Classifications

• • 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
  • B65G21/00—Supporting or protective framework or housings for endless load-carriers or traction elements of belt or chain conveyors
  • B65G21/20—Means incorporated in, or attached to, framework or housings for guiding load-carriers, traction elements or loads supported on moving surfaces
  • B65G21/2045—Mechanical means for guiding or retaining the load on the load-carrying surface
  • B65G21/2063—Mechanical means for guiding or retaining the load on the load-carrying surface comprising elements not movable in the direction of load-transport
  • B65G21/2072—Laterial guidance means

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a conveyor arrangement according to the preamble of patent claim 1. It relates in particular to a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track enclosed by rails on each side of the conveyor track, the distance between said rails being adjustable.
• conveyor tracks are used to convey articles to separate production units.
• rails are used which are mounted on both sides of the belts.
• these rails are displaceable, the distance between the rails being variable.
• It is an object of the invention to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement the distance between said rails can be adjusted using members, for adjustment of said distance, which take up a reduced installation volume.
• a conveyor arrangement according to the characterizing clause of patent claim 1.
• a second object of the invention is to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement said rail defines a support surface on which an adjustment of the direction of surface normals with respect to said support surface is made possible.
• This object is achieved by a conveyor arrangement according to the characterizing clause of patent claim 2.
• a third object of the invention is to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement the distance between said rails can be adjusted steplessly.
• a fourth object of the invention is to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement said rail defines a support surface on which a stepless adjustment of the direction of surface normals with respect to said support surface is made possible.
• a fifth object of the invention is to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement the distance between said rails can be adjusted in a stepless manner and the rail is fixed securely, thus avoiding oscillations in the rail positioning.
• first pivot hinge is formed by a first arc-shaped slide surface attached to or formed on said base, and by a second arc-shaped slide surface attached to or formed on said strut, a hinge with extremely good stability properties is obtained, at the same time as the hinge permits stepless adjustment of the angle position.
• a sixth object of the invention is to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement the height of the rail is varied as little as possible during variation of the distance between the rails located on both sides of the conveyor track.
• first pivot hinge permits adjustment of the distance between said rails between a first end position and a second end position, and that the midpoint between said end positions corresponds to the position of said hinge when said pivot hinges are vertically positioned, a minimal change of the height is obtained since the change in projection in the direction of the track normal is minimal about a position parallel to said track normal.
• a seventh object of the invention is to make available a conveyor arrangement comprising a conveyor track for conveying articles along said track, and a first rail and second rail which extend along both sides of said conveyor track so as to limit the freedom of movement of said articles across the conveyor track, in which arrangement said rail defines a support surface on which an adjustment of the direction of the surface normals with respect to said support surface is permitted and the rail is fixed securely so that oscillations in the rail positioning are avoided.
• the second pivot hinge is formed by a third arc- shaped slide surface attached to or formed on a holder for said rail, and a fourth arc-shaped slide surface attached to or formed on said strut, a hinge is obtained with very good stability properties, at the same time as which the hinge permits stepless adjustment of the angle position.
• An eighth object of the invention is to permit a minimal installation volume for the base which supports said rails.
• This object is achieved by a conveyor arrangement according to the characterizing clause of patent claim 8.
• Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a conveyor arrangement
• Fig. 2 shows the conveyor arrangement in a projection from the front
• Fig. 3 shows in detail a holder member for a rail
• Fig. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of a conveyor arrangement
• Fig. 5 shows the geometry of the pattern of movement of the rail holder upon pivoting about the pivot hinges
• Fig. 6 shows the geometry of the rail displacement between a first end position and a second end position.
• Figure 1 shows a conveyor arrangement 1 which comprises a conveyor track 2 and first and second rails 3, 4.
• the first and second rails 3, 4 extend along both sides of the conveyor track 2 so as to limit the freedom of movement of an article (not shown) across the conveyor track 2.
• both the first rail 3 and the second rail 4 are supported by a respective strut 5, 6.
• Said struts 5, 6 are attached to a base 7.
• both struts are attached to a common base.
• said struts can of course be attached to separate bases.
• the first strut 5 is attached to the base 7 via a pivot hinge 8 with pivot center 42.
• the second strut 6 is attached to the base via a corresponding pivot hinge (not shown).
• the pivot hinge 8 is formed by a first arc- shaped slide surface 9 attached to or formed on said base 7, and a second arc-shaped slide surface 10 attached to or formed on said strut 5.
• the conveyor arrangement 1 further comprises members for locking 11 said first pivot hinge 8 in different pivot positions, making it possible to regulate the distance between said rails.
• said locking members consist of a bolt with a head 12 which bears against the strut 5 and has a shank which runs through a slot 13 formed in the strut 5 and is fixed to the material 14 forming the second arc-shaped slide surface 10.
