window and light beam to receive the beam when it is reflected from the surface of the fruit as the fruit passes by the beam. Thus as belt ,96 travels in a downward path to deposit a fruit into the box, each window 142 admits the beam from the light source 143 and the presence of a fruit is indicated by. reflection of the beam into the light receptor 145. In the event no fruit is being carried by a cleat 97, then the light beam from the light source 143 is not"reflected and the light receptor receives no indication of a fruit being present. Preferably belt 96 has a smooth non-reflecting black surface facing light-responsive means 143.

The light receptors 1 of each light-responsive unit 143 are connected to an electrical counting device (not. shown) of well-known make which includes a control panel 146, Figure»7/27, 9 ) , for selection of intermediate or subcouht of articles and also selection of the total count or aggregate number of articles desired to be deposited in a box* In this example, control switches for indicating intermediate or subcount of articles are indicated generally at section 150 and may include row of toggle switches 151 each placed below a numerical indieia indlca ing count, as for example, 2 , 2 , k,8,16 ,32 in one row and therebeneath 1, 0,0,0,0, 0. The count is progressively arranged so that, for example as indicated with the position of toggle switches 151 the intermediate article count would be 16, that is 2+2+*H-8. The set of toggle switches for preselecting total or aggregate count is indicated in the section 152 , the toggle switches being i a row 153· In this example, the numerical count indicia is extended up to 128 so that- combinations of 2, 2, ,8,16, 32 »6 ,128, and 1, may be made to preselect a desired quantity of fruit. Thus, for example, if 88 oranges were to be placed In a box, the intermediate set 150 may be set to count at 25 by turnin up toggle switches beneath 16,8 and turning toggle switch down towards 1. The 2 count would be three times for a subcount total of 75· As each intermediate or sub-count was reached, the box would be lowered an incremental amount as hereafter described. After reaching the aggregate count of 88 set on section 152 , the bo would be lowered to the box-transfe station. The distance that the box carriage travels downwardly in response to the present intermediate count is determined by a time delay which will be described hereinafter in connection with the operation of the device.

In operation of the apparatus ashown in Figures 1 through 9, inclusive and referring first to Figure 1 , box 15 may be fed to box conveyor 11 from a supply or feed conveyor 160 having a continuously moving belt l6l which moves at a slower speed than belt 34 of the box conveyor 11. Conveyor 160 Is aligned with box conveyor ,11 and is closely adjacent thereto as show in Figure 1. When box carriage 14 is in lowermost position, the cross member of U-shaped carriage members 41 may depress a box-stop lever 163 pivoted at 164 to .the -frame and having an upturned opposite box stop end 165 located between ends of the infeed portion of conveyo means 11. Lever 163 is normally biased upwardly by a spring 166 located between stop end 16 and the pressure contact of member 1.

When box carriage 14 is in loviermost position, a box 15 thereon which has been filled wil¾ be transported by the box. conveyor belt 34 from the box-transfer station 12. Since box-stop lever 163 is depressed, a second box will be advanced to belt 34 of conveyor 11 and as that box contacts belt 3 , it will be advanced rapidly to the box-transfar station because of the difference In speed of the belts 161 and 3 . Wien a second box is advanced onto box-traitsfer portion 12, it will contact a switch means 170 carried at the proximate end of the box-transfer station by the channel members 27 of the box conveyor-. Switch 170 has a normally open and a normally closed pair of" contacts 170a and 170b respectively, Figure 8. When contacts 170a are closed, by a box 15» a relay 171 having normall open contacts 171a khW /WW are closed and when switch 170 is released by clearance of a box, actuate a rela 172 with normally open contacts 172a for operatin a four-way solenoid-actuated valve 174 with a time delay 175 having normally closed contacts 175a to cause fluid in the conduits 60 to actuate the hydraulic-cylinder means 55 to raise box carriage 14 through the parallelogram arms 4 and 50. The carriage is timed to raise just as the box is completely in the box station 12 (when switch 170 is released by the passing box), the carriage lifting the box off moving belt-transfer portion 35. As soon as the carriage 14 releases pressure contact with box-stop lever 163, the upturned stop end 165 will be interposed in the path of the next succeeding box 15 on belt 161 so that a succeeding box will not be advanced by more rapidly moving belt 34 to the box-transfer Station 12. Time delay 175 serves as a safety device to deactuate the solenoid valve 1 in case of jamming by a box or the like.

