EGG CONVEYOR

Abstract: An egg collecting rack is suspended from an endless belt in such a manner as to rock freely. A receiving portion of the egg collecting rack receives the eggs on a support portion while a discharge portion discharge them. To this end, each of the receiving, support and discharge portions of the egg collecting rack has a comb-like shape. Since the egg collecting rack can rock freely, the egg collecting rack can transfer the eggs horizontally so that the eggs are not broken and cracks do not occur. A scraper is disposed in order to easily send the eggs to an egg collecting table at the discharge position of the egg collecting rack. A stopper mechanism operates so as to stop the operation of the endless belt if any foreign matters exist at the discharged position and ensure that the egg cannot be discharged from the egg collecting rack.

Description: This invention relates to an egg transfer device for collecting to one location eggs such as hen's eggs having been delivered by an egg collecting belt from one- or multi-storied cages. No difficulty is experienced in the transfer of eggs in the horizontal direction. However, we have systems in which eggs placed on a horizontal transfer path are sent onto an inclined or vertical transfer path to be collected to an egg collecting stand, etc. positioned at a different height from the horizontal transfer path. Transfers in directions other than the horizontal have been difficult to carry out smoothly, often resulting in breaking eggs. The need for inclined or vertical transfer between locations of different heights is a requirement to the poultry farming using multi-storied cages intended for getting eggs. The poultry farming using the multi-storied cage type hen house will be described as an example. Eggs born by hens fed in each cage come out of each cage onto an egg collecting conveyer laid along each cage for horizontal transfer and are sent to one section in the hen house. In this section they are transferred to an egg collecting stand, etc. by means of an transfer device. A conventional transfer device generally as disclosed in JP-Y2-53-46233 is shown in Fig. 8. An egg collecting conveyer 1 is provided along cages 6. In a transfer device 2, a belt 4 is applied taut between an upper pulley 3a and a lower puuley 3b and projection-like mounting pieces 4a are provided on the belt 4 at prescribed intervals. Eggs are to be collected on an egg collecting stand 5. Mounting levers 6 arranged like comb teeth are provided both at the front end of the egg collecting conveyer 1 and at the front end of the egg collecting stand 5. Eggs delivered by the egg collecting conveyers 1 are put onto the mounting levers 6 and scooped and transferred by the projection-like mounting piece 4a on to the belt 4 while this is turning. Each egg on the mounting piece, going up on the belt, is inverted from the cage side to the side of the egg collecting stand 5 (from up to down) and then received by the mounting lever of the egg collecting stand 5. The above transfer device 2 has a disadvantage that, during the inversion of the direction of the belt 4 from up to down, the projection-like mounting pieces 4a are inverted, sometimes causing eggs to collide so strongly as to be cracked. This disadvantage cannot be avoided even if the projection-like mounting piece 4a is made U-shaped. A descending, inclined conveyer is disadvantageous in that it requires so large a space for setting. Eggs received by the mounting lever 6 of the egg collecting stand 5 are expected to roll down the inclined mounting piece 6 onto the egg collecting stand 5. However, some of a great number of eggs will stay on the mounting lever 6 or will not roll forth on the egg collecting stand 5. In such a case, the next descending projection-like mounting piece 4a will hit the egg staying on the mounting lever 6 or the eggs succeedingly received by the mounting lever 6, while rolling on the egg collecting stand 5, will collide with one another with possible generation of cracks on them. According to the present invention there is provided. An egg transfer device comprising: a plurality of egg collecting shelves each defined by shelf pieces which are arranged like comb teeth side by side, carried by an endless band circulating in a vertical plane; a loading section adjacent the ascending side of said endless band and comprising loading portions which are arranged like comb teeth side by side; a discharge section comprising discharge pieces inclined in the direction of egg discharge and arranged like comb teeth so that shelf pieces can pass between them; and an egg collecting stand adjacent the discharge section; characterized in that: the shelf pieces of each egg collecting shelf are V-shaped and mounted on a respective coupling rod spanning between side plates, concave