• the locking member can of course be formed in other ways well known to the skilled person for providing a clamping force, for example an eccentric cam which runs through a hole in the bolt shank and bears against the shank, the slide surfaces 9 and 10 being pressed against one another upon adjustment of the cam.
• each of the rails 3, 4 defines a respective support surface.
• the support surface 15 for the second rail 4 is shown.
• the support surface 15 is defined by a plane through those points on the rail 3 which are tangential to the rail elements 27, 28.
• the first and second rails 3, 4 are each attached to their respective struts 5, 6 via second pivot hinges 17, 18.
• the conveyor arrangement 1 further comprises members for locking 19, 20 said second pivot hinges 17, 18 in different pivot positions, permitting adjustment of the direction of surface normals 21 with respect to said support surfaces.
• the second pivot hinge 18 on the first strut 5 is formed by a third arc-shaped slide surface 22 attached to or formed on a holder 23 for the rail 3, and a fourth arc-shaped slide surface 24 attached to or formed on said strut 5.
• the second pivot hinge 19 on the second strut 6 is formed correspondingly.
• the rails 3, 4 are formed by two or more rail elements, which in the embodiment shown comprise tubes 25 - 28 which are supported by said holder 23 and its corresponding holder on the second strut 4.
• Figure 3 shows how the tubes 25, 26 of the rail 3 are fixed to the holder 23.
• the tubes 25, 26 are each fitted into a respective recess 30, 31 formed in the holder 23. Thereafter, the tubes are fixed in place by a securing piece 32 which at least partially encloses the tube, so that the tube is locked in place.
• the third slide surface 23 is also formed on the holder 23.
• the base 7 also supports a holder member 33 for said conveyor track.
• the holder member is designed in a way which is familiar to the skilled person and can support slides 34, 35 for the conveyor belt and also drive wheels, guide wheels and drive devices for the belt (not shown).
• FIG. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of a conveyor arrangement.
• Those parts of the conveyor arrangement 1 according to this embodiment which are identical to the previously described embodiment will not be described in detail below. These parts have the same reference numbers as in the above-described embodiment.
• the main difference between the above-described embodiment and the embodiment according to Figure 4 is that the latter comprises a parallel strut 40 which connects the locking member 11 of the first pivot hinge 8 to the locking member 20 of the second pivot hinge 18.
• a double linkage 5, 40 is formed, which means that simultaneous rotation of first and second pivot hinges 8, 18 is permitted by turning either of the pivot hinges.
• Figure 5 shows the geometry of the pattern of movement of the rail holder upon pivoting about the pivot hinges.
• a first center point 42 is defined as the center of curvature of the slide surface 10 of the first pivot hinge 8.
• a second center point 49 is defined as the center of curvature of the slide surface 24 of the second pivot hinge 18. The radius of curvature of the first slide surface
• the locking member 11 of the first pivot hinge 8 comprises a bolt 43 which extends through a slot-shaped opening 13 in the strut 5, the material 14 of which the first arc-shaped slide surface 9 is formed, and the base 7.
• the bolt 43 is attached to the base 7 in a manner well known to the skilled person, for example by a head 44 formed on the bolt 43.
• the slide surfaces 9, 10 are fixed to one another by means of a clamping screw 45 pressing the surfaces against one another.
• the locking bolt 43 belonging to the first locking member 11 supports the parallel strut 40, which is attached so as to rotate in the bolt 43 about a first pivot axis 46.
• a first link arm in a parallelogram 48 is formed between the first center point 42 and the pivot axis 46.
• the first link arm 47 has a length r 3 .
• the parallel strut 40 is attached to a bolt 50.
• the bolt 50 runs through a slot-shaped opening 52 in the strut 5, through the holder 23, and is anchored in the securing piece 32.
• the slide surfaces 22, 24 are fixed to each other by a clamping screw 53 pressing the surfaces against one another.
• a spring member (not shown) is inserted between the clamping screw 53 and the strut 5.
• the spring member is preferably made up of one or more spring washers.
• the locking bolt 50 belonging to the second locking member 18 supports the parallel bar 40, which is attached pivotably in the bolt 50 about a second pivot axis 54. Between the second center point 49 and the pivot axis 54, a second link arm 55 in a parallelogram 48 is formed.
• the second link arm 55 has a length r .
• the third side 56 in the parallelogram 48 is formed by an axis through the first and second center points 42, 49 and has a length Li
• the fourth side 41 of the parallelogram is formed by an axis through the first and second pivot axes 46, 54 and has a length L 2 .
• the parallel strut 40 and/or the strut 5 are designed with members for length adjustment 57, for example in the form of a rigging screw, as is shown in the figure.
• the angle of the rail 3 in relation to the direction of the conveyor belt is maintained upon pivoting of the pivot hinges.
• the member 57 for changing the length of the parallel strut 40 forms, together with the pivot hinges 8, 18, a member for adjusting the angle position of the rail 3.
• the first pivot hinge 8 with pivot center 42 permits adjustment of the distance between said rails, between a first end position 57 and a second end position 58, and the midpoint 59 between said end positions is placed so that the pivot center 42 of the first pivot hinge 8 has a vertical projection 60 through the pivot center 49 of the pivot hinge 8.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Chain Conveyers (AREA)
• Intermediate Stations On Conveyors (AREA)
• Branching, Merging, And Special Transfer Between Conveyors (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=20285779

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (8)

Citations (3)

• 2001
  • 2001-10-26 SE SE0103568A patent/SE520235C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2002
  • 2002-10-25 WO PCT/SE2002/001951 patent/WO2003042075A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (3)

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