IT9063223U1 - PLANT FOR COLLECTION, COUNTING AND STACKING OF LASTR MATERIAL A - Google Patents

Description

PLANT FOR COLLECTION, COUNTING AND STACKING OF SHEET MATERIAL

SUMMARY

The plant according to the invention consists of two conveyors in cascade, a loading device arranged upstream of the first conveyor, a counting station downstream of the second conveyor and a stacking station for sheet or piece material. modules already counted in the counting station.

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a plant for collecting, counting and stacking sheet material particularly, but not exclusively, useful in the food industry.

As is known, in the industrial production of food products in the form of slabs, such as for example lasagna and pasta sheets in general, the unloading, counting and stacking operations, also given the fragility of the material to be handled, have up to now been carried out manually .

This involves necessarily long execution times with negative consequences on productivity and production costs.

The main purpose of the present invention is to provide a system capable of carrying out the operations N of unloading, counting and stacking of material in sheets or in modular pieces automatically, in a very short time, in line with the times of the production cycle. of the material to be handled and therefore with a very high productivity.

Not least object of the present invention is to allow maximum hygiene in the packaging of sheet materials or modular pieces which are constantly kept away from sources of pollution.

These and other purposes which will appear better later are achieved by a system for collecting, counting and stacking sheet materials or modular pieces comprising a fixed support frame, a carriage or slide mounted sliding on the fixed frame with the possibility of alternating movement. between a loading position and an unloading position, a crosspiece hinged to said carriage and equipped with gripping means, means for activating the crosspiece to make it oscillate around its hinging axis transversely to the direction of movement of the carriage between a a lowered position for engagement and a raised position for the transfer of a plurality of plates or modular pieces, a belt or wire conveyor arranged in correspondence with the unloading position of the carriage or slide and intended to move away the plates or pieces unloaded from the means of outlet, and a conveyor-orientator downstream of the conveyor adapted to receive comtem placing several plates in pieces fed by the conveyor and orienting them during conveyance, a plurality of counting compartments located downstream of the conveyor-orientator and each equipped with counter means, a stacking compartment downstream of each counting compartment, first displacing means suitable for transferring single plates or pieces from the respective counting compartment to the stacking compartment and second displacing means for transferring stacked plates or pieces from each stacking compartment to a discharge.

Further characteristics and advantages of the plant according to the invention will become clearer from the description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment thereof, given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic side elevation view of a first portion of the implant according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front view from the left, looking at FIGURE 1;

Figure 3 is a schematic plan view of Figure 1;

FIGURE A is a schematic side view of a second implant portion according to the invention;

Figure 5 is a plan view of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a sectional view along the line VI - VI of Figure 5;

Figure 7 is a front elevation view from the right looking at Figure 4;

Figure 8 shows a detail of Figure 5; And

Figure 9 shows a schematic side elevation view of the entire plant according to the invention.

In the various figures of the drawings identical or similar parts or components have been indicated by the same reference numbers.

With reference to the Figures listed above, a plant according to the invention comprises a first portion having a fixed frame 1, formed for example by tubular steel sections.

Supported on the frame 1 are two fixed longitudinal lateral guides 2 on which a slide 3 actuated by a connecting rod 4 and crank 4a assembly kinematically connected to a gearmotor 5 carried by a frame 5a is slidingly mounted.

A crosspiece 6 is hinged to the slide which extends as a bridge perpendicular to the guides 2 and overhangs a manifold 7 equipped with a plurality of suction nozzles 8 and connected to a suction pump 9, for example by means of a flexible tube 10.

The outlets 3 are designed to engage, due to the vacuum created by the pump 9, each a lasagna presented on an open "pan" 11 at the outlet of a drying oven (not shown in the Figures, for example as the one illustrated and described in patent application N.84909 A / 89 dated 2.2.1989 in the name of the same applicant), lift them, thanks to an oscillation of the crosspiece 6 around its hinging axis, which also acts as a fulcrum for a lever 12 operated by a double-acting piston 13, and drop them onto an underlying conveyor 14, after having been moved by the connecting rod and crank assembly in the direction of moving it away from the pan 11.