parts of said plurality of shelf pieces forming a receiving section; the shelves being mounted swingably to the band so as to maintain the same configuration during circulation; the loading portions of the loading section comprise holding pieces which are of concave shape for holding eggs and arranged like comb teeth so that said shelf pieces can pass between them for the transfer of eggs which have come out of cages to said egg collecting shelves; the discharge section and the egg collecting stand are spaced and located at the descending side of said endless band so that the coupling rods of descending shelf pieces can pass between them; the inclined discharge pieces being located on the same side of the coupling rods as are the lowest parts of the support planes of the shelf pieces on the descending side of the endless band. Desirably the device includes a scraping piece (discharge bar, etc.) which comes over the egg collecting shelf at the discharge position and is attached between two rotary plates rotatable in the discharge direction of eggs, which rotary plates are coupled with a rotary mechanism synchronized with the movement of the egg collecting shelf. Some embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 shows a schematic side view illustrating the entire system including the egg transfer device; Fig. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of the transfer device; Fig. 3 shows a cross-sectional plan view of the transfer device; Fig. 4 shows a schematic side view of the upper sprocket section of the transfer device; Fig. 5 shows a side view of the discharge section of the transfer device; Figs. 6(a) and (b) show a plan and a cross-sectional side views, respectively, of other scraping pieces; Fig. 7 shows a cross-sectional side view illustrating the stopper mechanism; and Fig. 8 shows a schematic side view of a conventional egg transfer device. EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 shows a schematic view of an overall mechanism including an egg transfer device, Fig. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of the transfer device, and Fig. 3 shows a plan view of a cross section showing the overall system. An egg collecting belt 12 is provided along each cage (this embodiment refers to the case of three-storied cages). Eggs delivered by this egg collecting belt 12 are transferred to an egg collecting stand 16 by egg collecting shelves 14 on a transfer device 10. The structure of the transfer device 10 will be described below. As shown in Fig. 2, a pair of side walls 10a are provided vertically, and a pair of sprockets 18a and 18b are placed at the upper and lower end sections of each side wall 10a. Each of chains 20 and 20 forms an endless strip held taut on a respective pair of the sprockets 18a and 18b. Between the chains 20 and 20 are hung the egg collecting shelves 14. As best illustrated in Fig. 4, a chain piece 20a at a suitable position on the chain 20 has an attaching plate 20b provided, and the attaching plate 20b has a hanging shaft 14b attached rotatably which projects from the side plate 14a of the egg collecting shelf 14. Therefore, the egg collecting shelf 14 is capable of free swing about the hanging shaft 14b. Next, the structure of the egg collecting shelf 14 will be described. Two side plates 14a and 14a are connected to each other by a coupling rod 14c at a forward lower part. This coupling rod 14c has a plurality of shelf pieces 14d fixed at regular intervals. This shelf piece 14d has two inclined sections 14m and 14n in V shapes formed, with a concave section 14e, opening upward, constituting a receiver 14f for holding an egg; one inclined section 14m is shorter than the other 14n and connected to the coupling rod 14c. The positions of the receiving sections 14f of the egg collecting shelves 14 mostly coincide with the up-down positions of the chains 20 in order to stabilize the egg collecting shelves 14. Namely, the receiving sections 14f of the egg collecting shelves 14 keep their prescribed horizontal positions. In the right-hand section of Fig. 3 there is the ascending side A of the egg collecting shelf 14; eggs delivered by the egg collecting belt 12 are scooped by the egg collecting shelf 14 while ascending. The scooping by the egg collecting shelf 14 is carried out as follows. Eggs delivered by the egg collecting belt 12 are put on an egg holding section 22, which is located at the forward end of the egg collecting belt 12 and which is composed of a plurality of holding pieces 22a fixed in parallel with one another at regular intervals. The holding piece 22a is a thin plate of the same shape as the shelf piece 14d and is fixed, with a concave section 22e upward, on a fixing rod 22b at the forward end of the egg collecting belt 12. The shelf piece 14d is designed to pass through