Carrier for articles, such as eggs

A carrier for articles, such as eggs, provided with two hook-shaped gripper portions, the "free" ends of which have openings for receiving an article having its longitudinal axis oriented substantially horizontally, and the other facing ends are so pivotally mounted around shafts mounted in a frame that the "free" gripper ends can be moved towards and from each other, which shafts at minimum interspace between the "free" gripper ends always lie in or inwardly of the plane of the opening of the "free" end in question.

The invention relates to a carrier for articles, such as eggs. 
It is the object of the invention to so design such a carrier that 
therewith can be taken up without disturbances variously sized articles 
present on a specific surface and having their longitudinal axes oriented 
substantially horizontally. 
For this purpose the carrier is provided with two hook-shaped gripper 
portions, the "free" ends of which have openings for receiving an article, 
and the other facing ends are so pivotally mounted around shafts mounted 
in a frame that the "free" gripper ends can be moved towards and from each 
other, which shafts at minimum interspace between the "free" gripper ends 
always lie in or inwardly of the plane of the opening of the "free" end in 
question. As a result the axes of said openings, when from a specific 
plane are taken up articles which are oriented with respect to their 
longitudinal axes, will always substantially coincide with said 
longitudinal axis, so that the articles are taken up smoothly and 
uniformly. 
In a further elaboration of the invention the axis of rotation of each 
hook-shaped gripper portion may lie at the other side of the median 
perpendicular plane between the "free" ends. 
The carrier may be provided with a spring urging together the "free" ends, 
and with means for coupling the movements of the gripper portions, so that 
the "free" ends are always uniformly moved towards each other in order to 
take up therebetween an article. 
Furthermore there may be provided means for bounding the movements of the 
gripper portions. 
In order that the carrier may be easily opened, one of the gripper portions 
may be provided with cam means. 
In order to be able to take up without disturbances with the above 
described carrier articles, in particular eggs, having very large 
longitudinal dimensions, without having to make the dimensions of the 
carrier correspondingly larger, the annular bevelled receiving openings 
may at the bottom side be provided with a recess.

As is shown in the drawings, an egg carrier 1 mounted on a chain link 7 
comprises two hook-shaped gripper portions 2 and 3, in the "free" ends of 
which there are provided bevelled egg-receiving openings 4 and 5. 
By means of a shaft 6 the gripper portion 2 is pivotally mounted to and 
between link plates 8 and 9 of chain link 7, which link is furthermore 
provided with connecting shafts 10 and 11. On the connecting shafts there 
are furthermore mounted rollers 12 and 13 adapted to roll over guide 
profiles 14 and 15, attached to a frame 25 (FIG. 2). 
The other gripper portion 3 is also pivotally mounted by means of a shaft 
16 to and between the link plates 8 and 9. 
The legs of gripper portion 3 are located between those of gripper portion 
2. In this connection the legs of gripper portion 2 are provided with 
slots 17 for passing shaft 16 of gripper portion 3. 
On shaft 6 there is furthermore mounted a spring 18, the ends 19 and 20 of 
which find support against gripper portions 2 and 3, respectively, namely 
in such a manner that the egg-receiving openings thereof are moved towards 
each other. In order to ensure that the movements of the gripper portions, 
which movements are bounded by the size of slot 17, follow each other, the 
gripper portions are coupled by means of a catch pin 21 which is fixedly 
attached between the legs of gripper portion 2 and extends through slots 
29 into the legs of the other gripper portion 3. 
The shape of the gripper portions and the arrangement thereof between the 
link plates is so selected that an egg of any size can easily and reliably 
be taken up from a specific plane. In the apparatus as shown each time a 
number of weighed eggs is taken up simultaneously. For this purpose a 
corresponding number of grippers is simultaneously opened by operation of 
cams 24 arranged at the top side of each gripper portion 2, and the 
supplied eggs are brought into the grippers via an upwardly and downwardly 
movable trough 22 (FIG. 1). 
In the position of the discharging station (FIG. 2) there is located above 
the rotary chain and attached to frame 25 a cam 23 which is adapted to 
co-operate with cam 24. When cam 23 contacts cam 24, the gripper is 
opened, thus releasing the egg contained therein, which egg then rolls 
away sideways over the table 26 which is arranged at an angle in the 
position of the discharge station. 
The rotary movements of the receiving openings 4 and 5 are such that, when 
an egg present in trough 22 is taken up, the axes of said openings always 
completely or substantially completely coincide with the longitudinal axis 
of the egg. 
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, cam 23 consists of a spring 28-loaded 
disc or roller which can be brought into the path of cams 24, which disc 
or roller is operated by a magnet coil 27 or the like which in turn is 
operated by a memory device moving along with the intermittently moved 
chain, in dependence on the weight of the egg to be discharged. 
In order to ensure that in case of very large eggs the ends thereof are not 
damaged and the required maximum distance between openings 4 and 5 can be 
reduced, said openings are not closed but at the bottom side are designed 
as an open construction.