Egg packer apparatus

An egg packer apparatus is disclosed having baskets mounted on a transport moveable in a continuous path. The baskets have side-by-side compartments and move from an upright loading position to an inverted position at an unloading station. In the inverted position, the eggs roll along a cover to provide lateral movement of each egg in the direction of its pointed end. The unloading station has chutes to receive only the blunt end half of the egg as it rolls along. The egg drops into the chute blunt end first and then topples forwardly down the chute and drops pointed end downwardly into the egg flat.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to egg packing apparatus for orienting and packing 
eggs on a flat. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Egg packers have been used for many years to pack eggs in appropriate 
containers. The container may be what is generally known as a flat which 
receives a relatively large number of eggs, for example five rows each 
containing six eggs for a total of thirty eggs, or may be a carton which 
usually contains two rows each containing six eggs for a total of a dozen. 
A flat has upwardly open separated egg receiving compartments, and flats 
can be stacked vertically one upon another. Flats are used to transport 
eggs in large numbers from the producer to the wholesaler. Cartons also 
have upwardly open separated egg receiving compartments, but also have a 
lid to cover the eggs, and can also be stacked. Eggs are packed in cartons 
by a wholesaler for transportation to a retailer and eventual purchase by 
a consumer. 
Eggs are fragile and care has to be taken to minimize breakage. Also, it is 
common practice to pack eggs with their pointed ends down, that is to say 
with their blunt ends uppermost. It is the blunt ends which contain the 
air sac. Two major requirements of an egg packer apparatus therefore are 
that it handles eggs carefully to minimize breakage and is also capable of 
orienting eggs from an horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation 
with pointed ends lowermost. Many different types of egg packer apparatus 
have been used over the years, but each have their inherent shortcomings. 
The present invention utilizes the fact that, when an egg in a horizontal 
orientation is caused to roll along a surface, it tends to move laterally 
in the direction of its pointed end. This phenomena can be applied in an 
egg packer or egg conveying apparatus for simply moving eggs from one 
place to another. 
This phenomena is used, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,327 (Koch et 
al) issued Jul. 13, 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,233 (Thomas) issued Jun. 22, 
1976, U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,898 (Moulds et al) issued Feb. 26, 1980. 
However, the apparatus described therein still require an additional egg 
conveying apparatus to utilize this principle. This increases the 
likelihood of egg breakage. 
The present application discloses an egg packer apparatus having a basket 
means mounted on a transporting means movable in a continuous path with a 
series of egg receiving compartments one behind the other, each 
compartment is substantially tubular having a front edge, a rear edge, and 
a pair of laterally-spaced side walls; 
means at a loading station for feeding eggs into the compartments to cause 
each compartment to receive one egg, said transporting means operating to 
move each compartment from the loading station to an unloading station 
where each egg falls by gravity from its compartment; 
a cover means providing each compartment with a bottom surface at least 
during a portion of the path between the loading and unloading stations 
when said basket means is inverted to thereby cause the egg in the 
compartment to be engaged by the rear edge of the compartment and thereby 
caused to roll over the said bottom surface to provide lateral movement of 
the egg in the direction of its pointed end until the pointed end engages 
or nearly engages an adjacent side wall of the compartment, and 
means at the unloading station to receive the egg from each compartment 
with the pointed end of the egg is engaging one side wall of the 
compartment or the laterally opposite side wall of the compartment. 
There is further disclosed an apparatus having an egg receiving means at 
the unloading station comprising a chute located so as to be positioned 
substantially between the side walls of a compartment as the compartment 
reaches the unloading station, said chute having side walls which are 
spaced apart by distance to receive only the blunt end half of the egg as 
it drops from the compartment to cause the egg to drop into the chute 
blunt end downwardly whether the pointed end of the egg is engaging one 
side wall of the compartment or the laterally opposite said wall of the 
compartment. The chute has a free front end from which the egg drops to a 
further egg receiving means, and the length of the chute is sufficient to 
enable the egg, after having been received blunt end downwardly to topple 
forwardly to a position in which its pointed end faces forwardly down the 
chute and drops pointed end downwardly from the free end of chute into the 
further egg receiving means. 