The fluid-cylinder means 55 raises the box carriage 1 to an uppermost box-filling position determined by contact of arm 49 with switch means 17? supported from a vertical member of side frame 2, Figure 4. Switch means 177 has normally closed contacts 177a and normally open contacts 177b. When contacts 177a are opened by arm 49, the circuit controlling valve 174 is deenergized and lifting of carriage I is stopped. When normally open contacts 177b are closed, relay 178 having normally open contacts 178a is energized to atuate . the magnetic starter 179 to .tart the feed-conveyor motor 125. This feed-conveyor motor circuit may be provided with anooverload 180 which is normally closed. Thus, when the box carriage reaches its uppermost position as determined by switch means 177 and fluid-cylinder means 55, the feed conveyors 20 and 21 are simultaneously energized through the above-described drive means and fruit fed to the feed conveyor 21 will be advanced toward the vertical feed conveyor 20 as previously described.

As the fruit are channeled into rows, are picked up by the cleats 97 on the belt 96, and are lowered in a vertical path with fruit in adjacent paths being vertically offset, each fruit with its correlated window 142 in belt 96 will pass the photoelectric sensing unit 22. The beam from each light source 14 which is directed toward the fruit and whic w through the window openin 1 2 will be reflected by a frui carried by cleat 97 a d returned, to a light receptor 1 .

Light receptor 144 transmits a signal to the electrical counting device 199 in the control panel where ajs previously described an intermediate or subcount of fruit and a total aggregate; count of fruit having been selected depending upon the size of the fruit and quantity of the fruit desired to be deposited in the box.: ' '■■·"■■-.: ■;··"■ As each fruit passes a light beam from light source 143, it is counted and then deposited on the bottom,; When relay 182 has its contacts closed, lb will also energize motor-vibrating means 70 to move frame 42 rapidly reciprocally forwardly and backwardly to cause shaking of the box carriage 14 and the box 15 carried thereby. The vibrating-motor circuit may be provided with a normally closed contact i85a, time delay 185 determining the length of time that the box carriage is subject to vibration. The rootor-vibrating circuit ma be provided with a normally open toggle switch 186. If desired, the box and box carriage may not be vibrated during filling or lowering of the box and the period of vibration may be varied depending upon the type of articles being packaged.

After the box has been successively moved downwardly in stepped fashion in accordance with a selected number of intermediate or subcount of articles, ultimately the total count of articles as selected on the control panel is reached. Normally opemrelay contacts 19Q of the total count counter relay are 5 closed to energize ime delay 191 which seies to keep the vertical feed-conveyor belt in operation until the last fruit counted is discharged.; When the time delay contacts 191a, which are normall open, are closed at the end of the time delay cycle, the solenoid-actuated valve 17** is actuated to move the box carriage downwardly by actuation of. the cylinder means 55. At the same time normally closed contacts 191b are opened, and the feed conveyors 20 and 21 stop. When box carriage lA reaches its lowermost position in the box-transfer station, parallelogram arm 50 contacts a switch means 192 carried on the frame ½2. Switch means 192 is normally closed and upon opening, , the hydraulic pump is deactivated, downward movement is stopped, aid the circuit is ready for the next cycle which is started by the succeeding box 15 which has started toward the box-transfer station 12 because stop le e s 163 is down.

As soon as the filled box is in its lowermost position as provided by the down position of carriage 1 , the bottom of the box is engaged by box-transfer conveyor portion 35 and is immediately advanced from the box-transfer station onto the adjacent discharge portion of the box conveyor wher the box may be closed and it may be transported to storage.

In the schematic diagram shown in Figure 8, it will be apparent that the several motors may be connected with ra suitable ppwer source through a circuit breaker 195 a cL that the feed-conveyor motor 125 ma be provided with a suitable brake 196 in order to promptly stop the feed conveyors so that additional fruit. are not released from the bottom of the feed conveyor to provide an overcount of fruit. The control circuit described above may be fed from the main power source through a suitable transforme 19? with a suitable circuit breaker 198.. The electrical counting device is indicated in circuit diagram at 199 and is schematically connected to the light receptor photocells Ikk as shown. The carton-conveyor motor 32 may be provided with circuit having normally closed overload 200 and a normally closed overload 201 connected vrith the hydraulic motor means 62.

