Patent ID: 6213707
Filing Date: 2001-04-10
Classification: B65B,B65G

Abstract:
Apparatus for unpacking boxes of items, wherein:the apparatus includes a box-conveyor for storing a quantity of tilled boxes, the boxes containing respective batches of items;the apparatus Includes an item-magazine, for storing a quantity of the items, when unpacked from the box, ready for further processing;the apparatus Includes a bucket, which Is orientatable relative to a frame of the apparatus, the bucket having an open-end, and an operable means for orientating the bucket;the bucket is orientatable In that the bucket is pivotable about a bucket-pivot, relative to the frame of the apparatus;the apparatus includes an operable means for transferring the first box from the box-conveyor, with its respective batch of items therein, into the bucket, via the open-end of the bucket, and the means for transferring the box is operable when the bucket is in the box-receiving-orientation;the means for orientating the bucket is effective, when operated, to orientate the bucket, together with the box and the batch of items therein, about the bucket-pivot, to a box-inverted orientation of the bucket;the box has side-panels and a floor-panel, and the side-panels terminate in top edges which define an open top of the box;the bucket includes a floor panel, a roof panel, and other panels, which together define a hollow tube, and the hollow tube extends across the bucket, from side to side of the bucket, and the hollow tube defines a tubular axis of the bucket;the hollow tube of the bucket is substantially enclosed, to the extent that the bucket physically constrains the box therein against movement of the box, at least while the bucket is undergoing pivoting movement about the bucket-pivot, being movement of the box in all modes of movement relative to the bucket other than sliding of the box along the tubular axis of the bucket;in the box-receiving orientation of the bucket, immediately upon insertion of the box into the bucket, the orientation of the box and the orientation of the bucket are such that the box rests under gravity against the floor-panel of the bucket, and the items in the box rest under gravity in contact with one of the panels of the box;in the box-receiving orientation of the bucket, the open top of the box faces upwards, to the extent that the Items do not fall out of the box:the floor panel of the bucket is planar, and the arrangement of the apparatus is such that the plane of the floor panel lies parallel to the axis of the bucket-pivot, and remains so during pivoting movement of the bucket;the axis of the bucket pivot lies substantially parallel to the tubular axis of the bucket; the arrangement of the apparatus is such that, When the bucket is orientated to the box-inverted orientation of the bucket:(a) the box is inverted, whereby the floor-panel of the box faces upwards;(b) the box falls under gravity within the bucket to a orientation in which the top-edges of the side-panels of the box come to rest on the said other panel of the bucket; and(c) the items fall under gravity out through the open top of the box and come to rest on the said other panel of the bucket;the apparatus includes an operable gripping-means, which is effective, when operated, to grip the upturned box, and an operable box-lifting-means for raising the gripped upturned box upwards, clear of, and away from, the batch of items;and the apparatus includes an operable means for transferring the batch of items to the item-magazine.