The conveyor 14 is composed of a multiplicity of reels 15 keyed on two parallel shafts 1G and 16a mounted rotatably on the frame 1 and connected to each other in pairs, one reel on the shaft and one on the shaft 16a, by several belts or wires 17.

A gearmotor unit 18 kinematically connected to one of the two shafts 16, for example by means of a chain 19, drives the conveyor 14 which transfers the lasagna and discharges them downstream onto a conveyor-orientator 20.

The conveyor-orientator 20 comprises two shafts 25 and 23a, mounted parallel to rotate at the ends of two lateral sides 22 and 22a.

Spools 24 having a large median groove 25 are keyed on the shaft 23, while spools 26 having several spaced grooves 26a are keyed on the shaft 23a. In the grooves 26a, tapes or threads 17 are returned, the upper portions of which are coplanar and divergent with each other starting from a reel 24 towards the respective reel 26 and are suitable for conveying the lasagna towards a counting compartment 27.

Each opposing pair of reels 24, 26 with their respective ribbons or threads 17 is longitudinally delimited by containment sides 28 which, in combined action with the non-parallel movement of the ribbons or threads 17, help to orient the lasagna according to the direction of advancement. In fact, if a lasagna is in a slanted position or in any case different from that aligned with the sides 28, the non-parallel motion of the belts 17 causes the lasagna to collide against one of the sides 28 so as to align them to make them reach a counting compartment 27 all oriented along the length.

Each counting compartment 27 has a longitudinal slot 29 on the bottom which has the function of allowing both the passage of a ray emitted by a respective photocell device 30 and the sliding of a respective pusher, as will be explained below.

The presence of a sign in a compartment 27 causes the interruption of the beam of the photocell, which sends an impulse to a totalizer device (not shown in the Figures) and at the same time sends a command for the lifting of a barrier 31 downstream of each compartment 27 operated by a respective double-acting cylinder and piston assembly 32, for example pneumatic.

Each unit has a stem 33 which is fixed at the head of a bracket 31a which in turn carries two barrier rods or pins 31 mounted sliding in holes 54a provided in a crosspiece 34 forming part of a support frame 35.

Once the barriers 31 are raised, respective pushers 37, ergcntisì from and sliding along the slots 29 under the action of jacks 3S, for example pneumatic, transfer by thrust the individual lasagna to a respective stacker compartment 40, the compartments stackers having their bottom 41 located at a more box-like level than that of the counting compartments 27, so that the lasagna unloaded from the compartments 27 are stacked or stacked on top of each other.

When stacking is complete, the barrier 42 located downstream of each stacker compartment 40 is raised by a respective jack 43, for example pneumatic, completely similar to the jacks 32 and suitable pushers (not shown in the Figures, but which can be entirely similar to the ones). pushers 37), operated by a respective pneumatic device 44, transfer the stacks of lasagna to an unloading station 45, where photocells 46 check that unloading has occurred,

The conveyor-orientator 20 rests at one of its ends on a bracket 47 actuated by a double-acting cylinder and piston assembly 48 which rests on the frame 1, so that the conveyor-orientator 20 can be raised and lowered by rotating around the axis of the drive shaft 23a on which it is hinged, The shaft 23a is motorized thanks to the presence of a gear motor 49, A control and command unit 50 pneumatically connected, for example through pipes 51 and a manifold 52, to the various drive 32, 43, 38, 44, controls the operation of the plant,

The operation of the system described above is as follows: the outlets 7 each take a lasagna from a pan 11, of a special re-drying oven for pasta and deposit it on the conveyor 14 after the slide 3 is retracted into the release position. shown in Figure 1.

The conveyor 14 transfers the lasagna onto the conveyor-orientator 20 which aligns them and in turn transfers them to the counting compartments 27,

The photocells 30 detect their presence and in the positive case the lifting of the barriers 31 and the advancement of the respective pushers 37 are commanded, which send the lasagna to the stacking compartments 41 where, by gravity, they are stacked one on top of the other.

