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US 9,862,509 B2Granted
Boxing apparatus
AssigneeIshida Co., Ltd.
InventorsTatsuya Arimatsu, Seisaku Iwasa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A boxing apparatus erects packages that can be erected along a limited section of a conveyor, without having to erect them all at once, even with individual packages that are long in the feed direction. The boxing apparatus has a fourth conveyor belt that blocks the front of a line of incoming packages and exerts an upward force on the front package. The front package is raised up by this upward force, so the following package rides up onto the package in front, and the packages are erected successively. Consequently, even individual packages that are long in the feed direction can be erected at a limited section of a third conveyor belt.
Claims13
A boxing apparatus comprising
- a package feeding conveyor belt;
- a package arranging conveyor belt;
- an erecting conveyor belt that is fixed in a vertically orientation adjacent to a first end of the package arranging conveyor belt and separately operable relative to the package arranging conveyor belt;
- a holding device that is separate from the package arranging conveyor belt, the holding device being configured to pivot between a horizontal orientation where a transport surface of the holding device is substantially at the same level as a transport surface of the package arranging conveyor belt and a vertical orientation relative to the package arranging conveyor belt, the holding device being movable while in the vertical orientation above package arranging conveyor belt from a second end of the package arranging conveyor belt toward the first end;
- and
- a controller configured to control movement of the package feeding conveyor belt, the package arranging conveyor belt, the erecting conveyor belt and the holding device independently from one another, the controller controlling:
- movement of the package feeding conveyor belt to provide a plurality of packages one by one to the package arranging conveyor belt in an inclined orientation,
- movement of the package arranging conveyor belt to receive the plurality of packages in the inclined orientation and arrange the plurality of packages making a line of packages such that each following package partially overlaps a preceding package, the package feeding conveyor belt collecting a specific quantity of the plurality of packages;
- movement of the erecting conveyor belt blocking movement of the first package of the line of packages, the controller further selectively moving a surface of the erecting conveyor belt in an upwardly moving direction with the first package contacting the surface such that the first package moves from an inclined orientation to an erect state and with the controller controlling movement of the package arranging conveyor belt causing remaining ones of the plurality of packages in the line of packages to move from the inclined orientation at least part way toward the erect state;
- and
- movement of the holding device from the horizontal orientation to the vertical orientation and in the vertical orientation move the holding device above and along the package arranging conveyor belt to bring a vertical surface of the holding device into contact with a last package in the line of packages prior to boxing, moving all of the packages in the line of packages to the erect state.
8 more elements
A boxing apparatus comprising
- a package feeding conveyor belt;
- a package arranging conveyor belt disposed under the package feeding conveyor belt;
- an erecting conveyor belt that is fixed in a vertically orientation adjacent to a first end of the package arranging conveyor belt and separately operable relative to the package arranging conveyor belt;
- a holding device which includes a first member that pivots about a first vertical axis from a position extending above the package arranging conveyor belt aligned with a direction of movement of the package arranging conveyor belt to a position above the package arranging conveyor belt but traverse with the direction of movement of the package arranging conveyor belt;
- and
- a controller configured to control movement of the package feeding conveyor belt, the package arranging conveyor belt, the erecting conveyor belt and the holding device independently from one another, the controller controlling:
- movement of the package feeding conveyor belt to provide a plurality of packages one by one to the package arranging conveyor belt in an inclined orientation,
- movement of the package arranging conveyor belt to receive the plurality of packages in the inclined orientation and arrange the plurality of packages making a line of packages such that each following package partially overlaps a preceding package, the package feeding conveyor belt collecting a specific quantity of the plurality of packages;
- movement of the erecting conveyor belt blocking movement of the first package of the line of packages, the controller further selectively moving a surface of the erecting conveyor belt in a direction exerting an upward force on first package such that the first package moves from an inclined orientation to an erect state and with the controller controlling movement of the package arranging conveyor belt causing remaining ones of the plurality of packages in the line of packages to move from the inclined orientation at least part way toward the erect state;
- and
- pivoting movement of the first member of the holding device to move a surface of the first member into contact with a last package in the line of packages prior to boxing, moving all of the packages in the line of packages to the erect state.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.