the gap between the holding pieces 22a of the holding section 22, with no contact of the holding piece 22a with the shelf piece 14d. Thus, an egg placed in a concave section of the holding section 22 formed by the concave section 22e of the holding piece 22a is scooped up by the shelf piece 14d during the passage of the egg collecting shelf 14; the coupling rod 14c of the egg collecting shelf 14 and the fixing rod 22b fix the back ends of the shelf piece 14d and holding piece 22a, respectively, so that the egg collecting shelf 14 may scoop up eggs with no contact with the holding section 22. In the left-hand side of Fig. 3 there is the descending side D of the egg collecting shelf 14. By reference to Figs. 3 and 5 a description will be made of the egg discharging mechanism. At a short distance from the front edge 16a of the egg collecting stand 16 on the side of passage of the egg collecting shelf 14, there is a line of a plurality of inclined pieces 24a which elevate with increasing distance from the egg collecting stand 16, and which are fixed on a supporting rod 24b having its upper end section hung on both the walls 10a and 10b of the transfer device 10, thus constituting a discharge section 24. As the egg collecting shelf 14 passes through the discharge section 24, i.e., each shelf piece 14d of the egg collecting shelf 14 passes between the inclined piece 24a of the discharge section 24, the eggs on the egg collecting shelf 14 are scooped up by the inclined pieces 24a and caused to roll down the slope formed by the inclined pieces 24a onto the egg collecting stand 16. Next, a description will be made of the control mechanism for stopping the transfer device 10. The discharge section 24 has a stopper bar 30 extending from the side of the supporting rod 24b, and near the end of the stopper bar 30 two control pieces 32a and 32b are provided to define the rotation range of the discharge section 24 about the supporting rod 24b. The end of the stopper bar 30 is pulled down by a spring 34 against the lower control piece 32b. A switch 36 is provided so that the stopper bar 30 hits it when the discharge section 24 is forced to rotate against the force of the spring 34; this switch 36, when activated, will stop the egg collecting shelf 14. This is a known electrical mechanism. A rotary plate 26 is rotatably held on a fixing plate 10c projecting from the front edges of each of the side walls 10a and 10b. This rotary plate 26 has three arms 27 extending radially. The arms 27a, 27b and 27c on the pair of rotary plates 26a and 26b have discharge bars 28 fixed of their ends. The dashed line in Fig. 5 indicates the circular locus of the end of the arms 27. One arm 27a of the rotary plate 26 will be positioned to extend into the space formed between the egg collecting shelf 14A at the discharge position and the overhead egg collecting shelf 14B. As this egg collecting shelf 14B descends, the coupling rods 14c exerts a pressure on the base section of the arm 27a, causing the rotary plate 26 to rotate. The arm 27a is then pushed (outward) in the direction of egg discharge over the locus ℓ of the coupling rod 14c (in Fig. 5 the rotational locus of the arm 27a is indicated by a dashed line). At the same time, the discharge bar 28 sweeps the space immediately over the egg collecting shelf 14A at the discharge position or the inclined piece 24a. The next arm 27b in turn comes into the space over the descending egg collecting shelf 14B (in Fig. 5 the rotational locus of the arm 27b is indicated by the dashed line). Similarly in sequence, the egg collecting shelves 14C, etc. descend, causing the rotary plate 26 to rotate. Side walls 16b and 16b are provided vertically on the side edges of the egg collecting stand 16, a rod 60b is hung on the side walls 16b and 16b, and swing pieces 60a are suspended from the rod 60b swingably toward the egg collecting stand 16, thus constituting a nonreturn section 60. The swing piece 60a is designed to be capable only of forward swing. Therefore, an egg discharged from the egg collecting shelf 14 is allowed, under the action of the discharge bar 28, to roll on the egg collecting stand 16 over the nonreturn section 60, i.e., out of the sweep space of the discharge bar 28, with no possibility to return. Now, a description will be made of the action of the egg transfer device with the above-described structure. Eggs delivered by the egg collecting belt 12 are caused to roll down and settle in the concave sections 22e of the holding pieces 22a in the holding tables 22. The shelf pieces 14d of the ascending egg collecting shelf 14 pass between the holding pieces 22a of the holding tables 22, during which passage the eggs are scooped up by the shelf pieces 14d. The egg collecting shelf 14 is capable of passing the upper sprocket 18a followed by descent