NZ193913A - Controlled feeding or articles on to conveyor:control senses weight of article - Google Patents

Description

NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION AFTER PROVISIONAL NO. .193913 SUBSTITUTION OF APPLICANT DATED: 3RD JUNE, 1980 UNLER SECTION 24 ' 1 ALCO CONTROL STATION ^ - WE, JOHANNES CORNELIUS WILHELMUS ZWEZERYNEN, a New Zealand citizen of 81 Bleakhouse Road, Howick, New Zealand, and TERRENCE ALBERT HUNN, a New Zealand citizen of 41 Vincent Street, Howick, New Zealand, do hereby declare the invention for which I pray that a patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed to be particularly described in and by the following statement: ! , ■ SUBSTITUTION OF APPLICANT UNDER SECTION 24 ALeo CO - l_TD 1 0 7 9 I / •w' </ This invention relates to a control station, and has particular application to the control feeding of articles from an operating station to a conveyor or the like.

There is need for an effective control over operations carried out on a production line basis, especially where articles of a particular weight, size or number are to be packed into containers and despatched on a conveyor or the like. For example, in the packaging of meat into cartons, the cartons have to be packed to particular weight tolerances.. The weight of the cartons is usually checked at the end of the conveyor. The work itself is of a repetitive and relatively unskilled nature and there is a tendency to package cartons on an overweight basis to ensure that they are not rejected when weighed. This however, is inefficient and leads to a large loss of revenue.

It is an object of this invention to go someway towards overcoming the abovementioned disadvantages in providing an improved control station or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.

In one aspect, the invention provides a conveyor and a control station suitable for feeding foodstuffs such as meat to a conveyor, said control station including a transfer container for the reception of foodstuffs, said transfer container separated from said conveyor by a barrier, means for delivering the foodstuffs from said transfer container through an aperture in said barrier to the conveyor, means for sensing the weight of said foodstuffs within said transfer container, and control means preventing delivery of said foodstuffs to the conveyor unless a pre-determined minimum weight is exceeded.

Other aspects of this invention which will be considered in all its novel aspects will become apparent from the following description, which is given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates a control station in cross-section.

Figure 2 illustrates a transfer container for the control station of Figure 1. 193913 Figure 3 illustrates a top plan view of a portion of the lift and rotation unit of figure 1.

Figure 4 illustrates a cross-section through the lift and rotation unit shown in figure 3.

A control station is shown in figures 1 to 4. This control station 30 is separated from a conveyor 31 by a partition 32, 33, 34. The partition preferably forms part of the framework surrounding the conveyor 31. Thus the partition separates the control station, from the conveyor area 31.

The control station 31 includes a cutting block 36, having a series of apertures therein (not shown), a meat conveyor 37 for supply of meat to the cutting block, a weighing scale 38, and one or more transfer containers 39 mounted on a turntable 40.

An aperture is provided within the partition 34 to enable the transfer containers 39 to pass therethrough on rotation of the turntable 40. The transfer containers 39 may be separated from one another by a series of radial partitions, (not shown) or they may be totally encased in the manner of a drum having only openings above and below the transfer containers. In either event, the partitions will serve to close off the aperture in the partition 34 when the transfer containers are positioned as shown in figure 3.

The conveyor 31 is conveniently a stacking conveyor of the type described in our patent application 193911 entitled, "Conveyor", the contents of which are incorporated herein by way of reference. Such a conveyor can be utilized to stack or move cartons and to enable meat to be transferred from a transfer container 39 to a carton 41 on the conveyor 31.

Each transfer container 39 is provided with means for off-loading its cargo into a carton 41. Conveniently, this takes the form of a pair of pivotally mounted doors 42, 43, which are gravity biased into the closed position. They are provided with operating arms 44 which can be engaged by a pusher, for example, a vertically mounted air ram above the discharge zone, to push the arms 44 downwardly to enable the weight of the cargo within the transfer container to push the doors fully open and allow the cargo to discharge.

The transfer containers are mounted on floating supports 47 on either side 1939 thereof which in turn are mounted on side arms 48 of the turntable (only one such floating support 47 is shown in figure 2). The floating supports 47 enable the transfer containers 39 to be weighed separately when they are moved relative to the scale 38. Conveniently, the transfer containers are lowered in turn onto the scale 38 to be weighed, although it will be appreciated that in an alternative arrangement, the scale 38 could be raised up to contact the transfer containers.

