JPS5820856B2 - Equipment for continuous processing of moving items - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously processing moving articles.

The articles to be processed can be containers, such as bottles, vials, cans or ammunition casings, or, for example, parts to be machined or transformed.

Processes carried out successively on these articles can be, for example, filling operations, closing, machining or molding operations, or inspection operations on these articles.

For clarity of concept, the present invention will be described in detail only to the filling of bottles, since it has been found that the present invention can be applied to a variety of processes carried out sequentially on a large number of identical articles, although they may be of various types. Let me explain.

To fill the bottles, the bottles advancing from the supply station are arranged with a predetermined pitch equal to a constant distance between successive bottles, and a refilling ring is used that constantly rotates about a vertical axis. The ring is conveyed by an intermediate mechanism around a drum consisting of a drum, said ring being provided with a plurality of caps arranged along a circle and each cap being placed on a bottle at the periphery of the circle.

During rotation of the assembly, the bottles are filled in such a way that empty bottles are filled when they enter the drum, but are filled when they leave the drum after rotating slightly less than one revolution of the drum.

The filled bottles are continuously conveyed by an intermediate mechanism to another processing drum, for example for closure.

The trend so far has certainly been to speed up production.

For example, previously we were processing 0 to 20,000 bottles per hour, but now we are processing 70,000 or 1 bottle per hour.
Even 20,000 bottles are processed.

This means that the linear velocity during processing is suitably increased, for example reaching 2 meters per second.

Since the time required to fill each bottle is therefore the same, it is made to increase the distance traveled by the bottles being processed in the drum, i.e. by increasing the diameter of the closure ring, which is then filled with a larger number of bottles. Fill the nozzle.

It is set up.

In this way, for example, drums have been implemented which consist of 160 filling nozzles at a pitch of 100 mm and thus have a diameter of more than 5 meters.

It turns out that the rotational drive of drums with such dimensions is associated with technical deficiencies that increase production costs.

Moreover, accidents such as bottle breakage have serious consequences at high linear speeds of the order of 2 meters per second due to the rapid accumulation of bottles at the stopping point.

Moreover, the noise of the bottles is increased when they come into contact with each other.

The purpose of the present invention is to continuously process moving articles without causing noise or damage due to rotation of articles or contact between articles, while maintaining a high production rate, and with a simple structure and low manufacturing and assembly costs. The purpose is to provide equipment.

To achieve the above object, the present invention forms a plurality of articulated carriers in an endless chain 2 for feeding and spacing articles in at least two parallel rows, and A section is stretched directly around the processing drum, and a means for receiving and transferring articles to and from the endless chain is arranged adjacent to the endless chain, and each conveyor has a and between the seats of each carrier there is a drive-engaging portion adapted to engage the drive means so that at least two parallel seats 11 are provided while the articles are in the endless chain. Each conveying device is arranged in a row, and the processing means has a ring supported above an endless chain stretched around the processing drum and concentrically with the processing drum. , the number of these rings is equal to the number of rows of articles in the endless chain, and each ring has a processing head for performing processing on another article, such as filling, closure, machining, shaping or inspection. The processing heads may be spaced apart by a pitch equal to the spacing between successive articles in each row of an endless chain stretched around the processing drum.

An advantage of the invention is that the processing speed can be increased by a multiple equal to the number of rows of articles to be processed, without increasing the travel speed and therefore without substantially increasing the dimensions of the processing drum and without increasing the machinery. This is something that can be increased.

Thus, according to the present apparatus, the production speed can be maintained even though the moving speed of the article is reduced compared to the conventional method.

This device allows each article to be moved closer to or further away from the drum, such as by a star wheel, as in prior art solutions to increase processing speed without using an endless chain of multiple rows. It must be noted that there is a fundamental difference from using only one independent column or using two columns in which each article is independent from the other articles in the same column and in adjacent columns.

In the present invention, the arcuate spacing between successive articles of the various rows as the articles pass around the drum is relative to substantially equal angles of the center of the drum.

Thus, for example, in the case of the special bottle filling plant mentioned above, the prior art states that for a linear velocity of 2 meters per second, the drum has a diameter of the order of 5 meters;
With 60 filling heads distributed in a single ring at intervals of 100 mm, the drum according to the invention
It consists of an inner ring with 80 heads spaced loomm apart, and an outer ring with 80 heads spaced larger linearly.

It will be appreciated that for processes such as labeling, it is common to have only a single labeling device to label each row of articles as they progress around the drum.

Furthermore, for example, in the case of labeling bottles that are constantly transported in an upright position, it is only possible to arrange the labeling device at the same level as each feeding row because of the need to be close to the sides of the articles.

This is not the case for other processes, such as fill closures or machining operations, which require access only to the top of the row of articles.

In this case, each row of an endless chain stretched around the processing drum traces a ring around the drum, so that the filling head or die head known from French Patent 1,432,636 or '87.536 is used. Such processing heads must be mounted in the same manner over the axis of each row of articles, forming a ring supported by the top of the drum.

The device according to the invention is particularly suitable for use when the containers are filled while passing around a filling drum,
In such cases, it is desirable to run the endless chain from the filling drum roughly through the closure drum.