The transporting means may have one or more side-by-side series of 
compartments, with said egg receiving means including one of said chutes 
for each series of compartments, said chutes being side-by-side and each 
positioned to receive an egg from a corresponding compartment in each 
series. 
The transporting means may have alternate first and second series of said 
compartments one behind the other or if desired, the compartments in each 
first series being staggered transversely relative to the compartments in 
each second series, and the egg receiving means having corresponding first 
and second sets of chutes, the chutes of the second set being interposed 
between the chutes of the first set in alternating relationship. 
The further egg receiving means may comprise egg receiving compartments 
travelling at a predetermined speed relative to the speed of the 
transporting means, and the chutes in the second set having front ends 
forwardly of those of the chutes in the first set to cause eggs from a 
first set of compartments dropping from the first set of chutes to be 
received in transversely alternate compartments of the further egg 
receiving means when said compartments are at one position, and to cause 
eggs from a second set of compartments dropping from the second set of 
chutes to be received in compartments of the further egg receiving means 
which are transversely intermediate said alternate compartments when the 
compartments are at a different position. 
The rear edge of each compartment may form egg toppling means which engage 
the uppermost pointed end of an egg in the chute, after the egg has fallen 
from the compartment into the chute with the blunt end of the egg 
downwardly, to cause the egg to topple forwardly to said position in which 
its pointed end faces forwardly down the chute. The egg toppling means may 
remain in engagement with the egg after said toppling to move the egg down 
the chute and cause the egg to drop pointed end downwardly from the free 
end of the chute into the further egg receiving means.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring to FIG. 1, the egg packer apparatus according to the present 
invention generally comprises a flat delivery conveyor 10, an egg loader 
12, an egg transport 14, an egg orientor 16, a slat conveyor 18, a flat 
denester 20. The egg apparatus is fed with eggs from a rod conveyor 22 
which transports eggs from the hen house to the packer. 
The slat conveyor 18 is rotated by sprockets 25 and 26 which are 
mechanically rotated by an electric motor. Slat conveyor 18 is positioned 
to receive eggs from the rod conveyor 22. A ledge is provided so that the 
eggs roll gently from the rod conveyor 22 to the slat conveyor 18. 
Referring to FIG. 3, at the downstream end of the slat conveyor 18, egg 
loader 12 is mounted thereabove. Egg loader 18 comprises a series of 
guides 28 which are in line with the travel of the slat conveyor to divide 
the flow of eggs into a number of eggs in single file. 
Pivotally mounted between each guide are flaps 29. Each flap 29 has a lower 
portion and a block portion. The lower portion rests in the flow of the 
eggs as they pass through the guide 28 in single file. The block portion 
extends upwardly to block a beam of light of an optical sensor having a 
projector 31 mounted on one side of the slat conveyor 18 and a receiver 33 
mounted on the other side. 
Referring first to FIG. 2, the egg transport 14 comprises egg baskets 30 
mounted between endless chains and driven by a suitable electric motor. 
The endless chains are mounted on large sprocket 32 and two small 
sprockets 34 and 36 defining an endless path of travel extending firstly 
substantially horizontal, then arcuately about large sprocket 32 and then 
inverted and finally vertical at the loading station. 
Referring to FIG. 4, each basket 30 has longitudinally extending ribs 38 
and circumferentially extending ribs 40. Basket 30 is substantially 
tubular in cross section with a chordal opening provided for receiving 
eggs defined by a front edge 42, a rear edge 44 and a pair of 
laterally-spaced side walls 46 and defining a D-shape in cross section. 
Each basket 30 has three side-by-side series of egg receiving compartments 
48, 50, 52 defined by side walls 47. The compartments 48, 50, 52 of each 
series are alternately staggered as shown in FIG. 3, so that alternate 
compartments 54, 56, 58 are peripherally aligned with each other and 
adjacent rows of compartments are staggered relatively to each other, with 
adjacent row of compartments transversely overlapping over about half 
their width. 