To effect raising and lowering of the transfer containers 39 in conjunction with the rotation thereof, a lift and rotation unit 50 is provided in conjunction with the turntable 40. Details of this are shown in figures 3 and 4. The drive shaft 51 of the turntable is connected to a cam follower 52, which is in turn contacted by cam 53 mounted at the periphery of a disc 54 connected to the input driveshaft 55. The disc 54 is surrounded by a rigid housing 56 having one or more depressions in the periphery thereof. As shown in figure 3, there are three depressions 58, 59 and 60. The cam follower 52 is provided with pin 63 protruding therefrom which is capable of fitting within the depressions 58 - 60. On the underside of the cam follower 52 there is a sloping cam surface 63, of similar angle to the cam 53. A shoulder 64 is provided at the leading edge thereof and capable of being contacted by the leading edge 65 of the cam 53.

In use, with the cam 53 resting against the trailing face 66 of the cam follower, the drive shaft 51 will be in the lowered position resting on the scales 38. When movement is required, rotation of the drive shaft 55 in a clockwise direction as shown in figures 5, will cause the cam 53 to contact the cam surface 63 of the cam follower and thereby cause the cam follower 52 to rise as the cam moves from the right to left of figure 4. During this part of the motion of the cam 53, the drive shaft 51 will be raised but will not rotate, as it will be prevented from rotation by the location of peg 62 in the depression 59. However, when the cam 53 reaches the stop 64 of the cam surface, the cam follower will be raised sufficiently to enable the peg 62 to clear the depression 59, and further motion of the cam 65 will cause the cam follower 52 to rotate. Any tendency of the cam follower 52 to overrun the rotation of the driveshaft 55 will cause the cam follower 52 to drop until the peg 62 drags on the periphery of the housing 56. On completion of a predetermined rotation, the peg 62 will drop into the next depression 60, and the cam follower 52 will over-run the cam as the peg moves within the depression 60 to thereby lower the cam follower and hence the turntable until the cam 53 butts against the trailing face 66 of the cam follower. 19391 In figure 1, item 70 is an optional conveyor, 71 is a viewing window between the conveyor side and control station, and item 73 is a display scale, e.g. a digital read out used in conjunction with the weighing scale 39.

The operation of the control station can be as follows : A series of control stations can be provided side by side, in a hygienic room, separated from the conveyor by the partition 32, 33, 34. In a preferred arrangement, each turntable is provided with three transfer containers 39, and the cutting zone 36 is provided with a pair of apertures therein communicating with the pair of resting transfer containers 39 beneath the cutting zone. A butcher can place a plastic liner within each transfer container, collect meat from the meat supply conveyor 37 and work on the cutting zone. As meat is cut and sorted, it can be placed into the waiting transfer conveyor 39 resting on the weighing scale 38. When a predetermined weight range has been achieved, the turntable can be raised and rotated. Operation of the turntable can be effected automatically, or can be controlled by an operator, for example, an operator on the conveyor side of the partition with access to the read out 73. Such an operator can control the operation of the turntable in conjunction with the presence of carton 41 on the conveyor 31. When the transfer container 39 is rotated to the position shown as 39a in figure 1, the meat within the container can be discharged by releasing the doors 42, 43, to discharge the meat and its plastics liner into a waiting carton 41. By this means, the meat station can be separated from the conveyor by a suitable partition to maintain hygiene and also to j control the weight of the meat supplied to each carton.

If desired, a cam clutch can be provided between the input shaft 55 and the output shaft 51 to control the rotation of the turntable. The input shaft can be rotated in either direction, a predetermined amount by an arm connected to the input shaft and moved by a cam or the like. By this means the lowering of the turntable can be controlled by reverse rotation of the disc 54 causing the cam to move from left to right of figure 4. In this arrangement, an over-run clearance is now required in slots 58 - 60, and raising or lowering can be achieved with the minimal rotation of the turntable.

Finally, it will be appreciated that various alterations or modifications may be made to the foregoing without departing from the scope of this invention, as exemplified by the following claims. 193913

Claims (5)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS

1. A conveyor and a control station suitable for feeding foodstuffs such as meat to a conveyor, said control station Including a transfer container for the reception of foodstuffs, said transfer container separated from said conveyor by a barrier, means for delivering the foodstuffs from said transfer container through an aperture In said barrier to the conveyor, means for sensing the weight of said foodstuffs within said transfer container, and control means preventing delivery of said foodstuffs to the conveyor unless a pre-determined minimum weight 1s exceeded.

2. A conveyor and a control station as claimed in Claim 1, and further including additional control means preventing delivery of said foodstuffs to the conveyor if the weight of said foodstuffs exceeds a pre-determined maximum.

3. A conveyor and a control station as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said transfer container is mounted above said conveyor.

4. A conveyor and a control station as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said conveyor 1s a stacking conveyor capable of holding an empty carton below said aperture for the reception of a pre-determined load of foodstuffs.

5. A conveyor and a control station substantially as herein and described with reference to the accompanying drawings. AICO MANUFACTURING CO. LTD By its Attorneys JANES W PIPER & CO.