Continuous motion bottle packer
AssigneeStandard-Knapp, Inc.
InventorsLloyd D. Johnson, John L. Raudat
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plurality of grids are mounted individually on spokes of a wheel so that each grid moves through an article infeed station where groups of articles are fed into the grids without interrupting their forward speed. The orbit of the grids is such that each grid also moves through a discharge station where the article groups are dropped into packing cases again without interrupting the motion of the articles in the direction of a packing case conveyor.
Claims26
A packer for depositing groups of articles in upwardly open packing cases and comprising:
- conveyor means for advancing articles continuously in side-by-side columns along a first horizontal path so that these articles are arranged in end-to-end relationship and in predetermined groups corresponding to the capacity of the cases,
- means defining an infeed station at the downstream end of said conveyor means and including fixed cantilever mounted fingers for slidably receiving said columns of articles, said fingers being spaced laterally to define horizontally extending openings therebetween,
- a plurality of grid structures, each grid structure defining individual upwardly open article receiving pockets, said pocket defining grid structure including upwardly projecting pocket corner posts and support rails to which said posts are mounted in longitudinally spaced relationship, each grid structure including article support means movably mounted for supporting articles in said pockets in one position and for releasing articles in a second position for said article support means,
- means for moving said grid structures continuously in a closed orbital path such that said posts move in a vertical plane and through the horizontal extending openings defined by said spaced fingers at said infeed station, said orbital path having a horizontal component of velocity at said infeed station which component is closely matched to the horizontal speed of the articles at least as said posts move upwardly through said horizontally extending openings said orbital path for said grid structures including a discharge station spaced from said infeed station, and means for moving said article support means from support to release position at said discharge station.
In a drop packer of the type wherein groups of articles are received in a grid structure provided at an infeed station and wherein the grid structure moves these article groups from the infeed station to a discharge station where the articles are dropped into upwardly open packing cases the improvement to said grid structure characterized by:
- (a) grid support rails defining lanes for the articles therebetween,
- (b) pivotally mounted articles support vanes below said rails and movable between first positions such that upper edges support articles provided between said grid rails and second positions wherein said vanes are located in the same plane as said rails to permit the articles to drop through the grid,
- (c) means for moving said vanes from said first to said second positions at the discharge station,
- (d) upwardly projecting posts on said grid support rails, said posts spaced longitudinally on said rails and defining pockets therebetween for receiving articles at the infeed station, and said vanes being pivotally supported in lower portions of certain of said posts.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.