Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
  • A63B—APPARATUS FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING, GYMNASTICS, SWIMMING, CLIMBING, OR FENCING; BALL GAMES; TRAINING EQUIPMENT
  • A63B47/00—Devices for handling or treating balls, e.g. for holding or carrying balls
  • A63B47/02—Devices for handling or treating balls, e.g. for holding or carrying balls for picking-up or collecting
  • A63B47/025—Installations continuously collecting balls from the playing areas, e.g. by gravity, with conveyor belts
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G51/00—Conveying articles through pipes or tubes by fluid flow or pressure; Conveying articles over a flat surface, e.g. the base of a trough, by jets located in the surface
  • B65G51/04—Conveying the articles in carriers having a cross-section approximating that of the pipe or tube; Tube mail systems
  • B65G51/26—Stations
  • B65G51/28—Stations for despatch
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G53/00—Conveying materials in bulk through troughs, pipes or tubes by floating the materials or by flow of gas, liquid or foam
  • B65G53/34—Details
  • B65G53/40—Feeding or discharging devices
  • B65G53/46—Gates or sluices, e.g. rotary wheels
  • B65G53/4608—Turnable elements, e.g. rotary wheels with pockets or passages for material
  • B65G53/4625—Turnable elements, e.g. rotary wheels with pockets or passages for material with axis of turning perpendicular to flow
  • B65G53/4633—Turnable elements, e.g. rotary wheels with pockets or passages for material with axis of turning perpendicular to flow the element having pockets, rotated from charging position to discharging position, i.e. discrete flow
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
  • A63B—APPARATUS FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING, GYMNASTICS, SWIMMING, CLIMBING, OR FENCING; BALL GAMES; TRAINING EQUIPMENT
  • A63B47/00—Devices for handling or treating balls, e.g. for holding or carrying balls
  • A63B47/02—Devices for handling or treating balls, e.g. for holding or carrying balls for picking-up or collecting
  • A63B47/025—Installations continuously collecting balls from the playing areas, e.g. by gravity, with conveyor belts
  • A63B2047/028—Installations continuously collecting balls from the playing areas, e.g. by gravity, with conveyor belts pneumatic ball transport
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
  • A63B—APPARATUS FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING, GYMNASTICS, SWIMMING, CLIMBING, OR FENCING; BALL GAMES; TRAINING EQUIPMENT
  • A63B69/00—Training appliances or apparatus for special sports
  • A63B69/38—Training appliances or apparatus for special sports for tennis