When the stack is completed, the barriers 51 located downstream of each stacker compartment 27 are raised and further pushers operated by a respective jack 44 transfer the stacks of plates 43 to the unloading.

In the event of failure or malfunction of the second section of the plant, the conveyor-orientator plane 20 is raised by the piston 48 and unloading is carried out downstream of the conveyor 14.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the dimensions, may be various according to requirements.

The invention described above is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the protective scope defined by the content of the claims.

Thus, for example, all servomechanisms of the double-acting cylinder and piston type can be replaced by analogous or equivalent actuation devices, for example electromagnetic.

Furthermore, regret according to the present invention, although described with specific reference to lasagna, it also lends itself to the collection, counting and stacking of sheet or panel materials or modular pieces of any other material.

As it will be noted, the plant described above CAN be managed in a completely automatic way and operate continuously in relation to the capacity of the production cycle.

Advantageously, the unloading station described above can be managed in a completely automatic way and operate continuously in relation to the capacity of the production cycle.

The unloading station 45 can in turn consist of a compartment conveyor 60 directed to an automatic canning or packaging machine, for example of the conventional type.

Claims (3)

RESELLING 1) Plant for the collection, counting and stacking of sheet material or modular pieces characterized by the fact of comprising a fixed support frame, a trolley or slide mounted sliding on the fixed frame with the possibility of alternating back and forth movement between a loading position and an unloading position, a crosspiece hinged to said carriage and equipped with gripping means, means for activating the crosspiece to make it oscillate around its own hinging axis transversely to the direction of movement of the carriage or slide between a lowered position for the engagement and a lift for the transfer of a plurality of plates or modular pieces, a conveyor arranged in correspondence with the unloading position of the trolley or slide and intended to remove the plates or pieces unloaded from the gripping means and a conveyor-orientator to downstream of the conveyor adapted to receive several plates or pieces fed by the conveyor and to orient during conveyance, a plurality of counting compartments located downstream of the conveyor-orientator and each equipped with counter means, a stacking compartment downstream of each counting compartment, first displacing means suitable for transferring single slabs or pieces from the respective compartment counting to the stacking compartment and second displacing means designed to transfer slabs or stacked pieces from each stacker compartment to an unloading unit. 2) Plant according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said slide or carriage is mounted slidingly on lateral guides and comprises a connecting rod and crank drive assembly. 3) Plant according to claim 1, characterized in that said means for actuating the crosspiece comprise a double-acting cylinder and piston unit and a lever between the cylinder and piston unit and the crosspiece, 4) Plant according to any one of claims 1 or 3, characterized in that said gripping means comprise a plurality of suction cup nozzles, suction means in communication with the suction cups and suitable for intermittently sending the outlets under vacuum. 5) Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said conveyor-orientator comprises two return shafts each equipped with an equal number of reels, so that each reel on one shaft can be connected to a respective bag on the other shaft to be a plurality of non-parallel ribbons or threads, each pair of spools with their respective ribbons or threads being laterally delimited by rectilinear alignment edges. 6) Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each counting compartment and each installation compartment comprise retractable barriers suitable for intercepting the outflow of sheet or piece products, and an actuation means for each barrier . 7) Plant according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said actuation means are reversible. 8) Plant according to claim 7, characterized by the fact that said actuation means comprise at least one double-acting cylinder and piston unit, 9) Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said conveyor-orientator is hinged to the frame around a horizontal axis and comprises actuation means to make it move angularly around the axis so as to take it out of the area of GZione of the carrier, 10) Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that said displacing means comprise pushers and jacks, each one designed to provide a respective pusher in succession after lifting the respective retractable barrier. 11) Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said counter means comprise photocells. 12) Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a device for controlling the unloading of the stacked plates in each stacking compartment. 13. Plant according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a control and program control unit of the operating sequence of the plant. 14) Plant for collecting, counting and stacking sheet material substantially as described above with reference to the accompanying drawings and as illustrated therein.