RU2772627C2 - Conveyor system for transporting packaged food products - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: transportation.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a conveyor system for transporting packaged food products, containing a curvilinear closed trajectory formed by a shaped guide apparatus and multiple wheeled carriages movably retained and guided by the shaped guide apparatus. The mounting side of the wheeled carriages faces the open side of the shaped guide apparatus, and said guide apparatus is made so that the open side thereof faces almost horizontally, and the mounting side of the carriages is oriented substantially vertically in any position along the trajectory. One or multiple holders are secured on the mounting side of the corresponding one of the wheeled carriages, wherein a load-bearing shelf is attached to each of said holders in order to retain the food product subject to transportation. The holders can rotate hingedly around an axis perpendicular to the mounting side of the corresponding carriage so that the load-bearing shelf remains horizontal when moving along the trajectory.

EFFECT: creation of a conveyor system suitable for transporting packaged food.

10 cl, 11 dwg

Description

Technical field

The invention relates to the field of conveyor systems, in particular to a closed conveyor system for transporting food products for use in a chain of restaurants, bars, cafeterias, etc.

State of the art

The Applicant has developed and commercializes an overhead conveyor system which uses a continuous aluminum guide in the form of a closed loop, which contains an endless "line" of interconnected carts with small wheels. The guide device is usually suspended from the ceiling or on a wall and can pass through the entire building from the loading point to the unloading point and back. The transported foodstuffs must be wrapped in bags, which are then pushed into special product clamping devices mounted on some of the wheeled carts. To remove the bag from the clamp, a lever is activated at the unloading point, releasing the clamping device, and the food product falls onto the temporary storage tray.

Another food transport system for transporting packaged foods in a vertical direction, for example from one floor of a restaurant to another, is described in US Pat. No. 7,708,135. This transport system includes a conveyor for moving the carrying containers for foodstuffs along a closed path formed by a belt or chain to which said containers are pivotally connected. While transporting foodstuffs in carrier containers is more convenient, a belt or chain conveyor is much less flexible in terms of space usage and transport paths.

Disclosure of invention

The objective of the invention is to create a conveyor system for transporting packaged foodstuffs in restaurants, which, on the one hand, would provide the possibility of a flexible laying, would allow food products to be moved in any direction, horizontally or vertically, lay out a route of movement even in hard-to-reach places and effectively use available space, and, on the other hand, would allow convenient transportation of food products without the need for paper bags manually removed from the clamp on the overhead conveyor. Applicants thus pursued the goal of equipping a guide conveyor system similar to that described above with carrier conveyors in which the food to be transported could be placed instead of being hung in bags on clips.

This and other tasks are solved using a conveyor system according to paragraph 1 of the attached claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

The conveyor system according to the invention has a curved, preferably closed path formed by a shaped guide and a plurality of wheeled bogies movably supported and guided by the shaped guide. The fastening side of the wheel carts faces the open side of the profiled guide, and the specified guide is located so that its open side is essentially horizontal, and the fastening side of the carts is oriented essentially vertically in any position along the path. The profiled guide device is made in the form of an elongated frame or frame rail for wheeled carts, with the open side of the guide device facing in the horizontal direction. On the mounting side of the corresponding one of the wheeled carts, one or more holders are fixed, to each of which a carrier shelf is attached to hold the food product to be transported. The holders can pivot about an axis perpendicular to the mounting side of the respective trolley so that the carrier shelf maintains its horizontal position when moving along the path. The guiding device comprises at least one substantially horizontal section, along which a flat support rail extends under the guiding device, and a sliding element or roller is attached to the holders, supporting the corresponding holder on the flat rail.

The inventors have taken as a basis a conveyor system with a guide, such as a known overhead conveyor, and rotated the guide by 90 degrees so that the open side of the guide is facing horizontally instead of down, and the mounting side of the wheeled cart is vertical. The holder is pivotally suspended from the mounting side so that it automatically remains in a horizontal position, regardless of the direction of passage of the guiding device. This gives the system flexibility, allowing it to pass through corners, between floors, around obstacles, over walkways and through walls, while maintaining its horizontal position of the carriers with food placed on them.