Each basket has a width approximately equal to 31/2 compartments such the 
adjacent endless chains may be uniformly spaced. The baskets are fixedly 
joined to the chains by any suitable means. The baskets are fixed 
preferable in an eccentric manner as illustrated in FIG. 2 whereby the 
opening is upward during the first horizontal portion of the path of 
travel and downward in the inverted portion at the unloading station and 
substantially horizontal in the vertical portion at the loading station. 
At the end of slat conveyor 18 is the loading station. A ledge is provided 
so that the eggs roll gently from the slat conveyor 18 to the baskets 30. 
An arcuate cover 60 presenting an egg rolling surface 24 extends part way 
around the exterior of the path from sprocket 32 about the inverted 
portion of the path of travel to prevent the eggs from leaving the 
compartments 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58 until desired. Cover 60 has a width 
equivalent to the width of baskets 30. Cover 60 has an arcuate surface 61 
made of a perforated plastic which is spaced relatively close to the egg 
receiving opening of each basket 30 near sprocket 32 and gradually 
increases permitting an egg to roll from the compartment onto the rolling 
surface 24 to roll therealong and be pushed by edge 44 of basket 30. 
Arcuate surface may also be made of a coated wire mesh to allow debris on 
the eggs to fall from the egg. A tray 63 is mounted to catch the fallen 
debris. 
Referring to FIG. 5, six side-by-side chutes 62 and 64 are positioned at 
the end of rolling surface 24 for feeding eggs 8 from the basket 30 into a 
transportable receptacle or flat 66 passing below the basket 30 on a 
conveyor 10. Each chute 62 and 64 preferably has an egg receiving end 68 
which is rounded to receive the rolling egg in a manner to prevent damage 
to the egg. 
Each flat 66 may be of the conventional kind with five 
longitudinally-spaced transversely-extending rows of egg receiving 
compartments 70, there being six compartments 70 in each row so that each 
flat 66 has a total of 30 egg-receiving compartments 16. The speeds of the 
basket 30 and conveyor 37 are synchronized in a manner which will be 
clearly apparent from the following description. 
The six chutes are alternatively longer and shorter, with there being 
longer chutes 64 and shorter chutes 62. The longer chutes 64 are 
positioned to receive eggs 8 from each alternate set of compartments 48, 
50, 52, and the shorter chutes 62 are positioned to receive eggs 8 from 
each intervening staggered set of compartments 54, 56, 58. 
Flat conveyor 10 is mounted immediately below the egg transport on 
sprockets 72 and 74. The conveyor has dividers 76 extending outwardly to 
push the flat along and to position the flat with respect to time for 
synchronization. 
Denester 20 is mounted at the upstream end of flat conveyor 10 and operates 
to deposit a flat when an open spot on the conveyor is available. Denester 
20 can be any commercially available denester suitable to handle the type 
of transportable egg receptacle being used. 
In operation, eggs 8 are deposited onto rod conveyor 22. The rod conveyor 
can be part of an automated egg harvesting apparatus. Eggs 8 are rolled 
onto the slat conveyor 18 and will travel downstream towards guides 28 
which will separate the eggs into single file lines of eggs. Eggs pass 
through the guides and are loaded into the compartments. Endless slat 
conveyor 18 feeds eggs 8 in random orientation to the basket 30 so that 
each compartment receives an egg in a sideways horizontal orientation as 
shown in FIG. 3. 
Flaps 29 will be pushed out of the way if eggs are lined up to get into the 
compartment. The blocking portion will be pivoted out of the path of the 
light beam. When all three flaps are pivoted and hence all three 
compartments contain an egg, then the light beam will be completed 
generating a signal allowing the egg transport to continue advance the 
baskets in synchronization. 
The next basket is advanced presenting three new compartments to be filled. 
These baskets are filled and the process repeated until all baskets in a 
group is full. The group of baskets will then travel along the path of the 
transport means. 
As the eggs 8 travel in their compartments around a path, they will start 
to become inverted as the baskets pass the mid-height of sprocket 32. The 
eggs will roll toward the rolling surface 24 as the baskets travel about 
the circumference of the sprocket 32 until the baskets are in the inverted 
portion of travel. The eggs will roll over the rolling surface 24 and, in 
accordance with known principle, they shift laterally in the direction of 
their pointed ends until they engage or nearly engage an adjacent side 
wall 47. 
