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
  • B65G47/00—Article or material-handling devices associated with conveyors; Methods employing such devices
  • B65G47/34—Devices for discharging articles or materials from conveyor 
  • B65G47/46—Devices for discharging articles or materials from conveyor  and distributing, e.g. automatically, to desired points
  • B65G47/51—Devices for discharging articles or materials from conveyor  and distributing, e.g. automatically, to desired points according to unprogrammed signals, e.g. influenced by supply situation at destination
  • B65G47/5104—Devices for discharging articles or materials from conveyor  and distributing, e.g. automatically, to desired points according to unprogrammed signals, e.g. influenced by supply situation at destination for articles
  • B65G47/515—First In-Last Out systems [FILO]; Last In-First Out systems [LIFO]
  • B65G47/5181—First In-Last Out systems [FILO]; Last In-First Out systems [LIFO] using stacking or destacking arrangements or stacks of articles or article-carriers
• • 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
  • B65G1/00—Storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses or magazines
  • B65G1/02—Storage devices
  • B65G1/04—Storage devices mechanical
  • B65G1/12—Storage devices mechanical with separate article supports or holders movable in a closed circuit to facilitate insertion or removal of articles the articles being books, documents, forms or the like
  • B65G1/127—Storage devices mechanical with separate article supports or holders movable in a closed circuit to facilitate insertion or removal of articles the articles being books, documents, forms or the like the circuit being confined in a vertical plane

