Process and installation for supplying caps to a closure machine
AssigneeSCAL Societe de Conditionnements en Aluminium
InventorAlbert Scheidegger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process and an installation for supplying fragile caps to a closure machine which operates at a high rate, wherein caps are manufactured in situ in a plurality of cells which operate in a parallel mode, with the caps then supplied to the closure machine by a single conveyor which preserves the orientation of the caps. Detectors disposed on inclined intermediate channels control the output rate of the cells and the conveyor to ensure the machine is supplied with caps at all times, even when a cell is stopped for maintenance.
Claims12
An installation for the supply without interruption of fragile caps, which are in a given orientation, to crimping heads of a closure machine which operates at a high rate, said installation comprising in a parallel arrangement a plurality of cap production cells and, as means for supplying caps to the machine from the cells, a cavity-type conveyor in the form of an endless chain having vertical bottomless cavities, means for feeding caps to the cavities from each cell including an inclined individual channel, each individual channel having an outlet provided with a selector controlling the supply of caps to the successive cavities of the conveyor by circular transposition, and means for supplying the machine from the conveyor including a main inclined channel which opens on to a distributor disc having compartments movable into positions opposite the heads.
A process for continuously supplying fragile caps, in a given orientation, to a closure machine operating at a high rate (C), from at least N+1 cells for producing said caps, N being the minimum number of cells necessary to comply with the nominal closure rate C, the caps being collected at the outlet of the cells and transferred towards the closure machine by an endless chain conveyor with successive cavities, comprising the steps of transferring the caps between each cell and the conveyor by an individual channel, detecting mini and maxi levels in each individual channel, each cell being operable at two rates, a normal rate (C/N)+.epsilon. and a lower rate (C/(N+1))-.epsilon.', varying the rate of each cell in accordance to the levels detected in the corresponding channel, each individual channel being provided with an outlet selector, and feeding the caps from the outlet selectors into the successive cavities of the conveyor, each cavity thus being associated with one of the successive individual channels, transferring the caps between the conveyor and the machine by a main channel, detecting mini and maxi levels in the main channel, the conveyor being a two-speed cavity-type conveyor, the maximum rate of which is at a minimum equal to the rate of production of the N+1 cells and can be reduced to a lower rate corresponding at maximum to the nominal closure rate C, and causing the conveyor to go from one speed to the other speed in accordance with the levels detected in the main channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.