Apparatus and method for temporarily storing or buffering of products
AssigneeEBM Techniek B.V.
InventorJacob Arnold Hendrik Frederick Jaquet
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for temporarily storing or buffering and/or setting the pitch of products, comprised of a conveyor belt, a product carrier for transporting by the conveyor belt and for carrying a plurality of products, a feed conveyor for feeding products into the product carrier at a first predetermined location of the conveyor belt, and a discharge element such as a robot, top loader or pushing member for discharging the products from the product carrier at a second predetermined location a distance from the first predetermined location.
Claims18
An apparatus for temporary storing or buffering and/or setting the pitch of products, and carrying means for carrying a number of products, said apparatus comprising:
- a mechanical infeed means for feeding products into the carrying means at relatively high speed;
- a conveyor track or belt, for conveying the carrier means at relatively low speed;
- outfeed means for discharging products from the carrying means at relatively high speed;
- the carrying means are accelerated in synchronization with the infeed and outfeed means respectively, so as to adapt to the relatively high speed thereof;
- said carrying means are decelerated to adapt to the relatively low speed of the conveyor track;
- and
- said carrying means comprising one or more product carriers for carrying two or more products, said product carriers being movable independently to and from the conveyor and being loaded and unloaded with products at the infeed and outfeed locations respectively, the transport of said product carriers at said outfeed and said infeed locations being substantially independent of the movement of the conveyor track or belt,
- wherein the infeed means and outfeed means are arranged at respective infeed and outfeed locations of the transport track.
A method for temporarily storing, buffering and/or setting the pitch of products, comprising the following steps:
- providing an apparatus for temporarily storing or buffering and/or setting the pitch of products and carrying means for carrying a number of products, said apparatus having a mechanical infeed means for feeding products into the carrying means at relatively high speed, a conveyor track or belt for conveying the carrier means at relatively low speed and an outfeed means for discharging products from the carrying means at relatively high speed;
- mechanically feeding products into said carrying means at a predetermined location of said conveyor track;
- conveying the products in the carrying means to a predetermined outfeed location at the conveyor track thereby;
- and
- mechanically outfeeding the products from the carrying means at the outfeed location.
A method for temporarily storing or buffering and/or setting the pitch of products, comprising the following steps of:
- providing an apparatus for temporarily storing or buffering and/or setting the pitch of products and carrying means for carrying a number of products, said apparatus having a mechanical infeed means for feeding products into the carrying means at relatively high speed, a conveyor track or belt for conveying the carrier means at relatively low speed and a mechanical outfeed means for discharging products from the carrying means at relatively high speed;
- feeding products into said carrying means at a predetermined location of said conveyor belt with said mechanical infeed means;
- transporting and buffering the products in the carrying means, using the conveyor belt, to a predetermined outfeed location on the conveyor belt;
- and
- discharging the products from the carrying means with said mechanical outfeed means at the outfeed location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.