High speed stacker
AssigneePackage Machinery Company
InventorRichard H. Provost
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A high speed stacker for grouping small tablets or similar products utilizes a vertically oriented tumble wheel having peripheral pockets for carrying the products serially between a receiving point and a discharge point. At the discharge point, the products are unloaded onto a stacking tray by means of a pair of stacking wheels on opposite axial sides of the tumble wheel. The stacking wheels are driven rotatably in opposite directions about axes lying in a plane generally tangent to the tumble wheel at the discharge point. The stacking tray immediately below the wheels receives the discharged products in series from the stacking wheels and holds them in a stack on a support surface of the tray.
Claims10
A high speed stacker for assembling a group of individual products in series comprising:
- input feeding means for feeding the individual products sequentially along a product feed path;
- a tumble wheel mounted for continuous rotation about an axis along the product feed path of the input feeding means with the wheel generally tangent to the path at a receiving point, the wheel containing a plurality of product-receiving pockets on the periphery of the wheel, each pocket having a peripheral opening facing radially outwardly for individually receiving a product transmitted along the feed path to the receiving point of the wheel and carrying the individual product about the wheel to a discharge point arcuately displaced from the receiving point;
- guide means circumscribing the periphery of the tumble wheel between the receiving point and the discharge point for holding the products in the individual pockets of the wheel during arcuate displacement in the continuously rotated tumble wheel;
- a stacking tray projecting away from the tumble wheel at the discharge point on the periphery of the tumble wheel, the tray defining a support surface for holding the products discharged from the tumble wheel in a stack;
- and
- two stacking wheels positioned in spaced relationship and at opposite sides of the tumble wheel at the discharge point, the wheels being rotatably driven in opposite directions about parallel axes lying in a plane generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the tumble wheel at the discharge point, and being positioned to engage an individual product in a pocket and pull the product through the peripheral opening of a pocket toward the stacking tray.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.