As shown at the bottom of FIG. 5, three eggs 8 in a transverse row 
approaching the chutes 62 and 64 will have their blunt ends in the middle 
of their respective compartments regardless of the lateral direction in 
which their pointed ends are facing. The blunt ends of the three eggs 8 
drop gently into a respective one of the shorter chutes 62, which are 
positioned for this purpose. 
As illustrated in FIG. 6, the small amount of momentum imparted to the eggs 
8 by this movement causes the eggs 8 to topple forwardly so that their 
pointed ends are facing down the chutes 62. The rear edges 20 of the 
compartments may engage the blunt ends of the eggs 8 in the chutes 62 (and 
may have previously engaged the pointed ends to cause the toppling) to 
push them down the chutes 62 until the eggs 8 drop gently pointed ends 
first from the ends of the chutes 62 and into positioned compartments 70 
in the flats 66 travelling on conveyor 10. 
The eggs 8 which fall from one set of compartments on the basket 30 are 
deposited pointed end downwardly in three spaced egg receiving 
compartments 70 in a row of six in a flat 66 which is travelling beneath 
the basket 30 on conveyor 10. The three eggs which fall from the next set 
of compartments on the basket 30 are deposited pointed end downwardly in 
the alternate three compartments 70 in the row on the flat 66. The longer 
chutes 64 are longer than the chutes 62 by an amount which is coordinated 
with the speed of travel of the flat 66 so that the three eggs 8 passing 
down longer chutes 64 are deposited in the same row in the flat 66 as the 
eggs 8 which have previously passed down shorter chutes 62. 
The next three eggs in the following row of baskets, which leave basket 30 
are laterally staggered relative to the previous three eggs 8, and thus 
drop blunt end first into the shorter chutes 62 which are positioned 
intermediate longer chutes 64. These eggs 8 then tip forwardly and are 
pushed by the compartment rear edges 20 off the ends of the chutes 62 so 
that they drop gently from chutes 62 into their egg receiving compartments 
70 in the flat 66, these compartments 70 being in the row behind and 
laterally intermediate their compartments 70 into which the previous three 
eggs 8 were deposited, as will be understood from the explanation given 
above with respect to the effect of the chutes 62 and 64 of different 
lengths. 
The flat conveyor 10 is advanced in synchronization with the egg transport 
such that the next two series of baskets will fill the next row of 
receptacles in the flat. For a standard 6.times.5 flat ten baskets are 
necessary to fill a flat. 
As is evident, the egg transport must be synchronized with the flat 
conveyor and flat denester. In order to achieve synchronization the egg 
transport and the flat conveyor is driven by a single electrical motor 
coupled together by a timing chain and gears. The motor is provided with a 
clutch to engage and disengage the drive in accordance with the supply of 
eggs. The motor is responsive to the signal generated by the light sensor 
to discontinue drive if no signal is received and hence no eggs are being 
delivered to the egg transport. If signal is being received, the drive is 
engaged at regular timed intervals to allow time for the eggs to be loaded 
into the compartments and for the eggs to roll down the chute. 
Referring to FIG. 9, the synchronization can be accomplished by providing 
an egg blocking mechanism to stop the flow of eggs from the slat conveyor 
to the baskets. Plate 100 is mounted at the loading station at the end of 
the slat conveyor 18. Plate 100 is mounted on coil springs 102 which is 
mounted to the frame of the apparatus on each side of the conveyor. On the 
horizontal section of the egg transport a pair of rods are pivotally 
mounted. On the lower edge of rods 104, cams 106 are mounted. On the 
outside surface of the endless chains 108 which drive the egg transport 
are rollers 110. The rollers 110 are spaced on the endless chains to 
synchronize the flat conveyor with the delivery of the eggs. The baskets 
30 are spaced along the endless chains 108 to deliver eggs to the flats. 
The plate 100 is normally lowered out of the path of the flow of eggs The 
rollers 110 will advance as endless chains 108 advance and will raise the 
rods 104, raising plate 100 into the path of the flow of eggs thereby 
stopping same. 