without inversion, since the egg collecting shelf 14 is supported swingably on the chain piece 20a by the hanging shaft 14b, with weight balance maintained. While the descending egg collecting shelf 14 passes the discharge position, i.e., the shelf pieces 14d pass between the inclined pieces 24a of the discharge section 24, the eggs are scooped up by the inclined pieces 24a. The slopes formed by the inclined pieces 24a are descendent toward the egg collecting stand 16 so that the eggs having been scooped on the inclined pieces 24a are caused to roll onto the egg collecting stand 16. At the same time, the arm 27a of the rotary plate 26 enters the space between the egg collecting shelf 14A at the discharge position and the egg collecting shelf 14B immediately overhead to the shelf 14A, the coupling rod 14c of the egg collecting shelf 14B pushes down the arm 27a, and the discharge bar 28 sweeps the space over the inclined pieces 24a, thus causing any eggs, if staying on the inclined pieces 24a or between the inclined pieces 24a and the egg collecting stand 16, to roll onto the egg collecting stand 16. Egg discharge from the egg collecting shelf 14 is continued in the same way. The egg allowed to roll onto the egg collecting stand 16 pushes up the swing piece 60a of the nonreturn section 60 to pass the nonreturn section 60, never to be returned. The eggs collected on the egg collecting stand 16 are accommodated in boxes as required. In the above embodiment, the discharge bar 28 as a scraper is provided at the ends of arms of the rotary plates 26a and 26b. However, instead of the discharge bar 28, a brush 29 formed by putting coarse hairs 29b on a platelike base 29a may be attached as shown in Fig. 6(a) so as to sweep (scrape) over comb teeth or inclined pieces. Alternatively, as shown in Fig. 6(b), a plate piece 34 may be set on the arm 27 along its front end section so as to scrape out eggs. Various shape modifications may be applied on the plate piece 34, such as a plate piece having through-holes bored suitably or formed in a net; the number of arms 27 may also be varied suitably. In the above embodiment, the synchronous rotation of the rotary plate with the movement of the egg collecting shelf 14 is effected by the use of the coupling rod 14c of the egg collecting shelf 14; however, the rotary plate may be driven by a separate driving source. The inclined piece 24a of the discharge section 24 may not always be inclined; scraping out eggs is possible by use of scraping pieces. When contaminants such as hen's feather have been brought on the inclined pieces 24a, the descending egg collecting shelf 14 will push down the discharge section 24 without properly passing through the discharge section 24. This causes the discharge section 24 to rotate against the force of the spring 34 about the supporting rod 24b until the stopper bar 30 activates the switch, with resulting stop of the egg collecting shelf 14. After this stop the contaminants are to be removed. Fig. 7 shows one other embodiment for the control mechanism. A belt 40 has holding pieces 42 projecting like comb teeth, and eggs are mounted on the holding pieces 42. A plurality of discharge pieces 46 are provided on the front edge 44a of an egg collecting stand 44 with ascending inclination. On the other hand, each discharge piece 46 extends down vertically along the front edge 44a until it is supported rotatably by a supporting rod 48. Thus, we have a discharge section 50. A stopper bar 52 extends from the discharge section 50 and is pulled by a spring 54. The force of this spring 54 keeps every discharge piece 46 in contact with the front edge 44a of the egg collecting stand 44, thus maintaining the state of slope. A rotation of the discharge section 50 allows the stopper bar 52 to actuate a switch 56. This arrangement results in the same action and effect as the preceding embodiment. This invention affords the following as main remarkable advantages: Since egg collecting shelves are attached swingably on an endless strip, no inversion of the egg collecting shelves occurs and accodingly no collision, etc. among eggs takes place to cause eggs to be cracked or broken while the egg collecting shelves deliver to the discharge position those eggs which they have scooped up at the holding section; since the endless strip may be set vertically, only a small space is required for setting; since the control mechanism is put into action to stop the transfer device when contaminants have been brought onto the discharge or receiving section so that no transfer of eggs may be performed, no breakage may happen on eggs, the discharge section, or the receiving section; since positioning of the egg collecting shelf at the discharge position may be accompanied with scraping-out of eggs, the discharge of eggs may be facilitated.