Operation of the above-described apparatus and method of fillin a box with discrete articles has been illustrated with a vertical feed conveyor having four channels or lanes to feed articles to the discharge or release end of the vertical feed conveyor. Where fruit may be a smaller size than that intended for packaging with the four-channel feed belt, it will be readily apparent that the feed belt together with its arrangement of guide rails may be readily removed from the vertical feed conveyor frame and replaced with a feed belt having five, six, seven or eight channels or lanes for feeding smaller sized fruit. The construction of such a multi-channeled feed belt may be the same as that described above and corresponding number of light-responsive means would be mounted in the verticalfeed belt frame in place of the four-responsive means shown in the present embodiment. Thus ¾r simply changing the belt of the vertical feed conveyor and the light-responsive means, it will be apparent that apparatus 10 may be readily modified for packaging Vibrating means for the box carriage and box may permit vibration thereof during a box-filling operation, dur lowering of a box carriage, o during both filling and lowering operations simultaneously. Certain sized fruit may be preferred to be vibrated in the box only during vertical movement of the box as' it is incrementally stepped downwardl in accordance with the number of fruit deposited in the box. In such instance, the combination of downward movement and horizontally and vertically directed shakin force components imparts movement to articles being deposited which causes them to quickly closely arrange themselves in a layer pattern.

Means to steady and hold the box 15 against relative movement with respect to carriage 1 during the filling operation and during vibration of the box may comprise a biased spring arm or plat© 210 carried by the carriage and extending through opening 211 in side wall la for spring pressure engagement against the opposed wall of the box so as to press the box against the outer wall la of the carriage. Sprin plate 210 is mounted so that in lowermost position of carriage 1 the spring . ; . Eigs.6 and 7 plate is retracted in opening 211/ so that passage of a box onto the carriage will not be interfered with. As the carriage is initially raised, the spring plate is caused to move through the opening 211 and into pressure engagement with the box. As the box is returned to its lowermost position after filling, the spring' plate is again retracted through the opening 211. It will thus be apparent that movement of the box relative to the carriage lh during a filling operation is restrained and the box is frictionally held in the carriage.

The width of the vertical feed-conveyor belt 36 may be only slightly less than the longitudinal dimension of the box placed upon the box-transfer station. Thus when fruit are deposited in the box by accommodation of the release end of the feed conveyor therein, each fruit is deposited substantiall in a transverse zone in which it will be ultimately located, and thus movement of the fruit into such final location is minimized. Such placement of fruit in the box by the vertical feed conveyor also tends to facilitate more rapid formation of the layer pattern of fruit in the box.

Apparatus 10 may be readily adapted to fill a box with discrete fruit in accordance with weight by modifying the box-carriage means and the means responsive to quantitative measurement of the articles so that weight instead of count is made the unit of measure. When describing this embodiment parts similar to like parts in the prior embodiment will be given the same reference numeral plus two hundred (200).

Box carriage 21· may be lowered and raised from a box-transfer station 212 by parallelogram arms 2½ . nd 250 in a manner similar to that described in the prior embodiment. The box-conveyor* means 211 includes channel section frame members 227 provided with transverse rolls arranged as in the prior embodiment so that a belt-transfer portion 235 will be provided at the box-transfer station 212.

Each U-shaped end member 2 1 of the box carriage may carry a pair of transversely spaced pressure-sens ng units 22 of strain gage or electrical resistant type. As shown in Figure 10, each pressure-senaing unit 222 may contact and support a corner of a box 215 when raised above the transfer station. The top face of each pressure-sensing unit 222 is located below the plane of the top lay portions of the box-conveyor belt so that a box 215 will readily pass thereover.

When the box carriage is raised, it will be apparent from the box carriage 21 . Each of the four pressure-sensing units 222 may be electrically connected to an electronic weight unit which may be substituted for the counter 199 of the prior embodiment and which is responsive to signals from the pressure- sensing units 222 in accordance with the sensing of the weight of each article deposited in the box. Such an electronic weight unit is of well-known manufacture and may be programmed in a manner similar to that described for the electric counter.

Thus, on a control panel, a selected sub or intermediate weight may be preset so that as articles are fed into the box and as the subweights are attained, the box will be lowered in response to such subwelght total in the same manner as that described in the prior embodiment. When the aggregate total weight is attained as preselected on the control panel, the box carriage will be caused to move downwardly to the box-transferstation and a box filled with articles to a preselected weight will be discharged by the continuously running box conveyor 212.