Definitions

• the invention relates' to a system for delivering tennis balls from a collection trough into a hose and further into a collecting container, wherein the balls one by one by a mechanical conveying means to an opening of the tube and then by means of a compressed-air gap in this to the collecting tank be moved.
• Such systems usually have the purpose of collecting the balls struck by a player against the vertical baffle or a ramp arranged in order to guide them back to a ball-throwing machine.
• the movement of the balls in the collecting trough can take place under the exclusive influence of gravity (cf. DE-OS 23 34 849) or else using conveyor belts (cf. EU-OS 0 043 886).
• the tennis balls are usually transported from the end of the collecting trough to the collecting container by a flexible hose under the influence of a suction device arranged in the ball throwing machine.
• suction devices arranged in the ball throwing machine for moving the balls through the hose seems quite advantageous, since the balls are usually ejected from the ball throwing machine by compressed air and thus the same device can be used to move the balls to the ball throwing machine and to move them in the desired direction and throwing out speed. If the balls are sucked out of the collecting channel into the hose, there is also no need to take particularly expensive precautions to insert them into the hose.
• US-PS 3989245 already shows a mechanical tong guide for inserting tennis balls into the hose of a pneumatic conveying device.
• the device described there does not solve the problem of collecting individually arriving balls. Rather, the "paddle wheel" provided there serves from a supply of balls to transport individual balls at defined "intervals into a channel in which they are moved by compressed air blasts. It would in no way be expedient to transfer this arrangement to a device according to the prior art, for example according to EU-OS 0 043 886.
• a device It is much more expensive to produce compressed air than a free-blowing fan.
• the invention is intended to allow a free-blowing fan to be used to generate the air flow without the balls entering the hose in too close a sequence.
• a blower is arranged in the hose at the inlet end of the hose in order to generate the compressed air gradient
• the mechanical conveying device comprises a paddle wheel engaging in the hose cross section, and that the paddle wheel is arranged in a housing with a shaft running parallel to the hose , with at least two blades preventing the air flow generated by the fan from emerging from the housing.
• WIPO Coordinating the supply of balls through the collecting trough and their introduction into the air flow is particularly simple if the balls are conveyed through the collecting trough by means of a screw conveyor, which can be driven by the same motor as the paddle wheel.
• FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an overall system according to the invention from the side
• Fig. 2 is the associated top view.
• Fig. 3 is a section along the line B-B in Fig. 4 and
• Fig. 4 is a section along the line A-A in Fig. 3, each through the enlarged inlet housing for the balls.
• the arrangement according to the invention essentially consists of a at least approximately vertical Pr wall 2 carried by stands 16 which, like the ramp 5 composed of an ascending area and a descending area 4, is provided with a covering 1. This covering runs between edge strips 6 and 6 1 , which are held at a distance by telescoping side parts 8, 8 '.
• a joint 10 holds the ramp 5 in the illustrated
• the tennis balls 17 in the present exemplary embodiment are conveyed by a screw conveyor 11 to an inlet housing 23, into which they are individually introduced by a paddle wheel 14.
• This paddle wheel 14 will by means of a transmission gear 25 driven by the same motor 12 as the screw conveyor 11. From the housing 23, the tennis balls 17 are pressed by the air flow coming from a fan 13 into the hose 15, through which they reach the collecting container, not shown, for example a ball sausage machine .
• the baffle wall 2 and ramp 5 are composed of individual parts of constant width, as a result of which the entire system is easy to transport and can also be assembled in different widths from prepared elements.
• a single conveyor device is sufficient to transport the tennis balls 19.
• the screw conveyor 11 is to be provided with pluggable ends 31 which allow it to be attached to any length.
• a screw conveyor B consisting of a rod 18 and a helix 19 placed around it conveys balls 17 to the end of the collecting trough 22, where they are fed to a paddle wheel 14 by a deflection plate 32.
• This paddle wheel 14 moves in an inlet housing 23 for the balls 17, which is traversed by an air flow 28, which can be generated by a conventional fan.
• the paddle wheel 14 rotates in the direction of the arrow 29 and brings the balls 17 in an orderly sequence into the air stream 28, which entrains them and moves them to the ball throwing machine through the hose 15, not shown in FIG.
• a particular advantage of the arrangement shown is that two blades of the paddle wheel 14 close the entrance of the housing and prevent air from escaping from the housing 23.
• the balls 17 can thus reach the detection area of the paddle wheel without having to overcome the resistance of the air flowing out.
• the arrangement can be made very compact in that a single motor drives the screw conveyor 11 and - via the shaft 27 - the paddle wheel 14.
• a suitable choice of the transmission ratio of the transmission 25 it can be ensured that, in the normal case, the balls reach the inlet housing 23 at intervals in which there are no jams at the entrance to the housing. If, as shown in FIG. 2, the motor 12 stands in the inlet area of the blower 13, the air sucked in by the blower 13 brings about additional motor cooling.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Physical Education & Sports Medicine (AREA)
• Fluid Mechanics (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Breeding Of Plants And Reproduction By Means Of Culturing (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)
• Agricultural Chemicals And Associated Chemicals (AREA)
• Handcart (AREA)
• Filling Or Emptying Of Bunkers, Hoppers, And Tanks (AREA)
• Feeding Of Articles To Conveyors (AREA)
• Refuse Collection And Transfer (AREA)
• Acyclic And Carbocyclic Compounds In Medicinal Compositions (AREA)
• Pallets (AREA)
• Structures Of Non-Positive Displacement Pumps (AREA)
• Pinball Game Machines (AREA)
• Holding Or Fastening Of Disk On Rotational Shaft (AREA)
• Screw Conveyors (AREA)
• Medicines Containing Plant Substances (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=3495177

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (12)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (2)

Family Cites Families (1)

• 1984
  • 1984-02-16 EP EP84900703A patent/EP0135527B1/de not_active Expired
  • 1984-02-16 DE DE8484900703T patent/DE3461597D1/de not_active Expired
  • 1984-02-16 WO PCT/AT1984/000007 patent/WO1984003223A1/de not_active Ceased
  • 1984-02-16 AU AU24985/84A patent/AU571199B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 1984-02-16 JP JP59500850A patent/JPS60500600A/ja active Granted
  • 1984-02-16 AT AT84900703T patent/ATE24115T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1984-02-21 ZA ZA841246A patent/ZA841246B/xx unknown
  • 1984-02-21 IT IT19717/84A patent/IT1173321B/it active
  • 1984-02-22 CA CA000448017A patent/CA1223019A/en not_active Expired
  • 1984-02-22 NZ NZ207236A patent/NZ207236A/en unknown
  • 1984-10-16 FI FI844075A patent/FI77378C/fi not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1984-10-22 DK DK503184A patent/DK154611C/da not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (2)

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