JPS6015317A - Guide apparatus for article and method of operating said apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for guiding articles (eg bottles), and in particular to a device of the type that divides an arrival queue of articles into two or more discharge trains. A device of this kind has the task, for example, of dividing a row of bottles fed from a filling machine before being sent to a packaging machine or to two or more labeling machines.

This type of equipment is used above all in the food industry.

To date, known devices operating according to the Drange 43 principle have encountered few or no problems, especially in the case of cylindrical containers.

- Containers supplied in a row are divided into two or more rows, sometimes using moving guides between these trucks.

One disadvantage of this equipment is the noise resulting from the high speed collision of the incoming containers with the loaded containers. Considerable noise also occurs when a fed train is divided into two or more rows of articles. Another drawback is that container breakage or label damage often occurs. The other most important drawback of the known drain gel principle device is that it can only be applied to cylindrical containers. The device cannot be used for square, rectangular or oval cross-sections. Experiments show that occlusion occurs.

Equipment for dividing a single row of containers of non-circular cross-section into two or more rows is known. However, this requires periodic stopping of the supplied containers in order to effect the changeover, and is then intermittent in order to deliver a batch of containers in the desired direction. The most important drawbacks of this device are its limited capacity and noise generation.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for dividing a single row of articles into two or more rows in a simple manner without interruption and without the containers coming into contact with each other.

The present invention provides a device for transferring incoming articles along a first path device, a device for transferring discharged articles along an extended path of the first path or at least along a second path, and a device for transferring incoming articles along a first path device. located at the top and operable to divert articles from the first passageway to an extension thereof or from the first passageway to the second passageway and located obliquely to the first and second passageways; To provide a guide device consisting of a guide device housed in two guide parts movable integrally or separately on a common plane, and a device positioned in momentary contact with the guide device to monitor the passage of an article. It is something.

The invention also provides a method of operating the apparatus described in the previous section, which comprises the steps described below.

b) Initially, the first guide part is located in a part of the first passage remote from the second passage, the second guide part is located on the side of the first passage adjacent to the second passage, and the article is placed in the first passage. 1 passage so as to be able to pass through the opening between both guide parts on its extension.
and a second guide part spaced apart from each other, the first guide part being moved towards the second guide part at a speed equal to the speed with which the transport device moves the article along said first path. or, alternatively, at substantially equal speeds to divert the article from the first passageway to the second passageway by moving the first and second guide parts until they are closed or substantially closed; moving the guide parts as one unit until the first guide part assumes its initial position; d) and, after having completed the diversion of the desired number of articles from the first passage towards the second passage, moving the second guide part; to its initial position at a speed equal to or approximately equal to the speed at which the transfer device moves the article along said first path.

In this way it is possible to introduce or withdraw the guide device into or out of a train of moving articles in the same direction as the articles are being conveyed, so that only a few very smooth Lateral movement of the article will occur.

During the movement of the guide parts, the articles carried by and abutting each guide part have virtually no velocity differential force 1 with respect to the guide parts.

As a result, both the start and end of the commutation movement can be determined very accurately, eliminating unnatural movements of the article.

The invention is therefore particularly suitable for use with unstable or potentially breakable articles.

Since there is no need to periodically slow down or stop the movement of articles, a significant number of article processes can be performed. The average speed of the article will be equal to the maximum speed, which is not possible with known equipment.

The return movement of the second guide part to its initial position is in the same direction as the direction of movement of the first guide part as it moves from its initial position towards the second guide part, resulting in an extension of the first passage. The movement of the article along the path is immediately restored without any disturbance, unlike conventional equipment.

The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus shown here has a conveyor 1 over which articles 2 are moved in a single file. There is a second conveyor 3 that is in instant contact with the conveyor 1 and runs parallel to and adjacent to the conveyor IK. In order to transfer a considerable number of articles 2 from the conveyor 1 to the conveyor 3, a guiding device 4 is provided which makes an angle α with the transport direction of the articles 2. The guide device 4 has first and second guide parts 5.6 arranged in a common plane.

The guide parts 5 and 6 can be moved together or separately in their longitudinal direction on said common plane. Second guide part 6
is located inside the U-shaped frame 7 (see Figure 7))
This frame extends only on one side of the supply conveyor 10 and forms a guide for the articles on the stage between the supply line 1 and the conveyor 30. A similar frame 7 is also provided in the first guide part 5 (see FIG. 2), but this frame does not have the function of transporting the articles 2.

The guide parts 5 and 6 are driven by a drive device 8, which consists of a hydraulic cylinder, for example arranged in the frame 7. FIG. 7 shows a cross section of this type of cylinder.

1 to 4 show the various operating stages of the guide device 4. FIG.

The first guide parts 5 and 6 are in the retracted position (the first
(see figure), spaced apart from each other and with openings therebetween, through which the articles 2 pass along the conveyor 1. In order to divert the articles towards the conveyor 3, the guide piece 5 is moved at a speed equal to or equal to the speed of movement of the articles 2 on the conveyor 1 until the opening between both guide pieces 5 and 60 is closed or virtually closed;
or stretched at approximately equal speed. (See Figure 2).

