Article portioning head system

An article portioning system which portions discrete articles, comprising:

• a plurality of article counting head assemblies, each assembly including:
• a counting head housing comprising a chamber through which articles pass between a chamber inlet and a chamber outlet;
• an article detecting unit which detects articles passing between the chamber inlet and chamber outlet, said detecting unit generating signals corresponding to characteristics of the articles passing through the detecting unit, wherein the characteristics include at least one of a count of articles and a predetermined range of a predetermined specification;
• a divider which divides at least a portion of the chamber vertically into two adjacent article flow channels;
• an upper diverting gate coupled to a first gate repositioning device;
• and
• a lower outlet gate coupled to a second gate repositioning device;
• a rotary carousel, wherein the carrousel is arranged to receive the plurality of article counting head assemblies adjacent to one another about the outer periphery of the carousel, with a fill tube of each of the assemblies located so as to receive articles fed from a top surface of the carousel;
• an article feed unit arranged to feed articles onto the top surface of the carousel;
• a container conveyer and indexing device, wherein the device is arranged to convey article containers to the carousel and locate an article container beneath the chamber outlet of each article counting head assembly as the assemblies are rotated by the carousel past a container loading position, and to receive containers removed from the carousel at a container removal position;
• and
• a controller,
• wherein, for each article counting head assembly,
• the article detecting unit is located above the upper diverting gate, and the detecting unit generates at least a portion complete signal when a predetermined portion of articles has entered the detecting unit and an out-of-specification signal when the detecting unit detects a characteristic which falls outside the predetermined range,
• the upper diverting gate is located adjacent to an upper end of the divider, and is arranged to be positioned by the first gate repositioning device at least in a position which blocks article flow into a first of the two channels and a position which blocks article flow into a second of the two channels, and
• the lower outlet gate located adjacent to a lower end of the divider, and is arranged to be positioned by the second gate repositioning device at least in a position which blocks article flow out of the first channel and a position which blocks article flow out of the second channel,
• further wherein the controller is programmed to control each article counting head assembly by commanding the assembly's first gate repositioning device to reposition its upper diverting gate in response to receipt from its detecting unit of at least one of a portion complete signal and an out-of-specification signal, such that article flow through the assembly's chamber is diverted from one of the two channels to the other of the two channels, and by commanding the assembly's second gate repositioning device to reposition the lower outlet gate to block the flow of articles out of a channel when an article container is not present beneath the chamber outlet.

An article portioning system which portions discrete articles, comprising:

• a plurality of article counting head assemblies, each assembly including:
• a counting head housing comprising a chamber through which articles pass between a chamber inlet and a chamber outlet;
• an article detecting unit which detects articles passing between the chamber inlet and chamber outlet, said detecting unit generating signals corresponding to characteristics of the articles passing through the detecting unit, wherein the characteristics include at least one of a count of articles and a predetermined range of a predetermined specification;
• a divider which divides at least a portion of the chamber vertically into two adjacent article flow channels;
• an upper diverting gate coupled to a first gate repositioning device;
• and
• a lower outlet gate coupled to a second gate repositioning device;
• a filling station platform, wherein the platform is arranged to receive the plurality of article counting head assemblies adjacent to one another, with a fill tube of each of the assemblies is located so as to receive articles fed from a top surface of the platform;
• an article feed unit arranged to feed articles onto the top surface of the platform;
• a container conveyer and indexing device, wherein the device is arranged to convey article containers to the platform and locate an article container beneath the chamber outlet of each article counting head, and to receive containers removed from the platform;
• and
• a controller,
• wherein, for each article counting head assembly,
• the article detecting unit is located above the upper diverting gate, and the detecting unit generates at least a portion complete signal when a predetermined portion of articles has entered the detecting unit and an out-of-specification signal when the detecting unit detects a characteristic which falls outside the predetermined range,
• the upper diverting gate is located adjacent to an upper end of the divider, and is arranged to be positioned by the first gate repositioning device at least in a position which blocks article flow into a first of the two channels and a position which blocks article flow into a second of the two channels, and
• the lower outlet gate located adjacent to a lower end of the divider, and is arranged to be positioned by the second gate repositioning device at least in a position which blocks article flow out of the first channel and a position which blocks article flow out of the second channel,
• further wherein the controller is programmed to control each article counting head assembly by commanding the assembly's first gate repositioning device to reposition its upper diverting gate in response to receipt from its detecting unit of at least one of a portion complete signal and an out-of-specification signal, such that article flow through the assembly's chamber is diverted from one of the two channels to the other of the two channels, and by commanding the assembly's second gate repositioning device to reposition the lower outlet gate to block the flow of articles out of a channel when an article container is not present beneath the chamber outlet.

A method for portioning discrete articles, comprising the steps of:

• feeding a plurality of articles into an article portioning system, said article portioning system comprising:
• an article counting head housing comprising a chamber through which articles pass between a chamber inlet and a chamber outlet,
• a divider which divides at least a portion of the chamber vertically into two adjacent article flow channels,
• an upper diverting gate which is located adjacent to an upper end of the divider and below the chamber inlet, and is positionable to alternately block the flow of articles from entering one or the other of the two channels,
• a lower outlet gate which is located adjacent to a lower end of the divider and above the chamber outlet, and is positionable to alternately block the flow of articles from leaving one or the other of the two channels, and
• an article detecting unit located above the upper diverting gate;
• generating signals corresponding to characteristics of the articles passing through the detecting unit, wherein
• the characteristics include at least one of a count of articles and a predetermined range of a predetermined specification, and
• the generated signals include at least a portion complete signal generated when a predetermined portion of articles has entered the detecting unit, and an out-of-specification signal when the detecting unit detects a characteristic which falls outside the predetermined range;
• and
• controlling, based on the generated signals, the positions of the upper diverting gate and the lower outlet gate, wherein
• the gates are initially positioned to block the flow of articles into or from a first one of the two channels,
• when a portion complete signal is generated, the upper diverting gate is moved to a position which blocks article flow into a second of the two channels, such that only the completed portion is allowed to pass through the second channel to the chamber outlet and further articles are diverted into the first channel,
• when the articles passing through the second channel are no longer beneath the chamber outlet, the lower outlet gate is moved to block the second channel and thereby allow articles in the first channel to pass to the chamber outlet,
• when a portion complete signal corresponding to a complete portion passing through the first channel is generated, returning the upper diverting gate to the position blocking the flow of articles into the first channel, and
• when the articles passing through the first channel are no longer beneath the chamber outlet, returning the lower outlet gate to the position blocking the flow of articles from the first channel and thereby allow the articles in the second channel to pass to the chamber outlet.