Claims: 1. An egg transfer device comprising: a plurality of egg collecting shelves (14) each defined by shelf pieces (14d) which are arranged like comb teeth side by side, carried by an endless band (20) circulating in a vertical plane; a loading section (22) adjacent the ascending side of said endless band (20) and comprising loading portions which are arranged like comb teeth side by side; a discharge section (24) comprising discharge pieces (24a) inclined in the direction of egg discharge and arranged like comb teeth so that shelf pieces (14d) can pass between them; and an egg collecting stand (16) adjacent the discharge section (24); characterized in that: the shelf pieces (14d) of each egg collecting shelf (14) are V-shaped and mounted on a respective coupling rod (14c) spanning between side plates (14a), concave parts of said plurality of shelf pieces (14d) forming a receiving section (14f); the shelves (14) being mounted swingably to the band (20) so as to maintain the same configuration during circulation; the loading portions of the loading section (22) comprise holding pieces (22a) which are of concave shape for holding eggs and arranged like comb teeth so that said shelf pieces (14d) can pass between them for the transfer of eggs which have come out of cages to said egg collecting shelves (14); the discharge section (24) and the egg collecting stand (16) are spaced and located at the descending side of said endless band (20) so that the coupling rods (14c) of descending shelf pieces (14d) can pass between them; the inclined discharge pieces (24a) being located on the same side of the coupling rods as are the lowest parts of the support planes of the shelf pieces (14d) on the descending side of the endless band (20). 2. An egg transfer device according to claim 1 wherein said discharge section (24) is supported rotatably (24b; 32a, 32b), and is resiliently (34) urged to an inclined configuration; and said device further comprises a control mechanism, which has a sensor for sensing rotation of said discharge section (24) to stop the movement of said receiving section (14f) if there are contaminants between said receiving section (14f) and said discharge section (24). 3. An egg transfer device according to any preceding claim, wherein a scraping piece (28; 29; 34) is provided to sweep over said shelves (14) at the discharge position; said scraping piece (28; 29; 34) spanning between two rotary plates (26a, 26b; 27) rotatable in said discharge section (24); said rotary plates being connected to a rotary mechanism synchronous with the movement of said egg collecting shelves (14). 4. An egg transfer device according to claim 3, wherein each rotary plate has arms (26a, 26b; 27) extending radially from a center; said scraping pieces (28; 29; 34) span between arms of said two rotary plates; and said arms are disposed so that rotation is urged by said coupling rod (14c) of said shelf (14) descending. 5. An egg transfer device according to any preceding claim, further comprising nonreturn means (60) to prevent eggs introduced to said egg collecting stand from returning, said nonreturn means comprising swing pieces (60a) which can swing in the direction of egg discharge to allow passage of eggs but which are restrained from swinging rearwardly to prevent the return passage of eggs. 6. An egg transfer device according to claim 5 wherein the non return means (60) comprises a transversely extending rod (60b) from which a multiplicity of said swing pieces (60a) are suspended in a comb teeth array.

Inventors: NAKAJIMA, HIDEO, YAMAMOTO, MINORU
Applicants: KABUSHIKI KAISHA NAKAJIMA SEISAKUJO
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B65G17
IPC codes: A01K43, A01K31, B65G17, B65G47