Definitions

• the present invention concerns a multi-function accumulator for receiving, accumulating and discharging items of various kind.
• the present invention is directed to an accumulator for items or goods of various shape, kind and dimension, it being inserted between a production plant disposed upstream of the accumulator, and a diverting unit disposed downstream of said accumulator.
• the items travelling on the accumulator of the present invention are made of rolls or logs of paper, tissue paper, fabric, aluminium foil or the like, rolls or logs of leather or other sheet-like material, packs of folded or flat items made of paper, tissue paper, fabric, leather or the like.
• paper converting accumulators which load a set of logs coming out from a converting plant and load the set of logs on a downstream unit.
• the logs are not subjected to any working or converting operation, but are simply transferred from an upstream position to a downstream position; in these cases the main function of the accumulator is that of avoiding production jumps, or avoiding that an interruption in the operation of the upstream unit generates an interruption in the operation of the downstream unit, or viceversa.
• the main function of the accumulator is that of avoiding production jumps, or avoiding that an interruption in the operation of the upstream unit generates an interruption in the operation of the downstream unit, or viceversa.
• the production is started of logs coming from a mother reel, the logs so produced are coming out of a rewinder, usually they are glued (the tail end of paper is anchored to the wound log) and then they are loaded on an accumulator. From here the logs are unloaded on the downstream unit, tipically a log-saw machine that cuts the single logs into rolls of limited axial length, the rolls being then packed for sale to the final user.
• the accumulator takes a relevant space in the lay-out of the converting plant, since it is made of a couple of side frames supporting a multitude of transporting decks slidable on chains.
• the decks are locked with pins to the links of the chains; the decks are shaped and sized to accommodate logs of various diameter, because these plants must be capable of producing logs of various kind (for instance hygienic and kitchen paper) which diameter is extremely variable, namely from 90 mm or less to 170 mm or more.
• the decks are assembled on chains with a fixed pitch, since disassembling and new assembling of the decks on the chains, if required to modify the pitch, would require many working hours, so the fixed or single pitch solution is always preferred, with the decks being spaced on the chains for receiving logs of the maximum expected diameter.
• accumulators of this kind are described and depicted, for instance, in US4,142,626 and US6,053,304 from which the big dimensions of the accumulator and the anchoring of the decks to the transporting chain are evident.
• a first object of this invention is an accumulator for items of various kind having the possibility of multi ⁇ directional loading and unloading.
• a further object of this invention is an accumulator for items or goods of various kind having the possibility of varying the accumulation capacity on the basis of the dimension of the items to be accumulated.
• a further object of this invention is an accumulator for items of various kind provided with interchangeable decks and variously shaped decks. Still a further object of this invention is an accumulator for items or goods or various kind having the possibility to be operated according to two different operating modes, with a fixed pitch or with a variable pitch, preferably in the latter case driven by independent actuators.
• the accumulator forming the object of this invention is very flexible, cheap, it takes a reduced space in the lay-out of the converting plant, it may accommodate items of various shape and dimensions and it can be easily assembled and maintained.
• Fig.l shows a side view of an accumulator according to the invention
• Fig.2 shows a perspetic view of an accumulator according to the invention
• Fig.3 shows a side view of a detail of the accumulator according to the invention
• Figs.4A e 4B show partial sections of the accumulating devices according to the invention.
• Fig.l shows a side view of a preferred embodiment of the accumulating means or accumulator according to the invention.
• the items or goods to be accumulated are logs of sheet-like material like paper or tissue paper, but the same concepts are valid for items or other kind or nature, being them in sheet-like shape as fabric, leather, plastic film or the like, or a completely different kind like pieces of wood, metal, glass or like material.
• Accumulators of this invention may be also used for finished or semi-finished goods made of one or more of the above cited materials, even if combined between them, and with a shape completely different from that represented in the drawings, for instance packs of napkins, handkerchiefs, other goods, both folded or lying, made of paper, fabric or other material.
• the whole accumulator 10 is placed between an upstream unit 20 and a downstream unit 30.
• the upstream unit 20 for instance a tail sealer for gluing the final edge of logs 40, delivers a log 40 on an inlet plane 50, possibly with the aid of a butterfly conveyor 60 (Fig.2), that conveys one log 40 by one on the inlet plane 50. From the latter the log 40 is unloaded on the deck 70 by a simple rolling or by overturning; the deck 70 is the upper of a stack of decks 70, placed in the lower central part of the accumulator 10.
• the accumulator 10 comprises four columns 100 amongst which the decks 70 are arranged.
• the columns 100 are spaced from each other in such a way as to allow a multi-directional loading/unloading of the items, through each side of the accumulator 10, as will be explained here below.
• Fig.l logs of three different diameters are represented: on the upper deck there are represented three logs 41 disposed side-by-side, for example their diameter being 120 mm; on the middle deck there is a single log 40 with a diameter of 450 mm; on the lower deck there are two logs 42 with a diameter of 250 mm. From these diameters is already easy to appreciate the great difference with traditional accumulators, that usually can accomodate and transport logs with diameter comprised between 90 and 170 mm.
• the production plant supplies logs with diameter of 250 mm, once they are unloaded on the upper deck 70 the logs 42 advance by one pitch to a higher position, so that the next deck can receive the subsequent two logs 42.
• the upstream unit 20 stops its flow of logs 42 to the accumulator 10, this goes on to unload the accumulated logs 42 to the downstream unit 30, until the operating conditions of the upstream unit 20 are restored, or until the last deck 70 (the one in the upper position in the accumulator 10) is empty.
• the downstream unit 30 is not able to receive logs 42 (for instance due to a stop for changing the cutting blade of the log-saw machine)
• the upstream unit 20 is not forced to a stop, because other decks 70 can be filled, until all of the decks 70 are full or the downstream unit has restored its operation.
• the loading operation is made from one side of the accumulator (as per arrow Fl in Fig.l) and the unloading from the opposite side.
• the loading operation can be made from the opposite side (see arrow F3 in Fig.l) and the unloading operation according to arrow F4, or loading and/or unloading can be made from one side, it is sufficient to have enough space between columns 100 in order to allow the passage of logs 42 or other products, even of a shape different from the cylindrical shape of logs 42.
• logs 42 or packs or other products can be loaded from one side (for instance according to arrow Fl) and unloaded from the same side (arrow F4) but at a different height, for instance higher, in a raised position compared to the loading height.
• Fig.3 shows an enlarged detail of a part of the driving member 110 of the decks 70 (not shown) .
• the driving member 110 is made of two chain devices 120, assembled on the sides of the accumulator 10 and flanking the columns 100 of the frame (see also Fig.2) .
• Each chain device 120 has two sliding devices or endless chains 130 partially wound around pinions 140 permitting movement of the chains 130 on which, in turn, a set of lifting members 150 are locked; in the example the lifting members 150 are hook- shaped as a U in the operating step.
• the driving of the pinions 140 can be operated according to various modes. According to a first mode, the chain devices 120 move intermittently, making an operative step and stopping before the next operative step.
• the driving of the chain devices 120 is continuous, without any stop, with constant speed or at a variable speed, but always without intermediate stops, at least until the normal working conditions exist.
• a first mode the pitch is constant, the rotation of each pinion 140 is always the same for every pitch, so that the lifting members 150 blocked on the chain devices 120 advance for the same amount.
• This is the typical case when logs or packs or other goods of same or quite the same dimensions have to be accumulated. For instance if logs of diameter 120 mm have to be accumulated it is sufficient to set the lifting members 150 spaced about 160 mm one from the others; in this way one or more logs (three for each deck as shown in Fig.2) can be loaded on the first deck 170, the chain devices 120 can be advanced by one pitch, other logs can be loaded on the second deck 170, and so on.
• the pitch is variable and between a loading step and the following the advancement of the chain devices 120 is not constant, but it can vary at every pitch or by command.
• This is one of the advantages obtained according to the present invention, which allows to accumulate items of different dimensions since the decks 70 are fixedly connected to the driving members 110 only at the moment of their use, and then they can be disconnected when the deck 70 has made empty or the items on the deck have been unloaded.
• An example of use with the variable pitch advancement is given by the accumulation of packs of napkins or other articles with variable thickness.
• the variation of the driving pitch of the chain devices 120 can be preset or obtained through a sensor means which, time by time, detects the size of the goods to be accumulated and according to the reading allows the chain devices 120 to move in the right amount.
• the variation of the moving pitch of the chain devices 120 is preferably obtained through the use of independent actuators.
• the decks 70 are stacked one over the others in the lower central area inside the accumulator 10. This allows a very easy loading and substitution of the decks, making these interchangeable, for instance when a change in the items to be accumulated is required. Indeed, it is sufficient to unload the decks 70 and pull out them from the lower area of the accumulator 10, then easily to position a set of new decks 70 inside the accumulator 10 and to start the accumulation of the new items .
• Figs.4A e 4B two different profiles of the decks 70 are shown.
• the first (Fig.4A) is a concave profile which allows loading of items of various shape or, in case of logs, of various diameters so that the items to be accumulated remain always centered on every deck 70 so that the possibility of overturning is avoided.
• the second profile is a concave profile which allows loading of items of various shape or, in case of logs, of various diameters so that the items to be accumulated remain always centered on every deck 70 so that the possibility of overturning is avoided.
• FIG.4B is wave-shaped and forms more than one side-by-side site in order to contain more logs on the same deck 70, with the possibility for the logs to be in contact with each other or spaced apart, in order to avoid bonding between items treated with glues or lotions.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Replacement Of Web Rolls (AREA)
• Load-Engaging Elements For Cranes (AREA)

Priority Applications (1)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=39591120

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (1)

Citations (3)

• 2007
  • 2007-04-16 IT ITPI20070046 patent/ITPI20070046A1/it unknown
• 2008
  • 2008-04-15 WO PCT/EP2008/054535 patent/WO2008125671A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2008-04-15 EP EP08736227A patent/EP2142450A1/en not_active Withdrawn

Patent Citations (3)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events