Rod conveyor and compartment therefor
AssigneeFabriques de Tabac Reunies, S.A.
InventorsMaurice Berger, Michael Lauenstein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An upper conveyor (4) moves full compartments (9) toward an emptying station (2) so that rods contained in the compartments enter a horizontal conduit (15). Empty compartments are taken over by a lift (7). Another conveyor (5) feeds empty compartments to the entrance of a filling station (3) into which the rods flow from the conduit. The full compartments are recovered on the lift or on still another conveyor (6) which can route them via the lift or via another lift (8) toward a storage position on one of the conveyors.
Claims7
A rod-conveying installation of the type having a conduit for receiving a flow of parallel rods oriented perpendicular to the direction of said conduit, an extractor for extracting rods from said conduit at a first location, a feeder for introducing rods into said conduit at a second location, a plurality of compartments for holding said rods, a compartment-filling means associated with said extractor, a compartment-emptying means associated with said feeder and a system for conveying and storing said compartments, wherein said compartments include an opening bottom, said conveying and storage system comprising two or more elongated and superposed levels for respectively receiving a number of parallel said compartments disposed in a row, and two vertical conveyor tracks interconnecting said levels at the ends thereof, said system being disposed in a vertical plane and arranged for moving said compartments solely in translation along a circuit capable of comprising different routes between said extractor and said feeder or vice versa, and said conduit being oriented in a direction intersecting said vertical plane at a point adjacent to said conveying and storage system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.