A distinctive feature of the invention is that it ensures that the horizontal position of the holders is maintained. The holder is configured to pass through horizontal inwardly curved sections, i. e. does not touch adjacent wheeled bogies when passing through an inwardly curved section.

It has been found that when passing along the horizontal sections of the conveyor system, the lever forces exerted by the loaded holder on the guide and the wheeled carts become quite large. This can lead to increased wear and damage to wheels and bearings. In order to compensate for these lever forces, according to the invention, a flat support rail is installed under the guide along the essentially horizontal sections, and a sliding element or roller, connected/associated with each of the holders and the respective wheel carts, supports the holder on the support rail and absorbs any shear forces. , which the horizontal arm of the holder exerts on the guiding device and the wheeled bogie. Thus, the use of support rails increases the service life and increases the stability of the holder.

According to a preferred aspect of the invention, a support plate is installed between the carrier and the corresponding wheeled bogie, which has a front and a rear side. The base plate extends laterally beyond the guide device, and on its front side there is a hinge pin, on which the holder is suspended. A sliding element or roller is placed on the rear side of the base plate. The expression "support plate protrudes laterally beyond the guide device" should be understood to mean that the support plate protrudes in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal orientation of the guide device. In other words, if the guide device is located horizontally, the base plate extends beyond the borders of the guide device in the vertical direction above and/or below the guide device.

In a preferred embodiment, at least one side elastic element is installed on the front side of the support plate, against which the holder rests when moving along the horizontal section of the guide device. The elastic element imparts stability to the holder, also performing an additional function of damping longitudinal vibrations (eliminating rocking) of the holders when changing the direction of movement when passing at high speed the sections bent in the vertical direction. Thus, the resilient element dampens the oscillation and dampens the oscillatory movements of the wheeled cart, eliminating the risk of falling food products on the cart.

In yet another preferred embodiment, the base plate has side projections extending beyond the borders of the guide device on both sides, and a corresponding sliding element or roller is mounted on the rear side of both said side projections. As a result, when the guiding device changes the direction of movement by 180 degrees, in particular in the case of a closed path, the roller or sliding element of the holder always rests on the flat rail located below it, regardless of whether it passes along the first branch of the U-turn. , or passes along the second branch in the opposite direction.

In this case, preferably, on the front side of the support plate, on each of its side protrusions, a corresponding side elastic element is installed so that when moving in the horizontal direction, the holder rests on the lower of the two side elastic elements, and the two elastic elements change roles when the holder turns in the opposite direction.

The guide device may also include one or more curved sections. In this case, additional curved flat support rails are installed under or around these curved sections, relative to which the sliding element or roller supports the holder when moving along said curved sections. This refinement is due to the fact that the holder exerts a shearing force on the wheeled cart not only when moving along the horizontal sections of the guide device, but also when moving along curved sections, on which centrifugal force and radial acceleration occur. In this case, the holder is supported by a sliding element or a roller resting against a flat support rail.

Preferably, the flat support rails are attached at a constant distance below the guide device, which is ensured by means of spacers that act as holders for the support rail relative to the guide device located above it.

Wheeled bogies connected to each other by articulated joints form a series of bogies. This is especially useful for a closed guide device, which can be completely filled with an endless row of wheeled carts connected to each other. In such a case, according to a preferred embodiment, adjacent resilient elements can be mounted on trolleys directly next to the holder, so that when moving in the vertical direction, the holder abuts against the lower of the adjacent resilient elements, thereby also eliminating rocking when moving in the vertical direction.

Preferably, the resilient elements are arranged around the holder in the form of a cross, so that regardless of the direction of passage of the guide device and, accordingly, the direction of movement of the holder, the holder always rests on one of the four resilient elements arranged around it.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, the carrier shelf is pivotally mounted relative to the respective trolley and can be rotated upwards about a horizontal axis to allow the support members of the carrier to pivot to a substantially vertical position. This allows the carrier shelf to pivot upward when downward movement is difficult.

