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US 11,084,182 B1Granted
Cooperage layout for barrel production process
OwnerEricus Vankleefinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cooperage layout for a barrel production process enhances efficiency and/or reduces costs, space requirements and/or noise by positioning barrel raising, windlass, roll out, and/or bilge hoop puller stations within a cooperage and/or through the use of a power and free conveyor to convey temporary truss hoops between a truss hoop puller station and the barrel raising and windlass stations.
Claims19
A wooden barrel construction method, comprising:
- at a barrel raising station disposed at a first location in a cooperage, raising a barrel using a temporary raising ring and a first temporary truss hoop;
- after raising the barrel, conveying the barrel to a steam station disposed at a second location in the cooperage to steam the barrel;
- after steaming the barrel, conveying the barrel to a windlass station disposed at a third location in the cooperage to draw staves of the barrel together and using a second temporary truss hoop, including removing the temporary raising ring from the barrel, wherein the third location of the windlass station is adjacent the first location of the barrel raising station in the cooperage;
- returning the temporary raising ring to the barrel raising station;
- after drawing the staves of the barrel together in the windlass station and at a roll out station disposed at a fourth location in the cooperage, rolling out the barrel using a pair of temporary bilge hoops placed on a pair of feed tracks;
- after rolling out the barrel, performing a plurality of operations at a plurality of stations in the cooperage while the barrel has the pair of temporary bilge hoops and the first and second temporary truss hoops installed thereon;
- after performing the plurality of operations and at a truss hoop puller station disposed at a fifth location in the cooperage, removing the first and second temporary truss hoops from the barrel;
- moving the first and second temporary truss hoops to a conveyor extending between the first, second and fifth locations and
- conveying each of the first and second temporary truss hoops to one of the barrel raising station and the windlass station;
- after removing the first and second temporary truss hoops from the barrel, conveying the barrel to a bilge hoop puller station disposed at a sixth location in the cooperage to remove the pair of temporary bilge hoops from the barrel, wherein the sixth location of the bilge hoop puller station is adjacent the fourth location of the roll out station in the cooperage;
- and
- moving the pair of temporary bilge hoops from the bilge hoop puller station to the pair of feed tracks of the roll out station without use of a conveyor.
9 more elements
A wooden barrel construction method, comprising:
- at a barrel raising station disposed at a first location in a cooperage, raising a barrel using a temporary raising ring;
- after raising the barrel, conveying the barrel to a steam station disposed at a second location in the cooperage to steam the barrel;
- after steaming the barrel, conveying the barrel to a windlass station disposed at a third location in the cooperage to draw staves of the barrel together, including removing the temporary raising ring from the barrel, wherein the third location of the windlass station is adjacent the first location of the barrel raising station in the cooperage;
- and
- returning the temporary raising ring to the barrel raising station.
2 more elements
A cooperage, comprising:
- a barrel raising station disposed at a first location in the cooperage and configured to use temporary raising rings;
- a steam station disposed at a second location in the cooperage and configured to receive barrels from the barrel raising station;
- and
- a windlass station disposed at a third location in the cooperage to receive barrels from the steam station, wherein the windlass station is configured to remove temporary raising rings from the barrels and accumulate the removed temporary raising rings at the windless station, and wherein the third location of the windlass station is adjacent the first location of the barrel raising station so that the accumulated temporary raising rings are close to the barrel raising station.
1 more element
A wooden barrel construction method, comprising:
- at a roll out station disposed at a first location in a cooperage, rolling out a barrel using a pair of temporary bilge hoops;
- after rolling out the barrel, performing a plurality of operations at a plurality of stations in the cooperage while the barrel has the pair of temporary bilge hoops installed thereon;
- after performing the plurality of operations, conveying the barrel to a bilge hoop puller station disposed at a second location in the cooperage to remove the pair of temporary bilge hoops from the barrel, wherein the second location of the bilge hoop puller station is adjacent the first location of the roll out station in the cooperage;
- and
- moving the pair of temporary bilge hoops from the bilge hoop puller station to the pair of feed tracks of the roll out station.
2 more elements
A cooperage, comprising:
- a roll out station disposed at a first location in the cooperage and including a pair of feed tracks configured to receive pairs of temporary bilge hoops;
- a plurality of stations downstream of the roll out station in the cooperage and configured to perform a plurality of operations on barrels received from the roll out station and having temporary bilge hoops installed thereon;
- a bilge hoop puller station disposed at a second location in the cooperage to remove the pairs of temporary bilge hoops from barrels, wherein the second location of the bilge hoop puller station is adjacent the first location of the roll out station in the cooperage;
- and
- one or more industrial robots configured to move pairs of temporary bilge hoops from the bilge hoop puller station to the pair of feed tracks of the roll out station.
2 more elements
A wooden barrel construction method, comprising:
- at a barrel raising station disposed at a first location in a cooperage, raising a barrel using a first temporary truss hoop;
- after raising the barrel, conveying the barrel to a windlass station disposed at a second location in the cooperage and adding a second temporary truss hoop;
- thereafter performing a plurality of operations at a plurality of stations in the cooperage while the barrel has the first and second temporary truss hoops installed thereon;
- thereafter at a truss hoop puller station disposed at a third location in the cooperage, removing the first and second temporary truss hoops from the barrel;
- moving the first and second temporary truss hoops to a conveyor extending between the first, second and third locations and
- conveying each of the first and second temporary truss hoops to one of the barrel raising station and the windlass station.
3 more elements
A cooperage, comprising:
- a barrel raising station disposed at a first location in the cooperage and configured to use temporary truss hoops;
- a windlass station disposed at a second location in the cooperage and configured to use temporary truss hoops;
- a plurality of stations downstream of the windlass station in the cooperage and configured to perform a plurality of operations on barrels received from the windlass station and having pairs of temporary truss hoops installed thereon;
- a truss hoop puller station disposed at a third location in the cooperage to remove the pairs of temporary truss hoops from the barrels;
- a conveyor extending between the first, second and third locations and configured to convey temporary truss hoops from the truss hoop puller station to the barrel raising station and the windlass station;
- and
- one or more industrial robots positioned proximate the truss hoop puller station and configured to move temporary bilge hoops from the bilge hoop puller station to the power and free conveyor.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.