Alternatively, baskets having no opening or a plate covering the opening 
could be used to prevent eggs from being transported and thereby 
preventing eggs to be delivered to the flat when a flat is not ready to 
receive eggs, i.e. between flats. 
As shown in FIG. 5, the edges 80 of chutes 62 and 64 may be of a relatively 
flexible material. Flexible edges on the chute allows the eggs to tip into 
the chute more easily. Such material allows the chute to receive eggs 
larger in circumference than the curve of the chute and the weight of the 
eggs will center it within the chute, enveloping it on three sides. 
Further the egg receiving end 68 of the chutes are rounded to reduce to 
impact of the egg rolling from the rolling surface 24. 
The apparatus as described requires only three eggs across to fill a 
standard 6.times.5 flat. This allows the apparatus to be manufactured to a 
width of the same order as the width of a standard flat thereby reducing 
the space requirements for installation of the apparatus or alternately, 
ganging two or more like devices together side by side increasing the egg 
packing capacity. 
The apparatus could be modified to accommodate a standard egg carton 
containing 2.times.6 or 2.times.5 eggs. The number of compartments in each 
basket is reduced to one with the number of baskets in a group being 
either 30 or 10 respectively. 
Further, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the apparatus could be configured to 
include other accessories. The horizontal portion and the inverted portion 
of the path of travel of the baskets 30 could be increased and elongated 
allowing more time in these orientations. A egg candler 82, egg washer 84 
and an egg oiler 86 could be added to increase the utility of the 
apparatus. An added benefit of this arrangement is that more than one 
group of baskets may be incorporated into the egg transport thereby 
increasing the efficiency and speed of operation of the apparatus. 
For an egg candler, three flat surfaces 88 are placed in the horizontal 
portion of the path. The flat surfaces will one end which is tangential to 
the baskets and the other end slightly higher and raising the eggs from 
the bottom of the baskets causing them to roll along. The flat surfaces 
are narrower than the width between the circumferential ribs 40. Lights 90 
are mounted under the path for illuminating the eggs as they roll along 
the flat surface. 
For an egg washer 84, scrub brushes 92 are rotatably mounted beneath the 
path of the egg transport and wash sprays 94 are mounted above the egg 
transport with an air dryer 96 mounted downstream. The scrub brushes 92 
will scrub and rotate the eggs with the aid of the spray 94 to fully clean 
each egg. 
An egg oiler spray 86 may be installed above the inverted portion-of the 
path to spray the eggs immediately prior to being rolled onto the flats. 
A timer mounted on the guides having a flap extending into the flow of eggs 
may also provided. As eggs pass under the flap and holds the flap up, a 
new timing cycle is initiated. If the flap and the timing cycle reaches 
the end of a pre-determined time period, then the rod conveyor will 
temporarily shut off to stop the flow of eggs to the slat conveyor 
allowing the baskets to fill and reduce the backlog of eggs on the slat 
conveyor. Once the flap returns to its rest position after the backlog of 
eggs on the slat conveyor has passed, the rod conveyor is re-started 
delivering eggs to the slat conveyor. 
Referring to FIG. 8, a further feature could be added to increase the 
loading speed of the egg packer apparatus of the present invention. 
Baffles 30 could be installed at the loading station to reduce the 
apparent size of the compartments as they each pass the loading station at 
the end of the slat conveyor 18. The compartments are large enough to hold 
two eggs and therefore the baffles 30 will direct one egg 8 into one end 
of compartment thereby reducing the likelihood of breakage. 
Referring to FIG. 10, a further option could be added to increase the speed 
at which the eggs roll to one side of the compartment towards the pointed 
end. A counter-rotating conveyor 112 mounted on sprockets 114 and 116 
could be added to rolling surface 24. The upper surface of the conveyor 
will rotate in a direction opposite the movement of the eggs increasing 
the effective surface for rolling the eggs. A scraper 118 cleans the 
surface of the conveyor. 
The baskets 130 can be reduced in height by having the bottom of the basket 
flattened in comparison with basket 30. The reduced height reduces the 
movement of the eggs and thereby reduces the possibility of breakage 
during packing. 
The advantages of the invention will be readily apparent to a person 
skilled in the art from the foregoing description of preferred 
embodiments.