Other advantages and features of the invention will become apparent after reading the following detailed description of the options for its implementation with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Brief description of the drawings

In FIG. 1 shows a conveyor system with a closed profiled guide for an endless row of wheeled carts, isometric view;

in fig. 2 is a wheeled cart used in the system of FIG. 1, bottom view;

in fig. 3 - wheeled cart according to FIG. 2, side view;

in fig. 4 is a profiled guide used in the system of FIG. 1, sectional view;

in fig. 5 is a holder used for transporting foodstuffs in the system of FIG. 1, side view;

in fig. 6 - holder according to Fig. 5, front view;

in fig. 7 - base plate and shock-absorbing cross installed between the holders and the corresponding wheeled carts, front view;

in fig. 8 - base plate and shock-absorbing cross according to Fig. 7, side view;

in fig. 9 - base plate and shock-absorbing cross according to Fig. 7, top view;

in fig. 10 is a flat support rail for installation under the horizontal sections of the guiding device of the system according to FIG. one; and

in fig. 11 is a set of flat support rails and curved flat support rails installed in the system of FIG. one.

Implementation of the invention

In FIG. 1 shows an example of the layout of a conveyor system for transporting packaged foodstuffs. The system uses a profiled guide 10 made of lightweight aluminum guide sections connected to each other to form a closed loop. While this is a preferred configuration, the invention is not, in principle, limited to a closed loop configuration. The guide device can snake through the building from the loading point to the unloading point and back. The guide device can run horizontally in a straight line and round corners, can run in a straight line in a vertical direction, and if necessary, in a straight line with an inclination at an angle of 45°.

It should be noted that, as shown in FIG. 1 layout is only a simplified example intended to demonstrate the operation of the system. The actual design of the guideway passage is determined by the location and orientation of the loading and unloading points, the position and dimensions of the kitchen equipment, and the layout of the building itself. Typically, the guide device extends from a loading point located in the food preparation area along its path of the guide device to an unloading point located in a "service window" or kiosk. The guide device may have small turning radii in the horizontal and vertical directions in order to be able to pass in hard-to-reach places. The actual layout of the guiding device is made from standard horizontal and vertical angles and straight sections that can be cut into sections of the desired length. A significant advantage of the guided conveyor system is that, unlike a conventional belt conveyor, it is not limited to running in a straight line between two points and does not occupy a large area.

The profiled guide 10 is in the form of an elongated frame or frame rail for a plurality of small wheeled bogies 20, such as those shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, which are held inside the profiled guide device 10 and guided by it. Wheel carts 20 are connected to each other by articulated joints 22, forming a continuous row of carts. The row of carts 20 in a guide system are pushed in a circle by an electric drive system that uses an electric motor with a direct drive sprocket, the teeth 24 of which pass through the rear hole of the guide and engage with the teeth provided at the bottom of the carts 20.

A more detailed profile of the guiding device is shown in section in FIG. 4. The guide device 10 includes a closed rear wall 11 for attaching the guide device to a wall or some other building structure. Adjacent to the rear wall 11 of the guiding device is a tapered portion 12, bounded by the side walls, extending forward to the open front side 16 into the widened part 14. The open front side of the widened part 14 is delimited by inwardly directed flanges 15.

On the rear side of the wheeled bogies 20 is a row of teeth 24 with which the drive sprocket can engage. On the rear side of the trolley 20, four small wheels 26 are located at four corners, the axles of which run perpendicular to the rear wall 11; these wheels roll along the side walls of the guide device 10 in the narrowed part 12 and serve as a support for the wheel cart 20 in the lateral direction. Four side wheels 28 on both sides of the wheel truck 20 are located in the widened part 14 of the guide device 10 and roll along the shoulders 15 and ledges 16 made at the junctions of the narrowed and widened parts 12, 14 with each other, and support the wheeled carts 20 in the direction, perpendicular to the back wall 11.