In the present invention, a plurality of pivotally mounted conveyors for feeding and spacing successive articles in each row are arranged in an arcuate manner between successive articles in various rows as the articles pass around the drum. The spacing is arranged to be equal angles to the center of the drum.

As described above, each carrier has a central driving engagement portion,
It has at least two seats for said articles on each side thereof.

Such a conveyor is, for example, described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 74931/1984, and the priority document is dated June 22, 1977 (Special Publication No. 74931/1989).
No. 48410).

Instead of having a non-through seating hole and thus being "closed,"
The carrier may have an open pocket for seating the articles described in French Patent Specification 2005621A.

In an embodiment, the processing drum is a bottle filling drum and the processing head is the inlet.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

The apparatus shown in Figure 1 comprises a plurality of containers R, such as bottles.
Suitable for continuous processing.

However, these containers may also be vials, cans, etc., or cartridges for making ammunition.

Furthermore, this type of equipment can also be applied to operations such as machining, forming, and inspecting the same number of different articles.

The device consists of an endless conveyor, which serves as a feed conveyor 2 for transporting the articles to be processed after leaving the periphery of the drum 1 to the periphery of a processing drum 5, such as a filling or refilling drum, by intermediate wheels 3. used.

After rotating the drum 5, the conveyor is moved to the drum 5 by an intermediate wheel 6 provided directly near the intermediate wheel 3.
and thus arrive at the periphery of another processing drum 7, for example a drum for continuously capping bottles.

The outlet conveyor line 8 returns to the drum 1 by an intermediate wheel 9 so that the conveyor is endless.

In the illustrated embodiment according to the invention, the assembly of the endless chain circulating through the area just described is constituted by successive rows of carriers pivotally connected to each other, each carrier comprising two The receptacle consists of multiple recesses into which articles can be placed side by side.

In the drawing, such a carrier with two recesses 11 and 11' is designated by the reference numeral 10, with the pivot axes of one carrier and the following one being the same.
It is shown by 2.

The drive of the stiff conveyor is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Application No. 53-74931.
This is accomplished by a central portion as described in the specification of JP-B No. 56-48410, filed June 22, 1977 in France.

Therefore, the recesses 11 and 11' draw parallel trajectories.

The articles to be processed, which in this case are bottles, arrive via channels 15 and 15'.

In each of these aisles, the plurality of bottles are arranged in rows,
Each bottle contacts the preceding pin.

Screws 16 and 16' place the bottles at a predetermined pitch.

The bottles are thus captured by the introduction wheels 17, 17', which convey them in respective recesses 11 and 11' of a plurality of conveyors 10 forming an endless conveyor.

In this way, since the bottles are separated by a plurality of conveyors, the bottles are arranged in two adjacent parallel rows arranged at a constant pitch.

By means of an intermediate wheel 3 these two rows of bottles arrive at a filling drum 5.

This drum is composed of rings, each provided as a plurality of filling heads, like a T, which is divided into a constant pinch of fidgeting with two rings along a circle;
The constant pinch is the same as the pitch of the bottles in each row on the drum.

In the illustrated example in which a plurality of bottles are conveyed by two recessed conveyors, the plurality of pitches are the same in the two rows of straight sections, but are different on the drum; Two rings can be provided with the same number of filling tips or heads.

During the rotation of the drum, a plurality of bottles R are filled and the filled bottles are ejected from the drum by the intermediate wheel 6, which has the above-mentioned structure in order to reduce the unnecessary area around the drum as much as possible. It is installed directly near the introduction wheel 3.

Continuously after closing the stoppers, on drum 7, the bottles are conveyed to drum 1, where they are
It is recaptured by wheels 20 and 20' for discharge by passages 21 and 21'.

As long as the items to be processed are substantially the same in the same row, the items to be processed may be different in each row).

Similarly, the treatments applied to one column or the other can be different.

For example, the outer ring is used to fill the first row of bottles with a first liquid, while the inner ring is used to fill a second row of bottles with a second liquid.
Can be made to fill bottles in rows.

What is described for two columns can also generally be applied to three, four or more columns.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the apparatus of the present invention used for filling and closing containers. 1.5...Drum, 2...Endless chain, T...Head, 11...Seat of conveyor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Feeding at least two parallel rows of articles in an apparatus for processing articles, comprising a processing drum carrying processing means for processing each row of articles, as the articles rotate on said processing drum. and a plurality of pivotally connected conveyors for spacing are formed in the endless chain 2, a part of the endless chain is directly stretched around the processing drum, and articles are received and delivered to the endless chain. means are disposed adjacent to the endless chain, each conveyor being provided with at least two seats 11 for the articles to be conveyed, and between the seats of each conveyor engaging a drive means. a drive engaging portion is provided adapted to engage the conveyor, each conveyor being arranged such that the articles are arranged in at least two parallel rows while in the endless chain, the processing means being arranged around the processing drum; There are rings supported above and concentrically with the stretched endless chain section and on top of the processing drum, the number of these rings being equal to the number of rows of articles in the endless chain, each ring are provided with processing heads for carrying out processing such as filling, closure, machining, forming or inspection operations on the articles in the rows; these processing heads are arranged in an endless chain suspended around the processing drum. successive articles of each row are spaced apart by a pitch equal to one spacing between the articles.