The articles 2 are then diverted onto the conveyor 3 by guide parts 5 and 6.

The guide part 5 is then retracted at the same time as the sliding part 6 is extended (see FIG. 3). The opening remains closed or nearly closed and the articles' continue to flow onto the conveyor 3 except when the guide part 6 and the frame 7 are engaged.

Now, when the desired number of articles 2 has been transferred from the conveyor 1 to the conveyor 3, the second guide part 6 can be retracted at a speed equal to the speed of movement of the articles 2 on the conveyor 1 (see FIG. 4). .

The articles 2 upstream of the guide w4 on the conveyor 1 then pass through the guide device 4 along the conveyor 1 through the opening between the two guide parts 5.6. Therefore, a desired number of articles can be conveyed onto the conveyor 3 and onto the conveyor 1 downstream of the guide device 4 in a simple manner.

The device also has a selenium photocell 10, a light source 11 and a monitoring device 9 with some counting mechanisms (see FIG. 1).
.

The viewing device generates a pulse on which the drive member 8 of the guide part 5.6 responds. A desired number of articles can be directed onto the conveyor 3 and onto the extension 1' of the conveyor 1 by means of a simple program. Instead of selenium photovoltaic cells, microswitches, proximity switches, hydraulic or acoustic wave devices may be used.

The device shown in FIG. 5 differs from the device in the previous figure in that it has two guiding devices 13 and an extension 1' of the conveyor 1.
Three conveyors 3 together form four discharge conveyors
．． 3/ and 3 are different in some respects. Similarly, parts 10 to 12 are provided three times as many. limited number of goods 2
are supplied to the guide device 13, so that these guide devices can be of single-acting type and there is no need to adapt the component structure of the guide device 402.

The articles may be fed to the conveyor 1 spaced apart from each other, ie arbitrarily arranged or positioned relative to each other, although a small gap between the articles facilitates accurate handling.

The speeds of conveyors 1 and 3 should be equal.

The device divides the supplied articles into groups of a finite number of articles. These groups have the same speed of movement as the feed train.

The counter 12 has a number of counting mechanisms and allows a first group of non-diverted articles to flow along the conveyor 1 and a second group of articles to be diverted to the conveyor 3; The number of items in each of the two groups is not necessarily the same (・.

FIG. 6 shows a device for reducing the speed of articles.

A number of conveyors 14 are adjacent to the conveyor 3 for this purpose. The speed of the conveyor 14 is, for example, 25% of the speed of the conveyor 1 so that the articles on the conveyor 14 have a speed that is 1/4 of the feed rate of the articles 2.

The apparatus described above is particularly useful for dividing rows of bottles, which are relatively unstable items. In fact, plastic bottles of round or other cross-sections can be handled. No change in orientation occurs during processing of square or rectangular bottles.

This is important when it is desired to carry out inspections or when uniformity of orientation of the article during packaging is desired.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 4 are plan views of each operation step of an article guiding device according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a plan view of another embodiment of this device, and FIG. 6 is a divided article group FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a cross-sectional view taken along line 1--2 in FIG. 1. 1...Conveyor 2...Goods 3...
...°・Second conveyor 4...Guiding device 5・
...First guide part 6...Second guide part
7... Frame 8... Hydraulic cylinder (drive device) 9... Monitoring device 10...
・Selenium photocell 11...Light source 12...
Counter 13 Guidance device 14 Conveyor Patent Applicant: Howe, Patent Attorney Tsukasa Asano

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) a device for transferring incoming articles along a first passage; a device for transferring outgoing articles along an extension of the first passage; or at least along a second passage; and an upper part of the transferring device; located at and operable to pass articles from the first passageway over an extension thereof or to divert articles from the first passageway to the second passageway, and with respect to the first passageway and the second passageway; An article guide comprising a guide device comprising two guide parts movable together or separately on a common plane forming an angle, and a device located adjacent to the guide device to monitor the passage of a cutter. Device. 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the second guide piece is mounted in a frame that extends only on one side of the first passage. (3) Two or more transfer devices are provided, and one or more single-part guide devices are provided downstream of the two-part guide device in the direction of article transfer along the first path and its extension. 2. A device according to claim 1 or 2. (4) The device according to claim 1, 1, 2 or 3, wherein the viewing device comprises a selenium photocell, a light source and a counter for producing pulses for operating the two-part guide device. (5) A) Initially, the first guide component is located at a position in one part of the first passage that is distant from the second passage, and the second guide part is located on the side of the first passage adjacent to the second passage. the first and second guide parts are spaced apart from each other so that articles can pass from the first passageway through the opening between the two guide parts; is moved toward a second guide part at a speed equal to or equal to the speed at which the transfer device moves the article along said first path until the first and second guide parts are closed or substantially closed. diverting the article from the first passage to the second passage; c) then moving the first and second guide parts as one unit until the first guide part assumes its initial position; and 2) further displacing the desired after having diverted the number of articles from the first passage towards the second passage, the second guiding part is placed in its initial position at a speed equal to the speed at which the transfer device moves the articles along said first passage; 2. A method of operating a device according to claim 1, characterized in that the devices are moved at approximately equal speeds.