Carts 20 and wheels 24, 26 may be made of high quality lubricating plastic such as PTFE, which means that the proposed system does not require additional lubrication during operation or maintenance.

A holder 30 with a carrying shelf or basket 32 can be attached to the front side of the wheeled cart 20, on which the foodstuffs to be transported can be placed. The holder used in this embodiment is shown in FIG. 5 and 6. It is a back panel 34 of a substantially triangular shape. A small opening 35 is formed in the rear side of the back panel 34 with a groove 36 opening towards the underside. This small hole 35 serves to suspend the holder 30 from a pivot pin attached to one of the wheeled bogies 20 so that the holder can rotate or oscillate relative to the pivot pin, and thus maintain its horizontal position when moving along the guide device, regardless of its directions. The locking pin 37 on the front side is used to fix the hinge pin in a small hole so that the holder cannot fall.

Carrier shelf or basket 32 comprises a series of fingers 38 extending substantially vertically from rear panel 34 and slightly upwardly curved at their free end. The carrier basket is connected to the rear panel 34 by means of a swivel 39 so that the carrier shelf 32 can be rotated upwards about the horizontal axis. This allows the carrier shelf to pivot upward to a substantially vertical position when downward movement is difficult.

On the left side of the conveyor system shown in Fig. 1, a food loading point 40 is located, which is a funnel-shaped ramp 41 ending in a similar comb structure 42, the fingers of which are located against the fingers 38 of the carrier shelf 32. The finished and wrapped food product can be placed on the ramp 41 and it will slide down onto the comb structure 42 The holder, which rises from below, picks up the packaged food product as the pins 38 of the carrier shelf 32 pass between the corresponding comb structure 42.

For attaching the carrier basket 30 to the corresponding wheeled bogie 20, a support plate 55 and a shock-absorbing cross 50 are used, shown in more detail in FIG. 7 - 9. Cushioning cross 50 contains four elastic elements 51, 52, located around the hinge pin 53 in all four directions, vertically and horizontally. The holder, hinged by pivot pin 53, is positioned against the lowest of the resilient members 51, 52. As the wheeled cart 20 travels along the curved guide, it rotates 90 (or 180) degrees when the guide makes a turn, and , thus, the elastic elements are interchanged, so that another of the elastic elements becomes the lower one.

Elastic elements 51, 52 made of elastic material such as rubber, silicone, etc. support and stabilize the carrier shelf 32 hanging on the hinge pin. The friction between the resilient element and the carrier shelf 32 dampens the oscillatory movements that the holder may make when the conveyor system is accelerated during start or stop, or the radial acceleration that occurs when the holder moves along a curved section.

The resilient members 51 are attached to a base plate 55 extending laterally on both sides of the guide 10. The resilient members 52 are attached via separate fastening plates to the adjacent wheeled bogies 20. small rollers 58 are installed on the rear side. The purpose of these additional rollers is to hold the holder along the horizontal or curved sections of the guide device. To do this, the conveyor system is provided with flat support rails 60 installed under the guide device 10 (at least) on its horizontal sections. The bottom roller 58 contacts the underlying flat support rail 60 and rolls on the support rail 60 as the holder moves. Thus, the bottom roller 60, through the base plate 55 and the bottom spring 51, absorbs any leverage that the horizontal arm of the holder (i.e. fingers 38 of the carrier shelf 32 with a packaged food product of a certain weight placed on them) exerts on the guide device 10 and the wheeled cart 20.

The flat support rails 60 are shown in more detail in FIG. 10 and 11. Brackets 61 serving as spacers for holding the support rail 60 at a constant distance from the guide 10 are used to fasten the support rail 60 to the guide 10 extending in the horizontal direction. The support rails 60 are complemented by additional internal curved support rails 64 running inside the curved section, or external curved support rails 66 running around the upwardly curved sections of the guide device 10. The support rails 60 are installed in sections of various lengths or can be cut into lengths and connected using connecting plates 62.

