Patent ID: 11905123
Assignee: FAMECCANICA.DATA S.P.A.
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 10:
11. A method for varying a pitch between moving articles, including:
feeding a flow of articles along a machine direction spaced apart from each other in said machine direction by a first pitch),
receiving said flow of articles spaced apart from each other by said first pitch on a closed-loop central belt having a transport branch extending between an infeed section and an outfeed section,
retaining articles of said flow of articles on said transport branch of the closed- loop central belt by vacuum suction during movement between the infeed section and the outfeed section, wherein said articles have a width in a direction transversal to said machine direction greater than a width of said closed-loop central belt so that said articles have lateral portions projecting laterally outside said closed-loop central belt,
driving said closed-loop central belt at a first speed,
providing a pair of closed-loop side belts extending on opposite sides of said transport branch of said closed-loop central belt, wherein the closed-loop side belts comprise respective rows of stop elements, the stop elements of each dosed-loop side belt being spaced apart with respect to each other by a constant distance, and wherein the stop elements of each dosed-loop side belt are aligned to the stop elements of the other dosed-loop side belt in a direction transversal to said machine direction,
synchronously driving said dosed-loop side belts at a second speed different from said first speed,
engaging said lateral portions of said articles projecting outside of said dosed- loop central belt with respective pairs of transversally aligned stop elements of said closed-loop side belts, and spacing said articles from each other in said machine direction at said outfeed section by a second pitch corresponding to said distance between said stop elements,
retaining lateral portions of said articles projecting laterally outside said dosed-loop central belt on said dosed-loop side belts by vacuum suction through holes comprised in said closed look side belts.