Abstract:
An apparatus for sorting pouched articles has a plurality of inclined conveyors arranged sequentially for each conveyor in turn to transport the articles up a respective incline and drop each article onto an adjacent conveyor. Each conveyor has an incline and a coefficient of friction sufficient to cause overlying articles to slide back down relative to underlying articles as the underlying articles are pulled up the incline by the conveyor. Each conveyor is independently actuatable. A respective article detector detects presence or non-presence of an article on each conveyor. Each conveyor is stopped until at least an adjacent conveyor ahead thereof is clear of any articles.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to an apparatus for sorting articles. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for orienting and sorting pouched articles.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Many products are packaged in flexible pouches or sealed bags or envelopes. Typically such pouches are of a rectangular shape and may contain food products, such as seasonings, salad dressings, cereals and candies. By way of example, a salad kit may include a foil pouch of salad dressing, a cellophane pouch of croutons, foil envelope with seasonings, all of which is packaged in a cellophane bag of chopped lettuce and other salad greens. If each of these items is to be hand sorted and manually placed within the cellophane bag for sealing, the reliance on manual labour will increase the packaging time and cost.  
           [0003]    There are numerous challenges associated with orienting and separating pouched articles. For example, the flexibility of the pouch allows it to change shape as it is handled. This will result in clumping together of pouches which may prevent effective sorting and handling. One apparatus for separating and orienting pouched articles is disclosed in my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,224. In that patent, an inclined conveyor is utilized which has an inclination sufficient to cause an overlying flexible package to slide relative to an underlying flexible package as the flexible packages travel from a lower end to an upper end. The device utilizes a drum with radially extending resilient paddles for successively engaging and carrying the flexible packages as the drum rotates. Successive engagements and rotation vibratingly separate the flexible packages and discharge a stream of substantially separated flexible packages.  
           [0004]    It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for separating and orienting pouched articles with enhanced volume throughput and better control over gapping between adjacent articles than in previously known designs.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    An apparatus for orienting and sorting pouched articles and has a plurality of inclined conveyors arranged sequentially from a first conveyor to a last conveyor for each conveyor in turn to transport an article up a respective incline and drop the article onto an adjacent of the conveyors from the first conveyor to the last conveyor. The respective incline of the conveyors is sufficient to cause an overlying article to slide relative to an underlying article as the underlying article is transported up the incline. Each conveyor is independently actuatable by a respective actuator. A respective article detector is associated with each conveyor for detecting presence or non-presence of an article thereon. A controller communicates with each article detector and each actuator and causes each conveyor to be stopped until at least an adjacent of the conveyors ahead of it is clear of an article and to be in a transport configuration otherwise.  
           [0006]    The actuator may be a motor and the detector may have a sensor which detects electromagnetic waves.  
           [0007]    The actuator may be a stepper motor and the detector may be a photo eye.  
           [0008]    The conveyors may be arranged in a straight line.  
           [0009]    The apparatus may further have an article feeder associated therewith for delivering unsorted articles to the first conveyor. The apparatus may also have an exit stage associated therewith for receiving sorted articles from the last conveyor and further transporting the sorted articles while maintaining a sorted condition.  
           [0010]    The article feeder may include a hopper for receiving the articles, the hopper having a discharge outlet, and a primary feed bowl for receiving and orienting the articles and for discharging the articles onto a first feed conveyor. A vibrating conveyor may extend between the hopper and the primary feed bowl for transporting the articles from the discharge outlet to the primary feed bowl. The first feed conveyor may extend between the primary feed bowl and the first conveyor for transporting the articles from the primary feed bowl to the first conveyor.  
           [0011]    The apparatus may also have a secondary feed bowl interspersed among the plurality of inclined conveyors to divide the plurality of inclined conveyors into first and second arrays, each having at least two of the plurality of inclined conveyors. A second feed conveyor may extend between the secondary feed bowl and the second array. The secondary feed bowl may be configured to receive articles from the first array, orient the articles and discharge the articles onto the second feed conveyor. The second feed conveyor may be arranged to transport the articles from the secondary feed bowl to the second array.  
           [0012]    The exit stage may have a discharge and staging conveyor which receives articles from the last conveyor. The staging conveyor may communicate with and be controlled by the controller to receive and discharge predetermined groupings of the articles. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0013]    Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 is schematic representation illustrating sorting by utilizing an array of inclined conveyors according to the present invention;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is a top plan view illustrating a single stage apparatus according to the present invention;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 2;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 is a top plan view illustrating a two stage apparatus according to the present invention; and,  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 5 is a front elevation of the apparatus of FIG. 4. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0019]    An apparatus according to the present invention for sorting articles, and in particular pouched articles is generally indicated by reference  10 . The apparatus  10  includes a plurality of inclined conveyors  12  which are arranged sequentially from a first conveyor  14  to a last conveyor  16 . Each conveyor has a lower end  18  and an upper end  20 . The upper ends  20  of all but the last conveyor  16  overlap the lower end  18  of the adjacent of the inclined conveyors  12  whereby an article  30  may be conveyed up each inclined conveyor  12  in turn and dropped onto an adjacent of the conveyors  12  in turn from the first conveyor  14  to the last conveyor  16 .  