It will be understood that other types of pressure- sensing units may be Employed and may be carried by box carriage 214. In some instances it may be desirable to use two pressure-sensing units, one carried by the transverse portion cf each U-shaped end member.

When apparatus 10 is modified as above described to measure weight o articles deposited in the box, it will be apparent that the apparatus and box-filling method of this invention becomes readily adaptable for filling boxes to a predetermined weight with articles or material capable of being fed Individually to the box.

In the above-described embodiments of the present invention, a box ma be rapidly filled with articles by count of articles are quantitively measured as they are deposited in the box and the present invention discloses a means for such quanti-tlve measuring of the articles at approximately the moment of placement or deposit in the box. Means for moving apart the box carriage and the article release end of the vertical feed conveyor in response to such quantitive measuring means is provided at an arbitrarily preselected quantitive measurement by elfch&r count or by weight of said articles. Precise, accurate, rapid filling of a box with a selected number of articles or a selected aggregate weight of articles is therefore readil accomplished.

It will be understood that various modi ications and changes may be made in the above-iden ified apparatus and method which come within the spirit of this invention. It will be understood that the term "articles" may include fruit or produce o different type and kind capable of being handled in bulk and discretely for packaging, and that the article may be relatively large as fo example grapefrui or may be relatively small as for example plums, nuts or othe types of discrete articles which are of noh-produce type. All such modifications and changes coming within the scope of the appended claims are embraced thereby.

Claims (16)

29096/2

1. T An apparatus for filling boxes with a predetermined, precise, quantitative measure of articles, comprising, a carriage for supporting a box, . an article feed conveyor means having an article release end spaced above said carriage, means providing relative movement between said box carriage and said feed conveyor for raising said box into article receiving position with respect to said feed conveyor, means for sensing each article released from said feed conveyor means for quantitatively measuring articles in accordance with the deposit of each article in said box, and means for successively moving apart said box carriage and said article release end by lowering said box carriage in response to preselected successive subtotals of articles received and then upon total quantitative measurement of said articles received in said box.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said article feed conveyor means includes means for holding a plurality of articles in offset relation with respect to their direction of travel whereby one article is at release position on said article release end at one time.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said article feed conwpyor means includes an endleas conveyor belt having a plurality of longitudinal rows of offset spaced article support elements, and means providing an opening between said spaced elements cooperable with said article counting means.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, including an article holding belt having a belt lay virtually parallel to and adjacent to an opposed lay of said conveyor belt for limiting movement of an article on said support element and positioning said article with respect to said open ng.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, including means for moving said conveyor belt and article holding be It at substantially the same linear speeds.

6. An apparatus according to any preceding claim including means for shaking said box carriage during filling of

7. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, including a box conveyor means having a continuously moving box conveyor belt, and means on; said box conveyor means providing a box transfer station cooperable with said box carriage for transfer of a box to and from said carriage.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said means providing a box transfer station includes a box conveyor belt portion spaced and separated from box infeed and box discharge belt portions and forming therewith transverse openings in the plane of said belt portions for reception below said plane of transverse end members of said box carriage.

9. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein said means for quantitatively measuring articles includes means for counting each article at release position on said article feed conveyor means.

10. An apparatus according to any of claims 1-8, wherei said means for quantitatively measuring articles includes weight sensing means responsive to the deposit of each article in a box.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10> wherein said weight sensing means are supported on said box carriage.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10 or 11, including means responsive to preselected subtotal weights of said articles for actuating said means for moving apart said box carriage and said article release end. ' "

13. , A method for filling boxes with a predetermined, precise, quantitative measure of articles, including the steps of: arranging articles in discrete separated relationship; moving said discrete articles to a release position within and adjacent to the bottom of a box; counting each article at said release position; releasing each of said articles; moving said box away from said release position at preselected subcount of said articles and for a preselected subcount of said articles and for a preselected . , :.. , , .29096/2 . to said release position at a selected total count and moving said box away from said release position. ,

14. Th6 method of claim 13 including the step of sensing the weight of each article upon deposit in said box. .

15. An apparatus for filling boxes with a predetermined, precise, quantitative measure of articles constructed and adapted to operate substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

16. A method for filling boxes with a predetermined, precise, quantitative measure of articlessubstantially as described herein with reference to the aeoompanying drawings. S. HOROWITZ & CO. AGENTS FOR APPLICANTS