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AssigneeSimplimatic Engineering Company
InventorDavid E. Phillips
Estimating the term…
An apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles deposited into a container positioned beneath it. It is comprised of a rigid framework of spaced, elongated members having guides positioned at intervals along the members. The guides are tapered upward and extend outward on either side of the elongated members to define passages through which the articles pass, which passages are bounded by members on two sides and by the extended guide portions on the other sides. Flexible fingers extending downwardly and toward the center of each passage have mounting portions fastened to the elongated members by the tapered guides; preferably two fingers extend into different passages from a common mounting portion. The tapered guides align each article with a passage where the flexible fingers cushion and precisely position the article as it moves into the container. Each mounting portion can be resiliently fastened in place to provide adjustability of the cushioning effect by adjusting the resiliency.
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning aplurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, which apparatus includes a framework of elongated members secured together to at least in part defein passages, said articles being adapted to be deposited into said container through said passages, flexible fingers fastened at intervals along the periphery of each of said passages and extending inwardly of said passages, the improvement comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, which apparatus includes a framework of elongated members secured together to at least in part define passages, said articles being adapted to be deposited into said container through said passages, flexible fingers fastened at intervals along the periphery of each of said passages and extending inwardly of said passages, the improvement comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising;
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
In an apparatus for guiding and cushioning a plurality of articles adapted to be deposited into a container positioned below said apparatus, the combination comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Nozzles, funnels or guides for introducing articles or materials into containers or wrappers: grids for introducing bottles into cases
Machines, apparatus or devices for, or methods of, packaging articles or materials
Term ended 30 Aug 1994 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for guilding and cushioning a plurality of articles as they move into a container which may be divided into cells. It is well known to use a packing grid for placing fragile articles, such as bottles, into a container such as a packing carton or wooden crate. Each grid has a plurality of passages provided with downwardly extending flexible fingers. As each bottle passes through a grid passage toward the container it spreads apart the flexible fingers which thereby guide it into the appointed position in the container and cushion the impact.
Though various grid constructions have been devised all have had some deficiency affecting their durability, performance, ease of assembly and repair, or cost. Some of the prior art grids are made of criss-crossing bars forming square passages. Flexible fingers are attached to the bars at the four sides of each passage. This arrangment is inefficient since the fingers, in their spread position, and the means required for attaching the fingers to the bars occupy a portion of the passage resulting in a waste of container space because that area of the container below the spread fingers and the attachment means must remain empty. Also, because the flexible fingers require a solid member to which they can be attached, four bars must be used to form the sides of every passage. This adds to the weight, expense and maintenance cost of each grid. Weight is an important factor because the grids are manually lifted and secured to the packing machine. As a solution to the inefficient usage of container space, grids were devised having the flexible fingers fastened to the corners of each passage. This permits more efficient utilization of container space when round bottles are being packed since the flexible fingers move into a corner and out of the way as the bottles do not extend into the corners. A closer packing of the bottles and a reduction of the amount of empty, wasted container space is thus made possible. However, it is more difficult to attach a finger to a corner than to a side bar and extra parts are required to make the attachment feasible. Furthermore, previous arrangements are unsatisfactory since the fingers are attached individually to the grid with several fastening means being required to provide a secure attachment, thereby increasing the number of parts used. The use of criss-crossing bars and the arrangements for attaching fingers to passage corners of prior grids both combine to make assembly and replacement difficult, time consuming, and costly.
Though most of the previously devised grids do an adequate job in having the flexible fingers guide and cushion the bottles once inside the grid, bottle breakage too often occurs when the bottles are misaligned and hit the bars instead of entering cleanly into the passage. To prevent such breakage curved metal guides are placed above the bars to nudge the bottles into the passages without breakage. However, these guides are positioned on the bars at the sides of the passages, thereby occupying a portion of the passage and creating wasted space in the container since that area of the container below the guides must remain empty. Furthermore, the guides are individually fastened four to a passage. A large number of parts is thus required to individually fasten the guides, as well as the fingers, to be bars resulting in increased assembly time, cost and weight.
To the accomplishment of the above, and to such other objects as may hereinafter appear, the present invention relates to the construction of an apparatus for guiding and cushioning articles deposited into a container wherein a small number of relatively inexpensive, easily installable, lightweight, durable and breakage-reducing parts are used, as defined in the appended claims and as described in this specification, taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a top view of a pair of flexible fingers constructed of one straight piece before they are bent into their proper position;
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the fingers and guides aligned for attachment to the bars;
The present invention is an apparatus used in conjunction with a machine for depositing articles into a container, which machine often performs some other desired operation on the articles. A bottling machine will be referred to in the description of the embodiments merely for the purpose of providing an example but other machines involving a variety of articles are equally applicable. When the bottles are ready to be packed the machine conveys them to a packing station and positions them in several rows. The present invention, which is directed to modifications of an apparatus that has become conventionally known, and will hereafter be referred to, as a packing grid, is secured to the bottling machine directly below these rows. A packing container with or without cells, depending on the application, is either brought up to the machine or the packing station is brought down toward the container and when the two are close enough to each other the bottles are released to fall into the container. Up to this point the equipment is conventional and since details of the bottling machine, means to fasten the grid to the machine, and the means to bring the container and machine toward each other form no part of the invention, any further detailed discussion of these elements is deemed unnecessary.
A conventional packing grid basically consists of bars, flexible fingers, and guides as well as means for attaching these parts to each other. In order to simplify the structure of packing grids to provide a cheaper, lighter, and more easily serviceable apparatus some of these conventionally used parts must be reduced in number. Four flexible fingers and four guides must be used for each passage if the articles are to be properly positioned from all directions. As far as the bars are concerned, it was formerly thought that criss-crossing bars are essential to (1) provide a strong, rigid framework, (2) support the flexible fingers, (3) support the guides, and (4) define the passages. I have discovered, however, that all of the above functions can be provided even though a significant number of bars are eliminated. As to the first function, a framework with the necessary strength and rigidity can be built by fastening the ends of several spaced, elongated bars to a strong, rigid support, thus eliminating the need for cross bars. As to the second and third functions, only two spaced bars are absolutely essential for each passage to support corner mounted fingers and guides since the two bars form a part of all four corners, whereas with the previous side-mounted fingers and guides criss-crossing bars were required. A support assembly mounted to these two bars is provided to securely support and maintain the fingers and guides in position. Finally, while some metal bars are clearly essential to provide rigidity and to support the fingers and guides, other parts, lighter and cheaper than metal, are used to define that portion of each passage formerly defined by the now eliminated cross-bars. Thus, a reduction in the number of bars is made possible without compromising the structural and operational integrity of the apparatus. As to the number of attachment means used, previous grids required many of these since the fingers and guides were attached to the bars individually. The number of attachment means is significantly reduced in the present invention by constructing a plurality of fingers and guides so as to enable their attachment to the bars with only a single attachment means.
To broadly describe the invention in accordance with the goal of a durable and effective structure requiring less, and more easily installable, parts, a framework A is comprised of several spaced bars B defining unobstructed spaces C. Guides D are mounted on and spaced along bars B and have portions protruding above spaces C. Each space C contains a row of passages E with each passage being defined by only two bars B, at the sides, and four guides D, at the corners. The protruding portions of guides D define those sides of passage E where bars have been omitted. Flexible fingers F have a mounting portion from which a plurality of fingers extend. These mounting portions are fastened between bars B and guides D. Only a single fastening means is required to simultaneously fasten four fingers and four guides to bars B.