         [0020]    Each conveyor  12  has an actuator  40  which may for example be a DC motor, such as a stepper motor. The actuator  40  communicates with a controller  50  which can cause each actuator  40  to cause the conveyors  12  to be in a transport configuration in which it transports the articles  30 . The controller  50  can further cause each actuator  40  to cause its respective conveyor  12  to be in a stopped configuration wherein it ceases movement. Different types of actuator may be used to start and stop movement of the conveyors  12 , for example power may be provided or interrupted to a motor or a clutch may be engaged and disengaged as required.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 1 illustrates how sorting is effected by the inclined conveyors  12 . Toward the left of FIG. 1, are three bunched up articles generally identified by reference  30  and specifically identified by references  32 ,  34  and  36 . The movement of the first conveyor  14  acts to pull the articles  30  up the first conveyor  14 . Gravity acts to cause the articles  30  to slide back down the first conveyor  14 . The coefficient of friction between the inclined conveyors  12  and the article  36  is selected to exceed that between the articles  32 ,  34  and  36 . Accordingly, article  36  will pull up the first conveyor  14  while article  34  will tend to slide back down over article  32 . Article  32  will next pull up the inclined conveyor  14  followed by article  34 . It will be apparent that the amount of incline will vary depending upon the article in question. It should be enough to cause the upper articles  30  of the bunches articles  30  to slide down the underlying articles  30 , but not so much as to cause the underlying of articles  30  to tumble back down.  
         [0022]    The first conveyor  14  drops the article  36  onto the conveyor  12  immediately adjacent thereto. Presence of the article  36  on the adjacent inclined conveyor  12  is sensed by a photo eye  60 . Presence of the article  36  causes the photo eye  50  to send a signal to the controller  50  to cause the first conveyor  14  to cease moving (i.e. to be in its stopped configuration). This enables the remaining inclined conveyors  12  to transport the article  36  to a staging conveyor  70  which receives the article  36  from the last conveyor  16 .  
         [0023]    The above sequence may be repeated for article  32  and then again for article  34 . The staging conveyor  70  may be advanced incrementally for each sequence until a predetermined number of the articles  30  are staged, at which point the staging conveyor  70  may be actuated to discharge the articles  30 . The staging conveyor may have an upper belt  72  and a lower belt  74  to maintain spacing between the articles  30 . The staging conveyor may also communicate with and be controlled in its operation by the controller  50 .  
         [0024]    The above sequence may be sped up somewhat by configuring the controller to cause each actuator  40  to actuate its respective inclined conveyor  12  (i.e. to put it in its transport configuration) as long as the immediately adjacent of the conveyors  12  is clear. In the above example this would mean that the articles  36 ,  32  and  34  would be on respective adjacent conveyors  12  as they go through the sorting apparatus  10  rather than being fed through individually. This allows for several sorting stages and requires a photo eye  60  associated with each of the inclined conveyors  12 .  
         [0025]    The speed and effectiveness of the sorting apparatus  10  generally increases with the number of inclined conveyors  12 . It is expected that two might work however, three or more are preferred. The apparatus  10  may also be a single stage design as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 with one array of inclined conveyors  12 , or a two-stage design having a first array  100  of inclined conveyors  12  and a second array  200  of inclined conveyors  12 . The single stage arrangement will be discussed first.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate one manner in which the articles  30  may be delivered to the first conveyor  14 . According to this embodiment, an article feeder is utilized which has a hopper  80  which receives the articles  30  and discharges them through a discharge outlet  82  at the bottom thereof onto a vibrating conveyor  84  which in turn transports the articles  30  to a primary feed bowl  86 .  
         [0027]    The primary feed bowl  86  is basically a rotating drum which causes the articles  30  to be hurled radially outwardly and to orient the articles  30  with respective long sides thereof generally aligned with the travel direction of the apparatus  10 , as indicated by arrows  90 .  
         [0028]    The primary feed bowl  86  discharges the articles  30  onto a first feed conveyor  92  which extends between the primary feed bowl  86  and the first conveyor  14 . The first feed conveyor transports the articles  30  from he primary feed bowl  86  to the first conveyor  14  of the inclined conveyors  12 .  
         [0029]    [0029]FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a two stage embodiment of the apparatus  10  in which a secondary feed bowl  186  is provided and interspersed among the inclined conveyors  12  to define the first array  100  and the second array  200  referred to above. The secondary feed bowl  186  may be structurally and operationally similar to the primary feed bowl  86 . The secondary feed bowl  186  transfers the articles between the first array  100  and the second array  200  and enables a redirection of the articles  30 . For example, in FIGS. 4 and 5 the secondary feed bowl transfers the articles  30  between the first array  100  and the second array  200  each of which transports the articles  30  in opposite directions.  
         [0030]    A second feed conveyor  192  extends between the secondary feed bowl  186  and the second array  200 . The second feed conveyor is arranged to transport the articles  30  from the secondary feed bowl  186  to the second array  200 .  
         [0031]    It has been found in practice that a two-stage arrangement can handle a significantly greater volume throughput than can a single stage arrangement.  
         [0032]    The above description is intended in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. Variations to what has been described may be apparent to persons skilled in material handling and sorting apparatus without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims set out below.  
         [0033]    For example, other arrangements may be possible for feeding and removing the articles  30  to and from the inclined conveyors  12 . Different actuators and article detectors than those described may in some circumstances be better suited in adapting the apparatus  10  to specific applications.