US 5,341,913 AGranted

Device for forming piles of articles, particularly for automatic packaging plants

AssigneeCavanna S.p.A.

InventorRenzo Francioni

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Abstract

In a device for forming piles of articles, particularly for articles in an input flow which are diverted onto a certain number of superposed sliding planes. This is achieved by means of one or more wheels, the peripheries of which have segments which are spaced from the axis of rotation of the wheels by distances corresponding to the distances of the sliding planes from the axis of rotation. Each article is thus transferred towards a respective sliding plane by a gradual movement. An alignment conveyor located further downstream vertically aligns groups of articles on the superposed sliding planes to define the piles. The piles are formed as a result of the articles which are on the upper sliding planes falling onto the article below. The piles are preferably formed immediately before they are inserted in their packages.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A device for forming, from an input flow of articles, an output flow of piles of articles in which each pile includes a predetermined number of superposed articles, the device including:

a number of superposed sliding planes at least equal to the predetermined number, and
means for diverting the input flow of articles in order to divide the input flow of articles into respective output flows of articles, each on a respective superposed sliding plane, wherein the diverting means include at least one wheel formation rotatable about an axis of rotation, the periphery of which formation has segments which are arranged in a cyclic sequence at different radial distances from the axis of rotation of the wheel formation, the number of segments in each sequence being equal to the predetermined number and the distance of each segment of the sequence from the axis of rotation of the wheel formation being substantially equal to the distance between that axis of rotation and the plane in which the respective output sliding plane is located, and
entrainment means for supplying the input flow of articles to the periphery of the at least one wheel formation so that each article cooperates with a respective segment in order to be transferred to a respective output sliding plane, said entrainment means including a conveyor with entrainment formations articulated thereto to maintain a desired planar orientation of the entrainment formations between successive pairs of which each of the articles is entrained.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.