The proposed conveyor system can be implemented as an "on demand" system. In other words, the system can only work when there is a food product that needs to be transported from the point of loading to the point of unloading. To activate the system, personnel simply place the packaged food product on the ramp 41 at loading point 40. The system is started by pressing the "Load" button and the holder with the food product begins to move quickly along the guide device at a speed of up to 8 ft / s (2.44 m /With). When the holder arrives at the unloading point, the product is taken from the holder. The system can also be equipped with a control system with logic to automatically stop the system after unloading the product. In addition, the speed control system provides smooth acceleration and deceleration of the system in order to prevent sudden jerks during movement.

Claims (10)

1. A conveyor system for transporting packaged food products, comprising a curved, preferably closed path formed by a profiled guide device (10), and a plurality of wheeled carts (20) movably held and guided by a profiled guide device (10), wherein the mounting side of the wheeled carts (20) faces the open side of the shaped guide device (10) which is positioned so that the mounting side of the bogies (20) is oriented substantially vertically in its path along the path; the conveyor system additionally contains at least one holder (30) with a carrier shelf (32) adapted to hold the food product to be transported, while the holder (30) is pivotally attached to the mounting side of one of the wheeled carts (20) to hold the carrier shelf ( 32) in a horizontal position when moving the holder along the trajectory; the guiding device comprises at least one substantially horizontal section along which a flat rail (60) runs under the guiding device (10), wherein at least one sliding element or roller ( 58) supporting holder (30) on a flat rail (60). 2. Conveyor system according to claim 1, characterized in that between the holder (30) and the corresponding wheeled bogie (20) there is a base plate (55) that has front and rear sides and extends laterally beyond the guide device (10) in the direction , perpendicular to the longitudinal orientation of this guide device (10), while on the front side of the plate there is a hinge pin (53), on which the holder (30) is suspended, and at least one sliding element or roller is installed on the back side of the support plate (55). (58). 3. Conveyor system according to claim 2, characterized in that at least one side elastic element (51) is installed on the front side of the support plate (55), against which said holder (30) abuts when moving along the horizontal section of the guide device (10 ) to dampen the oscillatory movements of the holder (30). 4. Conveyor system according to any one of paragraphs. 2 or 3, characterized in that the support plate (55) contains lateral protrusions protruding beyond the boundaries of the guide device (10) on both sides, and a corresponding sliding element or roller (58) is installed on the back side of both said lateral protrusions. 5. Conveyor system according to claim 4, characterized in that on the front side of the support plate (55) on each of its lateral protruding parts, a corresponding side elastic element (51) is installed so that when moving in the horizontal direction, the holder (30) rests on lower side elastic element (51). 6. Conveyor system according to any one of paragraphs. 1-5, characterized in that the guide device (10) contains one or more curved sections, under which or around which additional curved flat rails (64, 66) are installed, relative to which the sliding element or roller (58) supports the holder (30) when moving along said curved sections. 7. Conveyor system according to any one of paragraphs. 1 or 6, characterized in that flat rails (60) or curved flat rails (64, 66), respectively, are attached to the guide device (10) at a constant distance from it by means of spacers (61). 8. Conveyor system according to claim. 3, characterized in that the wheel carts (20) are connected to each other by articulated joints (22), forming a number of carts, and adjacent elastic elements (52) are installed on carts directly next to the specified holder (30) so that when moving in the vertical direction, the holder rests on the lower of said elastic elements (52). 9. Conveyor system according to any one of paragraphs. 5 or 8, characterized in that the elastic elements (51, 52) are located around the holder (30) in the form of a cross. 10. Conveyor system according to any one of paragraphs. 1-9, characterized in that the carrier shelf (32) is pivotally mounted relative to the corresponding trolley (20) with the possibility of its rotation upwards around a horizontal axis to ensure rotation of the support elements (38) of the holder in a substantially vertical position.

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