Transport apparatus and method for automatically transporting objects, such as smoking articles, or their components
AssigneeI.M.A. Industria Macchine Automatiche S.P.A.
InventorFiorenzo DRAGHETTI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for transporting objects, such as smoking articles or their components includes a plurality of transport members configured to each transport the objects along a working line from an initial position to a final position. A first guide parallel to the working line is configured to sequentially guide the transport members from the initial position to the final position, while a second guide, parallel to the first guide, is configured to sequentially guide the transport members from the final position to the initial position. Rotating displacement members are configured to selectively displace the transport members from one to the other of the two guides.
Claims15
Transport apparatus for transporting objects, comprising a plurality of transport members independent of each other and configured to each carry one or more of said objects along a working line from an initial position to a final position, said transport apparatus also comprises first guide means parallel to said working line and configured to sequentially guide said plurality of transport members from said initial position to said final position;
- second guide means parallel to said first guide means and configured to sequentially guide said plurality of transport members from said final position to said initial position;
- first displacement means and second displacement means configured to selectively displace said plurality of transport members from one to the other of said first and second guide means, wherein said first displacement means comprise a first rotating member disposed in correspondence with said final position and configured to selectively displace, one at a time, each of said transport members from said first guide means to said second guide means, and said second displacement means comprise a second rotating member disposed in correspondence with said initial position and configured to selectively displace, one at a time, each of said transport members from said second guide means to said first guide means, wherein said first rotating member is configured to selectively rotate, by means of a step-wise rotation about an axis of rotation, between a position of reception and a position of release passing through a position of expulsion and a position of exclusion, different from the position of expulsion, and in that it also comprises a control device configured to detect any possible defects in the objects moved along said first guide means, expulsion means configured to expel the objects from the transport member toward an exit conveyor, when the transport member arrives in the position of expulsion, and discarding means configured to expel the objects which the control device has detected to be defective, from the transport member, when the transport member arrives in the position of exclusion.
Method for transporting objects, preferably smoking articles, comprising a transport step in which one or more of said objects disposed on a plurality of transport members are transported sequentially along a working line from an initial position to a final position, guided by first guide means parallel to said working line;
- a return step in which second guide means parallel to said first guide means sequentially guide said plurality of transport members from said final position to said initial position;
- and a displacement step, interposed between said transport step and said return step, in which displacement means configured as rotating members selectively displace said plurality of several transport members, one at a time, from one to the other of said first and second guide means, said displacement step provides to rotate said rotating members about an axis of rotation, disposed parallel to said first and second guide means, so that said transport members are selectively displaced from said first to said second guide means, or vice versa, with a movement which maintains the relative orientation of said transport members with respect to said working line unchanged, characterized in that said rotating members comprise a first rotating member configured to selectively rotate at least between a position of reception and a position of release passing through a position of expulsion and a position of exclusion, different from the position of expulsion, and in that it comprises a step of detecting, upstream of said first rotating member, the presence of a possible defect in the objects moved along said first guide means, an expulsion step to expel the objects from the transport member that has arrived in the position of expulsion toward an exit conveyor, and a discard step to remove from the transport member the objects that the control device has detected to be defective, when the transport member arrives in the position of exclusion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.